Charlot - He Has Filled Graves With Our Bones

This article is especially powerful because it was written by an Indian chief named Charlot, or Bear Claw. Here Charlot is speaking directly to his people and by using potent syntax engages the listener (or reader). Charlot makes use of questions throughout his tirade forcing his audience to be active readers and form opinions about the issue which is the oppression of his people.

Using pure logic Charlot exposes how irrational the commands of payment, made by the white men, are. Payment “for the things we have from our God and our forefathers; for things he never owned, and never gave us”. He emphasizes the ridiculous nature of these demands by, again, using questions asking “What law or right is that?”

This is no right and certainly no law. This is brutish bullying far more savage than anything the white men accused the Indians of doing. So who is the true savage?

-ads