Nationalist, 15th Nov. 1919. De Valera and the American Indians. "Nay Nay Ong Abe"---meaning "Dressing Feather"---was the designation conferred on Mr. De Valera by the Chippewa Indian Tribe at Spooner, Wisconsin, on his adoption by them as one of their chieftains. The title was once held by a famous chief of the tribe who secured for them their rights under the treaty of 1854. Describing the adoption ceremony, with its interpolated series of Indian dances, an "Irish World" report says :--- Chief Billy Boy resplendent in a head dress of feathers reaching his ankles, greeted De Valera in Chippewa. Billy Boy was followed by Joe Kingfisher, the headsman of the tribe. Kingfisher, who presented the Irish leader with a handsome beaded tobacco pouch and moccasins, expressed a poetic sentiment as he tendered the gifts; I wish I were able to give you the prettiest blossom of the fairest flower on earth for you come to us as a representative of one oppressed nation to another. Chief Billy Boy then invested Mr. De Valera with his new name and informed him of his adoption by the Chippewa nation. Mr. De Valera accepted the head-dress and signifying he wished to speak, the music ceased and he talked in Gaelic. " I speak to you in Gaelic" he said reverting to English, "because I want to show you that , though I am white, I am not of the English race. We, like you, are a people who have suffered , and I feel for you a sympathy that comes only from one who can understand as we Irishmen can. You say you are not free. Neither are we free and I sympathise with you because we are making a similar fight. As a boy I read and understood of your slavery and longed to become one of you." Mr. De Valera then told the red men how Ireland had been oppressed by England for 750 years. "I call on you, the truest of all Americans to help us win our struggle for freedom." The Indians listened to his impassioned address with owl-like gravity, but when Ira Isham, the tribe interpreter, translated Mr. De Valera's words into Chippewa they cheered him wildly. The ceremony was preceded by a memorial Mass in the reservation church by Fr. Phillip Gordon, Chippewa priest, for the Indians who died in France during the Great War.