The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-12-11

| lie tnen applleS 1Or patent, ana Cno
member from his district being inter-
ested in his constituents, he has no
trouble in securing it. If the Indian
does not remove his sheep and cattle
when ordered, the white man appropri-
ates them. Should the Indian endeavOr
to reclaim either land or cattle by pro-
cess of law, his oath, as against white
man, is valueless; and what white
pioneer will swear against another ?
These things have been done over and
over agaiD-are being done to day.
| Thousands of acres have been taken
from the Indians during the past year.
All the mission lands were long since
taken from them. They retreated to-
ward the mountains, and as fast as they
established little homes, and gathered
a few sheep and cattle, they also were
| taken. Desert and mountain will pre-
vent further retreat. Their reserva-
tions were loosely surveyed, often in
| such manner as to leave out their viii
lagos, and their cultivated ground. But
even the reservation lands are taken on
the plea that they are outside of the
| survey. 1t is not for the interest of
the white settler to build fence; if
an Indiau's cows stray into his grain,
he keeps them for trespass-and the
! Indian cannot swear against him. With
a highly exaggerated sense of their own
| liberality, the white men offer work to
the Indians on the land from which
they have been driven; and with a
highly exaggerated sense of their NOR
ality, when five dollars have been earned
by the Indian, they pay them with one
glass of whisky. If, when dispossessed,
the Indians apply to the Indian agent,
they are worse off than before. If he
pays any attention to their appeal, he
institutes no measures of redress. The
Indians cling to their homes with
tenacity to which white men are stran-
gers. Still, in their extremity, the rem
nants of the most southern tribes, liv-
ing in five different localities, met last
year, and took a vote, to decide whether,
if government would set aside place
for them where they could live undis-
turbed, giving them full and complete
possession thereof, they would leave
their present homes and settle on the
pew lands. The vote was affirmative,
and tax of i've dollars was then ap-
portioned to each male, to pay the
expenses to Washington, of their cap
tain and an interpreter. But they could
not find white man, who was willing,
for the furtherance Of either justice or
mercy, to urge their needs, or even to
present their petition to Congress, and
the project was abandoned. AS rule,
civilized white men do not work against
their own interests. 1.-The abuses of
the law have been cruel and injurious
to the Indian in every country, and at
all times; how nearly fatal to him in
California" Captain Wilson's Re-
port). The intended offer of these
Indians to leave their homes, was but
a pitiful expression of their supposed
ability to have something to say about
their removal; they knew well that
when white men choose, they will pre-
empt their homes. and they be driven
off. Thus they have been driven from
villages and valleys that were legally
theirs, and theirs by an inalienable
higher right. But the United States
government has not confirmed and en-
forced their legal rights, and while they
have seen their numbers dwindle from
10000 in 1884, to less than 600 in
1885, they are still waiting with pa
tience for the great wheels of govern
mental machinery to move. But, block
ed by the self-interest of the few, their
progress is so slow, that when they
shall have arrived at the point where
this homeless people have waited for
their great wrongs to be redressed, the
wrongs will have crushed them, and
nothing will be left for the ponderous
wheels to run over. The wrongs will
have assumed other shapes Indian
villages will have given place to the
peaceful and smiling homes of white
men, and because the air gives back no
sounds Of distress to mortal ears, the
assertions of this long-suffering people,
and the eff )rts that from time to time
have been directed in their behalf, will
be set down as the results of fanati-
cism and ignorance.
The Indian is accused, and rightly,
of lack of thrift. But what race would
work willingly, when they knew that
the better the homes the more quickly
they would be deprived of them Or
work interestedly with an uncertain
tenure Alas, with not even an un-
certain tenure, but only with a certainty
of dispOssession. An American be-
longs to the people among whom he
lives. If disasters come to him, he
feels that in all events, however unpro-
pitious, he is at home; that he is a
member of a great nation. But who is
the Indian? What future looms on his
mental horizon2 Driven from the only
home he has ever known. he lives in a