Elias Boudinot's "An Address to the Whites"
Elias Boudinot (Gallegina Uwati) was born to a Cherokee father, Uwati, and mother of mixed Cherokee-European ancestry, Susannah, in 1802. He was raised in Cherokee territory in present-day Georgia, educated in a Christian school beginning 1808, and converted to Christianity in 1818. He became a chief proponent of Cherokee assimilation and what would become known as the Cherokee Renaissance in the 1820s and 1830s.
In this excerpt, he calls for Americans to treat the Cherokee as equals by pointing out their common humanity.
Though he initially opposed Indian Removal, Boudinot ultimately became convinced it was essential to the survival of the Cherokee. He then became one of the signers of the Treaty of New Echota in 1836 and was assassinated by a small group of unidentified Cherokee in 1839.
What is an Indian? Is he not formed of the same materials with yourself? For "of one blood God created all the nations that dwell on the face of the earth." Though it be true that he is ignorant, that he is a heathen, that he is a savage; yet he is no more than all others have been under similar circumstances. Eighteen centuries ago what were the inhabitants of Great Britain?
You here behold an Indian, my kindred are Indians, and my fathers sleeping in the wilderness grave--they too were Indians. But I am not as my fathers were....I have had greater advantages than most of my race; and I now stand before you delegated by my native country to seek her interest...and by my public efforts to assist in raising her to an equal standing with other nations of the earth....
My design is to offer a few disconnected facts relative to the present improved states, and to the ultimate prospects of that particular tribe called Cherokees to which I belong....At this time there are 22,000 cattle; 7,600 horses; 46,000 swine; 2,500 sheep; 762 looms; 2,488 spinning wheels; 172 wagons; 2,943 ploughs...18 schools [in my nation]....
Yes, methinks I can view my native country, rising from the ashes of her degradation, wearing her purified and beautiful garments, and taking her seat with the nations of the earth....
I ask you, shall red men live, or shall they be swept from the earth? With you and this public at large, the decision chiefly rests. Must they perish? Must they all, like the unfortunate Creeks, (victims of the unchristian policy of certain persons) go down in sorrow to their grave?
They hang upon your mercy as to a garment. Will you push them from you, or will you save them? Let humanity answer.
Source: An Address to the Whites (Philadelphia, 1826).
You here behold an Indian, my kindred are Indians, and my fathers sleeping in the wilderness grave--they too were Indians. But I am not as my fathers were....I have had greater advantages than most of my race; and I now stand before you delegated by my native country to seek her interest...and by my public efforts to assist in raising her to an equal standing with other nations of the earth....
My design is to offer a few disconnected facts relative to the present improved states, and to the ultimate prospects of that particular tribe called Cherokees to which I belong....At this time there are 22,000 cattle; 7,600 horses; 46,000 swine; 2,500 sheep; 762 looms; 2,488 spinning wheels; 172 wagons; 2,943 ploughs...18 schools [in my nation]....
Yes, methinks I can view my native country, rising from the ashes of her degradation, wearing her purified and beautiful garments, and taking her seat with the nations of the earth....
I ask you, shall red men live, or shall they be swept from the earth? With you and this public at large, the decision chiefly rests. Must they perish? Must they all, like the unfortunate Creeks, (victims of the unchristian policy of certain persons) go down in sorrow to their grave?
They hang upon your mercy as to a garment. Will you push them from you, or will you save them? Let humanity answer.
Source: An Address to the Whites (Philadelphia, 1826).
Primary Source Text in the Public Domain