Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1859-01-19
THE INDIAN STATES.

The-New Orleans Pcagnc has an article
upon the Indian Territories West of the
States, which opens a new question for
the consideration OF the people of this
country. While public attention has
been directed to the growth, develope-
ment and increace of such of our rerrlto-
ries as are populated with settlers from
the States or cmigrants from the Old
World, these Indian reservations have
been filling up with their peculiar inhabi-
tants, forming and adopting constitutions,
organizing territorial government, estab-
fishing Courts Of Law, and then assuming
all the attributes of legally and lawfully
constituted Territories. But their Indian
inhabitants are not citizens critic United
States under the Constitution. These ter~
ritories lie south of Kansas, west OF Mis-
souri, and Arkansas, and north Of Texas
and Therefore in the direct tract of our cm-
igrants, and in position to work incacu-
liable injury upon the population of the
States specified, If these semi-savugcs he
once aroused to armed action, by what
they may consider an attack upon THEN
rights, by the authority of the United
States. But read the article from the
Pieopmc:
The progress Of civilation in several of
the Indian tribes occupying Territories
west of the States will soon bring up new
question for the decision Of Congress-
What shall be done with the Indian Gov
crnmcnt or States that are now fully or
gaEized? Are they to be finally admitted
into the Union! Is new removal at
some future time to be made Of the tribes
civilized and Christianized to make room
for the Caucasian wave rolling West p
Or are foreign governments to grow up in
the very heart of the territory Of the Uni
ted States
The Cherokees organized a regular Gov
enment as early as 1899, copying the pe~
Culiar features Of the Constitution of the
| United States. The forms OF legislation
and the arrangement of the courts of JUS
tice so nearly resemble those OF the States
that, but for tawny skins around him, the
| traveller into the ChcrOkees territory
would scarcely find an indication of hay-
! ing passedits boundaries. This tribe has i'm
proved in all the arts of civilization to such
a degree that many oc its principle men
would grace the refined society of our ma
ton. In respect for law, regard for pop
ular education and public morality, and
! the adoption Of all the elegancies and adj
vantages of civilation, the Cherokees
have taken a position which forbids any
| forcible interference with their rights to
territory they occupy, to suit the conve-
niences or obviate the anomaly which the
existence of their State now presents
The Choctaws formed their government
taking the institutions of the United
States for their model in 1884. Initiating
their more progressive white neighbors,
last year they revised their Constitution
and adopted even the most minute forms
of government and the names Of officers
which prevail in each ofthe States Of our
Confederacy.
The Chickasaws, lately separated from
the Choctaws, have also followed the eX-
ample of the two tribes mentioned, and
thus the third government, with institu"
tions identical with our own, exist on the
! borders Of the Southwestern States occu~
pying territory ceded to them by the Gen
eral Government
The Creeks are taking steps to create
| the fourth Independent organization of q
State form of government, and will soon
present an example of the influence of
civilization in subye"ting the customs and
| traditions of the race indigenous to the
continent.
These Indian States are n strange anom-
| ally. They are not u part of the Union,
nor are they known in law to exist. The
white man eannot pass through their ter,
ritory without permit. nor can he take
with him when he is allowed to enter the
Indian domain, certain articles of mer-
chandise, even though the packages are
unbrokcn and are simply designed for the
New Mexican market. This singular
state of things cannot exist many years
without forcing itself upon the attention
| Of Congress.
The tide ofpopulation is steadily roll
ing West. In less than ten years it will
! beat against the barriers now thrown up
against its invasion Of the retreat of those
civilized nborigines. Even now the emil
grafton must cross these territories. These
| Indian States cannot exist when the Cuu-
cassian race presses upon them as inde-
pendent governments. The people civili-
| zed and attached to the soil they have
/ improved, cannot he removed to remotar
wilds, nor without serious discontents, is it
| likely the United States can subject them
to the conditions of other territorial or
carnations by an abrogation of the cons
stitutions they have established for them
selves? What then is to be done with
these Indian States? 1t cannot fail to
give greater interest to this question that
each of these Indian States have adopted
the social institutions Of the South. The
! Indians are Shareholders.
SINGING SHEMs.-Mr. Taylor tourist,