The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1880-01-06

| Ctes Of White River reservation nave com.
mitted depredations upon the agent and the
employees of the agency, and had masSa-
cred portion of our ARMY felt that il
was an ignoble spectacle TO submit my
country TO now, because one portion of the
| Ute Indians have committed depredalious
upon your people, and had massacred por-
/ ton of your army-it was an ignoble spec
tacle for great people TO say that We will
| seize this occasion in order to rob the South
ern Utes of their territory, when in all their
history, so far as | understand 1t, they have
never presented an instance OF opposition 10
the people of the United States, or to the
treaties which have been made between the
people of the United States and themselves.
| believe that it is not proper now that
the Secretary of the Interior of the Commits
sioner of Indian Affairs acting for the Gov
eminent of the United States, should at this
particular juncture seek TO do that which
only eighteen months ago was directed TO be
done when commission was appointed TO
treat with these Southern Utes of Colorado,
and when, according 10 the report of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which /
have before me, they declined to cede por-
ton OF their territory. Then it was never
pretended that this Government ought TO
ask these Indians to do anything else than
to make such eessiOn as to them might seem
proper to be made voluntarily, in accord
ance with the treaty stipulations already
made.
Mr.. SANFORD. desire to ask whether the
amendment offered by the gentleman from
Mississippi carries out, in letter and spirit,
the existing treaty?
Mr.. HOOKER. 1t does in totidem verbs
1t carries out the stipulations of the second
article of the treaty, and it is more particu-
larly designed to carry out the stipulations
of the sixteenth article with reference to
these people, who no doubt feel that the
spirit expressed by the gentleman from Hi
nois Mr., Springerl would follow them,
whether they were in Colorado, or whether,
according to the humanity of the gentleman
from Colorado, they were removed for the
time being to some new Territory, to become
there in turn an obstacle in the way of civ
ilization, and thus to be brushed away with
out reference to treaty stipulations and the
solemn compacts and agreements of our
Government.
You are temporizing with the question
when you undertake this proceeding. You
are doing it at time when, in my judg-
ment, it is not manly to do it with reference
to these Southern Utes If they have to be
treated with hereafter, let them be treated
with. Let them give their free assent before
they are deprived Of a single rood of land
which by solemn treaty stipulations you
have said shall be theirs, and which you
l., nnH 70 fhot hat ha
yielded unless three-fourths of the adult
members of the tribe agree.
One word more and | am done. 1t has
been said by the gentleman from Illinois
Mr.. Springer and the gentleman from
Colorado Mr.. Belford] that because of the
value of these lands, their rising value, they
must be ceded; that the tide of Anglo-Sax-
OH civilization is sweeping over this CONT
nent and that the Indians must yield to it
as savage tribes have ever yielded. | say,
Mr.. Chairman, that such proposition
comes with bad graces from the Represen-
tatives of a.Government which has pledged
its power by solemn constitutional amend
ment and solemn legislative enactments
that the recently emahcipated people Of this
country belonging the African race shall
receive forever the protection of the Govern.
ment in the new rights, the new duties, the
new powers, with which they are invested
as citizens. When you extend this protec-
ton to members of the African race, shall
you say that the Indian, though he is con-
nected with you on every page of your his
tory, and his beautiful language has named
your States, your rivers; your Territories,
your towns, your hamlets, and your valleys
from where the first ray of the morning sun
glids the spray of Niagara TO where his last
parting ray sinks into the golden gates of
California, is to be robbed of what he has
merely because he is weak and powerless
and incapable of protecting himself? Zap
plause.]