# The Indian Dispossessed

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The Indian Dispossessed
Joseph, Nez Perce Chief (1897)
The
Indian Dispossessed
By
Seth K. Humphrey
With 16 Full-page Illustrations from Photographs
"No man has a place or a fair chance to exist under the Government of the United States who has not a part in it"
Revised Edition
Boston
Little, Brown, and Company
1906
Copyright, 1905, By Seth K. Humphrey.
All rights reserved
Published September, 1905
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
PREFACE
IF the introductory chapter of this book be deemed to bear too heavily upon long-cherished American ideals, will the reader generously consider it as no more than a friendly challenge to discover, in the Indian tales which follow, that those ideals have borne, unsullied, the practical test?
Not once is there question of the high impulses or fair intent of the American people; but a good intention loses virtue with age, and sentiments which persist without developing into action can weigh little against the plain record of facts.
This is no attempt to maintain that "all men are created equal." In the light of all that is best in human history, that declaration attains to nothing more real than a praiseworthy sentiment mistaken for a fact. Whether the nation which gave it birth has developed it into a sentiment to be honored, or into a grotesque absurdity, during its long contact with a race created not the white man's equal, the reader is left to determine.
S. K. H.
CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
[Advertisements]
HELEN JACKSON'S WORK.
A KEY TO "RAMONA."
A Century of Dishonor.
A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with some of the Indian Tribes.
A New Edition. 12mo. pp. 514. Cloth. $1.50.
Mrs. Jackson devoted a whole year of her life to writing and compiling materials for "A Century of Dishonor," and while thus engaged she mentally resolved to follow it with a story which should have for its motif the cause of the Indian. After completing her "Report on the Condition and Needs of the Mission Indians of California" (see Appendix, p. 458) she set herself down to this task, and "Ramona" is the result. This was in New York in the winter of 1883-84, and while thus engaged she wrote her publisher that she seemed to have the whole story at her fingers' ends, and nothing but physical impossibility prevented her from finishing it at a sitting. Alluding to it again on her death-bed, she wrote: "I did not write Ramona;' it was written through me. My life-blood went into it,—all I had thought, felt, and suffered for five years on the Indian question."
The report made by Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney is grave, concise, and deeply interesting. It is added to the Appendix of this new edition of her book. In this California journey Mrs. Jackson found the materials for "Ramona," the Indian novel, which was the last important work of her life, and in which nearly all the incidents are taken from life. In the report of the Mission Indians will be found the story of the Temecula removal, and the tragedy of Alessandro's death, as they appear in "Ramona."—Boston Daily Advertiser.
Mrs. Jackson's Letter of Gratitude to the President.
The following letter from Mrs. Jackson to the President was written by her four days before her death, Aug. 12, 1885:—
To Grover Cleveland President of the United States:
Dear Sir,—From my death-bed I send you a message of heartfelt thanks for what you have already done for the Indians. I ask you to read my "Century of Dishonor." I am dying happier for the belief I have that it is your hand that is destined to strike the first steady blow toward lifting this burden of infamy from our country, and righting the wrongs of the Indian race.
With respect and gratitude,
Helen Jackson
LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Publishers
254 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1932, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 91 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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