their fear of reprisals.
In closing let me remind you
that nobody has a better right
to protest than the natives of
Alaska. This was our own coun
try before the Russians came
here, they exercised no author
ity as a ruling power; their forts
(two in number in s. e. Alaska)
were for their own protection
and nothing else. Whatever they
did was done only with the per
mission of the Natives. When
Russia sold Alaska, Russia sold
only what, it had—nothing as
far as my people were concern
ed. Certainly the resources were
in our hands. In respect to the
fisheries, we owned our fishing
streams and the right to fish
therein just as truly as those
rights were owned by the In
dians in the States. We were
not consulted. Nor did we re
ceive anything for the surren
der of the property rights which
we enjoyed.
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These rights have now been
taker, from us under the guise
of “regulations in the interest of
conser /ation. We have not ob
jected. Indeed we are rather
proud of the fact that we are
now the spiritual descendants of
Thornes Jefferson and George
Washington. That is wrhy we
claim the protection of the Con
stitution, and affirm that our
prope ty rights should not be
taken away from us without due
proce 3 of lav/. The fish that
come to our streams were not
and never were the property of
the people of the United States
as yc i affirm. They belong to
to us. You a representative
from Oklahoma should be famil
iar with the history of Indian
claim: for they are all based on
the same principle, namely, that
white the United States may
buy the right to rule a country
(as Jefferson purchased the
Loui.irna territory), the United
States must still buy the pro
perly from the actual owners,
win h of course has been done
with the Indians who live in
Oklahoma and elsewhere whence
come the entire reservation sys
tem These fish belong to us
and not to you in the States.
An ! by a system of regulations
founded on specious arguments,
‘in the interest of conservation,”
we find that we have no streams,
no hunting grounds—all is gone
1: ft too much for us to ask
that the burden of conservation
which the Bureau of Fisheries
has placed ENTIRELY on u;>
should be shifted and placed at
least equally on the big non-re
sident corporations which came
to Alaska and found the plenty
that came here while we were
in charge of our own fisheries,
before O'Malley’s era during
which depletio nlias taken place.
Don’t forget that the destruc
tion of our natural resourc
es was brought about by the
white man:—he destroyed the
fur seal, the sea-otter, the mar
ten, the beaver, the mink, the
deer, and now the fisheries of
Alaska. All of this was done
over and in spite of our protests,
and because of our protests, we
are called “Bolsheviks,” enemies
of capital, and the cause or
symbol of our oppression is de
fended by such as you on the
ground of your personal regard
for O'Malley and under a pre
tense that you know something
<r everything about Alaskan
fisheries.
I called on you one day, do you
remember, and I asked you why
\ou made that amendment that
would have prohibited the seine
as well as the trap from certain
described waters as mentioned
in the White Fish Bill, and you
told me that you really did not
understand, but had been lead
to believe that both forms were
c uually destructive according to
the testimony at the hearing of
that bill. You owe it to the 5,
< 00 natives whom I represent;
■the hundreds of wives, the hun
dreds of children who are now
afforing because of the injus
tice which the Bureau of Fisher
ies have mislead you into de
fending.
If you are really a seeker af
ter truth, if you really are not
a fawning worshipper of Bu
reaucrats, if you are really a
sincere follower of Thomas Jef
ferson, who believed that “all
men are created equal, endowed