Hello and welcome to Iroquois History and Legends. I'm Andrew.

And I am Caleb and welcome back to our third installment on Elie Parker.

In May of 1865, Ely Parker returned to Washington, D.C. and he and Grant met with the President, again, President Johnson this time.

Parker was still very angry about the death

of Lincoln and is said to have said at a military parade, you white men are Christians and

you may forgive murder, but I'm of a race that never forgives the murder of a friend, which I find this quote kind of interesting because he was a Christian.

His father was a preacher and he was a member of an Anglican church later in his life.

But I think the point is getting across that he really harbored some bitterness towards the Confederates.

If you remember from our last episode, a couple weeks before this, when Abraham Lincoln is

talking to him on how he wants to help his people, I think Parker was really excited to have

a president that actually cared about the Indians. And I think he believed, honest Abe,

when he said that. This must

have been a, you know, on top of him considering Abraham Lincoln a friend, but also all

of a sudden his plans for the future for his people have just been crushed with the death

of Abraham Lincoln.

And we don't know what would have been had Lincoln been able to finish out his second term.

Lincoln definitely had some very

questionable tactics dealing with Western tribes during the Civil War. He worked some people to do some

bad stuff. That being said, I think that Lincoln really did have an appreciation for the

Iroquois nations and really did want to help them.

In the following months, Parker remained at Grant's side. He helped shield him from the masses,

for a word we would use today, the paparazzi. The general was the hero of the war.

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