I’m sure many of you have heard, or read, of the Indians who sold Manhatten to the
United States Government for the sum total of $24 worth of beads. This is a fact in
documented American history.
My wife, Jody, is a member of the Delaware Indian tribe, also known as the ‘Lenape Tribe of
Indians.’ Her Great-Grandfather was a brother of the last Chief of the Delaware tribe, Chief
Charles Journeycake, before they were adopted into the Cherokee tribe. (Note: The
Delaware Indians have since regained, through more litigation, their heritage as an
independent Tribe of Indians, in the eyes of the US government.) (Jody says, YEAH!)
As a young child, Jody’s Grandmother often regaled her about the pending litigation between
their Tribe and the US government concerning this shameless land transaction. Someday,
she assured Jody, they would come into a considerable amount of money as a result of this
lawsuit that had been filed before Jody was born.
Now, some fifty years later, Jody opened her mail one morning to find a check from the United
States Treasury for her portion of the court settlement. Having kept up with the case
history she was not too surprised to find the amount to be about $21.
“May I ride into town with you this afternoon?” she asked as I prepared to make a service call
to a customer in Tulsa.
“Sure, but you may have to wait a while for me to make the call,” I replied.
“No problem,” she explained, “I just want to stop by the bank and cash my check, then you
can drop me off at Hobby Lobby while you make your call.”
The check was duly cashed, I dropped her off at the store, made my service call and returned
to pick her up. I noticed she had made a small purchase.
“So,” I asked, “what did you find?”
Opening the bag, she showed me. There were several small clear plastic bags of… BEADS!
I should not have been surprised, she was heavily into bead work at the time. It was just the
irony of it all that shocked me.
After over half a century of expensive litigation the wrong had been set right. Now in less than
one day, at least one Tribal member had chosen to convert her settlement back into… BEADS.
I will leave it up to you, dear reader, to determine the moral of this absolutely true story.