Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1892-07-01
THE FREE PRESS.
GRANGEVILLE. IDAHO.
FRIDAY. : : July /, 1892
Cattle on the Reservation

Some stir has been created here by
the fact that special agent has been
sent out to the Lapwai Agency from
Washington to enforce the oft-repeated
order issued by the Interior department
TO our stock men to remove their stock
from the sacred precincts of the reserva.
ton. On Wednesday of this week the
stockmen of Camas Prairie assembled
behind the Buttes and rounded up and
removed their stock to our side of the
line. The Interior department is the
slave of railroad corporations and In
dian philanthropists. and the interests
of the many are all the time sacrificed
to the interests of the few by Its de-
cisons. Long-haired men and fiat
breasted women run that department of
this great government and its rulings on
all points always and invariably conflict
with the first principles of common
sense, common honesty and common
Justice. This is conspicuously the case
in the present instance. The Indians
and white men are large cattle owners.
who for years immemorial have been
torial and state regulations. The reser-
walton is separated from the public do
main by an arbitrary line which cattle
do not know and cannot respect. Indian
stock frequently strays on the public
lands. and white mems stoc" sometimes
goes on the reseryotion. The grass is
equally good on either side of the line,
and stock cannot be kept from crossing
and recrossing it. But now the sapient
authorities of the Inferior" Department
at Washington step in and undertake to
nullify the law If the sovereign state of
Idaho by con- ,olling the white men of
Idaho county to herd their cattle 30 as
to prevent them from tresspassing upon
the holy of NOTES.-THE Indian reserva-
ton. This is Federalism and central
iZation with veDgeance-a usurpation
of the reserved rights of the States. If
the people at Washington want to keep
white mems cattle off the reservation
they can easily do so by putting up a
substantial board fence around it
otherwise there are not men or horses
enough in our Uncle Samuel's army to
guard it at all points The whole trouble
originates in the petrified int llects of
these "Glory be to Cod statesmen in
Washington. They imagine our Indians
to be lot of simp e-minded idiots who
are utterly incompetent to provide for
themselves and who must be coddled,
petted protected and patronized by the
milk-sop philanthropists who have con-
stituted themselves the especial guar
dams of our saddle-tinted brethren. As
a matter OF fact these Nez Perez Indians
are as vigorus in intellect, as enterprise
ing in business, as progressive in civil
ization and as cognizaut of our laws and
as law abiding as their white neighbors,
They herd their stock under our state
laws, assist in our round-ups, and are as
sharp and shrewd in horse or COW
trade as the veriest jockey among us.
The Indians make no complaint of tres
pass. They know that cattle in their
wanderings cannot be kept off the res
Nervati0n, and they know also that our
cattle are not drIvet there. They fully
realize that the present system is a
reciprocal agreement beneficial to all,
and that policy of retaliation by which
Indian cattle must be confined to the
reservation will be speedily inaugurated,
if their self-styled guardians at Wash.
ington do not let well enough alone.
The white men of this district have no
conflict with the Indians, but they have
a whole-hearted contempt for the Of
;ficious interference of the hermaphro-
dites at Washington who. knowing
nothing of the environments, conditions
and circumstances which goven both
races in this matter, are stirring up
strife for their alleged wards by med
ding in matters they know absolutely
nothing about. We venture to say for
the Indians that all they ask from the
Department is to be let alone. They
know their own rights and are perfectly
,compe ent to guard them, even if the
whites desired to trample them under
foot.