The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-09-16
NATIVES AND INDIANS.

We have been told repeatedly of late
that the natives here, and in the other
Islands still believe that annexation
brings for them the treatment of the
Indian. We are also asked if the Amer
lean people have treated the Indians
with perpetual inhumanity. 1t does not
show any unusual ignorance on the
part of the native if he does believe
that he will be so treated. His haole
brother here will circulate and believe
the most idle tales. Prejudice and SUI
perstitiOn is the rule of the average
thought. Only yesterday we heard an
intelligent man say positively that
Great Britain had her eye on these
Islands" We have just read from
page XXI of Senator Morgan's re-
port TO the Senate that Lord Palmer
ston Gin 1850 said to Prince Alexan-
der and Lot Kamehameha that the
British Government desired the Hawai-
ian people to maintain proper govern
ment and preserve national indepen-
dence. If they were unable to do so he
recommended receiving a Protectorate
Government under the United States,
or by becoming an integral part of that
nation"
If a lot of our people believe that
Lord Palmerston did not tell the truth,
is the native to be blamed if he does
not believe the statement that in no
sense whatever will he be regarded
by the people of America as a person
to be treated as the Indian is treated?
The difficulty is, in explaining this
to the native mind, if it has any real
conviction on the subject. 1t should
be sufficient for him to know that men
from the very people who have treated
the Indians badly, settled here and pro-
tected the natives, as no weaker race
was ever protected, so far as the en-
forcement of just laws could do it.
The native was not shrewd enough to
establish, in the early days, immigra-
ton laws which would have checked or
stopped the incoming of an "undesir-
able white population" and he took his
chances when he threw open the doors
to everybody.
This just treatment of the natives
should be absolutely convincing to
him that his case is in no respect what
ever, the case of the Indian.
The inhuman treatment of the In
dian by the American, detailed in "A
II; hxrH IIryn
Jackson, is true. Disgraceful as it was,
and calling for the vengeance of God,
as Henry Ward Beecher said, it could
be excused on only one ground, that
the people generally were wilfully mis-
informed of the facts. The white
Press stated that the Indian, without
provocation, massacred men, women
and children, and wantonly destroyed
property. The Indian had no friend, |
no Press to defend him. Only the army |
officer saw the injustice done to him.
His voice was not heard. An angry |
people consented in Congress to every |
kind of cruel and dishonorable treat |
ment, in the belief that the Indian was
a wild beast
The native should know that since
the education of the Indian was be-
gun at Hampton, Va, by one of their
own countrymen, in 1879, and followed
by the great schools at Carlysle and
other places, public sentiment has
greatly changed.
1t should interest them to know that
Mr.. Herbert WEIGH of Philadelphia, |
who is the most active friend the In
dian has before the American public, |
has within a month taken up the mat
ter of the effect of annexation upon |
the Hawaiian.