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76 Colonel John Miller, with a detachment of the Third Infantry, was present at the council, and at the request of Governor Clark, Black Buffalo was buried with military honors. Indeed he was given the honors of an officer of high rank, and the ceremonies evidently made a deep impression upon the assembled red men, for Big Elk, chief of the Omahas, who delivered one of the funeral orations, said:—

"Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come and always comes out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey. What is past and can not be prevented should not be grieved for. Be not displeased or discouraged that in visiting your father here you have lost your chief. A misfortune of this kind may never again befall you, but this would have come to you, perhaps at your own village. Five times have I visited this land and never returned with sorrow or pain. Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our path. They grow everywhere. What a misfortune for me that I could not have died to-day, instead of the chief who lies before us. The trifling loss my nation would have sustained in my death would have been doubly paid for in the honors of my burial. They would have wiped off everything like regret. Instead of being covered with a cloud of sorrow my warriors would have felt the sunshine of joy in their hearts. To me it would have been a most glorious occurrence. Hereafter, when I die at home, instead of a noble grave and a grand procession, the rolling music and the thunderous cannon, with a flag waving at my head, I shall be wrapped