Native Currents is a new addition to our editorial page. It will occasionally replace one of our two customary weekly editorials. The idea is to expand the range of perception and analysis on current Indian issues and stories, sometimes by drawing attention to or heeding voices from the past. Native Currents will feature selections and excerpts of speeches, reports, articles, books and creative works that will tap a wide range of Indian country thought and expression.
The following selection is adapted from “The Last Speech of Deskaheh,” as published by the editors of Akwesasne Notes, in 1978. “Deskaheh” was the visionary Cayuga chief who in 1921 attempted to address the League of Nations on behalf of “the small nations of the world.” These words of Deskaheh are from a public radio address made on the evening of March 10, 1925, in Rochester, N.Y. They are addressed to the young people of America, whom the old chief hoped would take their government to task.
Deskaheh:
Nearly everyone who is listening to me is a pale face, I suppose. I am not. My skin is brown, light brown, but our cheeks have a little flush and this why we are called red skins. We don’t mind that. There is no difference between us, under the skins, that any expert with a carving knife has ever discovered.
My home is on the Grand River. Until we sold off a large part, our country extended down to Lake Erie, where, 140 winters ago, we had a little sea-shore of our own and a birch-bark navy.
You could call it Canada. We do not. We call the little ten-miles square we have left the “Grand River Country.” We have the right to do that. It is ours. We have the written pledge of George III that we should have it forever as against him or his successors and he promised to protect us in it.
[Deskaheh lists ways the government of Canada has broken its promise to protect his Grand River homelands, now by imposing a new government by force of arms.]
“Do you think that any government should stop to consider whether any selfish end is to be gained or lost in the keeping of its word?
In some respects, we are just like you. We like to tell our troubles. You do that. You told us you were in great trouble a few winters ago because a great big giant with a big stick was after you. We helped you whip him. Many of our young men volunteered and many gave their lives for you. You were very willing to let them fight in the front ranks in France. Now we want to tell our troubles to you.
I do not mean that we are calling on your governments – we are tired of calling on the governments of paled-faced peoples in American and in Europe. We have tried that and found it was no use. They deal only in fine words – we want something more than that. We want justice from now on. After all that has happened to us, that is not too much to ask. You got half of your territory here by warfare upon Redmen, usually unprovoked, and you got about a quarter of it by bribing their chiefs, and not over a quarter of it did you get openly and fairly. You might have gotten a good share of it by fair means if you had tried.
You young people of the United States may not believe what I am saying. Do not take my word, but read your history. A good deal of the true history about that has got into print now. We have a little territory left – just enough to live and lie on. Don’t you think your government ought to be ashamed to take that away from us by pretending it is part of theirs?
You ought to be ashamed if you let them. Before it is all gone, we mean to let you know what your governments are doing. If you are a free people you can have your own way. The governments at Washington and Ottawa have a silent partnership policy. It is aimed to break up every tribe of Redmen so as to dominate every acre of their territory. Your high officials are the nomads today – not the Red People. Your officials won’t stay home.
Over in Ottawa, they call that policy, “Indian advancement.” Over in Washington, they call it “Assimilation.” We who would be the helpless victims say it is tyranny.
We would be happier today, if left alone, than you who call yourselves Canadians and Americans. We want none of your laws and customs that we have not willingly adopted for ourselves. We have adopted many. You have adopted some of ours – votes for women, for instance. We are as well behaved as you and you would think so if you knew us better. We have no jails and do not need them ?
I suppose some of you never heard of my people before and that many of you, if you ever did, supposed that we were all long gone to our happy hunting grounds. No! There are as many of us as there were a thousand winters ago. That makes a great difference in the respect we get from your governments.
We are not as dependent in some ways as we were in the early days. We do not need interpreters now. We know your language and can understand your words for ourselves and we have learned to decide for ourselves what is good for us. It is bad for any people to take the advice of an alien people as to that.
Boys – think this over. Do it before your minds lose the power to grasp the idea that there are other peoples in this world beside your own and with an equal right to be here.
