Nay Nay Ong Abe de Valera.
Nationalist, 15th Nov. 1919.
De Valera and the American Indians.
"Nay Nay Ong Abe"---meaning "Dressing
Feather"---was the designation conferred on Mr. De Valera by the
Chippewa Indian Tribe at Spooner, Wisconsin, on his adoption by them
as one of their chieftains.
The title was once held by a famous chief of
the tribe who secured for them their rights under the treaty of
1854.
Describing the adoption ceremony, with its
interpolated series of Indian dances, an "Irish World" report
says:---
Chief Billy Boy resplendent in a head dress
of feathers reaching his ankles greeted De Valera in Chippewa. Billy
Boy was followed by Joe Kingfisher, the headsman of the tribe.
Kingfisher, who presented the Irish leader with a handsome beaded
tobacco pouch and moccasins, expressed a poetic sentiment as he
tendered the gifts; I wish I were able to give you the prettiest
blossom of the fairest flower on earth for you come to us as a
representative of one oppressed nation to another.
Chief Billy Boy then invested Mr. De Valera
with his new name and informed im of his adoption by the Chippewa
nation.
Mr. De Valera accepted the head-dress and
signifying he wished to speak, the music ceased and he talked in
Gaelic.
" I speak to you in Gaelic" he said
reverting to English, "because I want to show you that , though I am
white, I am not of the English race. We, like you, are a people who
have suffered , and I feel for you a sympathy that comes only from
one who can understand as we Irishmen can. You say you are not free.
Neither are we free and I sympathise with you because we are making
a similar fight. As a boy I read and understood of your slavery and
longed to become one of you."
Mr. De Valera then told the red men how
Ireland had been oppressed by England for 750 years. "I call on you,
the truest of all Americans to help us win our struggle for
freedom." The Indians listened to his impassioned address with
owl-like gravity, but when Ira Isham, the tribe interpreter,
translated Mr. De Valera's words into Chippewa they cheered him
wildly.
The ceremony was preceded by a memorial Mass
in the reservation church by Fr. Phillip Gordon, Chippewa priest,
for the Indians who died in France during the Great War.
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The above is a true and
accurate transcript of the original document.
- Transcribed by M. Purcell c2010.
- Old newspapers in the PPP.