We should be better reconciled to this manifest destiny of the aborigines, if the inroads of civilization were worthy of it; if the last years of these, in some respects, noble people, were lit up with the hope-inspiring rays of Christianity.

We are not to judge the Heathen; yet universal evidence gives the melancholy fact, that the light of nature does not lead the soul to God: and without judging of their destiny, we are bound to enlighten their minds.

We know the great Being of whom they are ignorant; and well will it be for them and for us, in a day that awaits us all, if yet, though late, sadly late--yet not too late, we so give countenance and aid to the missionary, that the light of revealed truth may cheer the remaining period of their national and individual, existence.
Will it be said that I am regarding, with partial eye and sentimental romance, but one side of the Sioux character?
Have they no faults, as a people and individually?
They are savages--and that goes far to answer the question.

Perhaps the best answer is, the women have faults enough, and the men twice as many as the women.

But if to be a savage is to be cruel, vindictive, ferocious--dare we say that to be a civilized man necessarily implies freedom from these traits?
Want of truth, and habitual dishonesty in little things, are prevalent traits among the Sioux.