Discourse of Pachgantschihilas, head war chief of the Delaware Nation

 Address to the Christian Indians of Gnadenhutten in early 1781:

" Friends and kinsmen! Listen to what I say to you ! You see a great and powerful nation divided ! You see the father [Great Britain] fighting against the son, and the son against the father! —The father has called on his Indian children, to assist him in punishing his children, the Americans, who have become refractory ! I took time to consider what I should do—whether or not I would recieve [sic] the hatchet of my father, to assist him ! —At first I looked upon it, as a family (quarrel, in which I was not interested ! —However, at length it appeared to me, that the father was in the right ; and his children deserved to be punished a little !—That this must be the case, I concluded from the many cruel acts his offspring had committed from time to time, on his Indian Children ; in encroaching on their lands, stealing their property, shooting at, and murdering without cause, men, women and children ! —Yes ! even murdering those, who at all times had been friendly to them, and were placed for protection under the roof of their fathers' house*—the father [the government] himself standing centry [sic] at the door, at the time. 

*Alluding to the Conestoga Indians, who were placed for protection in public building—(the jail) a mansion erected by authority, (by the fathers' orders).

" Friends and relatives ! Often has the father been obliged to settle, and make amends for the wrongs and mischiefs done to us, by his refractory children [the American people], yet these do not grow better  !  No ! they remain the same, and will continue to be so, as long as we have any land left us ! Look back at the murders committed by the long knives (Virginians) on many of our relations, who lived peaceable neighbours to them on the Ohio ! Did they not kill them without the least provocation ?—Are they, do you think better now than they were then ?—No, indeed not and many days are not elapsed since you had a number of these very men near your doors, who panted to kill you, but fortunately were prevented from so doing by the great Sun [col. Daniel Brodhead], who, at that time, had by the great spirit been ordained to protect you !

" Friends and relatives ! you love that which is good, and wish to live in peace with all mankind, and at a place where you may not be disturbed whilst praying ! —You are very right in this ; and I do not reproach you in having made the choice ! —But, my friends and relatives ! does the place you at present are settled at, answer this purpose ! —Do you not live in the very road the contending parties pass over when they go to fight each other ! —Have you not discovered the footsteps of the long knives, almost within sight of your towns, and seen the smoke arising from their [militia] camps ! —Should not this be sufficient warning to you ; and lead you to consult your own safety ! We have long since turned our faces towards your habitations, in the expectation of seeing you come from where you now are, to us where you would be out of danger; but you were so engaged in praying, that you did not discover our anxiety for your sakes !" 

"Friends and relatives!—Now listen to me and hear what I have to say to you.—I am myself come to bid you rise and go with me to a secure place ! Do not my friends, covet the land you now hold under cultivation. I will conduct you to a country [the Miami country] equally good, where your fields shall yield you abundant crops ; and where your cattle shall find sufficient pasture ; where there is plenty of game ; where your women and children, together with yourselves, will live in peace and safety ; where no long knife shall ever molest you ! —Nay ! I will live between you and them, and not even suffer them to frighten you ! —There, you can worship your God without fear ! —Here, where you are, you cannot do this ! —Think on what I have now said to you, and believe, that if you stay where you now are, one day or the other, the long knives, will in their usual way, speak fine words to you, and at the same time murder you !"