Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha's Speech to a Crhistian Missionary

I really enjoyed reading this speech. I was surprised with how much I agreed with Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha, since I am a Christian myself, and originally thought I should be agreeing with the Christian missionary. I loved when he commented “your religion is written in a book. If it was meant for us as well as for you, why hasn’t the Great Spirit given it to us? …why didn’t he allow our forefathers to know that book, with the means of understanding it rightly?” He has a valid point. Why does the white man have all the answers and have the job of teaching everyone what is in the book? They have a god of their own. If he is the same god, as the missionary has claimed, why hasn’t he provided this book to them as well as the tools to understand it? Not only that but “the white people differ so much about it[.] Why don’t [they] all agree, since [they] can all read the book?” I never really thought of that before, but there really is such a wide range of views on the Bible. Think about all the branches of the same church- Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist. All of them have their own church because they don’t agree on the same things. Same book. Same underlying beliefs. But not enough to keep them unified. My favorite line that he states is about the missionary’s plan to share with the white men in the area, and how if this same message “does them good and makes them honest and less disposed to cheat the red man” then Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha and his tribe members may actually think about what he has said. But until then they want nothing to do with it. This goes to show you that it’s about your actions and what you mean, than having the right words to say. He also had a great point about how the white men and the red men are very different in every way, Why can’t they worship differently as well?