Mr. Moderator. Fathers and brethren. It is hard to pour out one's heart in such a short time, but I will attempt to do so because I know that the items are very important that will be coming before you. I would like to begin with a the Cherokee Indian memorial that had been presented to the U.S. Congress. It is entitled Between Two Worlds. In truth, our cause is your own. It is the cause of liberty and of justice. It is based upon your own principles, which we learn from yourselves. For we have glory to come to Washington and Europe, Jefferson, our great teachers. We have practiced their precepts with success and the result is manifest. The wilderness of forest has given place to comfortable dwellings and cultivated fields. Mental culture, industrial habits and domestic enjoyment have succeeded. The rudeness of the savage state. We have learned your religion also. We have read your sacred books, hundreds of our people have embraced their doctrines, practice the virtues they teach. Cherish the hopes they awaken. We speak to the representatives of a Christian country. The Friends of Justice, the patrons of the oppressed and our hopes revive and our prospects brighten as we indulge the thought. On your sentence. Our fate is suspended on your kindness. On your humanity, on your compassion, on your benevolence, we rest our hopes. This was presented to the US Congress back in eighteen thirty five. The American Indian did not receive citizenship until 1920 for a stranger in his own land. In nineteen thirty four, he was told that he would have the right to govern himself, but this was only a false hope. The real power remained with the agency superintendent not until nineteen sixty four, where the tribes really able to plan and implement their dreams that had been piling up since nineteen thirty four. It was in nineteen sixty four that the national Indian golf study began in St. Louis, Missouri. It was begun through the Division of Christian Life and Mission of the National Council of Churches in cooperation with Father J.B. Turnley of the Bureau of Roman Catholic Indian Missions. It was historic in the sense, for the first time, a national committee. Also had American Indians on the committee. Among others, the Indian goals highlight several concerns. And I do not want to go through that report, but just to lift up shortly and briefly these concerns right of self-government, right to make decisions, even right to be wrong, but also the right to be right. Against paternalism, for so long, the mission has been to Indians and for Indians and has not been with with Indians or by Indians, the Indian people want a place in American history not just to look back with nostalgia, but to be proud of their heritage and of their contribution to this great nation. The Indian population is young. One half of our population is under 17 years of age. Almost one half of the Indian population is now living away from the reservation. We must begin to develop urban work with our Indian people. The ministry to the American Indian must be developed economically wherever possible. The church has been a divisive force on the reservation. We must we must not project the image of a divided Christ. So often in Indian affairs, the population has pointed the finger only at the government when they see the plight of the American Indian. But there have been two forces on the reservation that have been somewhat paternalistic. These two forces have been the federal government and the Western Church each have made their contributions. Both have their phones in the history of Indian affairs. There have been two policies affecting the Indian people No. One extermination. Governor and Governor William Bradford's speech of those first colonialists, he wrote to them saying concerning the killing of those poor Indians, which we heard at first by report and since by more certain relation. Oh, how happy a thing had it been if you had converted some before you killed any? The only good Indian is a dead Indian, says the cry of the West. The second policy affecting American Indians has been termination. In nineteen fifty three and House concurrent resolution one, two eight, it was saved, the congressman felt the Indian should sink or swim. And this sounds good, but how many of you would like to try to learn to swim with a weight tied to your ankles? It would be all right to be given the right to sink or swim if you were going to start swimming from the top of the water rather than at the bottom with the weights of indifference, apathy, poverty, poor education, discrimination and dehumanization. I propose a new policy, and this is the centrality of the Indian goal study that the American Indian be given the right of self-determination and opportunity to serve on boards and agencies on committees for which so long have plotted their destiny. The American Indian has been waiting patiently for justice and mercy in this land. He has been told to wait to keep things in perspective. He's been lying by the wayside for so long, suffering from indifference, even contrary to what President Johnson said last evening. The priest or the church has passed him by for the most part. The Levite are the federal government has ignored him as much as possible. Could it be that a good Samaritan by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. has come along to ask the Indian to join him on the journey to Jericho? It was my privilege to meet Dr. King in Atlanta concerning the Poor People's Campaign. Last night, I went to a nearby community center to visit with fifty seven Indian people who are on their way to Washington. In this group, there is an Indian lady. One hundred and one years old, and she said, I want to see something done for my people in my lifetime. The Indian people do have a dream, a dream that someday all will be brothers, not just Black Power, Red Power or yellow power or whatever color power, but maybe God is calling for us for the church to use almighty power, the power of love and concern for one's neighbor. And then there will be technicolor power. For we shall be one in God and we speak to the representatives of a Christian country. The Friends of Justice, the patrons of the oppressed and our hopes revive and our prospects brighten as we indulge the thought on your sentence. Our fate is suspended on your kindness, on your humanity, on your compassion, on your benevolence. We rest our hopes. Thank you
