The herald., 1897-04-17
DON'T LIKE HIM
Mission Indians Petition
President Mckinley
TO REMOVE AGENT ESTUDILL0
THEY CLAIM HE HAS TOO MANY
AXES TO GRIND
Chief Pablo Charges That His Tribes
men Have Been Prosecuted and
That Liquor Is Sold

The following petition has been pre-
pared by William Pablo, chief of the
Mission Indians, who represents 700 of
the 500 ahorigines on the Potrero reserva-
tion at Banning, and will be forwarded
at once to President Mckinley, asking
him for relief from the alleged oppres-
sions of the Indian agent at that point:
Potrero Indian Village,
Riverside County, Cal.
To the President, William Mckinley,
Washinton, D. c.:
I, William Pablo, special attorney for
the many tribes Of Mission Indians of
California, desire to represent to our
great father in Washington our true
condition, our wishes, and our hopes, a s
it would be impossible for us to be rep
resented correctly by our agent.
We take especial pride in calling at
tention to the fact that in spite of the
many disadvantages under which We
have labored, we have always been your
good and loyal subjects, and hope al
ways to continue to do what is right both
by our government and among our
selves,
Gated and the older ones are learning
from them how much better it is to be
civilized and enlightened, and they are
trying very hard to improve their morals
and manners, but they find it very hard
to do so while 1t is always the policy of
their agents to keep them like poems and
slaves, who must have some one to order
them about and look after them as
though they were ignorant children;
and If there are any good people amons
the whites who try to advise them and
help these to be men, the agent always
makes trouble for them, as he wants tc
keep us so ignorant that we shall al
ways need agents to draw big salaries
for looking after us.
And we believe we are men enough to
know our own minds and look after our
selves and obey the laws Of our country
like our white neighbors.
We know that their agents have sent
many false reports to Washington con-
cerning them during the past two years,
because they would not accept the AL
lotment of land-20 acres Of land from
the government-instead Of the 160 acres
to which as citizens they are entitled,
and they ask to be allowed to locate
their homesteads-as citizens are-1s0
acres of land for each man in the Los
Angeles land Office and obtain their
patent therefore as their white neigh
bors do.
For having been citizens of Mexico
since the days of Ignala in 1921, and as
under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
"all citizens of Mexico remaining in
California became citizens OF the Unit
ed States" do now the Mission Indians
| claim their rights as citizens to locate
| 160 acres of land at the Los Angeles land
office for each man of their several
| tribes and that all their lands shall be
held and reserved from any other To-
| cation for the space of one year while
they make their selections and locations
| therefor.
They also ask for the removal of their
Indian agent Francisco Estudillo, for
| the following reasons:
First-They believe he has acted with
selfish motives In trying to compel them
| to receive the ten and twenty acre all
| lotments because his son Frank Estudil-
10 would have the surveying Of same,
and thereby obtain much money from
the government.
Second-Because Agent Estudillo has
made no effort to put stop to the sale
Of Intoxicating hquorp among them,