PLEASE REPLY TO: Thomas J. Lakey Ph.D PO Box 323 Lucerne, CA. 95458 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
HO! I would like to request the help of your readers to gather information and documentation on Native American slavery from tribes all over the United States. This is a subject that has been buried and ignored in history books and cries out to be brought to light. I spent days searching local Libraries and all over the Internet for information on the subject, but failed to find more than a slight mention of it anywhere. In researching the history of the tribe I work closely with here in my area (The Pomo Nation)I found a short story about the enslavement of the Indians around Clearlake in the library at UC Berkeley. In the mid 1800s two white settlers by the names of Kelsey and Stone enslaved the Pomos of the area to work in their gold mine and farms. While the men were worked to death for many years in the mine and fields, the women and children were used for domestic help and whores. When the people finally rebelled and killed the two offenders the US Calvary came in and slaughtered over 200 innocent men women and children. They hunted them like animals and finally caught up with them, the end came at a sacred place the Pomo people now call Bloody Island. This is one of the few documented incidents that I could find, but I know there must be many more! In resent months there has been a national out cry from the African American population for restitution for the enslavement of their ancestors, and rightly so, but what about our people? Our government and historians have chosen to forget that Native Americans were enslaved and treated far worse than the Africans, if thats possible. Our people were not only enslaved but hunted for bounty for years with the approval of the white government. The state of California was one of the worst offenders, it began with the Spanish followed by the Russians, the true horror truly began with the white moment into California and many other states in their search for gold. In 1850 the state of CA put it down in writing: An act of Government and Protection of Indians April 22, 1850 (Chapter 133, Statutes of California, April 22, 1850) The people of the state of California, represented in the Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: (Section#3) Any person having or hereafter obtaining a minor Indian, male or female, from the parents or relations of such Indian Minor,(This added phrase was purposefully ambiguous: In practice it would allow Indian children to be obtained from third parties and clearly without parental consent) and wishing to keep it, such person shall go before a Justice of the Peace in his Township, with the parents or "Friends" of the child, and if the Justice of the Peace become satisfied that no compulsory means have been used to obtain the child from its parents or friends, shall enter on record, in a book kept for that purpose, the sex and probable age of the child, and shall give to such person a certificate, authorizing him or her to have the care, custody, control, and earning of such minor, until he or she obtain the age of majority. Every male Indian shall be deemed to have attained his majority at eighteen, and the female at fifteen years. In other sections of this same law, it makes any Indian who was not working at a white mans job or living in a "house", homeless and a Vagrant subject to large fines for these offenses. If the Indian could not pay the fine he was forced to work as a slave to whites for months to pay off any fine the court chose to give him or her. A white person could pay the Indians fine and work him or her as a slave for any length of time the court saw fit. The white person who the Indian was working for could extend the time requirement to pay himself back for clothing and what little food they fed the slaves during their captivity. If you read a complete transcript of this law, it will make you sick as you realize the ture horror our people lived through. Families were torn apart,women and children were raped, tortured, murdered at the same rate or more often than the Africans, but where in our history books do we see any mention of this? I am currently in the process of gathering copies of laws, any documentation, and family stories from as many tribes as possible all over the country to compile into a book. This book I have named "The red Road to Freedom" it will be about the forgotten slaves of this nation, another claim to shame for this country "where all men are created equal" as long as you are white! Please send any information or contact me at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or send information to: Thomas J. Lakey Ph.D Cultural Anthropology Dept. PO Box 323 Lucerne, CA. 95458 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thank you so much for your Help Visit and show your support for the Grass Roots Oyate http://members.tripod.com/GrassRootsOyate Clemency for Leonard Peltier. 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