Fire-Water and Murder

Helen Hunt Jackson

Jackson talks about a chief, Shoo-de-ga-cha, of the Ponca Indians. This chief, by account, is smart, respectful, and dignified. He is said to deserve a much greater empire. He tells her about how the white men have killed most of the buffalo on their land and run out all the rest. They are desperate for food, because they live on solid expansive prarie where nothing will grow. The men, who go into other tribes' territory, get killed and dismembered. They will either starve or drink themselves to death with "fire-water".
The government gave the Poncas housing per family, which also devastated them. They were used to living in large groups, not single family households.
They never got these homes, and were forced to recede into the small areas where the future homes were supposed to be, by the white men and other tribes fighting among themselves. They assumed the government treaty was valid, so they waited. It was not acted upon, so they threatened to go back to their other homeland, which had been mostly taken over by white men.
Then the government was forced to give them food to keep them from starving, and certain amount of money to pay what they owe and other things. They fell under attack and theft by the Sioux, and moved down river. Then they went on a hunt and found nothing. Some went to visit to other tribes and got a small amount of food.
While looking for food, a small family was gunned down by soldiers. One boy survived by diving into the frozen river through a hole in the ice.
I knew that white men ran Indians out of their homes and killed their food. I was also aware that it killed many of them. I had only heard this information through text books, so I did not know to what extent  the damage went. Hearing it through the words of the tribal chief is quite a different story. It brings a great deal of emotion with it. I feel sorry for the tribe's situation, and angry at the people who put them in it.