Levi Grand was selected in 1917 to fill one of the positions on the traditional Cayuga council and given the ancient title name of Deskaheh. After WWI, he journeyed to the League of Nations in Geneva to file the grievances of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people. The following is the text of his last speech.

Excerpt from "Basic Call to Consciousness", pp. 25-33, edited by Akwesasne Notes. Also published at: http://hometown.aol.com/miketben/miktben3.htm

The Last Speech of Deskaheh

(On the evening of March 10, 1925, suffering from a serious attack of pleurisy and pneumonia, he made his last speech. It was before a radio microphone in Rochester. Once more, and more forcefully than ever, he hurled defiance at big nations who disregard the claims of smaller peoples.)

Nearly everyone who is listening to me is a pale face, I suppose. I am not. My skin is not red but that is what my people are called by others. My skin is brown, light brown, but our cheeks have a little flush and that is why we are called red skins. We don’t mind that. There is no difference between us, under the skins, that any expert with a carving knife has ever discovered.

My home is on the Grand River. Until we sold off a large part, our country extended down to Lake Erie, where, 140 winters ago, we had a little sea-shore of our own and a birch-bark navy.

You would call it Canada. We do not. We call the little ten-miles square we have left the “Grand River Country.