The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1880-01-06
THE INDIAN QUESTION.
REMARKS OF HON. c. E. HOOKER.

cember, for the removal of the Ute Indians
from Colorado, Mr. HOOKER, of Mississippi,
q member of the Committee on Indian
Affairs, said:
Mr.. HOOKER. | had the honor TO offer
the amendment to the resolution of the
Senate which is embodied in the report
made by the committee of the House, and
did so because | thought it was our duty in
treating with these Indians to treat with
them according to existing treaty stipula-
TONS My distinguished friend from Illinois
[Mr. Springer in speaking upon this
question has seen fit to refer to and to have
read the Press Association dispatches in
reference to the negotiations now going on
with the Utes of the White River agency.
The gentleman does not understand this
bill at all. 1t does not apply to them. 1t
applies to the reservation held in Southern
Colorado, out of which several years ago
you got quite considerable portion of their
territory. 1t expressly by its terms en-
braces alone that portion of the Ute tribe
of Indians who by no hostile act have for
feited the rights to which by treaty stipula-
tons they are entitled.
If the gentleman from Illinois means to
carry into the treatment of this question
with reference to all the tribes, the five
semi-civilized tribes in the Indian Territory
and the savage tribes of the plains, the
theory which he prociaims, then it is a
theory which has for its basis robbery of
the Indian of every foot of land which has
been left to him by the treaties your own
Government has made with him. The same
policy which would prompt the gentleman
from Illinois to sanction the proceeding
which is now being attempted because some
portion of the Ute tribe have been guilty
of depredations, and therefore to deprive
them all of their land would lead him to
side with the policy of those people who
undertook to take possession of that terri
tory which had been set apart for the five
semi-civilized tribes, and which was forfeit
ed last year, although the whole power of
the Government had been pledged to protect
these Indians in what they we're entitled to
under treaty stipulations If the theory of
the gentleman from Illinois is to prevail
with regard to the treatment of tie Indian
question, then it involves the infringement
of every treaty stipulation, the abrogation
of every law which you have passed in
order to secure these people in the little
remnant of that vast territory which they
have coded to you, and which you have sold,
and the money obtained for which you have
placed in the Treasury of your country and
hold there as an evidence of the lberalty
of the Indians to the Government of the
United States.
But, sir, to confne myself to this resolution
and the report of the Committee on Indian
Affairs, the gentleman from Colorado says
that this involves the question of the extir-
patton of the Southern Utes of Colorado,
and that there il: mo power in the Govern
ment to prevent it. Sir, if you take that
theory to be the true one, then the gentle
man from Colorado, siding with the gentle
man from Illinois, proposes, in violation of
the most solemn treaty stipulations to rob
these people of the territory which has been
ceded to them by the Government of the
United States, to rob them of rights which
by most solemn treaties the Government
has pledged itself to respect. now send
to the Clerks desk and ask that there be
read from the treaty made even so late as
ten years ago, in 1868, with this Ute tribe of
Indians, the second and sixteenth sections,
that the House may understand what are
the obligations of the Government Of the
United States to these Indians
(Here follow extracts from the treaty
which we omit tor the want of room)
1t will be observed that by the second ar
ticle of the treaty, which have caused to
be read for the information of this commit
tee, that portion of territory coded to the
Indians in Southern Colorado was to be
theirs forever. And they were so careful
in making this treaty as to stipulate that
they should not be deprived of it, as the
committee will observe from the sixteenth
article which has been read, except by the
consent of three-fourths of the adult males
of the tribe.
When they made this treaty giving con-
cessions to the Government they believed
they were getting something substantial
for what they then yielded. They believed,
as did the five civilized tribes when they
ceded that vast empire which east of the
Mississippi has formed State after State in
columnal sovereignty, supporting your SOW
eign Union and constituting now the great
est and most powerful portion of that re-
gion of country-they believed that the
Government. was in earnest when it said,
in the emphatic but 6gurative language of
the then President of the United States,
that that territory should be theirs while
grass grows and water flows" So the Utes
thought when they coded their territory ;
they believed they we're making a compact
with a government honest enough to do
what was right. If the honorable gentle,
man from Illinois Mr.. Springer and the
honorable gentleman from Colorado Mr..
Belfordl think that this Government is
powerless to carry out this treaty, | would
ask them to state why it is powerless to
carry out this treaty.
MR. BEDFORD. Will the gentleman al
low me to ask him aquestion?
Mr.. HOOKER. Yes, but will say, that
that is bad way to answer one.
Mr.. BELFoRD. ] want the gentleman to
point if he can TO single instance in histo-
nv where any government ever allowed a
race of people like these Indians to stand
in the way of the development of its min.
eral wealth and of its citizens who desired
to develop it.
Mr.. HOOKER. / can only say that this
Government, under treaties written on pa.
per and signed by its authorized agents,
has so stipulated with these tribes. And il
they were a powerful nation, with great
armies at their back, and could point their
cannon at your shores and demand justice,
YOU would not dare to take the position you
now do with reference to these feeble Indian