Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-05-15
The Present System OF Caring for and
Managing the Nations Wards
Colonel BOudinOt's Opinion as
to What is Best for his
Race.
Hon. Casey YOuBg's Review of the
"Peace SYSTEM Of Dealing with
sour Brothers OF the Plains"
The Proposed Terri
tory Of Oklahoma.
ecial Correspondence of the Appeal


dian Territory, one by bill for the settlement
of the Nez Perces in the Indian Territory,
one by bill looking to the transfer of the man
agement of Indian affairs to the war depart
ment, and another, also by bill, for terrific
rializing the Indian Territory under form
of government similar to that under which
other Territories exist, under the name OF
Oklahoma (''home of the red many. The
senate committee on Territories has the
matter of alleged misrepresentation OF funds
under investigation; but it is feared, owing
to the fact that the inquiry is confined to the
school and orphan funds, and not generally
into the other funds, the parties alleged to be
guilty of misappropriation for corrupt pur-
poses may escape. In a previous letter l
gave some facts under this head, which,
while they did not Justify the Indians In
using their annuities in maintaining lob
bies and paying lobbyists, go far to mitigate
their adoption of plan for procuring justice
at the hands of congress that has grown
into vast proportions part of the general
scheme of corruption inaugurated and up
held by the Republican party. Legislation is
a slow process In any case; where individuals
are concerned it is especially SO, unless
the machinery of the lobby Is set in motion,
or the aid of the press is invoked to give spe-
cial cases a public or national value. The
Indians are not exceptions to this rule. For
thirty or forty years some of them have In
vain petitioned and begged for settlement of
claims which almost every congressman, In
his individual capacity, admits to be just.
Considered In committees, and sometimes
passed upon by one of the two houses, these
CLAIMS have been allowed to lie over, and
have been passed over from one congress to
another, legacies of the indifference of the
republic for those who, having no votes or
voice In elections, have therefore only pass
ing claim for consideration at the hands of
Presidential aspirants or ambitious senators
and representatives. The records of congress
have almost every year been enriched with
speeches full of sympathy for the noble red
man, but it is difficult to find, search ever so
diligently, where the claims of the "gentle
savage" who follows the pursuits of peace
in the Indian Territory, have received the at
tention they deserve. They are not represented
on the floor of the house, as are the people of
the other Territories, and have not even one
They have sent delegates here-men
of their own blood and tribes-who
have exhausted all the legitimate
channels by which Legislators are to be APP
preached and legislation should be had, and
after defeats innumerable and the endurance
of great wrongs for two generations, have had
recourse to the lobby with view to securing
their rights. Some of their delegates have
grown white while waiting as suppliants at the
doors of congress, and during the long years
have seen many illegitimate schemes carried
through by the aid of the lobby. They have
seen the country pass from state OF pro-
found peace to that of war, and have been
witnesses of all the robberies of the credit
mobilier period. An immense debt has been
fastened upon the country since they first pc
titioned congress for the payment of funds
held in trust by our government, and giant
corporations have been made by the breath
of congress and fattened to bursting at the
public crib; but the Indian petitions in vain
for the distribution of the money that be-
longs to him, and which is carried on the
books of the treasury as a sacred trust. The
Indians are the wards of the republic, and
are not to be treated or legislated for as
white people. They are allowed to play with
self-government under a hermaphro-
dite form, which, in its out
ward seeming, Is republican,, but
which underneath is a communism fatal to
industry and self help. They have their
councils and legislative assemblies, their
school-houses and newspaper organs, but
they maintain their tribal organization and
hold their lands and funds in common. In
dams born of white father, and white men
who marry Indian women, and are adopted
by the tribes, are or may be citizens of the
United States as we'll as the citizens of the
Territory, but the Indian born of a white
mother and an Indian father is not citizen
he foregoes his tribal privileges and relation
ships. The laws of the United States for the
regulation and collection Of internal revenue
are enforced in the Indian Territory, and if
such laws are violated the culprits are seized
and taken to Fort Smith for trial in a United
State court, but for all other otfenses the
Indians are left to the precarlous law and still
more precarious justice enforced by courts
managed by men who are little if anything
in, into oh0vo tho oUpra nitN Iusf1oo
of the peace. The general policy of the
United States government toward the Indian
(civiized or Wild is thus exempli6ed-that
where money is concerned the Indian is to
be counted as one of us, but otherwise he is
to be treated as an alien In his own
land. To right these wrongs and
put an end to these injustices, to bring the
Indian up to the plain of individual freedom
which the white man enjoys, and which is
the surest guarantee of the rights of all, a
bill is now under consideration IN the house,
introduced by Mr.. Franklin Of Missouri.
This bill proposes to organize the Indian Ter
ritory under the title OF Oklahoma, to divide
the lands and funds held in trust pro rata,
to every man, woman and child belonging to
the several tribes, break up the tribal and
communistic system, and deliver the Indian
from a state of ignorant, blind reliance upon
a general fund of pension and united indus
try. and secure to him and his the reward OF
his labor as he may apply that labor to the
land that is his own. 1t is In evidence thai
one-half the funds paid out of the treasury
to the Cherokees has for several years been
wasted in fruitlessly feeling an expensive
lobby in this city to secure justice, and much
of it is money which should have been ex-
pended in paying for the education of the
children of the tribe. OF the SIX thousand
BOYS and girls of that tribe only three thou.
sand are attending school, the result of the
illegal expenditure of more than one hun
dred thousand dollars of the school fund in
the direction mentioned. Out of a sys.
tenn so anomalous, so little better than
that which the tribes enjoyed in theil
wild state, so far as general progress and re-
suits are concerned, there is only one way
81 believe" says Colonel BoudInot, Cher
okee, 1.-The only salvation for our people is tc
become citizens OF the United States as rap
idly as their progress in civilization and edu.
cation will permit; to take their lands in
severalty; to emancipate themselves from
their present abject position of wards and
subjects, and stand erect like all other classes
of people In this country-equal before the
law, subject to the responsibilities, as well az
| entitled to the privileges of American citi.
| zens." No man, Indian or white, has giver
this subject more consideration than Colone
Boudinot, and no man living is better emit
| tied to speak upon the subject. A man o.
| more than ordinary intelligence. thoroughly
educated, well read, studious, cultivated, anc
of scrupulous integrity, he has devoted year,
to most careful copsideration of the condi
| ton of the Indians IN the Indian Territory
and the elaboration of plans of relief, and
this Is his judgment The Indians, to be pros.
porous, must become citizens of the United
States by the organization of the Indian Ter.
ritory under the name of Oklahoma. There
is nothing to prevent it, no treaties nor treaty
stipulations, and the sooner it is done the
better thinks Colonel Boudinot. As to the
proposed "steal' of the lands by land sharks
and railroad companies, the colonel disposei
| of that satisfactorily. He says:
These delegates and their attorneys, and
the newspapers that draw their inspiration
from them, howl furiously against the pro-
posed organization of a civil government fol