American Lit. II: Charlot

Our latest read in our literature class is a speech written by the Native American Charlot. This speech was given during a time of great oppression for his as well as other Native American tribes. The year was 1876 and his tribe, the Kalispel band of the Flathead Indians, was slowly being forced off their native homelands in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. To add to this, newly arrived settlers proposed that the Indians should have to pay a tax to the government in order to remain living upon their assigned reservation lands. After seeing this, and realizing that the white man was being consumed by a ceaseless amount of greed, Charlot decides to give his speech to his fellow tribesmen. In it, Charlot gives examples of how his people have helped the white man, and how the white man have harmed the Native Americns. Charlot's wording of his speech is amazing, and to make a long story short, must have had a profound effect upon his people because they remained in the Bitterroot region for another fourteen years until they were forced out by U.S. troops in the year 1890. The blow dealt to the Native Americans by the white man was no doubt a major one, and one that still has a profound effect today, as the majority of the Native American population still resides on the northern great plains. I can only hope that we as a nation never commit such a trvesty again.