New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-09-03
ONRAY IND TIE UTES.

OURAY AND THE UTES.
The announcement that the Ute treaty has
hoen sippea less than week after the death
of Ouray, shows how much nonsense has been
talked about the effect Of his demise. "Ihe one
good Indian is dead All negotiations win
"the Utes will now probably come to an end.
"Thcre is a chance that the peaceablc solution
of the whole Indian problem planned by sec
"retary Schuz VIII be rendered hopeless by the
"delth of this wise Indian" These are the
things our contemporaries lave said they
seem TO have had Il mistaken idea of the I'M
portance to the Indian race both of the treaty
with the Utes and of the life Of Ouray. In the
frs. place the treaty with the Utes Is only OF
Importance TO the LOCO Utes. Having signed 1t
they W II get foI the II, 600, 900 acres which they
sell rs a tribe, 100 acres OF land each III sew
cral v, and promise from the Government
(howevcr much that may ne WORTH to pay them
certain SUMS which ii has owed them for twenty
years, and a trfe over. amounting III all u
about 800 per annum 10 each individual II they
had not signed It, they would have received
nothing for their 10000 600 acres, and would
have been driven ont By tie people OF
Colorado who want them to become vlga-
bonds and wanderers. OuTay had intelligence
enough to see that ii was H0bson's choice for
them, and influence enough to persuade them
to make the bcs bargain they could. ii S n
tcliigcnce was sharpened in the matter by
subsidy paid him, be Idle other gratuitieS gwen
him in Washington last winter 50 far he was
fitted to be the leader of his tribe.
These are the facts of the case in plain Eng
fish. Undoubtedly Ouiay was a shrewd just,
LII. Il,,t slY.4Ia of.
other Indian leaders who are the equals of
Ouray in education and natural intelligence;
men who, if they could throw aside the bar riers
of their Colored skin and certain habits of
language and dress which make them appear
fantastic in white eyes, would be the peers OF
some of our own Legislators in intellect
morality, n sense Of justice, and sound practical
sense. Put Red Cloud or White Eagle in a
white skin and a white mans dress and send
them into Congress as the members from New
York or Pennsylvania, and we would be able
TO appreciate the Keen insight with which
they reach the bottom Of every subject
and the force of language with which they
lift it into view. IL is high time that the
press at least of the United States should
cease TO speak of these led men rs Of some
Ouray as exceptional among a race of bar
banans. Give any scmi-ciyillzed tribe Il g
chance and education which We give to every
foreign colony OF emiGrants, and we may find
among them a considerable, perhaps as large an
average share of intelligence kindly DISPOSE
tons, domestic affection, and ambition to rise.
1t is mistake, too, to suppose that the prob
lem of relief for the Indian is to be solved by
the success of the Ute treaty. Lands ha sc been
granted to Indians in scycraIty before. and the
problem was not solved. Lands were granted
to certain POttawatomies III severaty, Just as
it is now decided to grant them to the Utcs,
without recognizing them legally as "persons"
or giving them the right to defend their claim
in the courts. Whereupon certain white men
represented these POttawatomcs to be dead and
seized their land and although the Indians APP
peared bodily in Court, they (not being persOns)
could not be recognized to dlsprove their own
deaths This is fact. The Indians still live
in beggary and the white scOundrels still hold
their land, having sworn that they are drad.
Ouray's death is bad for the Utcs, no doubt
and there is also no doubt that tue U,es would
probably be more comfortable holding their
lands in sevcralty. Bur neither Ouray's death
nor the failure nor success of this experiment
with this one fragment Of a tribe solves the In
dian problem. II hat, as we have asserted again
and again. can only be done by placing the red
man legally on the same plane with the black
and the white, and giving him the same chance
for life, liberty, ard the pursuit of happiness
which they have. And this solution is one
which the thinking people of the country are
determined to have tried.