New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-12-06
LILLE plNHI CISE

Nebraska, has decided that the Ponca In
dams are legally entitled to their lands III
Nebraska and Dakota. Judge Dundy, it will
be remembered, was the first authority Ill our
courts who gave TO the Indian recognition
as 'pers0n.' SO far, he is the only one.
HIS decision that the thirty Poncas who re-
turGed to the homes from which they were
driven were human beings III the eye oi the
law, was contested by the Government. NO
attempt was made last week. however, by II
to dispute his decision respecting the rght OF
this defrauded tribe to their land and houses.
Public opinion has grown now too strong III
favor of right and justice to the Indians to be
safely thwarted ny the petty officials OF the
Indian Department. In nothing has the
mower OF the press, as representing an in
telligent and firm decision OF popular VIII,
been more apparent than IL the modlication
Of policy which it has compelled from that
department towards the red man i'll the last
year.
In the summer of 1876, when the order was
issued for the Punishment of this Ponca trlOe
from thor HON 5 (at the arbitrary whlm OF
two sub-oiicials and missionary, HE IRIB-
UNE was first to utter n protest aG,lnst the
illrgality aud dishonesty of such despouc
measure. But simple legal justice 20 the In
dian was then a totally new idea 20 the Amer
lean mind The black we knew had such
rights. We had gone through The blood ana
ruin of the war to establish him IN them;
but the red man never bad any in this conn
Try. We had humored pettcd. Squandered
millions on him; starved, slaughtered, tor
tured him but we had never acknowledged
HIM TO be, legally, human. We have not
done it vet. But that first demand Of THE
TRIBUNE for his civil rights in 1876 has been
repeated over tie country during the last Tour
years until il has become the will OF the
Nation too evidently for any administration
to oppose it openly with impunity. In two
years from now. we venture to prophcSy, 1t
will appear almost incredible that educated
Christian gentlemen, such as are many OF the
Omaha and POnca chiefs, should have been
held in this late year of the Republic legally
as serfs or cattle in the ownership OF de-
nortment: prisoners In cert in bounds, unable
to buy or sell, to hold properly, to protect the
honor of their wives or their own lives by
law, liable to be transported, starved or shot
at the irresponsible will of one or two OIL
cials. 1t VIII seem as unreal to us then as DO
now the horrors of the slave-Den.
As far as the POncas are concerned there Is
no apparent reason why they should not he
at once restored to the full possession OF their
homes. Secretary Schurz, in his report last
week. candjdly confessed the error of the
Administration in removing these people, and
regretted it. His present policy, he stated,
was to "rcspect such rights as the Indians
Il, II, cd IN in
aspire them with sense of responsibility
" through the ownership OF private property"
He has now an opportunity of carrying out
this policy, which we have no doubt he
should promptly embrace. The Ponca case is
Sc widely known, both to white men and
Indians throughout the country, tina
nothing could more conclusively establish
with both the honest purposes of the present
Administration toward the red men than its
satisfactory settlement of this case while 1t Is
still in office. The Poneas are now adjudlcated
TO be the rigbtful owners of the Dakota land !;
if rests with the Indian Department to re-
store them to this land as promptly as posi-
bile. If should be done before it is time for
the spring planting and the funds and means
for TRANSFORMATION are due to them from the
Government. When it was decided to Danish
them from the farms they had TILED and the
homes they had built to malarious barren
wilderness, there was no delay. They were
ordered to bring the poor little belong
ings they had earned by hard
labor to the Agency, and were
driven Off without them, leaving their
crops half sown, their ploughs standing in
the field. In the fever-stricken region to
which they were sent, no preparation was
made for them. They were transported In
such haste that there were not even spades
for them to dig the ground with, nor Iatlons
to keep them from starvation. Or want and
malaria one-thrd of their number died III a
wear. 1t will not be possible to restore their
dead to them no payment can be made to
them for the want and misery they have en-
dured during these four years. But let the
Administration make whatever practical repa-
ration is possible to it.. Let them be restored
to their farms and homes with the same de-
cslon and prOmptness that was shown In
their removal, and let every dollar of value
OF which they were wantonly robbed be re-
maid. with interest. Such action Will prove
10 the country that the policy now expires ed
in Mr. Schurz's report is fact aud not a
theory.