The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-12-11
Special Contributors.
THE MISSION INDIANS.-N0. w,
BY MRS. .. J. HILEs.
milwaukee, Wis.,

milwaukee, Wis.,
What has been the history of the
Indians in the interim between 1852
and 1852 How have the nOn-enforce-
ment of laws for, and the rigid enforce
ment oflaws against the Indians affected
thsmP We have seen their condition
under the missions it is not difficult
to draw a contrast between their past
and present condition. The difficulty
lies in finding expression in words as
pointed as the contrast. The history
of their sufferings will never be writ
ten with ink. Statistics can be given,
and it can be easily shown that they
have been defrauded of their lands
but these are only surface marks of
identity. Mild and inoffensive, they
have suffered in silence; poor and
down-trodden, they have had no voice
to which the nation has listened. Gov
eminent has done by them as it has
done by all the other Indians crushed
them. When a government allows its
laws to be trampled upon, the guilt is
its own. 1t can make here no plea of
ignorance.
In 1851, March 8, Congress passed an
act entitled can act to ascertain and
settle the private land claims in the
State of California" By said statute
1t was enacted, "that it shall be the
duty of the commission herein provided
for, to ascertain and report to the Sec
retary of the Interior the tenure by
which the mission lands are held, and
those held by civilized Indians, end
those who are engaged in agriculture
or labor Of any kind, and also those
which are occupied and cultivated by
Puehlos or Rancheros Indians" The
report of Mr.. Wilson, made in 1852,
from which extracts have been given,
was made by request of the Secretary
of the Interior, and was a public docu-
ment. 1t was probably the report of
the commission ordered by Congress, or
it may have been used in conjunction
with that report. 1t was voluminous,
and set forth the condition of the Indi-
ans, of their treatment by the whites
since California became a State of
the Union. Itrecounted feelingly their
wrongs, and showed plainly how they
might be redressed. 1t showed the
might Of the triple laws for their pro-
lection, and pointed out the cruel laws
of recent enactment that would destroy
them. It testified to their character,
and told the government in no uncer-
tain words, that they lacked two quail
fcatiOns of citizenship, one of which
was the right to testify in court against
their white Oppressors. And the Su-
preme Court of the United States de-
cided, "that the Indians owned their
villages, and the lands occupied by them
for the raising of tlocks and herds"
1t is an astonishing fact, that, not
withstanding all this testimony, and its
admission and confirmation by the Su-
preme Court, this government, whose
founders were capable of asserting their
independence, and of framing the Con-
stitution of the United States, has been
utterly inefficient in the enforcement
of its own, and its solemnly adopted
laws. Nay, more, that it has culpably
allowed them to be broken, and that
continually. 1t has allowed these Indi-
ans to be robbed of their flocks, and
driven from their lands; to be made
the victims of unjust and tyrannical
laws; to be taught vice, and then pun
ished, whether guilty or not to be
robbed of their virtue, and of their good
name to be accused of crimes which
they have never committed in word,
it has allowed the whole calendar of
abuses to be heaped upon them,-and
it has not given them a voice in their
own defense. And yet this weakness
and blame have been the results of
mistakes, more than of "dishOnOr. p"
They have been the results of insensi-
bility, indifference, and neglect, arising
from the inability Of the government 10
cope with ways and means, as we'll as
of culpabi,ity in allowing the wrong
and inexcusable lack of nsistence in /
preserving the right.
This has been, largely, because the
Indians have not been individually rep
resented at Washington, and ia the
State legislature. When a white man
wants an Indians land, he takes it, !