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The Tlingit and Haida are noted for their oratory. Great speeches are delivered during the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood conventions as well as in the traditional potlatch ceremonies.

During heated debates, the chair may gavel and call for the singing of "Onward Christian Soldiers" to ease the tension. Other times, the meetings are broken with jokes or short stories. The following are excerpts recorded by William Paul, Sr., of some speeches delivered during the 1945 ANB Grand Camp Convention in Kake.

Two fellows went hunting on Mt. Edgecumbe. That is bad country there, there are tall trees and the rivers even run uphill. One man got lost and his friend hunted for him for days, then he came back to town for the help. The lost man was my cousin. 

Our old auntie decided to cry. She came out on her front porch and sat down on the door step and began to weep at the top of her voice. She made so much noise that her old friends began to gather to weep with her. One by one they sat down on the little old porch on each side of her, making a row all the way across. It was getting too much for the old porch. It was already trembling with the weight of the noise.

Then the last one came, quite big and fat. She hoisted herself at one end. The old porch couldn't take it. It gave away! You'd be surprised how quickly the weeping stopped, even our auntie. Her eyes were perfectly dry.

Once the dogfish had no eyes. He went blundering about all the time through the water getting his food by eating whatever he bumped into. It was hard for him to get food. He would follow the
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12 ALASKA NATIVE NEWS/NOVEMBER 1983

Alaskan waters."

As public pressure mounted and the salmon stocks declined, the salmon canneries sold eleven of the two hundred and fifteen fish traps in Alaska to Indian owned canneries in the Southeast. However, the ANB continued to maintain its first stand against fish traps until they were abolished in 1959. 

The ANB also formed labor unions for their people. They organized the ANB fishermen's union and a cannery worker union which later merged with the American Federation of Labor.

The ANB moved to use their economic power to eradicate overt discriminatory practices which flourished in the first few decades of the 1900's. Stores and restaurants often posted signs stating "No Dogs or Natives Allowed." In 1929, the ANB initiated boycotts against businesses which discriminated against them. Within a short time, offensive signs were removed.

The ANB also focused on discriminatory legislation. The old apprehension and aid to women for dependent children funded by the Territorial legislature excluded Natives. Paul and other Native legislators moved to stop payment of all pensions on the grounds of racial discrimination. The law was amended to include Natives.

The ANB successfully lobbied the enactment, an anti-discrimination act in the 1945 session of legislature. William Paul stated later: "We were successful in promoting passage of the Anti-Discrimination Act, but that did not mean that discrimination towards the Natives ceased."

ANB lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. resulted in the 1936 amendment of the Indian Reorganization Act to extend to Alaska. The IRA would be used to protect land rights and to allow Natives to participate in the economic development of Alaska. The Southeast Indians obtained four salmon canneries and one hundred fishing boats under provisions of the IRA.

Under the IRA, the Secretary of Interior was given the right to designate Indian Reservations. The IRA further provided that the Natives could incorporate and their land would become corporate property in Alaska.

The Haida Indians petitioned for recognition and confirmation of the

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