No holiday for Indians

Tribes take their place in nationWhy are there some disgruntled feelings? The Declaration of Independence says "that all men were created equal and that all were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" but it didn't seem to apply to many of the American Indians, blacks and other ethnic groups.

Those disgruntled feelings are understandable. In my search for historical information about the glories of the Fourth of July, I came across an article written by Chris Mato Nunpa, Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, Minn. He gathered together many quotes and phrases of Presidents Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson and Van Buren that would cause some Native people to stump the ground. I, too, ran across many of these quotes as I was researching a book about the history of the Sahnish (Arikara) people.For more on the subject, see Fun 4th of July Facts.