Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1880-12-11
THEY ARE ONLY INDIANS.

ment, to have and hold as their own
forever. They had opened farms,
built school houses and churches, and
were in a prosperous condition. In
1876, on Sunday, while their people
we're at church worshipping the God OF
the white man, news was brought to
them that some one else wanted their
lands and their homes. and that they
must 60 far away to the south. Con-
sternation seized the poor wretches;
runners were sent to every portion OF
the reservation to carry the dread
news. 1--WE will not" they said
"leave the home of our fathers to 60 to
strange land" But they had no
choice, and soon after the government
agents came to take them, and they
were forced away and put upon an
other reservation in the Indian Terri.
tory, sickly district, SO different from
the home they had left in the far of
Dakota that the poor Poncas, by hun
dreds passed away to the happy hunt
ing grounds. At last, seeing nothing
but starvation and death before them,
thirty-eight of the remnant of the tribe
gathered together what little they had
left, and stole away from the new res
ervation, and started northward to the
home of their childhood, reaching, af.
ter a painful and perilous journey, the
Omaha agency. Here they were ar
rested, and an order received from
Secretary Schurz to return them to the
Indian Territory. Some white people,
seeing the fragrant injustice that had
been done these people, interested
themselves in their behalf, and through
a writ of habeas corpus they were re-
leased. The indians then brought
suit in the United States circuit court
for the recovery of their lands-their
old reservation in Dakota. And last
Saturday the suit was decided in favor
of the Poncas, and they will be allowed
to 90 back and live the remainder of
their days up,n the lands Of their faith
ers. The driving of the Poncas away
| from their reservation, whether they
were willing to go or not, IS only III
keeping with the treatment which the
mildes hammered and less hostile In
dians have been receiving at the
hands of the whites. We do rot be-
lieve in the sickly sentimentality of
some writers regarding the Indians,
but we do believe in simple justice, We
do believe that Indians have rights
that white men ought to respect, and
we do not wonder that the Indians
hate and distrust the white man. Why
should he not, when the white man and
his government violates the most sol
emn pledges to the red man. And
even now, after the government has in
the most solemn manner set aside a
certain portion OF lis domain for the
exclusive benefit OF the Indians, and
coaxed and forced the tribes from the
east, the north and the south to that
land, promising them that there they
should not be disturbed, that there
they should spend the remainder of
their days in peace, and that the land
should pass to their children and their
children's children, and that the great
father and the government should pro-
tect them in their rights; after these
people relying upon the good faith of
the government and the men who
made these promises, have gone to
work and opened farms, built school
houses and churches, and demonstra-
ted that the country is land to be de-
sired, set of men have sprung up
who are SO lost to all sense of honor
and Justice, that they want to violate
all these solemn pledges, and like pi-
rates, drive away the legal owners, and
possess the land themselves. And
even a man so dignified-no, not dig
nifed-but man occupying the dig
nifed position of a United States Sen
ator, is asking that the claims of these
people be abrogated, and the people |
left to the mercies of set of men who
have no mere regard for the most SOL
emn pledges than a Mahomedan has
for the honor and purity of the Chris
tian God. Such course toward the
tribes of the Indian Territory would be
not only an act ofthe most outrageous
injustice, but a disgrace to our gov
erment and our boasted civilization.
ATLANTA, Ga, December THE elect
Dral college of Georgia met to-day at
noon in Atlanta. they organized by elect
ng j. C.. G.. Black. OF Augusta one of the