I pursued the deer for my subsistence, the deer are disappearing, and I must starve. Yet from me the British took nothing, nor have I gained anything by their defeat. I fought against the British for your sake, The British have disappeared, and you are free. I am one of the few stalks that still remain in the field, where the tempest of the revolution passed. Our graves will soon be our only habitations. “I’m one of the lingering embers of an almost extinguished race.
Bill Harris read from an 1818 petition to Congress, written on behalf of Catawba Peter Harris, a distant relative the Chief refers to as his grandfather, who fought in the Revolutionary War:
