Show address delivered at fort duchesne at memorial service held for indians before speaking to the indians indiana I 1 want t to 0 say to superintendent gross that I 1 have been most favorably impressed with the program given here this morning I 1 have watched with keen interest the flag drill and listened with pleasure to the songs as sung by the children mr gross head men ot of the utes so liders and sailors of the late war I 1 am particularly gratified to be here and speak to you this morning I 1 have been in the uintah basin tor for twenty five years and it is through the courtesy ot of mr air gross that I 1 am privileged today tor for the first time to speak to the head men ot of the utes and the men and women of 0 this tribe today every member ot of this tribe should feel gratitude in his heart for the reason that this is the see on occasion wherein public recognition has been given to the utes first and a long time ago when your head men were little boys like the boys who sang here this morning and when you lived in colorado the governor of that territory called you in and said 1 I am gratified because you have been the friend of the white man there is no war in the heart of the ute you have loved peace then and you love it today the name of that governor was governor gilpin today you men and women come out storming though it Is to publicly receive the gratitude of the president of the united states of he father in washington tor for the noble things you and the tribe have done in this late great war you men and you women want war to come no more you want peace and to that end your boys went into the army and navy of this country and one of them john JohnN nick lck crossed ros sed the great water where the ships sail and fought in many battles and was decorated for his heroism you men and women played no little part in that war which the great father said was fought to end all wars and there is no tribe of indians and there is no body of white men who did more than you you men and you women of the ute ats tribe who sit before me today to say that war should be no more at the time that this country the united states of america entered the conflict there were four nations trying to conquer the world germany austria bulgaria and turkey and as against these tour four nations there were twenty tour four that were trying to hold them back and of the peoples of the entire world nine tenths of the population was engaged in war in that war men laid down their lives on the battle fields and blood ran the rivers ot of france and belgium red to the sea and perished is as the direct result of 0 war now in every war some men fight and some men stay at home and gather the food tor for those who go and some contribute money that these things may be carried on you men and women ot of the ute tribe contributed more money by lending it to your government than any other tribe ot of indians indiana I 1 have any knowledge of and that our country might have great guns and powder and lead that war might end you bought worth of 0 of liberty bonds and you loaned that money to your government that she might get these things when men go to war and they are wounded then it is necessary that there b be nurses and medicine and care taden taken ot of them you men and women enof of this great tribe contributed tor for that purpose and then not satisfied with having done more than your part you bought worth ot of war saving stamps our whites all worked we did things but you you men and women did tar far more than most of us I 1 in appreciation ot of all this and i in a sense ot of gratitude which fills athis this entire country the president of 0 the united states hearing ot of your work and of 0 what you have given has today presented through your superintendent a certificate of appreciation signed in his own handwriting today on this platform stands the flag of your country tor for which red cap and john nick and this young man henry a member ot of the chippewa tribe made the otter offer ot of their lives the red stands tor for blood in their veins that they were willing to shed shad tor for their country the white stripes stand tot for justice and nd equity and tor for fair and nd honest dealing in this country be continued on last page THOS W ODONNELL LAUDS INDIANS continued from page ono one tween the rod red and white men the blue and its stars stands tor for the blue firmament of heaven the twinkling stars means eternity and these same stars represent the states of this great union that great man thomas jefferson knowing of 0 the laws and regulations ions the governed the great iroquois and other tribes took from them many ot of the ideas which he worked into the constitution ot of our young republic from which has grown the great federation of 0 states that now constitutes the united states now I 1 thank you head men ot of this tribe for coming out this morning to receive from rom the president his thanks and his gratitude I 1 thank tho men and women who are here red and white and last but not I 1 least I 1 thank these boys who went through those trying times and give them my humble appreciation tor for what they did to you men and women the words that I 1 express cannot convey the gratitude and appreciation pre clation that the president and this nation feel toward you heary applause made by superintendent gross in presenting the certificate you may not know that we have on this reservation three bands ot of indians which constitute the ute tribe it is an interesting fact that one member ot of each band of this tribe the army and served during the world war now I 1 am not going to make a speech but I 1 am going to give out this certificate and read the words that have been signed by the president ol of the united states mr air gross here read the certificate I 1 would like to have three men of 0 the tribe come up here to receive this certificate to be kept by them as long as they live and to be then passed on down to the generation era tion I 1 would like to have one head man from each band one uintah one white river an one un come up and receive this certificate john duncan for the uintah utes john besto for or the white river Us a and nd crass corass for the utes responded to the call I 1 will hand this certificate to these three men I 1 am going to put it in this tube so that it can be kept tor for a long time I 1 will hand it to john duncan as a uintah ute I 1 will ask him to pass it on to john yeso as a white river ute and I 1 will ask him to pass it to corass ute to be as an uncompahgre preserved for the future you have all heard more than I 1 could possibly say in the way 01 appreciation tor for the services that you have rendered as the ute tribe of indians I 1 am thankful that the utes took part in this groat great war and helped to win victory now in order that I 1 may write to washington and ell hem how ho w you people received this certificate I 1 would like to hear from each of you men what you would like to say reply made fade by john duncan we are assembled here this morning our overseer mr gross in charge of the program and myself although it storms have come to listen to the program ile he has told about one thing and that is war and that Is terrible because blood is id shed and we dont like to have that again we hopu hope that Is the end ot of war we the utes are peaceful and live peaceful among you and all over the united tinned states There therefore fere we utes wish all our white neighbors to be more friendly towards us lor for what wc MS have done to bring this great war to an end we wish them to ba b wore more friendly towards us las as loni ion as we dwell together in this land although we needed the money ourselves here among us utes we freely contributed our money for the support of this great war and we feel as though we want to get better and better treatment than we ve have been getting from the government wo we are glad to hear frota brou our noted lawyer of vernal about our nag flag and other things it Is all straight we like to have such talks said I 1 am speaking in behalf of my friends ot of the band I 1 be jlong long to I 1 like peace and dont like trouble and I 1 dont like to hear about it that Is why I 1 am talking reply made by john besto today we are assembled in this room we will mix with our neighbors our white neighbors and I 1 like to see sea them that way what our speaker tom said was waa all good what he says about the appreciation is very good we have hava noticed some days are clear and some are stormy and feel as though the tha day Is clear now reply made by corass all right we are assembled here now our white neighbors are among us MS we are glad to receive the appreciation that tho the president has haa said Is due our people we are also glad to hear from our lawyer tom odonnell ODon noll what he said was very clear and we are very glad to hear from him we have wondered when we should hear from our president the day has haa come when we are hearing from him we do not like to have trouble wo we like to live here all the time so I 1 hope that wo we will not enter into any aay such conflict again especially ally our younger children we hope to keep them out ot of such trouble forever to revor we only wish that our younger generation are peaceable men we are also glad in such case as the war to have sent some 0 of our young braves so now we are glad to receive this certificate sent by our president |