Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-12-03
/ MORNING, DECEMBER s, 1880.
THE BURLINGTON, VT, FREE PRESS, FRIDAY NJ

woman. Then he can take a larm where
ever he chooses, provided it is a quarter "t 4
mile from any other, and may occupy 1t q
long as he culllvates il. As many white sci
tiers are found willing To secure farms on
these terms, and rs the slriaws seek such
alliances, the Cherokccs and Choctaws are
each becoming nation of half breeds. The
Greeks have placed the negroes on the same
plane with themselves, and among them
there is large and increasing mixture of
colored blood The Chcrokees were
slave holders before the war, and
most of them took the Southern
side and they furnished several regiments
10 the Confederate army. They were good
fighters when ON the advance hut when an
order Ia fall back came, they took it Tor Il
sign of defeat and ran like sheep. The alti-
tuje of the tribe as a whole, in the war, gave
the government an opportunity, If 1t had
chosen to improve it, to ai,roga'e the treaty
with the tribe, and throw open its reserva-
ton 10 American settlers; but John Ross,
who remained loyal, secured for his tribe the
renewal of the treaty and the control OF their
reservation. They are a prosperous tribe,
having many farms in good cultivation, and
good houses and they receive from the gov
eminent annually large sums of interest
money. The Indians are expected 10 coniinc
themselves TO their reservations. few
months ago, a Missourian met Modoc boy
of 16, whose father owed him dollar. The
white man was half tipsy lie asked the
boy for the money, and when the latter sard
he had not got it, the Missourian drew a
pistol and shot him dead There was a trial
and the man was discharged, because he
proved that the boy was off from the Mudoc
reservation The Uuitcd States Government
enforccs rigid prohibitory law in the terri
tory.
With the grca. tide of commercial and
business enterprise that is pressing forward
into these vast unoccupied spaces of the
Western plains it is gratifying to know
that no small amount of Christian enterprise
is also enlisted. There are now no less
than $50 churches of the Congrcsl-
tonal denomination alone, and much larger
numbers of other denominations, beyond
the Mississippi. The Sunday school Mon,
among other religious agencies, has 4 great
field for work here. Its agents push
into the new settlements, and get the settlers
to organize Sunday schools, finding their
own teachers, while the Union helps them
with books, etc. The Sunday schools grow
and in time become the nuclei of Christian
churches. The Sunday school Union has
organized in the Southwestern department
last wear, $50 schools with over l 900 teach
crs and 10,177 scholars, and it aided 3l5
schools with over l 800 scholars. In the last
fourteen years it has organized over 5000
schools, with 123,7 1913 scholars, and has
supplied them with S4l AGO worth Of bibles,
papers and books The Home Missionary
Society, and the missionary societies of other
denominations, including the Quakers. who
are especially successful among the Indians.
are doing work htrc for law, order and
education, as well as for religion, of which
most Eastern people have but small COM
prehension. And it is all needed, and more.
The excursion returned Wednesday after
noon, stopping at Springfield for an ample
supper, provided by the generous citizens of
that town, and getting to St. Louis Thursday
morning, to find the city covered with snow,
the Mississippi full of floating ice, and ac-
counts of below-zcro weather coming from
all quarters of the West. But no amount of
external cold can chill the glow with which
the delegates will remember the kindness
and hospitality of the citizens of ST. Louis
and Springfield. Il.