Read the excerpt from "Keynote Address.”So my fellow Americans, let us reject violence as a means of protest, and let us reject those who preach violence.
The Anti-Federalists did not want states to ratify the Constitution because it would
As coauthors of the “Federalist Papers,” Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay all
Read the excerpt from "Keynote Address.”Of course, the war in Vietnam must be ended. But it must be ended, as President Johnson said last March, by patient political negotiation rather than through the victorious force of arms, even though this may be unpalatable for those raised in the tradition of glorious military victories. But like our other complex problems, this one must also be solved responsibly. Just as we shun irresponsible calls for total and devastating military victory, so must we guard against the illusion of an instant peace that has no chance of permanence.
Read the excerpt from "Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation.”I think first it’s important, before I start talking about what we’re doing today in the 1990s and what we did throughout the eighties or even the seventies in rebuilding our tribe; I think it’s really, really important to put our current work and our current issues in a historical context.Read Sahil’s paraphrase of the excerpt.Wilma Mankiller says that it is important to understand the historical reasons for needing to rebuild the Cherokee tribe, and then she will start talking about what they’re doing today (in the 1990s), and what they did throughout the eighties or even the seventies.Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Trust
Read the excerpt from "Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation.”Our tribal council had no idea how to run a school for girls, and so they sent a group of emissaries to Mount Holyoke and asked the head of Mount Holyoke to send some teachers back to show us how to put together a school for girls. So we built an educational system and began this process of healing and rebuilding ourselves as a people.Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Trust
Which Anti-Federalist later became president of the United States?
Read the excerpt from "Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation.”The other thing that I saw which is, I think, one of the single most important things that we continue to have as native people, and that’s a sense of interdependence. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to travel extensively in this country and abroad, and I can tell you that even though our people are very fragmented today, we still, in the more traditional communities still have a sense of interdependence. I can still motivate people in communities to do something because it helps their neighbor, or helps the person down the road, or helps the community much more than I can motivate people to do something just because it helps themselves.Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Trust
Read the excerpt from "Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation.”I can’t tell you how many everyday Americans that I’ve talked with who’ve visited a tribal community in Oklahoma or in other places, and they’ve looked around and they saw all the social indicators of decline: high infant mortality, high unemployment, many, many other very serious problems among our people, and they always ask, "What happened to these people? Why do native peoples have all these problems?”, and I think that in order to understand the contemporary issues we’re dealing with today and how we plan to dig our way out . . . you have to understand a little bit about history.Read Lily’s paraphrase of the excerpt.Wilma Mankiller cannot say how many people she has talked to who visit a tribe and see evidence that things are not going well and then ask questions about why Indigenous people have so many problems. She thinks that, in order to comprehend the modern problems tribal communities have, people have to do research into history.Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Trust
To protect individual rights, the Anti-Federalists wanted to
Read the excerpt from "Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation.”And so there were bitter internal divisions among our people during that period of time, that period of discussion. We had non-Indian friends throughout the South who helped us, who took up our cause and tried to protect the Cherokees and work with us. Some of our friends spent time in jail . . .Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Trust
Read the excerpt from "Keynote Address.”Fellow Democrats, we are here tonight because in large part we share our faith in our country and in its processes of orderly, humanistic change.Change and challenge should not deter us now. We have long been a party of change and challenge.The need for new ideas and improved institutions should not deter us now. We have long been a party of new ideas.That today’s crisis is one of the human spirit should not deter us. We have long been a party which gave priority to the needs of human beings.So let us go forward with programs, responsive to the needs of today and responsive to the needs of tomorrow.Fellow Americans, this is our country. Its future is what we, its citizens, will make it.
The Anti-Federalists’ main objection to ratifying the Constitution was that it
Read the excerpt from "For the Cherokee Phoenix.”What will be our fate, God only knows. Georgia is extending her laws over us and at the same time stripping us of every right and privilege—agents of the United States are assiduous to induce us to quit our native homes. If this is not oppression, I know not what it is. Should we finally fall a sacrifice to the avarice of this fair, free and happy republic, as it is called, the sad news, no doubt will reach London, Paris, and Madrid as a stigma on its boasted character. Nay the mournful story will be reiterated in St. Petersburg. Oppressed Greece, too, will sympathize with us and drop a tear over our funeral pile.
Read the excerpt from "Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation.”During this period of time when removal was being discussed, our own people, the Cherokees, became very bitterly divided politically. Part of our people wanted to remain here in the Southeast and throughout the rest of the Southeast and fight to the death for the right to remain in our homeland, and part of our people wanted to go on to Indian Territory, believing that the removal was inevitable, and that we should go on to Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma, and resettle and rebuild our families and our communities there in Indian Territory.Read how Luis paraphrased the excerpt.Wilma Mankiller says that during this period of time when removal was discussed, her own people, the Cherokees, became very bitterly divided politically. Some wanted to fight to stay in their territory, but others believed the fight could not be won and they should go on to rebuild their communities in Indian Territory.Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Trust
Read the excerpt from "Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation.”. . . John Ross believed in the American judicial system, and he felt that the American judicial system was built on beautiful principles, and that was something that should work for the Cherokees. And so both individual people and the tribe took some of our cases for the preservation of the integrity of the Cherokee Nation through the American judicial system and all the way to the United States Supreme Court and won.Read Jasmine’s paraphrase of the passage.Wilma Mankiller says that John Ross believed in the American judicial system, and he believed its principles should work for the Cherokees. Some individuals, as well as the tribe, took cases for the preservation of the Cherokee Nation through the American court system and all the way up to the Supreme Court. They won.Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Trust
When was a state obligated to follow the Constitution?
Read this excerpt from the Declaration of Independence.“Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” Which statement best describes the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from "Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation.”Some of the impetus for the removal was economic. Cherokee land was good land for growing cotton, was good land for growing tobacco, and also some gold had been discovered within the Cherokee Nation, and then there were also a number of corporations and individuals who wanted our land, so all those were factors in the pressure for removal.Read Mea’s paraphrase of the excerpt.Some of the reasons for the Cherokee removal were economic. The land owned by the Cherokee Nation was fertile and held valuable resources, and many people wanted it.Courtesy of the Wilma Mankiller Trust
Read the excerpt from "Keynote Address.”The success of our economic system has freed [young people of today] in ever-increasing numbers from the tragedies of premature mortality and early labor. It has built the schools in which they are being educated to higher levels than ever in our nation’s history. And this progress has been achieved in a political system that not only admits but safeguards the right of dissent.So it should hardly surprise us when the children of such progress demand to be heard when they become aware of inequities still to be corrected. Neither should we fear their voices. On the contrary, whether we know it or not, the marching feet of youth have led us into a new era of politics, and we can never turn back.
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