1940: Indian warriors do well to protest against the more or less one-sided portrayal of their ancestors and of themselves in film and book and magazine articles of this supposedly enlightened age.

Six Nations Protest 

1940, May 5 Democrat and Chronicle

     Representative of the Iroquois League, meeting as the Six Nations Indian Association at Canandaigua, have drafted a statement condemning inaccuracies in literary and motion picture portrayals of the American Indian

     Modern descendants of New York State Indian warriors do well to protest against the more or less one-sided portrayal of their ancestors and of themselves in film and book and magazine articles of this supposedly enlightened age. The story of the Indian, as seen in picture drama, in literature and to a large extent in history, is the view of white men intent on seizing control of lands acquired with more or less justice from their ancient owners, the Indians. Not unnaturally, the Indians fought back for what they consider their rights and for the lands of their fathers. The fact that they fought in the Indian mode, in the ancient, cruel, primitive way of their ancestors, proved merely that they knew no better way of warfare.  

     Only in recent decades has the other side of the story begun to be told. Through books such as “Romana” and “A Century of Dishonor,” Helen Hunt Jackson began a literary crusade that has borne fruit not only in sympathy for the Indian, but in scientific investigation. That in turn has resulted in the recovery of rich native cultures of America and started a most significant effort to let the Indian develop his talents in his own way, even in New York State, ancient homeland of the Iroquois Confederacy.

     In raising their voices to protest against biased portrayals of Indians, New York State Iroquois are doing a great service not only to the Indians, but to their white neighbors, who wish to see the Indian he really is. 

1940, May 5 Democrat and Chronicle