The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1880-03-01
Last Nights Dispatches.
wASHYNGrou-

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 The Secretary
of the Navy has been cabled from Monte
video that the United States steamer
Marion had arrived there from Rio, aud
that six officers and fifteen men had been
down with the yellow fever. Lieut. Wallis
died on the 23d; Rogers an apprentice, on
the 10th. All the officers except one
Midshipman Wike-were well or con-
vaiescing. Officers and men were ashore
on Floore's Island, but it is supposed that
the disease originated at Rio while the
vessel was coalIng.
The Senate Com mittee on Indian Affairs
at long special meeting to-day agreed to
report for Passage the original bill design
ed to cover the entire range of the Indian
question by the enactment OF various new
provisions based upon the general prin-
ciple that the United States should in a
great measure abandoa the policy of treat
ing the Indians as children, and place
them as speedily as possible upon the foot
ing of citizens. The main features of the
plan outlined by the committee are:
/. Permanent localization Of the In
dians by allotting homesteads to them in
severalty. with the provision that lands so
allotted shall be absolutely inalieDable
during period OF twenty five years.
2 Extension over the Indians of the
general, civil aud criminal laws of the
United States or OF the respective states
and territories within whose border they
are treated.
3. Continuation of certain degree of
assistance to them by the government in
the line of progress towards civilization.
until they become self sustaining by
means of agricultural and pastoral occu.
patton. 1t is not proposed by the COM
mIttee to transfer the control of the In
dams 20 the War Department but the
bill will largely divest the Interior Depart
ment of its discretionary power in regard
to the indians by placing them individu
ally under the control of the country's
general law The provisions of the bill
are not to apply to the five civilized tribes
of Indian Territory. Its detail will be
subjects for consideration at future meet
ings Col, Brooks, acting Commissioner Of
Indians Affairs, said all the tribes except
the Utes and Lemhis on reservations are
capable of supporting themselves by
means Of agriculture or stock raising.
Thesspecial con mlttee iDquiring into the
removal of the PoDcas to the Indian Ter
ritory aud into the declarations of the
POncas that they never signed a paper
asking to be removed into the Indian
territory; were Informed by Bright
Eyes that the Poucas knowing
nothing of the whitemen's goeg-
raphy, were at the time of signing the
document, entirely ignorant of the location
or even the existence Of the Indiau terri
tory: that Morgan. the Interpreter. was an
Omaha Indian equally ignorant upon the
subject; that neither they nor the PoDcas
had any word in their language CORES
pondiug to the word territory, and could
only speak OF it in their language as tie
Indians country, or reservation and that
when Morgan asked them as 10 their will
iingness to remove 10 the Indian reservation,
they understood him 20 mean the reserve"
tion Of the Indians wIh whom for years
they bed been talking OF uniting their tor
tunes, the Omahas- They therefore
signed the document, which they suppos- |
ed to be a petition for removal to the |
Omaha reservation, but which was really |
"a petition for removal to the Indian Ter
ritory, Afterwards they made a treaty
OF peace with the Sioux and reconsidered
that action. deciding to remain on their
own reserve and did so until forcibly
removed
The report recommends the modihca
tion of the Burlingame treaty and the
sloptiOn OF a joint resolution limiting
Chinese Emigration to fifteen to each ves-
sci. Immediate action is urged to prevent
the spread Of barbaris III on the coast.