I was hearing on TV that some politicians and Washington are for giving reparations to folks whose ancestors were African slaves here in America. But I was really blown away when I read that Senator Elizabeth Warren wanted us to pay Native Americans too. A lot of us Alaskans have ancestors that got a bad deal when the Europeans came too. My friend Harry he’s one of them. He’s an Aleut Indian. His folks got made slaves when the Russians came in 1741. They made his relatives work or else. He told me those Russkies would line up a bunch of Aleuts standing one in front of the other. Then some Russian would get behind the back of the last guy in line. Do you know what he’d do? He’d shoot is gun into the poor guy’s back. They wanted to see how far into the line of Aleuts their bullet would go.
That really ticked me and I wanted to be sure that Senator Elizabeth Warren is thinking of our Alaskan Indians when she’s talking about paying Native Americans. So I wrote her a personal letter.
There was something else about this reparations deal the bothered me. My history book says that the African slaves started off in Jamestown back in 1619. That was an awful thing. But there was no United States back then. We didn’t show up as a country til after the Revolutionary War in1783. And we ended the slavery in 1865. I’m no math whiz but here’s how I figure it. There was African slavery for 249 years. We only had them for 82 years out of that. Doesn’t that mean that the British should pay most of the bill for those reparations? Why should us Americans have to dig into our pockets to pay for the bad things the British did before our country was even born? And what about the French and Spanish? Did they have slaves when they owned part of the Lower 48? Maybe somebody got to make them pay up too.
Same goes for the Russians about up here in Alaska. We Americans never had a part of that. The Russkies came in 1741 and sold the place to America in 1867. That’s after our 13th Amendment that stopped slavery. So the Russians should pay for it all, don’t you think?
That’s why I wrote to the Senator Elizabeth Warren. This is my letter:
Elizabeth Warren
United States Senator
Washington, DC
Hiyo Senator Warren,
Boy am I with you. If I got it right you said that Native Americans should be part of the conversation on that reparations deal. I’m up here in Alaska. My friend Harry he’s an Aleut Indian. He’s always telling me about how those outsiders came along and forced his ancestors to do their work for them. If they didn’t work they got shot. Harry wants some reparations for the Aleuts too. He says the United States owes them big. But I said to him, Harry those weren’t United States people, they were the darn Russians. I told Harry the Aleuts should get their reparations from the Russians not from us. As soon as I said that something hit my mind. What I learned in history is that most of the time the bad guys who had slaves here were not us. Our country didn’t exist til later. They were from England and who knows what else countries. Shouldn’t they be the ones to pay the reparations? I don’t know what do you think? Why should we pay for the bad things done by the English and Russians? Please give me your answer so I can tell Harry.
This is Travis at travis-nordale.online.
That’s what I told her. Harry said I’d never get a peep back from her. But I did. It was a real honor to hear from a United States Senator. She’s even trying to be our next president.
She sent me a long letter but most of it talked about other things that she’s big on. But she did thank me for contacting her. And she said “Your voice helps make sure that Washington works for all Americans.” Harry said that means she liked my ideas about reparations because she thinks they’re helpful.
Senator Elizabeth Warren also told me “I hope you will continue to stay engaged on the important issues facing Congress.” That made me feel really proud that someone important like that wants me to stay pushing on this reparations thing. I hope she’ll do something to make those British and Russians and all pay their fair part of the reparations.