The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-04-12
THE STATUS OF THE INDIAN.

We are in receipt Of a speech recently de-
livered in the United States senate by the
Hon. Joseph e. Brown, of Georgia, upon the
bill to provide for the allotment of lands in
severalty TO the Indians on the various reser-
vations and to extend the protection of the
laws of the states and territories over the
Indians. In the body of the speech Mr..
Brown ably discusses the question of the cit
izenship of the Indian under the fourteenth
constitutional amendment. If our space
permitted, we would gladly publish the whole
speech but as we caunot do this we shall con-
tent ourselves by presenting the more salient
features of this plea for the Indian. After
reviewing the history of our dealings with
the Indians in which the action of the gov
ernment towards them does not appear in the
most favorable light, Mr.. Brown CONES to the
question. Shall the Indian be a citizen? He
answers by declaring that he is already a cit
izen under the fourteenth constitutional
amendment as soon as he sewers his tribal re-
lations and takes the homestead that the law
now allows him to take. As he states the
fourteenth amendment is very broad in its
provisions and completely covers the question
considered. threads:
"All persons born or naturalized in the
United States and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and
of the state wherein they reside. No state
shall make or enforce any law which shall
abrldee the privileges or immunities of citi-
zens of the United States; nor shall any state
1QnrIyn INV narsnn IF lie. 1,l,artx ~, ~1n,r
ty without due process of law, nor deny
any person within its juris diction the equal
protection of the laws"
From this amendment Mr.. Brown argues
that the Indian is a person and being recog-
nized as a person is a citizen, and as
a citizen IS entitled to enjoy all
all the privileges and immunities of citizen
ship. He is a person by birth-was the orig
inal sovereign of this continent, and had the
title to it by a possession that may have run
back a hundred generations. He saks:
'lf they are not persons, what are they ?"
And adds:
You hold that the meanest and most 10
Dorant negrO who comeS from the deepest
jungle of the darkest part of Africa and
plants himself here is a person. and you pre-
scribe naturalization laws by which lie has a
right to become a citizen"
He quotes Governor Horatio Seymour as
saying:
"Every human being born upon our CONT
nent, or WHO comes here from any quarter of
the world, whether savage or Civilized, can
go to our courts for protection, except those
who belong to the tribes who once owned
this country. The cannibal from the islands
Of the Pacific, the worst criminal from Eu-
rope, Asia or Africa, cali appeal TO the law
and courts for their rights Of person and
property; all save our own native Indians,
who, above all, should be protected from
wrong"
After further considering the personality of
the Indian he quotes the language OF the con-
stitution wherein it states that
"All persons born or naturalized in tile
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States"
Mr.. Brown claims that the Indian 10 sub
ject to the jurisdiction of the United States,
and being SO subjected is a citizen. In sup
port of his argument be cites the tobacco case
brought before the supreme court of the
United States by Mr.. Boudinot, from the
Cherokee Nation. The Cherokees claimed,
under their tribal relations, and under an
express section of a treaty between them and
the United States, that they had a right to
sell any of their property, without paying
tax to the United States, and Mr.. Boudinot
established a tobacco factory in the Cherokee
Nation. The officers of the United States
seized 1t for nol-paymenL of internal revenue,
and the case finally came before the
United States supreme court for
adjudication - whether the Indian territory
was subject to the jurisdiction of the United
States, ard whether it had a right to collect
the revenue. The supreme court held that
the jurisdiction of the United States did ex-
tend into the Indian territory, and that con-
sress had the power to annul the treaty and
collect the revenue. From the above Mr..
Brown makes the following points:
"They were born in the United States:
they are subject to the jurisdiction of the
United States, and if they he persons there il
no escape from the conclusion that they are
citizens of the United States whether the gov
eminent may choose for the time to extend
its criminal laws over them Or their reserya-
tons, or not"
Under the amendment We may declare him
a citizen, but may not be able to count him
in the representative population until he be-
gins to pay taxes upon his land, But when
he does he is then a person born in the
United States. and a tax-payer; and has all
the rights OF a citizen under the constitution.