Give Macedonia and Its People Their Dignity

According to an Ellis Island ship manifest, on December 28, 1906, Anastas Risteff, a thirty-five year old tailor from Tzaivli, Macedonia and considering himself a Macedonian born in Macedonia, arrived in New York on the S.S. Cassell , which had left Bremen, Germany on the 15th. Upon arrival, the intake clerk on Ellis Island "corrected" his entry on the ship register in bold dark ink, crossing out his place of birth, nationality and country of origin. He was made into a "Bulgarian" born in "Turkey"(Ellis Island). Almost a century ago, a immigrant tried to call himself a Macedonian from Ma…