Copyright © 2003 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

        As a journalist and syndicated columnist I took a vacation from writing as a columnist while I spent three to four months trying to find a voice for my new work, a novel length book. Since this would be my first work of fiction, I was having trouble finding a voice to tell the story. I decided on my own voice, a female voice, telling the story of her father's life as a "Show" Indian. As simple as it sounds, for a writer voice is elusive and essential. For me, it was a painful search, that required me to look inward, to my own struggles with my father, even though the actual story had nothing to do with my own life. When I finally found the voice, the storyteller, I felt great relief.

        In the meantime, while I struggled to write the first paragraph of the new book, I had neglected to write a column for the newspaper that had up until now published almost every single column I had written. Until now, I was listed as a "Columnist" and until now, you could find my previous columns in the archives of the newspaper. So, I wrote my first column this year and submitted it to the newspaper. I did not hear back for awhile and looked up the paper on line, discovering that I had been virtually erased from the publication. When I entered my name as a key word I came up with one item. I read it and knew exactly why I disappeared from the archives of "INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY," a newspaper I had been writing for since 1996.

        On January 2, 2003, at approximately 9:56 p.m., EST, I was silenced and I didn't know it. On that day, at that time, the editor of the newspaper not only castigated me for speaking out against Connecticut's definition of "Indian," he virtually eliminated me from existence, persona non grata.

        It made me wonder, is this a democracy or is this Iraq during Saddam Hussein's reign of power? Where people disappeared for displeasing the ruling class? Saddam Hussein came into power in 1979, precisely around the time that many of Connecticut's "tribes" came into legal being. At that time one of the state's tribes, the Pequot did not have to petition for federal recognition but gained it through a loophole in a legal document. This tribe did not have to submit any documents but gained federal recognition with Reagan's signature. These people did not have to prove anything, they just came into (legal) being. Today, here in the East where "INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY," a newspaper owned and based in a casino wealthy tribe, they are powerful with many ex-BIA politicians and lawyers lobbying for them. These individuals criticize anyone who speaks out against these powerful interests of the newly recognized tribes in the East.

        My voice has been silenced for speaking out against Connecticut's definition of "Indian" in a democracy, in a forum that I have long respected. I not only respect, but rely on the integrity of the editorial/opinion page of any newspaper. It is where ordinary people like me, willing to take the time to articulate an opinion, have the opportunity to speak and be heard in a democracy.

        I am disappointed in "Indian Country Today," a newspaper I have written for over almost a decade. The columns that they have erased and had been available in their database will be available in book format within the year, nothing lost. I will continue to write, though I am disillusioned as a columnist and writer for I believe that a truly unbiased newspaper especially in "Indian Country" would allow all Indigenous people to state their concerns without fear of reprisal. Especially in real issues affecting real people, as in the issue of ethnic fraud affecting Indigenous peoples, particularly here in the U.S. where Indigenous history is not included in American History in schools so that the majority culture is ignorant of what tribes are.

        I will continue to speak on ethnic fraud as it affects all of us in "Indian country." The definition of "ethnic" is "of or relating to a people whose unity rests on racial, linguistic, religious or cultural ties or deriving from or belonging to such racial etc. ties of a people or country." For those who hide their head in the sand and deny that nothing said in "Indian country" should speak of "race," or "racial characteristics," I chal lenge you to exist in America "race-free," free from any bias based on any racial characteristics you may see in yourself when you look in the mirror. That is largely how America will treat you this and every day that you exist in this society. The definition of "fraud" is "the use of deception for unlawful gain or unjust advantage; something that constitutes a criminal deception; someone who is not what he pretends he is." We as Native Americans/American Indians are the only race in the world who suffer from this type of fraud and exploitation. All of us, need to speak against it, for our own survival as a distinct and uniquely proud and beautiful people.

Delphine Red Shirt
April 29, 2003

Delphine Red Shirt, is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, her first language is Lakota. Red Shirt is the noted author of "Bead on an anthill: a Lakota childhood" an autobiography published by the University of Nebraska Press, and "Turtle Lung Woman's Granddaughter".