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Nov. 18                                                                                       23
Belt 7-D continued

officer and on the staff for several years. He was one time Executive Director of the National
Congress of the American Indians. It makes me very proud and happy to present to you our keynote speaker for this afternoon, John C. Rainer, Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico. John Rainer. (Applause)

RAINER: Mr. President, members of the Executive Committee of the National Congress of American Indians, ladies and gentlemen. Once, a (line 90) (sounds like "furred" or "fuhd") Indian speaker said, "Folks, I am an Indian. My/great-grandmother lived in a teepee on the banks of the Arkansas River. I lived in a house on a busy street. My great-grandfather made his living by hunting buffalo. I worked in the plant of a daily newspaper. But, he dressed in skins. I wear tweed and broadcloth. He lived 100 years ago. I live today." Many of us can say the same thing in a little different way. In fact, some of us can't say we live on a busy street nor say we were (strike-through) wear tweed and broadcloth every day. Many of us are from the reservations spread out throughout this country. Many of us are not able to understand English very fluently. Many of us cannot read very well. There are those of us who have had the privilege to have gone to school and have enriched our backgrounds and therefore are in a position today, in one manner or another, to help our people. Sometimes, when we get discouraged from business affairs, we can long fancifully for the simple old days. But then we must shake ourselves and say, "Fortunately, or unfortunately, we are driving(?) in the 20th century. We must, therefore, come to terms with the conditions which prevail in the year 1954. And that is just about what our great-grand-fathers before us did. They found it necessary to choose their lives, their customs, their measures of living, to fit themselves to their time. But the times drive a hard bargain in the year 1954. And yet each of us must come face to face with the terms, and that is one of the main and primary reasons why we