"Brothers, my blood is red with Siwash, but my heart is white. To the
faults of my fathers I owe the one, to the virtues of my friends the
other. A great truth came to me when I was yet a boy. I learned that to
your kind and you was given the earth; that the Siwash could not
withstand you, and like the caribou and the bear, must perish in the
cold. So I came into the warm and sat among you, by your fires, and
behold, I became one of you, I have seen much in my time. I have known
strange things, and bucked big, on big trails, with men of many breeds.
And because of these things, I measure deeds after your manner, and judge
men, and think thoughts. Wherefore, when I speak harshly of one of your
own kind, I know you will not take it amiss; and when I speak high of one
of my father's people, you will not take it upon you to say, 'Sitka
Charley is Siwash, and there is a crooked light in his eyes and small
honor to his tongue.' Is it not so?"
Deep down in throat, the circle vouchsafed its assent.
"The woman was Passuk. I got her in fair trade from her people, who were
of the Coast and whose Chilcat totem stood at the head of a salt arm of
the sea.
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