The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-12-12
What Next 2

Nearly every week | read in the New
York Times, and few other papers in
sympathy with it on the question of
Equal Rights, paragraphs like the fol-
lowing:
''wONIAN'S RIGHTS AMONG THE INDI-
ANS"
"A few days ago, a chief was seen
carving the papOose, the fishing tackle,
blankets, etc, while his squaw walked
leisurely beside him, smoking n pipe.
Take heart, pale sisters, your doctrine
is making converts among the ma
tives n'
1t is not surprising that the fact re-
eeives notice, when We consider bow
many years the squaws have carried all
the burdens. BY what stroke of policy
the dusky sister shifted the load to the
shoulders of her master, is not told.
She seems to be = solitary instance, and,
as such, commands our sympathy aud
respect. Think how the Flathead news
papers opened their gibberish upon her!
Think how the Flathead politicians
aimed their arrows at her! Think how
the Flathead pupils quoted Paul ut her,
and prophesied the extinction of pap
pOoses, and the utter destruction of those
feminine gifts and graces she had ex-
emplified, in grinding corn and doing
all the drudgery of camp and chase!
Some instinct must have guided this
untaught creature to the conclusion
that a pipe is as much hers, by divine
right, as his; and the pappoOse, as much
his, by divine right, as hers, and that
smoking and "toting the baby" are not
prerogatives of either. We hope her
example will be contagious, for it is
better than missionaries or tracts. Red
| Clouds "war path,n begins in his own
/ tent, where he brandishes his club over
the head of his squaw. Ii she had
awakened to the fact that she has some
rights that a red man is bound to re-
spect, and if she have the courage to as
sert those rights, she will solve the
question of, chow can the Indian he hu-
maniZed ~ Given a tyrant at home,
you have a scalper abroad, whether
that tyrant be copper-colored or white;
the taste of power he gets in his home,
is as often fatal TO n man, rs the taste
of blood to an animal.
The Indian woman has 10 more and
no worse disabilities than the white
woman, if we take into account theil
different conditions. She keeps the
tent, carries the pappoose, gathers Der
ries and grinds her masters tobacco
and, in return, shares the bear skin, th'
venison, and, now and then, n few bead
and feathers. That she is a slave il
every sense of the word, no one denies
But in her ignorance of better cOndi
tion, she does not feel the weight of he
bodily burdens, more than our wOme
feel the degradation of their pOlitica
status. There is no more humiliation
> in being the pack horse, than there
in being numbered i'm our statute book
with felOns and simpletOns. The sham
of being whipped by a drunken, savag
lord, is no moree,eseenlv felt by hi
, squaw, than the indignation heape,
upon white women, when learned mel
: gravely discuss their mental and physi
cal disabilities. The spirit is as sensi
, tive as the back, and perhaps its wound
are longer in healing. The lash ha
) fallen swift and heavy upon every one
who, like the poor Indian woman, ha
) attempted to reform the old order @
things. 1t is really no greater, no NOR
, unreasonable an innovation to attemp
to vote or enter college, than that be
: gun by her who laid down the blanke
and baby. If that tribe should fine he
500 for such defiant, uuheard-of act
it would only carry out the spirit of
: New York Court, or if that tribe shOul'
meet in council, and decide that squav
, cannot smoke pipe with any degree o
safety and success, nor transfer a pap
poose to a mans shoulder, without bring
ing ruin into the domestic circle, thel
) would not be unlike some learned pro
fessOrs.
They who oppose us, can only rims
changes on the words, ''pappoose" ant
) 'tent." The woman who lays dowI
the first, for any reason other than pre-
; scribed by the Faculty. or steps out
side the other, without permission from
the same august body, is trying to over
rule divine DEGREES concerning her, ant
worse still, setting at naught human
ones! Verify, what great fire littl
matter kindlethl Who would hav
thought, when woman first asked to b
educated and remunerated according T.
her ability and not sex, that the civi
lized world would have risen to its feet
resolved itself into a medical society {
disseet her and weigh separately ever
atom of her body, soul and brain
: Why, every little quack has his scales
and he weighs Julia Ward Howe wit
e as much confidence, as he would weig
a bit of meat, and strange to tell, hi
figures are accepted. William Lloy
Garrison also weighs her, but his fig
'' ures are less acceptable. Justice has II
business with scalesl When woma
y first asked to be recognized as a either
because she lived in a country who's
: people are sovereigns and she could nc
, be less, and feel hOnored, the civilize
!, world again rose to its feet, resolved il
y self into a miscellaneous body, an
: talked and reasoned like lunaties! He
= demand was a natural one, but it evoke
: the craziest answers, One almost TO
= gets what brought about such a stat
= of affairs, when listening to their mol
sensical harangues. Legislative hall
= pulpits, colleges, are their platforms
= magazines, newspapers and book
: another medium for their low coined,
and all founded on the simple question
"Am l a citizen ?''
Who, in his sober moments, can blan
. woman for asking such a question
The books she studies, the newspape
she reads, the political speeches to whic
I, she listens, civil affairs she is watching
" force the question from her lips-st
n must ask it. And when it is answere
= :, by sneers or twaddle, but one conclusio
, is reached, and that is silence.
MIRIAM NJ. COLE.
1t a writer in the The Californian d.