Harry Truman,who will go down in history as a President who hod
sensd' and guts, oncer said that he- never gave anyone hell, he just
gave thorn the truth and they thot it wa3 hell* The Old Cynic
a hit of satisfaction out of finding that some people think hi
ments on Statehood are hell.
02 Gt)
The Old Cynic (sometimes disrespectfully spoken of as 0. A. Nelson)
.sometimes speaks . of I1, us Indians", and he means just that. He has
enuf- York citato Indian blood in' him that he is not tho least squeam
’• ish about saying what, he thinks of Indians. Ho knows that most
. of- the people of Indian or part Indian race in the States and Alaska
are just ordinary, sound Americans and ''discrimination against Indians'*,
there is no such thing as discrimination against any race here. But
there is sure as heil plenty of discrimim tion against Siwash bums and
whining beggars such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the so called
’’Missionaries’* have made of some of the Indians* Racketeering and
d ampho o 1 i s lino s s.
The term Siwash has cone* to mean any Indian or White who wants to
go whining around about why tho government should take care of hiqi.
Indians may be one or* two percent different from some other races by
heredity in rather inconsequential ways. But the tragedy of the.
present setup is that> the racketeers have worked on this slight
difference and have made it appear that the Indian is so different
he cannot readily become a plain, useful amorican* The Alaska Native
Brotherhood is a' silly racket that would never have occured to the
Indians. If the Indians had a chance they would grow up the same
sort of people as any other race, For White people to keep everlast
ingly bearing down.on the idea that the Indian needs and deserves
special consideration because of his race is worse than criminal. '
Most of us so. called "Indians'* are a darn lot more than half white
by'*blood,"
Farinatance, there is a young Indian hero in Chitina during the
summers'. Ho .was born hero and grew up here, and like most Indians ho
hrd the makings of a useful man such as his father and Grandfather
were,*and the Old Cynic knew them both. They were Honest, upstanding
men who would have scorned to beg and whine. If you are interested
and will come here in the summer I will introduce you to this biwash.
He1 gets on-tho street when tourists drive in, he ambles up to the.
ones he thinks might be a "soft-touch” and his judgement is usually
very good, ho then comos out with a pitch something like this , (tho
he has had plenty of good schooling and can speak ordinary American)
” Me just poor Ihdianboy, no can get job, got no food and sometimes
I get very hungry, white Man take everything away from us poor Indians,
we have very hard time”.' And it beats hell how often he gets a dollar
so he can get some food. Tho tourists are hardly out of townby the
time this biwash Is spending the dollar in tho bar. This biwash is
healthy, prides himself on being a bit of a pugilist, could worlc if
he wa3 disposed but he has.been taught that he should be taken care of
because he is pore Indian.
This is a very early spring hero
in Chitiha. host years the snow is
gone by Lay 1. This year we are
planting Garden. The noru tempers
the economic wind to the shorn lamb;
and have we boon sheared, if this ']
kind of weather holes folks will /
have some turnips "and cab age to go 1,1
with our fish this winter.
...Anyone wiio Lakes exception to any
of those remarks by the Old Cynic
(0. A. Nelson) can find him here
most any time. He will be glad to
take the matter up on any plane.
Name your weapons, ho carries his
at all times,_
lynrs^ is\^o
soonsibl ovi'or
The 01<
every word on Jda^e ''pa^o. vvmo one*,
el so can or v/.oula vrsj'it to
ed f qrj what5u$3 sc;t down. hero. v