Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-11-03
The Mission Indian Problem.

These natives were the most pacifi,
and gentle of all the races that in
habited America, and from weak ant
defenceless savages were soon convert
ed to still weaker herdsmen and tiller
of the soil. The neophytes of th'
Catholic Missions yielded implici
obed ience to the good priests who la
bored among them, and were happy
and prosperous. The rapacious Span
ish land shark entered their beautiful
valleys, coveted their possessions, ane
the Mexican Congress expelled the
missionaries and confscated the lands
upon which these simple people were
laboring and on which they had ere
ated plain but comfortable homes. The
incoming Anglo Saxons repeated on
grander scale the wrongs inauguratet
by the Spaniard, an d the Mission In
dians were soon despoiled of all theil
possessions, becoming wanderers and
beggars, and the speedy victims ofthe
vices of civilized life. In 1926 the
twenty-one missions were the homes
of 24,6l1 of those neophytes, who own.
ed 2l4, 900 head cf cattle, 1876 900 sheep
1000 hor ses and harvested annually
75, 900 bushels of grain. Now less than
5000 of these natives are left, most OF
them in San Diego county, and the
last tribal collection of them has been
broken up in the expulsion of the
Temeculas from the lands upon which
they have lived for generations, the
estate occupied by them being EN-
braced within Spanish grant which
has been confirmed by the United
States authorities. The outrages up
on these poor Indians has eliminated
in crowning shame that has attract
ed the attention of the country, and
now at the last moment the hard heart
ofthe American people has been touch
ed, and we begin to enquire what
course must be pursued to save the
remnants of this race from anhilation.
The laws have left them the victims
of civilized man, and their silent
suffering has been needed not. With
the tomahawk and scalpins
knife in their hands they would
have long since been heard at
Washington. Had they asserted
their right amid the flames of burning
dwellings and wri tten their story in
blood, they would not be without de-
tenders. But peaceful, industrious,
semi-civilized sufferers, bearlngmeek-
ly the despoilment of their tiocks and
lands, they have slowly disappeared
from the face of the earth, and the tide
of immigration is now flowing over
the last spot of land they could call
their own. The expulsion of the Te-
meculas gave serious apprehensions
of an Indian war, and while the peo-
pie were listening for the first din OF
the conflict their chieftain OLEGARIA
appears in Los Angeles with part Of
his tribe to engage in their Autumn
avocation of gathering the grape crop
The patience of these natives appeals
strongly to the justice of the nation
1t will be blot upon American his
tory that time will not efface if the
next Congress neglects to protect and
shelter these Indians. Peaceful and
industrious as they are, they are una
BILE to meet the competition of civil.
ized life. To neglect them or simply
make them citizens and capable OF
pre-empting and holding the public
domain, is to scatter them over the
country, expose them to the trickery
of white men, and hasten their de.
struction. 1t is the plain duty of the
government to collect them upon a
reservation of good land so that the
beneficial influence of their tribal and
patriarchal authority may not be lost
with their homes, secured to them in
trust so as to prevent its alienation
they would be comparatively valuable
members of society and give no trouble
These people simply ask home out
of all the domain which they owned
and the right to labor peacefully upon
their own lands. Unlike the relics o.
the other savage tribes which the gov
ernment has collected together, the
Mission Indians do not require to be
fed and clothed by the white man, mol
do they need the presence of troops tt
keep them from depredations. w,
are glad to see that among our owl
people the sad conditien of the Indiaf
is keenly felt, and that efforts are being
made to present the case properly be
fore the next Congress. With thi
end in view petition for prompt &C
tion is being circulated among ou
leading citizens, and extensively sign
ed, copies of which are to be sent t,
our Representatives in Congress.
A Widower Four Times.