Day 2

What a shock!

I just realized that Ely S. Parker, a Seneca, who c. 1850 transcribed the story of the Iroquois confederacy of five nations, was born at Tonawanda Seneca Reservation, NY. (The same reservation where we ate lunch last week on our way back from the East Coast!)

Ely S. Parker trained as an attorney (but was prohibited from taking the bar exam because he wasn't an American citizen). He then studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. When Parker applied to join Union forces during the Civil War, he was initially rejected -- because he wasn't an American citizen. But General Grant urgently needed engineers and intervened on Parker's behalf. Parker eventually became General Grant's Adjutant General and was present at General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. The surrender papers were actually written by Ely S. Parker.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown makes good reading for an overview of injustices visited upon Ely S. Parker and other native Americans.