In a city known for its Revolutionary history,
another revolution is quietly taking place, not far from Independence Hall.
A flurry of activity is underway at the center city headquarters of the
United American Indians of the Delaware Valley, Inc., 225 Chestnut Street.
In the heart of historic Old City, a group of dedicated individuals is
trying to preserve the legacy of a culture that began 10,000 years ago along
the banks of the Delaware - flowing not much farther away, than the distance
an arrow can fly.
The sounds of ceremonial drums echoing across the
wooded hills and valleys of Fairmount Park recently, heralded the start of
UAIDV's annual pow wow. The drums also signaled a new chapter and a new,
progressive administration in the life of one key urban American Indian
organization. These brave souls are attempting to breathe life into an
organization that was on the verge of extinction due to years of
mismanagement and alienation. Now, power is back in the hands of "the
people."
The heritage and history of Native Americans in
this region is a golden thread, inextricably intertwined with the birth of
the Nation. But much like African American culture, it is often an
overlooked part of American history, which should be remembered, cherished,
celebrated. In these waning days of "Indian summer," the waxing of
the Harvest Moon and the appearance of pumpkins and Indian corn mark the
approach of Thanksgiving. It is a time when our thoughts naturally turn to
Native Americans.
A Forgotten History
When William Penn first arrived, the area
encompassing Philadelphia and extending as far north as New York; south to
Delaware; and west to the Susquehanna River, was called Lenapehocking - land
of the Lenape. Lenapes (len-nah-pays) were also known as the Delaware, along
whose banks and tributaries they lived. As a tribute to that era, the
stately statue of the great Lenape Chief, Tamanend - who made treaties with
Penn - stands today at Front and Market Streets.
Unlike most colonial leaders, Penn remains
respected by local Indians because he took the time to learn Lenape language
and customs. He treated them fairly and humanely, and Indians often visited
his home - Pennsbury Manor. Penn's spirit of friendship, cooperation and
charity continues today in the form of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's
(Quaker) Indian Committee (http://www.pym-indiancommittee.com/) which now
helps Indian groups from around the country.
Native Americans are typically relegated to a
few, usually inaccurate, lines in history books - as if over 2.5 million of
them do not exist today. The Federal government now formally recognizes 562
tribal nations and many more tribes have applications on file seeking
Federal recognition. Curiously, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania refuses to legally
recognize any of the reported 15,000 people of Indian ancestry living in
this region.
There is a popular fallacy that "all Indians
live on reservations, west of the Mississippi." Actually, approximately
60% of America's Indians live in urban areas. But, who precisely is an
Indian?
According to The Rights of Indians and Tribes
(1992) by the ACLU: "There is no universally accepted definition of the
term 'Indian.' Therefore, determining who is an Indian is difficult…
Although there is one ethnological definition of Indian, there are many
legal definitions. Different laws use different definitions… Many federal
laws use the word 'Indian' without defining it." It's also ironic that
American Indians were not formally granted U.S. citizenship until 1924.
Locally, few are aware that Chief Shenandoah and
a band of Onondaga warriors from upstate New York - in a phenomenal feat of
courage and endurance - brought hundreds of bushels of corn to help General
George Washington feed his starving troops during that fateful winter at
Valley Forge. Few may know that Benjamin Franklin often talked with Iroquois
ambassadors, who explained their bicameral form of government, which may
have been a model for our own - or that their remarkable Iroquois
Confederacy existed for hundreds of years before our Continental Congress.
The term massacre is never used to describe an
atrocity committed against Indians. Yet fewer still, know of the horrific
massacre of innocent, peaceful, unarmed, Christian, Conestoga Indians in
1763, in Lancaster, PA - by the Paxton Boys, who scalped and butchered the
bodies of the defenseless men, women and children they murdered.
Because many tribes in the East were pushed and persecuted out of the
region, some believe there are no Indians here any more. "They died out
long ago" - according to local legend. With such a pervasive
misconception, it's understandable why some are quick to brand anyone in
this area who claims to be Indian, part Indian or have Indian ancestry, as a
wannabe ("want to be").
