Arizona weekly citizen., 1886-05-08
CIVIL STATUS OF THE PAPAGOs.
Their Citizenship and Rights [" Land Treated ofby Ex->urVeyor General
 Was.on.

act language of the petitions has escaped my memory, but it was rather vague. The places or rancherias were referred to by name. but no boundaries were given or quantity stated. The petitions clted DO laws, ussges or customs in sup port of the claims. and no Papago claim ants were mentioned by name. Hunter signed himself, Attorney for the Papa gos." The indefinite character of the petitions aroused suspicion that his authority to represent the PapsgCs was questionable and demanded Investiga- tion before taking up the questions ln- volyed ID such cases. He took the ground that he was Bn attorney, author lzed to practice law, and as courts do not question attorneys authority to act for client. the surveyor general should not. Nevertheless objections were made winch he never successfully met. The information Was conveyed to hlm That attorneys, so far as any prev'ons know ledge extended, always represented their clients by their actual names ot John Smith, John Doe. Richard Roe, 6c, and not as Attorney for the Papa gos" for the Apscbes, PImas, MeXicsns, Americans, etc, and that II be would give the true names Of the PapaEos he represented, hIs authority would be ed mitted unless such Pspagos personally appeared and protested agalnst the use of their names by hIm. He made no further attempt to overcome my ob!ec- tions, and never appeared for any pur
 pose.
 was rather desir0us to investigate the claims. A new field of inquiry ap- peared. Hunter was advised that tue office was ready to proceed upon a re
 liable basis. The U. $. supreme court sharply critIsized sthe Board o' Land Commissioners for Missouri, for hearing cases presented by unauthorized per sons, aud so did nothing more except to try to familisriZe myself with laws, ususges and customs applicable to such investigation.
 In the meantime, enough was learDed l to convince me that Hunter had pre- viOusly spent some tune among the Pspazos and obtained from some of them some sort of cJnveyances that more than one hundred of them were IT. duced to go before a notary ID Tucson and execute some sort Of documents, and Ctrom what has just been stated) 1t, seemed fair to presume that convey- ances were acknowledged and not his | employment secured to present the land claims.
 The conclusion was reached that only sn exceptionally rare phIlsDthropist
 would go from Washington to ArIzons,
 hunt up lot of Papagos, prepare papers and procure their execution, pay no tarial fees and all his expenses, and give hIs tune for the benefit of even so
 worthy people as the Papagos; and, further that as these Indians are mostly citizens oI the United States, fully qual | flied to acquire and convey titles to land, the benevolent Hunter had secured from them whatever title they possessed
 and desired to press confirmation ID | the ir name. The true InwGrdness 0t his proceedings as attorney foT the Papa
 gos," was to be as completely as possi-
 ble concealed from the people who might
 not Rgreeably warm up to his kind Of | law practice.
 With this preface, I'll try and show in this and succeeding letter the civll status of the Papagos, theIr claims to land, .Sc.
 Tint these Indians were citizens of
 Mexico, possessing equal rights and
 privileges with other citizens of that
 Republic, is well known to all familiar
 in the political history of that country.
 some eminent Mexican lawyers hold
 that ss early as lSl0, they were Ihe equal
 of the Spanisrds m civil rights and
 powers. Before their independence, the Mexican revolutionists adopted the plan of Iqusls, which declared that "All the
 inhabitants of New Spain, without dis
 tinctioD, whether Europeans, Africans, or Indians, are citizens ofthis monarchy, with 0 right to be employed In any post according to their merits snd virtues. | After independence, among the first acts of the Mexican Congress, was the
 reaffirmance Of the plan of Iquala, In U. s. vs. Ritchie, F How. 66i.j, as well
 in several decisiODs of the California | Land Commissioners, the leading facts
 are stated. The Indians largely aided the oyerthroW of the Spanish power, and It was but natural that all di tInctlons between races should be abolished and
 equality of rights and privileges estgb-
 lished. The U. : Supreme Court say in
 thIs behalf. "Hence the article to this effect in the plan of Iquala. and the de
 cree of the first Congress declaring the
 equality of civil rights whatever may be
 their race or country. These solemn declarations of the political power of the government had the effect neces-
 sarily, to invest the Indians with the privileges of citizenship as effec-
 tually as had the declaration O! independence of the United States
 of l776, to invest all those
 persons with these priv leges. residing in the country st the time and who | adhered to the interests ot the colonies Article of the Gadsden treaty re- | enscts articles and of the Guadalupe
 Hidslgo treaty. Article s guarantees to | MexIcsns their rights of person and | property under our government, and gives them the choice of retaining their Mexican citizenship or becoming cit
 izens of the United States. They were | required to make their choice within | one year of the final ratification of the treaty, and all who did not in form de- clare their intentions to retaIn their
 character of Mexican citizens
 "sbsll be considered to have
 elected to become cisiZsls O. the United States" In other words, formal
 action on theIr part was required to con- Il tinue to be Mexican citizens; no action made them American citizens within a
 year after ratification of the treaty. IL
 is. therefore, quite probable that all h. diana, by non action, because citizens of
 tbe United States. Article 9 provides | that the Mexicans who shall not pre-
 serve the character of citizens of the | Mexican Republic, conformHbly 10 what
 IS stipulated ID article s. shall be incor-
 porsted into the Union of the United
 States and be Rimittrd at the proper
 time to the enjoyment of all the rights of the citizens of the United States X etc.
 From the foregoing it is seen that the Papagos are entitled to at least the same rights and privileges belonging to citizens of other races; hut Spain. MeIi- co and the United States have by law, custom and nsage given Indians bene
 fits not accorded 10 others of equal civil rights, and this opens up a broad field which cannot be covered in much detail in one or two letters short enough for newspaper use. In another letter l will touch upon some points pertinent to the