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for "the Book"
from Heaven
Four Indian chiefs representing the Flathead and Nez Perce tribes arrived in St. Louis, Missouri in the autumn of 1832. They had come on a long journey of more than 3,000 miles from their home in the Oregon Country because a white man had witnessed to their tribes about a "Book from Heaven" that told of the one true God. The tribes had held a council fire and chosen these four men to go East and find the Book. The Indians came to see the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, famous explorer William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition. He told them what he knew about the Bible, and then took them on a tour of St. Louis, thinking that this would impress them. But the Indians only wanted "the Book" and a preacher to explain it. Before long, two of the Indians died of an illness to which they had no natural immunity. When the time came for the two remaining Indians to return home, General Clark honored them with an elaborate banquet, where one of the Indians stood and said: "My people sent me to get the white man's Book from Heaven. You took me where you allow your women to dance, as we do not ours, and the Book was not there. You took me where they worship the Great Spirit with candles [Roman Catholic Church], and the Book was not there. You showed me the images of good spirits and pictures of the good land beyond, but the Book was not among them. I am going back the long, sad trail to my people of the dark land. You make my feet heavy with burdens of gifts, and my moccasins will grow old in carrying them, but the Book is not among them. When I tell my poor blind people, after one more snow, in the big council, that I do not bring the Book, no word will be spoken by our old men or our young braves. One by one they will rise up and go out in silence. My people will die in darkness, and they will go on the long path to the other hunting grounds. No white man will go with them and no white man's Book, to make the way plain. I have no more words."
Source: unknown
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