The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-07
IN BEHALF OF THE INDIAN
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 It's armies. Just civil officials. humane army officers, missionaries. teachers
 writers and private individuals Of all types and ranks have ever protested against these crimes also. Notably has this been true with the board of 1n- dian commissioners, distinguished citi- zens of the best type who introduced reforms In the purchase of Indian sup piles. exposed frauds and made some of them thereafter next to impossible; who early recommended the abolition of the reservation system and giving to Indians lands in severaity. Indian edu- cation and industrial training, and the appointment of Indian officials for fit- ness only. But thls was a commission of only nine of ten men, without pay,
 whose time. so far as 1t could be given
 to Indian help, was absorbed with im- portant business transactions demand ing experience great care and wisdom. and they had neither the means nor the time to popularizes their views, and so the great expressions and crimes
 went on. though reforms were intro duced and evils lessened by the noble labors of this board. For ten years they had worked, and then God called the Christian women of the nation to inaugurate and lead movement of the people, and that they did lead Is sus- | ceptible of clear proof. by advertising
 the vast wrongs against the Indians in | all the states and territories of the
 Union, and by organizing a popular protest against these crimes. It was to
 this insurrection of a popular move ment that Senator Dawes referred when
 he said that this modern reform of our national Indian policy was born of and nursed by the Women's National Indian association" This protest and | demand of the people was authorita- tive, as said Secretary Seward to the eloquent Bishop Whipple when
 Washington, he following the appeals of his burning letters: "The people must demand reform; legislation does
 not lead, but will follow the demand of the people, And the bishop gave us his blessing, saying: "The women are
 building better than they know"
 The one object of the work of the
 women at that time was to create a popular demand for the reform of our national Indian policy by making known to the country the expressions Of the red race, and this was done in undoubting faith that a Christian na-
 ton, knowing them, would right such
 wrongs. Mary L. Bonney, the origina- tor Of this movement, in her address at our first meeting of delegates, after referring to the labors of the various missionary societies. to their appeals, | to those of individuals, and to the work of the board of Indian commissioners, | said: Yet, despite these efforts and l labors, the people at large. who al,ne can demand reform, were little inform ed of the condition needs and caonci- ties of Indians, and their unjust and oppressive treatment by government
 The great need was light--por,lar knowledge of the facts of the national 1Aotoi pollSys AHu IL WdS u NleCl lulS need that the work which resulted in the organization of the Women's Ma tional Indian association was begun in the spring of 1S79." And Christian wo- men everywhere responded to the ap- peal of the central committee and be- gan active work for securing protective legislation. In this state, for example, fn tho frct oo11 nf ha IoI,
 men-this was for aid on their third annual petition-there was an ins ant response, and the first committee, or ganized in Hartford November 1881, with Mrs. Cowen chairman and Miss L. Ripley as petition committee, ob- tained nearly nine thousand signatures in thirty-three different towns of Con- necticut. The next year the committee was reorganized as a permanent aaxil- iary, and a. little later under the lead ership of Mrs. S. T. Kinney, there fol- lowed, as was expected by those who knew her, the wide work which not only increased state knowledge on the Indian question, but included literary work meetings, missionary work, home building on the reservations--first in- augurated here-the education of the first Indian woman physician, the edu- cation of Indian nurses, and variety of other work, at cost of over $23,OOO since 1883. And so of other states and larger cities, though no other state has equalled Connecticut's record. And what these women did for Connecticut the national association did, in kind, for the country, though of course from the extent of the territory not in the same proportion. Of this movement Senator Dawes said in presenting our third annual petition, that of 1882:
 MT. Dawes MT. President, a year ago I was charged with the duty of presenting to this body petition of a very unusual character, hath as to the petitioners themselves and as to the subject matter of the petition. It was signed by a very large number of citi- zens of the United States representing by the signatures upon the paper more than thirty thousand of the intelligent the educated and the earnest citizens of the United States; and the burden of their prayer was that the United States would keep its faith with. the Indians who are living in their midst, These petitioners have come here again to-day, and many more with them, and I am requested by these petitioners to present their petition this morning. It is signed by Governor St. John Of Kan sas. Governor Long of Massachusetts. Hon. William D. Dodge of New York.