Legend: Native American warns U.S. vice-president about American immigration policy.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2006]
Food for Thought ... Recently someone was browsing through the 40th Anniversary Issue of Reader's Digest (dated Feb. 1962) and came across this reprint from the Washington News. And found it quite interesting considering our current debates! The Quote: "Vice President Lyndon Johnson received the following message from an Indian (Native American) on a reservation: 'Be careful with your immigration laws. We were careless with ours.'" |
Origins: Whenever the debate about U.S. immigration policy flares anew, many debaters quickly rush into one of two camps: those who believe that a flood of illegal immigrants is undermining the
American economy and culture, and those who assert that America's foundations were built upon the bedrock of immigration, and that all U.S. residents other than Native Americans are themselves immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. That last point is common fodder for humor, with many jokes playing on the notion of "Indians" sagely and sardonically cautioning "white men" (or others) to avoid the same dangers they themselves faced from the European settlers who colonized the North American continent. (A familiar anecdote about a subversive greeting provided to NASA officials by a Navajo is a sample of this form.)
The example reproduced above was mined from the same vein, a joke that enjoyed brief currency in the American press during the early summer of 1961, primarily through its retelling by Representative
The Chief's advice to the Vice President: "Young man, be careful with your immigration laws. We were careless with ours."
As Rep. E. Y. Berry tells it, Chief Ben Wildhorse, a South Dakota Sioux, came to Washington and was given an audience by the Vice President.
In this instance the Native American is identified by name and tribe, but the vice-president is referenced only by position. (Most people, as in the
Three weeks later, the Chicago Daily Tribune printed the same item, only in a slightly more elaborate version that didn't name the Indian chief and had the Sioux offering his advice to Lyndon Johnson's predecessor in the vice-presidency, Richard Nixon:
"Be careful with your immigration laws," the Indian said, "unfortunately, we were careless with ours."
Rep. E .Y. Berry recalls the time a Sioux Indian chief from South Dakota called on former Vice President Nixon to discuss tribal land matters. As he was leaving the Vice President's office, the chief said he had some advice to impart.
The same story had appeared a month earlier in the
Sioux chieftain Ben American Horse, Berry said, once advised the late Vice President
Rep. E .Y. Berry Monday repeated an old Indian proverb for the edification of Congressmen studying immigration problems.
Finally, a 1965 version combined elements of both this anecdote and the NASA/Navajo joke referenced earlier in this article:
"Young man, let me give you a little advice," said the chief. "Be careful with your immigration laws. We were careless with ours." A sequel to this, which might have been prompted by the Gemini flights, is now suggested by [South Dakota] A Sioux Indian from South Dakota wrote Mundt wanting to know "why you white people want to go to the moon. There is no Indian land to take away up there!"
Many people no doubt remember the aging Sioux Indian Chief Ben American Horse's well-known remark to the late Alben Barkley, Harry Truman's vice president.
For what it's worth, Ben American Horse was a real Sioux chieftain, and he did visit Washington in 1955, when Alben Barkley was a
Last updated: 11 August 2006
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