The Nome nugget. [volume], December 29, 1961, Page 5, Image 5

About The Nome nugget. [volume] (Nome, Alaska) 1938-????

Image provided by: Alaska State Library Historical Collections

                
Miss Madigan
Claims Eskimos
In Alaska Have
PBeen Brainwashed
FAIRBANKS UT) — Miss La
verne Madigan, executive director
of the Association of American
Indian Affairs, has recently
charged that the Eskimos in Alas
ka have ibeen brainwashed by
special interests.
In an editorial in the December
issue of the association’s official
publication and in an exclusive
interview, Miss Madigan alleges
the Eskimos in the forties were
systematically “brainwashed” long
before the word was coined and
that misinformation is still cur
rent in all Eskimo villages.
The Inupiat or Point Barrow
Conference on Native Rights,
sponsored by the association in
November, was only a beginning
in “liberating the Eskimos from
lies,” she says.
The Eskimos have been er
roneously told they could not have
rights as American citizens and
retain their aboriginal rights, she
charged.
She claimed that the Eskimos
were told if their villages and
hunting areas were made into re
servations that they could not
leave without “passes”, could not
sell their furs and handicrafts
outside, could not vote, and could
not invite investors in to develop
« resources of the land for the bene
fit of the people.
In short, Miss Madigan charged,
the Eskimos had been told they
must renounce their heritage for
American citizenship. ~
When Eskimo delegates from
the major villages from the Arctic
to the lower Kuskokwim gathered
at Point Barrow last month, she
said they “matched the falsehoods
that they had been told,” and
were shocked.
At the Inupiat, Miss Madigan
continued, “most of them did not
know that their aboriginal rights
are perfectly compatible with
their rights as Citizens."
She said the Eskimos /wfere un
! aware that their aboriginal rights
were clearly recognized by the
U.S. Act of May 17, 1884, with
the actual definition of the rights
being left “for future legisla
tion by Congress.”
“They did not know the United
States reaffirmed that recogni
tion in the Act of JulyJL 1858,
which made Alaska a state,” she
continued.
She then cited the same act,
the Statehood Act, as authorizing j
an invasion of the Eskimos' abor- j
ginal rights by providing the j
state within 25 years after admis
Castro Regime Plants
“Cactus Curtain” Around ;
Guantanamo Navy Base
NEW YORK — The Castro1
Cuban administration yesterday
was reported planting a ~"w«ir
of knife-sharp cactus plants, call
ed “bayonet grass,” around the
big United State Navy base at
Guantanamo Bay.
The report, from George Clif
ford of the Scripps-Howard news
papers, was published in the New
York World-Telegram and Sun
under a Guantanamo Bay date
line. Said Clifford:
“The wall is a 5-yard-wide
hedge of bayonet grass — a cactus
plant with long, sharp leaves that
look like butcher knives and are
almost as effective.
“The hedge is being planted
next to the base’s 24-mile-long
fence.
“Americans stationed here call
it ‘Castro’s Cactus Curtain’.”
Clifford quoted an unidentified
American Marine sentry on the
fence line as saying:
“I think it is more to keep
Cubans from trying to climb the
fence to freedom than to keep us
in.”
Clifford said that Cuban con
struction crews were using big
new American-made bulldozers,
marked with the symbol of Cuba’s
Agrarian Reform Institute, 24
hours a day to clear a strip around
the base perimeter.
PRAYER WEEK
From Jan. 1 thru Jan. 7 will
be Prayer Week in the Covenant
Church with a meeting each eve
ing in the church.
—
sion could select 102,550,000 acres
from public lands,
i “The proudly self-reliant Es
kimo hunters are sophisticated
in their own culture, but their de
fenselessness in ours is almost be
yond belief,” she said.
The conquest of Alaska natives
by the U.S. differed from that
of Indian tribes only In method,
she said.
The Indians were conquered
through battle, but the scattered
aboriginal Eskimos, she pointed
out, were changed from Russian
to American >by the “stroke of the
pen.”
The Indians were established on
reservations where they could
hunt and fish according to their
custom and on which diey could
have full mineral rights. On the
other hand, she emphasized in
the case of the Eskimos, there was
no such reserving of land and its
minerals under federal protection.
Miss Madigsn concluded by
pledging the Association cm Amer
ican Indian Affairs would stand
beside the Eskimos until their
rights were won..V
i
Gov. Rockefeller
Begins Campaign
For Re-Election
ALBANY, NY. UPi — Gov. Nel
son Rockefeller'is keeping a door
open for a possible bid for the
Republican nomination for Presi
dent in 1964.
At thie same time, he is be
ginning a formal campaign with
a declaration that his sole object
is “re-election as governor of the
state.”
From what he said at a news
conference Wednesday, Rocke
feller is entering his campaign
for re-election on the premise
that:
1. Voters will re-name him gov
ernor on the basis of his record.
2. They would have no objec
tion and would even encourage
him if he later had an opportuni
ty to win the Presidential nomi
nation.
3. A pledge to serve a full, four
year term is therefore unneces
sary to win next year.
Republican State Chairman L
Judson Morhouse predicted
Rockefeller would win by a “sub
stantially better plurality” than
his 573,000-vote edge in 1958. He
refeated Democrat Averell Harri
man 3,126,929 votes to 2,553,895.
_____
The average family spends $44
a year on dental bills.
r- 1
■
V/;A\
W 2; \ We just wont to stop for
c a t * J JT J ^ Q mof^ent to wish you oil
llil Ml 1 ii ^ ^ the joy ond success pos
sible for the coming yeor J
■ II And, while we ore ot it,
K may we odd our sincere
- * thanks for oil past favors.
I •-‘.'4 | - r/ lip '4] ■ J
I l
BRONSON WATER
—
during this holiday
I season ... to express our appreciation for the confidence
J and trust you have placed in us and for the opportunity
■ you have given us to serve you. !May we extend to you
our sincere best wishes for happiness and prosperity I