The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1897-09-24
Is Uncle Sam a Thief

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think the United States Government
should seek to ascertain the sent-
ment OF the native population OF
Hawaii on the question Of annexa-
ton. 1t has never been our policy
to consult the wishes Of the natives
when we desired to annex territory"
Commenting on this, the Chronicle
says that the United States Govern
ment has never scrupled to take the
territory of American Indian tribes
when it wished to.
That is very true. But the United
States Government acquired the
lands of the American Indians by
conquest. 1t had to fight for them.
More than two hundred years ago,
our iorefathers fought for their
foothold on the barren rocks OF New
England, and their descendants
have been fighting ever since. 1t is
only few years since formidable
Indian outbreak took troops from
San Francisco to the Dakotas. All
that Uncle Sam has taken from the
American Indians he has won in fair
fight The title of the Strong Hand
that might makes right
"The good old rule, the simple plan,
That he shall take who has the
power,
And he shall keep who cam
may not be good one at the Great
White Throne, but it has always
been held good by earthly courts.
But Uncle Sam, after having con-
quered the American Indians in fair
fight, has recompensed them for
their lands There are many millions
Of dollars, in the custody OF the
United States Treasury to-day,
which fund is the property of Indian
tribes; it is kept for them by the
Great White Father, and the inter
est is scrupulously paid TO them at
stated intervals. Many of these
Indian tribes are living upon lands
in the Indian Territory, granted to
them by the United States Govern
ment in exchange for their own, and
living upon these lands in barbaric
luxury on the income Of the money
paid them by the United States
Government in addition to the lands
Many of these Indians are better off
than thousands OF white laboring
men in the United States are to- day.
Last month there was matrimonial
boom in the Cherokee Strip OF the
Indian Territory, owing to the fact
that the United States Government
had fixed the fifteenth of August,
1897, as the last day on which white
men could become de .facto Indians
by marrying Cherokee squaws. Each
Indian girl is entitled to one hun
dTed and sixty acres of land and her
share OF the income from the Che
rokee millions in the keeping of the
United States Government. Under
the rulings OF the Interior Depart
ment, every white man marrying an
Indian squaw loses his citizenship
and becomes entitled to the rights
OF an Indian. 1t is the case in
Alaska as we'll as in the Indian Ter
ritory-in Alaska, white man mar
rying an Indian squaw can avail
himself Of certain sealing rights de-
MED to the whites and reserved for
the Indians.
The Hawsiians are weak and
timid race. They can not be COM
pared to the fierce Indian warriors
with whom our forefathers battled
for two hundred years. If our gov
eminent takes their lands, it can not
be said to conquer them-it will steal
them. Is it the intention OF Senator
Morgan and the lingo journals who
uphold him, that this government
should pay the Hawaiians for their
lands9 We have paid the American
natives-are we to pay the Hawai-
ian natives? Or shall we take their
lands without compensation Inas-