But we want to come to the Platte valley to trade and we will not give it away. We have let the white man pass over it, and he has gone over it so often that he now thinks he owns it. But it is ours, and it always has been ours. It belonged to our fathers and their graves are along the hills overlooking the valley from the Missouri river to the Rocky mountains, and we will not give it up. We are not afraid of the white man. Of late years we have had no serious difficulty with him, but we are not afraid to fight him. Our troubles have been brought on by drunk-water. Bad whites give it to bad Indians, and it makes trouble. The things the
chief of the Brule Sioux, while O-wa-see-cha, or Bad Wound was a chief of considerable repute among the Ogallalas, and both were inclined to be friendly to the whites.
Some have said that Spotted Tail's daughter was one of the potent factors that made him incline to peace, but that is open to question. One time for instance, the great chief was so incensed with his daughter, because she wanted him to get her a white general or officer for a husband, that he upbraided her for her foolishness and ambition, and knocked her down.
After the conferences, while there was no treaty signed, Spotted Tail and Bad Wound, and their band drew away from the bad influence of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes.