Wasichus (white men) found much of the yellow metal that they worship and that makes them crazy. They wanted a road, it would let other Wasichus come in like a river. Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the 2-leggeds and the 4-leggeds lived together like relatives and there was plenty for them and for us. But the Wasichus came and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the 4-leggeds and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu and it is dirty with lies and greed. Black Elk
| Pachgantschilhilas."I admit
that there are good white men, but they
bear
no proportion to the bad; the bad must be the strongest, for they rule.
They do what they please. They enslave those who are not of their
color, although created by the same Great Spirit who created us. They
would make slaves of us if they could, but as they cannot do it, they
kill us! There is no faith to be placed in theirs words. They are not
like the Indians who are only enemies while at war and are friends in
peace. They will say to an Indian. "my friend! my brother!" They will
take him by the hand, and at the same moment destroy him. And so you,
addressing himself to the Christian Indians, will also be treated by
them before long. Remember! that this day I have warned you to beware
of such friends as these. I know the long knives; they are not to be
trusted."Pachgantschilhilas, was born the first half of the eighteenth
century
and became the head warrior of all the Delaware's residing then on
the Miami and White rivers, in the Northeastern United States. In the
course of this address to the Moravian Indians in Ohio these were
Indians who had been converted by Moravian Missionaries and were then
separated from their tribes -he tried to persuade them to remove
themselves from their village in which they were vulnerable to attacks
from the white frontiersman and move to a safer place. The source of
this address, John Heckewelder, in Account of the History, Manners, and
Customs of the Indian Nation, comments: " Eleven months after this
speech was delivered by this prophetic chief, 96 of the same Christian
Indians, 60 of them women and children, where murdered at the
place where these very words had been spoken, by the same men he had
alluded to and in the same manner that he had described." |
|
In 1969, Indians seized Alcatraz Island;
Indians
refused government orders to leave and were evicted in 1971. PROCLAMATION: TO THE GREAT WHITE FATHER AND
ALL HIS PEOPLE We, the Native Americans,
re-claim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American
Indians
by right of discovery. We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings
with
the Caucasian inhabitants of this land and hereby offer the following
treaty;
We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars ($24) in
glass
beads and red cloth, a precedent set by the white man's purchase of a
similar
island about 300 yeas ago. We know that $24 in trade goods for these 16
acres
is more than was paid when Manhattan Island was sold, but we know that
land
values have risen over the years. Our offer of $1.24 per acre is
greater than
the 47 cents per acre that the white men are now paying the California
Indians
for their land. We will give the inhabitants of this island a portion
of that
land for their own, to be held in trust by the American Indian Affairs
and by
the bureau of Caucasian Affairs to hold in perpetuity- ‘for as long as
the sun
shall rise and the rivers go down to the sea.’ We will further guide
the
inhabitants in the proper way of living. We will offer them our
religion, our
education, our life ways, in order to help them achieve our level of
civilization and thus raise them and all their white brothers up from
their
savage and unhappy state. We offer this treaty in good faith and wish
to be
fair and honorable in our dealings with all white men…We feel that this
so-called Alcatraz Island is more than suitable for an Indian
Reservation, as
determined by the white man's own standards. By this we mean that this
place
resembles most Indian reservations in that; 1. It is isolated from
modern
facilities and without adequate means of transportation. 2. It has no
fresh
running water. 3. It has inadequate sanitation facilities. 4. There are
no oil
or mineral rights. 5. There is no industry, so unemployment is very
great. 6.
There are no health care facilities. 7. The soil is rocky and
non-productive;
and the land does not support game. 8. There are no educational
facilities. 9.
The population has exceeded the land base. 10. The population has
always been
held as prisoners and kept dependent upon others. Further, it would be
fitting
and symbolic that ships from all over the world, entering the Golden
Gate,
would first see Indian Land, and thus be reminded of the true history
of this
nation. This tiny island would be a symbol of the great lands once
ruled by
free and Noble Indians. |