With little scientific or ethnographic evidence
except, "they don't look like Indians to me" - thousands of people
with Native blood are summarily written off as pretenders. As much as
America denigrates and disenfranchises Indians, why would anyone claim to
have Native ancestry if one did not?
American Apartheid
Much like apartheid-era South Africa, Native
Americans - the first Americans - are the only ethnic groups in America
required to prove their ethnicity. No other groups are expected to carry
identification cards proclaiming they're "genuine USDA" Caucasian,
Latino, African American or Asian. To rely on the Federal government to give
people permission to be Indian, doesn't make much sense - especially since
the government tried its best to exterminate all Indians and force the
survivors onto "reservations." Nits breed lice, they reasoned.
In Lies My Teacher Told Me (1995) James Loewen
wrote: "Hitler admired our concentration camps for Indians in the west,
'and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's
extermination - by starvation and uneven combat' as the model for his
extermination of the Jews and Gypsies."
Any descendant of the so-called Five Civilized
Tribes in the South knows that many of her ancestors were force-marched west
across the Mississippi at bayonet-point by Federal troops - resulting in a
staggering loss of life and especially, property. A primary goal of the
nascent nation was the theft of Indian lands.
It would be unconscionable to ask a Jewish person
who lost an ancestor in the Holocaust to "get over it" - because
"it's time to move on." Yet, that is precisely what is expected of
American Indians - who suffered a holocaust of their own. For Indians, this
isn't ancient history - it's family history.
It might even be argued that perpetually ignoring
America's disgraceful past and present treatment of Native Americans may
have laid the theoretical groundwork for our often failing foreign policies
around the world, today.
African Americans might pay particular attention to the ethnic, historical,
and cultural relationships between African and Native Americans. Though it's
rarely acknowledged, Native Americans were the first slaves in this country.
Kidnapping and enslaving Indians was a common practice that began with the
early European explorers.
Squanto (Tisquantum) - of First Thanksgiving fame
- was a Patuxent Indian who helped the hapless Pilgrims survive their first
hard New England winters. But years earlier, he had been kidnapped by
English traders, to be sold into slavery in Spain. From Spain he made his
way to England and then back to America. It had actually been his second
round-trip Transatlantic experience - his first, being due to another deceit
on the part of other English explorers. A plague wiped out his entire
village while he was gone.
For all of the myth-guided honor given to
Columbus - who factually never set foot in what would become the U.S. - he
is still considered by many American Indians to be among the most brutal,
larcenous, and murderous invaders to ever lay siege to the peoples of the
New World. Yet, the Indians' justifiable anger toward Columbus typically
serves as fodder for late night comedians, and recently even engendered the
umbrage of television's make-believe Mafiosi on an episode of The Sopranos.
In the South, American colonists turned the trade
in Indian slaves and deerskins into an incredibly lucrative business.
However, Indian slavery began to wane during the late 17th and early 18th
centuries - largely due to drastically declining eastern Native populations
- as the African slave trade was on the rise.
A particularly interesting connection between the
two groups began there, because whether they know it or not, many African
Americans may have Indian ancestry. According to J. Leitch Wright, Jr., in
The Only Land They Knew: The Tragic Story of the American Indians in the Old
South (1981): "A considerable number of female Indian slaves were
already in the quarters when male Africans arrived. This was one, but not
the only reason why the Southern 'Negro' population on its own increased so
much in contrast to almost everywhere else in the New World."
Sometimes, the legal and racial distinctions
between Blacks and Indians was determined solely on the basis of whether
that individual lived on a state-recognized Indian reservation - which was
once the law in Virginia. Some New England states had similar practices. If
an Indian moved off a reservation, he was no longer legally considered
Indian. He was now Black, or a free person of color, instead. The political
goal was a clearly delineated society with only two types of people - black
and white - that made discrimination easier to enforce.
