Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1893-02-16

not forfeit or lose any rights or
privileges they enjoy or are en-
titled to as members of the tribe
or nation to which they belong.n
SO far as your committee are en-
abled TO guess rather than Judge,
from uncertain information, prob.
ably a hundred Indians have avail
ed themselves of the privilege of
said section 43 and become Amer.
lean citizens, only, as your com
mittee are forced to believe, to
draw upon themselves the indig-
nation, contempt, and hatred OF
their fellow Indians.
The entire Indian policy of Con.
gress in latter years has been
changed and overturned. Since
1871 we make no treaties with In.
dian tribes, only bargains and
agreements. Since the passage of
the Dawes allotment act of Feb.
8, 1887, every influence and in
ducement the government could
urge or offer has been held out to
bring the Indians of the United
States to an allotment and citizen
ship, for from the report of the
Indian commissioner for 1892 we
find that so far under the Dawes
act 10, 482 allotments have been
made; under special act, 1910, and
l, ,242 made to Indians outside of
Indian reservations, a total to
date of 81 ,274 allotments, all made
within the past six years.
Your committee are assured, in
many ways, that if this bill be-
comes a law many hundred In
dians now contemplating citizen
ship, but who are withheld from
doing so because of their belief
that without this law their prop
erty, if not their lives, are at the
mercy of their enemies the mo-
ment they become American ciu-
zens, will avail themselves OF the
protection provided by the change
of venue from the Indian courts to
the courts of the United States,
and at once become American citi-
zens and aid in the forward move
ment to make a state out of their
territory.
To the hundred, more or less,
who have already become Amer
lean citizens, their present condi-
tion, without the relief this bill
carries with it, are in a worse con-
dition financially than before they
became citizens.
In the language of the Indian
commissioner see appendix }
"Since it appears that parties who
have become citizens under the
law above referred to (seotion 43)
have thereby prejudiced the au-
thorities and people Of their ma
tion against them so as to seriously
threaten an infringement OF their
rights of property therein, it seems
to me incumbent upon this gov
ernment to provide some remedy
for them;" to which your commit
tee add that the honor and dignity
of this government demands a
remedy be applied.
To ask and invite these Indians
to become citizens, or to promise If
they do SO they shall lose no right
or privilege, and then, after the
invitation to citizenship is accepted
we shall abandon them to the
tender mercy of the enemies they
have made by their acceptance of
our invitation, is poltroonery of
character an American congress
will never be guilty of, after their
attention has been called to their
condition.
1t is an undoubted fact, known
to all well informed persons upon
conditions existant in the Indian
Territory, that white men, with
but trace of Indian blood, are in
the control and domination of the
five civilized tribes. Parading as
Indians they make their laws and
furnish their rulers, and on all oc-
casions inculcate hostility to the
Federal union, its laws, and its
citizens. Instead of being proud
of their white blood, and hailing
the hour with JOY when they may
become American citizens, they
denounce American ideas and our
government as hostile to their peo-
pie, and boldly proclaim all legis-
lation proposed by this govern
ment for their region, looking to
their ultimate absorption as citi-
zens, with statehood as the glor-
ious end, sham aud a myth, and
inspired solely as a means to rob
them OF their land and property.
These sham Indians are to day
the greatest obstacle in the way Of
the development and statehood for
the territory. By a law of con.
gress this condition ought to be
exploded and brought to an end.
Let congress declare by law who
an Indian is-what constitutes one
and say that when a person,
male or female, has less than one.
fourth Indian blood in his or her
veins he or she ceases to be an
Indian, and is ipso fdeto a white
person, incapable Of holding office
or possessed Of any tribal rights
other than 10 inherit his or her
share of the joint property, real
or otherwise. of the nation; and the
farce Of white Indians and white
tribes would end and cease. So
long as present conditions are per-
petuated their white rulers to per-
petuate their own power and rule,
with attending opportunities to
accumulate wealth, will be found
arrayed in hostility to all legisla.