THE TUSCARORA NATION, always least in importance among the tribes of the Six Nations Confederacy, always classed by them as a nation of secondary status in the League of the Iroquois, whose chiefs are restricted in speaking in the Grand Council-has, despite its subordinate role, raised up in its midst a man whose name and work will long be remembered wherever Indians gather to discuss the virtues of courage and justice. Clinton Rickard, born on May 19, 1882, and reared on the Tuscarora Reservation in western New York and largely self-educated, accomplished far more in his long career than many others with greater advantages and higher academic attainments. The United States Congress has been forced to recognize the Indian provisions of the Jay Treaty of 1794 and the Treaty of Ghent of 1814; many Indians falsely arrested and jailed have been set free; Indian civil liberties have been upheld; high schools in New York State have been opened to Indians; and tribesmen have been inspired to take pride in their own culture-all because of the work of this very remarkable and very gifted twentieth century Tuscarora leader, who died on June 14, 1971.

Exerpt from "Fighting Tuscarora" a biography of Chief Clinton Rickard edited by Barbara Graymont.