Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1888-02-03
THE FREE PRESS
THE RESERVATION.

Notwithstanding that the subject is
displeasing to the Lewiston demagogs,
and at the risk of Zen Embarrassing the
president" the FREE Press proposes to
continue its discussion of the benefits
which will accrue to the Clearwater
country from the opening of the reser-
vaton. We are opposed to landed mo-
nopoly and aristocracy in every shape,
and we consider the Indians to be the
greatest monopolists and landed aris-
tocracy in the world, and we are there
fore in favor of waging eternal war upon
the system which fosters these results so
contrary to our form of government.
We believe that the settlement and oc-
cupancy of these reservation lands can
not long be delayed. The resistless en-
ergy and enterprise OF the American
people who have spanned all the great
united the Atlantic and Pacific by bands
of iron and steel, and who have re-
deemed the vast wilderness of the west
ern country of barbarism, and subdued
it to fill the demands and requirements
of civilization, will not forever permit
this vast area of fertile lands to remain
idle in the hands of a few Indian mo.
nopOlists. 1t is a paradox that in
this country of boasted free homes
for the poor the best portions of the bast
lands should be consecrated to the
maintenance of barbarism. A reserva-
tion is barrier erected to stem the tide
of civilization, and against which the
tidal wave of progress frets itself in
vain. Already the reservation is closely
hemmed in by settlement on every side,
and when the barriers are broken down
and these rich lands are occupied bv
American farmers, very few years will
witness changes even more startling
than any that have yet occurred in the
process of transformation, in new
country. And there are old men now liv-
ing am ong us who will see the reserva-
ton changed into rich and prosperous
region of free homes and we'll cultivated
farms, towns, cities, churches, schools.
colleges, and Il network of railroads, tel
egraps and telephones, with all the
other accessories and comforts of civil
zatop. And Lewiston. in spite of the
imbeciles who retard her, will secure
the lions share of the traffic which will
M f,,r tIx,o al1.
of the idle lands surrounding it. The
slow growth of Lewiston and Camas
prairie and all the Clearwater country is
due solely to the fact that the KEY to it
is sealed territory in the possession of
the Nez Perce Indians. Our natural
outlet is through the Clearwater can
yon, which is occupied by the reserva-
ton for distance of l20 miles, thus
effectually blockading the only natural
outlet through which access to and
egress from the Clearwater country can
be had.
Despite the efforts of the purblind i'm
beetles in Lewiston to retard it, the agi-
tation has been successfully inaugurated
and the allotment of lands in severalty
among the Nez Perces has been defin-
itely decided on. With the progress oil
the work, the dark shadow which now
hovers over this garden of the great CO.
lumbia basin will be dispeled by the in
iustry of thousands of happy farmers
who will make their homes among us in
such numbers rs to speedily add an
other star to the glorious constellation
of the federal galaxy. Already the star
of the future state of Idaho is visible
above the horizon.