As an American Indian, I take exception to the Monday letter, “City should not sell land to tribe.”
We were not “given” anything from the “non-Indian fathers.” We owned the entire U.S.A. when the “non-Indians” invaded our country and attempted to murder all natives. They took our land and the ones they could not kill, they entered into “treaties” with and put tribes on small reservations, on lands they did not want.
In the treaties (prepared by Washington, D.C. non-Indians), tribes were granted “sovereign status” if they signed these treaties and the Indians were forced to sign them or be murdered.
In those days, Indians could not read, write or understand the “English language” and had to rely on interpreters to tell them the treaty contents. The interpreters were employed by the government.
After the Indians learned English, we started taking advantage of the wordings in the treaties that were made by the non-Indians over 100 years ago.
We are not sovereign nations like China, Canada, etc. We were the first citizens of the U.S.A. and the entire U.S.A. was our land until the non-Indians took it from us. We were not “granted” anything. We do pay taxes (federal/state) and are only allowed to hunt/fish without a license on land that is within our treaty area. If we go outside this area, we are required to secure the licenses that are applicable. We are only tax-free if purchases are made on our reservation, otherwise we pay taxes like everyone else.
I am proud to be an American Indian and wish to set the record straight – we were not “handed” anything in the treaties by the non-Indians, we were robbed of all of our land!
We would be most happy to break the treaty and take our land back.
VIRGINIA CARPENTER
Tulalip
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