Sauk and Fox tribe recount their history to Joseph.
Account of Meeting, May 23, 1844: [128-129], The Joseph Smith Papers website, accessed November 11, 2021
1. P.M. held counsel council with the Indians— sac & fox &c in my back kitchen.
They told me (Joseph) “Your are a big chief, we are sons of <2 as> big men. <and Priests> as ever inhabited this land You preach a great deal so say great Spirit. you be as great & good as our fathers that will do. Our worship is differe[n]t. but we are good as any other men.—— before our nation were acquaintd with white men. th[e]y were as g[r]eat men as ever lived on th[e] river—— now live on Desmoines. 20 yrs ago. 6000 off us.— now. small nation. 3 towns.—— 2 men not over yesterday— they talk with big spirit we have had possession of this land.—— Neopope is one of our principle men.— we wish frie[n]dship with all men.— our cheefs done wrong in selling our Count[r]y.
Black hawks bro. maquisis— Sac nation worshippd on this piece of of ground.— when our fathe[r]s fir[s]t came here— this was inhabtd [sic: inhabited] by sp[a]nish— spih [Spanish] drivn off fren[c]h came— and th[e]n English & America[n]s talk a great deal with the spirts big spirit.— we differnt colour. no differnc [sic: difference] so we all good men. another said we have seen a great deal of pl[e]asure on these this grouds piece of Land. our fathers worshipped on this pi[e]ce of Land. English were very fri[en]dly. had good— we drove off a nation who was on the river— this is the best country our fathers had seen— Fathe[r]s of the 2 old men were preachers. wantd Joseph to be as good as th[e]y were— 2 nations are brothers wanted Joseph to talk right be be our big chi[e]f white men wear hats. indians naked. colour[ed] Engli[s]h. Frenc[h]. indians all brethren. dont expe[c]t to live long.— <dont> care for any thing only for somthig [sic: something] to eat. &c. Fri[e]ndly visit— 2 days. sac chief sold their land again. and would go to mo [Missouri] in 2 years— we are ve[r]y poor— whit[e]s cheat us— but no diffe[re]nce not Long to Live. we wanted to let you know we were a christian people.