I wannabe a real live Indian
Like many people of mixed heritage, I learned of
my Native American ancestry later in life. Some families hid this aspect of
their ethnicity to avoid unpleasant conflicts with their neighbors out of
fear of being accused of trying to be something one is not.
In God Is Red (1992) Vine Deloria, Jr., wrote:
"Most Eastern Indians…simply did not admit to an Indian identity to
avoid being singled out for discriminatory treatment. They kept most of
their traditions to themselves and were highly suspicious of
outsiders."
In responding to situations involving rejection,
ridicule, danger or discrimination, some families of mixed heritage made a
conscious decision to subordinate their Indian ancestry - particularly - in
the presence of the Black communities in which they often lived. Teasing,
taunts and bullying were ever present for mixed race children. Why pressure
people to reject their Indian ancestors, when it would be disgraceful for
them to reject their African ancestors?
One would hope that since a primary goal of white
slaveholders was to deny African Americans their rich culture, history,
language and identity, members of the Black community would be reluctant to
do so to others. The same might be said for some in Native groups who enjoy
Federal recognition.
In this post-Alex Haley age, discovering and
reclaiming one's roots has nearly become a new national pastime. It would
seem that people of Indian ancestry would be helping each other to
rediscover their ethnic and cultural heritages. Unfortunately, the epithet
of wannabe is too often flung at those who are not card-carrying, Federally
recognized Indians. However, it might be argued that the ancestors of those
Indians who carry the government's "seal of approval," didn't
fight hard enough or run fast enough.
Regardless of race or color, in historic times,
to be accepted in many tribes one generally needed to live according to
tribal laws and customs; honor their leaders; protect their women, children
and lands; and worship as an Indian. Some of the greatest Native chiefs and
leaders of the 18th and 19th centuries - like John Ross, John Bowles
(Cherokees) and Quanah Parker (Comanche) - were of mixed ethnicity.
Historically, Indians never had the white man's
penchant for making lists. For all the good it did to write lists or
(usually broken) treaties down on paper, oral traditions and tribal memories
were more accurate and existed for millennia before the written word.
The names of Indians who refused to participate
in the Dawes Act (another land theft scheme) or line up for government
censuses may not have been recorded anywhere - but that doesn't mean they
never existed! Some went into hiding and others may have blended in with
remnants of other tribes or ethnic groups. Considering the fate that awaited
many, why trust the government?
An underlying reason for the curse of the
wannabes seems to be that tribes who have Federal recognition fear that if
others are recognized, it will mean a smaller piece of the pie for all. This
is shortsighted and self-defeating. Limited health care services on Indian
reservations and a few educational scholarships do not make a very big pie.
The widespread misconception that there are innumerable financial benefits
to being an Indian is a myth probably fueled by fears and jealousy of a few,
successful Indian-owned casinos. (Why no one ever complains about casinos
owned by non-Indians, is another mystery.)
The reality is that the Federal government owes
American Indian tribes between $100 and $400 billion held in trust by the
U.S. Interior Department, dating back for a over century. In a blistering,
267-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said he was ''both
saddened and disgusted'' by the ''disgraceful'' conduct of Secretary Gale
Norton and other Interior Department officials entrusted with royalties
earned from Indian lands.
Native Americans should band together in a
nationwide pan-Indian movement. Imagine the political clout that two or
three million Indians could wield if they spoke with one voice in a national
election. Wrongs could be righted. Debts could be paid. Our future might be
brighter. Children could be taught the truth about the injustices committed
against American Indians and how much they have contributed to this country
since before the colonists and conquistadors first arrived on our shores.
No, Indians have not vanished. They're right
there on Chestnut Street and around the Delaware Valley. Perhaps, even in
our own families. Learn about them. Honor them and the promises our country
made to them. Attend their pow wows, support their endeavors, help them
grow. By doing so, we'll honor ourselves and help our country become
culturally richer and spiritually stronger. And in the process, we'll
rediscover who we really are.
