1.  “Keep Your Presents” -- Curly Chief, Pawnee

         I heard that long ago there was a time when there were no people in this country except Indians.  After that, the people began to hear of men that had white skins; they had been seen far to the east.  Before I was born, they came out to our country and visited us.  The man who came was from the Government.  He wanted to make a treaty with us, and to give us presents, blankets and guns, and flint and steel, and knives.
         The Head Chief told him that we needed none of these things.  He said, “We have our buffalo and our corn.  These things the Ruler gave to us, and they are all that we need.  See this robe.  This keeps me warm in winter.  I need no blanket.”
         The white men had with them some cattle, and the Pawnee Chief said, “Lead out a heifer here on the prairie.”  They led her out, and the Chief, stepping up to her, shot her through behind the shoulder with his arrow, and she fell down and died.  Then the Chief said, “Will not my arrow kill?  I do not need your guns.”  Then he took his stone knife and skinned the heifer, and cut off a piece of fat meat.  When he had done this, he said, “”Why should I take your knives?  The Ruler has given me something to cut with.”
         Then taking the fire sticks, he kindled a fire to roast the meat, and while it was cooking, he spoke again and said, “You see, my brother, that the Ruler has given us all that we need; the buffalo for food and clothing; the corn to eat with our dried meat; bows, arrows, knives and hoes; all the implements which we need for killing meat, or for cultivating the ground.  Now go back to the country from whence you came.  We do not want your presents, and we do not want you to come into our country.”
 
 

2.  “Buttocks Bags and Green Coffee Bread” -- Anonymous, Jicarilla Apache

         When the white people first came to this country, they gave the Indians hats, pants, shoes, and coats.  Dishes and blankets were also given out, and food, such as flour, sugar, and coffee.  Our people received some too.  They hear the other people say “buttocks bag” [pants were called tlatsizis, “buttocks bag”], and they asked, “What is this bag for?  What do you put in it?”
         “Why, you throw your buttocks in it,” was the answer.
         So they decided to do it.  They put the pants in a low place and got up on a cliff above them.  They hopped in place, getting ready to jump.  Then they tried to get in the pants.  Their feet missed, and they fell.  Then they tied the pants around themselves, but the leg part hung down behind.  Some put the pants on backward; some had the legs hanging down in front.  That’s the way they went around.  They put the shirts on.  Some wore them in the right way; some put them on backward.  The hats they used for carrying water.  They didn’t know what hats were for.  They thought a hat was some kind of dipper.  They didn’t know what all those things were.
         They wouldn’t keep the gloves.  They said, “This must be Bear’s hand.”  The shoes they wouldn’t keep either.  “These must be Bear’s moccasins,” they said.
         They didn’t know what flour was either.  They just threw it away.  They kept nothing but the sack and emptied out the flour.  All the Indians did this, even those who were not foolish.  And the baking powder they threw away too.
         At first they tried to eat bacon.  They made soup of it and ate too much of it.  A lot of them died from eating it.
         At first they tired to make the flour into a mush.  They tried to use it like cornmeal.  But it was too sticky, and they threw it away.  The brown sugar they liked though.  Some of the children ate it like candy.  They tasted the salt.  They knew what that was.  The white people gave them beans too.  The beans they recognized.  They know how to eat them.
         They were all given green coffee.  This is what all the Apaches did with it.  They boiled the green beans for two days.  They didn’t get any softer.  The people couldn’t eat it.  So they pounded it up and thought they would make a mush of it.  It didn’t taste good even though they stirred sugar into it.  So they tried to make bread of it after grinding it.  That didn’t taste good either.  They gave it up then and threw it away.