Miller has written that there were as many as three thousand Indians at the 1837 rendezvous. One of their favorite pastimes was attending and, if of sufficient stature, participating in large gatherings known as councils. The oratorical urge and proclivity were profound among many men. “Old men generally officiated as speakers,” Miller observed, “while before them sat the sages and warriors, generally in squatting positions, interspersed with chiefs on horseback….” Much of the discourse involved harangues maligning their enemies and obsequiously praising their own people, as has been the wont of politicians over time. (Ross, 127)
