Stewart Home reads from Manituana

Brother

We write this letter in the awareness that the Colonial Office – and their beloved Guards – will not easily permit us to speak with you in a frank and calm encounter, preferring to bore you with pointless Receptions, Theatrical Spectacles, and Sword Fights.
Your Visit to the Cities of London and Westminster is for us grounds for inexpressible Pride and great Hopes. Pride, for the honours paid by the Capital of Empire to a Prince of Indian blood; Hope, for the opportunity that God has granted the Mohocks of the colonies and those of the Old World to embrace one another and give birth to a single powerful nation.
For the sake of clarity let us say straightaway that we Mohocks of London–with the exception of him who writes to You–have not a drop of Indian blood in our veins, but we feel similar to you in every way. The so-called honest men, in fact, see us as savages and like to attribute to us the most cruel misdeeds, before remembering us when they need cannonfodder for their armies. For a while we too were a proud and courageous people, dedicated to hunting and agriculture, desirous to live in peace, but the honest men stole our land, and with it forests, trees, animals and waters, forcing our grandfathers to live in unhealthy districts and become servants, soldiers, beggars or thieves. A fate that the English in America would also like to reserve for your people, as we should like to point out. The Mohocks of London, weighed down for centuries by deprivation and abuse, never had the opportunity to establish a pact with a sovereign. But they do have one advantage over their American brothers, which is that they live in the heart of Empire, a few streets away from the house of His Majesty, and that they can raise a loud voice of their own. Imagine the Indians of the Colonies and those of the Motherland joining forces to form a single great nation. The Mohocks of London would then be received as ambassadors by the king, an honour that would never be granted otherwise; conversely, the American Mohocks would have someone to introduce them in the Capital of Empire without having to cross the Ocean and return.
That is why we consider this union to be of great advantage to everyone, and we make a formal request, brother, to become part of your Confederation, as the Seventh Iroquois Nation. If a pact of this kind should prove impossible, we are even willing to perform an act of submission to your authority, asking the Six Nations to regard us as subjects, or to adopt us in the Indian manner, or in extremis to take us prisoner. All just to be Mohocks, as is our due.
So if you wish to do us the honour of accepting our invitation, we ask you, brother, to add these conditions to the pact of alliance that you make with His Majesty:
First, that the Indians of London and Westminster shall not serve in His Majesty’s Army, but only obey the supreme chief of the Six Nations, Joseph Brandt Teyandegea, and the Emperor Taw Waw Eben Zan Kaladar II.
Second, that the Indian lands of the cities of London and Westminster, including the Borough of Southwark, shall be considered the Eastern Gate of the Longhouse, subject to the exclusive authority of the aforenamed Joseph Brandt Teyandegea and the Emperor of the London Mohocks. His Majesty’s guards, soldiers, and militias shall have access to these lands, only with formal authorization.
Third and last, that outside the aforenamed lands the Indians of London and Westminster shall be granted hunting rights, from sunset to sunrise, on the left bank of the Thames, in the reserves between Hyde Park and Tower Hill.
Trusting in your devotion to the common cause of the Indians of the Colonies and the Motherland, we are, BROTHER,
Your subjects and humble servants.

Taw Waw Eben Kaladar II
Emperor of the Mohocks of London and Westminster

20 October 2009