Colonel Kearney had nearly twenty years earlier addressed the Indians at Fort Laramie in the number of 1200 braves, telling them that he was opening a road for the white people that were going to bury their bones where the waters flow toward the setting sun. Of course this road was already opened, but like Fremont, the Pathfinder, he found paths that had been trod for a generation of white people and many generations by aborigines.

Colonel Kearney told the Indians that there were many enemies about them, but that the greatest of them was whiskey. He warned them against its use, and advised them to confiscate all that was offered them for sale, and pour it into the ground. He told them that

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

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the great father would give them blankets and flour and bacon, and he did distribute some presents among them.

Tall Bull chanced to be the principal chief present, and he made a few remarks.

"If my people will be good to the whites, they will find that the presents they are about to receive will often come. Father, this does very well and pleases me. What you have told me, I am glad of from my heart. All you have told me is very good. I have found a father. We will no longer think of dying, but will live. I remember the words you have this day spoken to us. My people will do as I say."

The struggle to maintain peace had continued