The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-17

But the question still remains the same.
In the foregoing data they have been
treated impartially. The criminal statls-
tics show that out of vast army of a
naturally turbulent race, homicide leads
with total OF ninety-two instances for
the year just ended; stealing next and
drunkenness last. The latter is the cause
of the former, but as class they Will
steal. What is the cause of the crime
The criminal statistics for the same num-
Der of white men selected promiscuouSly
would be much greater. The fact of the
matter is that they are not treated right.
All of the Indians mentioned, with the
exception of an inconsiderable number,
will work. Why should they not be given
an opportunity to do so? They desire an
education. and the schools are over
crowded, and yet of the 10000 Indian
children in Arizona who wish to go to
school only 1000 can be accommodated.
Why should they not be given schools 2
Wee Paps wanted irrigation; wanted water
for his farm. If the Government was
really in earnest in regard to its expressed
1t not given to him? A large number
want their own farms. Why should not
their lands be allotted in severalty?
Indeed, to speak the whole truth the
Indian has never had right that the
white man was bound to respect, but do
ing just as you or / would do he has APP
piled the old adage that "sauce for the
goose is sauce for the gander," and come
to the conclusion that the white man has
no rights he is bound to respect. If he
sees something he wants he knows he can
never get it by work, because the work is
not given him. and therefore he goes and
takes it. He calls it "taking;;" the Gov
eminent says he is a thief If he is caught
on the ranch of white man he is mall
treated and abused. Not being as fully
enlightened and as highly civilized as those
who kick and abuse him he doesn't see
just why he can't do the same with the
white man who is caught trespassing on
his ranch, and he does not see just why, if
the white man wants to abuse him on his
own grounds, he cannot shoot him. OF
course there are renegade Indians. and
thieves, and thugs, and murderers, just as
there are renegade white men, thieves,
and thugs, and murderers, but the
body polite, the mass of them, are
peacefully inclined and disposed to the
ways of civilization.
AS | said before, this is purely question
for the West to consider. 1t never troubles
the Eastern student of political economy.
The Algonquins, Susquehannoughs, Iro-
quois, the Alleghanys and Monongahelas
have disappeared forever. Maryland, their
former hunting-grounds,h has but nineteen
Indians within her borders. Their canoes
no longer shoot the falls of the Susque-
hanna; no longer glide over the broad
bosom of the blue Patuxent; no longer do
their birch banks float on the long swell of
the restless Chesa peake; the whirr of their
arrows is no longer heard on the Blue
Ridges slopes. They are gone forever.
In unknown graves by the banks of the
rivers and creeks they loved SO well, on
mountain slopes where once they chased
the game so fleet of foot, they are sleeping
quietly, sleeping forever, and their only
monuments are the names they left-the
pretty names-to their beloved rivers and
dearest peaks.
Is this, after all, the only solution of the
Indian question? LEONARD FOWLER.