Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-03-08
Am AsSe nishing Instance of Gov
ernment Neglect.

ernment neglect.
In snd around the Needles there are |
some three hundred Indians, mostly of |
the Moaavs tribe, who have been located |
there since 1885, The Mohsve reserva- |
ton is some seventy-fve miles away, and
these Indians with their families re-
moved to the Needles for the reason that
they could earn little money there in
working for the railroad company. But the
remarkable thing about this Indian can
tonment is that it has been there for
seven years, and yet during all that time
the Government has done absolutely
nothing in the way OF caring for the
physical or moral welfare of it's wards.
There is not an Indian school in the vi
cinity, and never has been one;
nor is there Government agent there to
look after their interests. They are left
com pletely to themselves, and their chill
dren are growing up in state OF nature,
without care and without instruction.
We are assured by old residents of the
Needles that the San Bernardino Indian
agent has never in person or by deputy
visited these Indians, or shown that the
Government has the slightest interest in
them. These facts need no comment.
They accentuate the vicious and un-
worthy policy OF the Government toward
its wards. No other Government under
the sun would be guilty of SO utterly dis
regarding its obligation to look after the
welfare of it's natural pupils ss ours has in
its utter abandonment of the Mohave
Indians residing at the Needles. There
are bright looking boys and girls there
who might come to useful maturity If
their mental and moral culture were
cared for; and some of the grown In.
dams, who are now mere savages, would
have been diffsrent kind of people il
the Government had done its duty seven
years ago and established an Indian
school in their midst. A few weeks age
we published report from number Of
our citizens who had visited the Indian
school Of the Sisters of Charity at F orr
Yuma. That report showed that the
young Coahuilas we're receiving train
ing that would be of great value to them
in after life; and that they were
apt scholars, and progressing in theil
studies to a degree that astonished the
gentlemen who visited the school. The
older Indians, too, seemed to take great
interest in the establishment, and gave
it such aid aud encouragement as was in
their power. Thus we can see the retro
active effect for good of an institution Of
this kind even upon the old Indians who
can only see the benefits of our civiliza-
ton as ii through a glass darkly. To
say that because the Indians at the
Needles have left their reservation and
sought to better their condition outside
of it absolves the Government from all
responsibility, is to offer but narrow,
untenable and unenlightened excuse fol
it's neglect. The Mohaves there
are not mere stray band,
but colony of over three hundred, per.
manently settled near the railroad
Surely if circumstances of praise worthy
nature have sent these Indians to the
Needles, the Government could have fol
lowed them with school. So glarins
has been the neglect of the Federal
Government in this instance that ever
Los untutored mind seems to have an
inner consciousness of it, for when one OIL
their head men was asked if he thought
the Government should look after them,
he answered that they knew nothing
about the Government; to them the
Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company
was the Government. Here was the
idea developed in the Indian mind that
there was clear abandonment of duty
on the part of the Government, and 9
feeling that that duty had been some
how transferred over to the railroad
company! We call upon the Govern
ment to at once send competent agent
to These Indians to report upon their con.
dition and their wants.