Modern Day Native Americans, Jason, Liesette, Hiroe, Rachel, Tracey, Karissa, Matt T.

Our speech to the Senate

I’m addressing you to express how our rights, which many people are calling privileges, are being taken away from us. Before the settlers came to our land we had our own lifestyle. Though they brought ways of living that benefited us with hunting and farming they brought also brought their laws that limited our lifestyle, with them. We believed the land wasn’t supposed to be owned by man but instead should be open for everyone to live off of. When the settlers invaded our lifestyle it was clear that they wanted us to leave and take our culture with us. They tried to force their lifestyle on us and set laws to limit our way of living by making our ancestors sign treaties which they didn’t understand. These treaties limited the amount of land to live on, and today our way of living is limited by the size of our reservation. We were able to keep some of our customs on the reservations but now you are trying to take them from us by charging us with taxes and changing rules about fishing and hunting. After setting us on reservations I think we deserve to keep what we have left of our traditional lifestyle. We signed treaties with the government of the United States, and they have not honored our treaties. They have been broken over and over. We are just asking that you go back to honoring the treaties you made with our ancestors and with us over the years. We are not asking for anything more.


Question 1
“How is our speech authentic?”
We tried to take past issues like the settlers moving into the area or moving the Indians to reservations and bring up the modern day issues like taxes and wildlife laws. The topics we brought up seem to have a lot of controversy because many people think native Americans get special treatment, but the native Americans seem to think they are just trying to hold on to what they have left from their ancestors lifestyle. Many of the past minorities that were separated by race and religion have blended in and been accepted by our modern day culture but native Americans still seem to have some segregation from the rest of today’s culture, and there’s controversy on their privileges/rights.

Question 2
“How does Red Jacket’s speech differ from Pontiac’s?”
Red Jacket’s speech is easier for us to understand than Pontiac’s. It sounds straightforward. Pontiac’s speech seems to be allegorical and symbolic. It is more like a fantastical tale than a speech. One of the reasons why the two speeches are quite different may be because of the difference in the audience. Although Pontiac’s speech might sound mystical, it probably comes from the perspective of non-Indian peoples. His speech must have been convincing and compelling for the Indians at the time.

Question 3
“How is Red Jacket’s speech similar to Pontiac’s?”
Just like we wrote in our speech, both speeches detail resistance to White man's ways and religion. Pontiac refers to the English as “red dogs” that came to change the native’s ways of living (pg 209). Both speeches reflect the times of friendly contact and the times of bitter conflict between the Native Americans and the White Americans. Red Jacket discusses how when settlers arrived the Native Americans “took pity” on them and helped them, but later the settlers caused conflicts and wanted land. Also, both speeches record the decline of Native American lands and game to the White Americans. The Native Americans didn’t seem to think the land belonged to people while the settlers saw it like it was not owned by anyone.