The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1903-08-20
THE ssvsRALrY ACT UPHELD.
Report Of the Committee on indian
Legislation TO Bar Association.

Springs, Va, Thursday, August %:
To the American Bar Association:
Your committee would respectfully
report that the act of congress COM
monty known as the "severalty act"
approved February 8, 1887. is in ac-
cordance with its views, and it would
recommend that the provisions of
that act be extended to all Indian
reservations and be promptly carried
out.
On the one hand the Indians have
often been the victims OF the selfish
greed of the whites; ON the other
they have been the subject Of much
foolish sentimentality. Perhaps they
would not nave thriven under any
conditions; certainly they have dimin-
ished in numbers and sunk, rather
than risen in morality and intelli.
gence under our protection We main
tain them in idleness,and idleness leads
everywhere to vice and degeneracy We
allow them extensive reservations,
which are put to no profitable use,
and which become the haunts of out
laws and escaped criminals.
The Indian. like every other human
being, can work. II he does not work
his extinction Is near at hand. In
the days OF his freedom he followed
the chase and the warpath, which in
volved strenuous labor. He hangs
now in listless apathy around the
agency, and such idleness is fatal.
AS long as the tribal organization
Is maintained the Indian will not
work at any civilized occupation. BY
his traditions such labor is becoming
only to squaws. To save him from
himself and the extinction that threat
ems him. the tribe must be broken up.
and he must be brought under influ.
ences and into surroundings that will
make Of him civilized man.
Many think that he is not worth
saving, and that It is best to let him
perish of inaction. Others think that
he is too noble a creature to follow
the plow and WELD the ak. We think.
however, that the just and humane
way is to give him a chance to be-
come a man among his fellow-men
We think that his lands ought to be
divided, that each Indian should re-
ceive enough to constitute a home
stead, and that the remainder should
be sold to settlers, so as to distrib.
ute the whites among them, and
bring before them the example of
comfort and happiness as the result
Of labor. The homesteads should be
inalienable for a certain number of
years, and in the meantime the rations
furnished them by the government
should be gradually diminished until
they cease altogether. From the date
Of the allotments in severalty the tri.
bal organization should be broken up.
and the Indians stand simply as other
citizens, with the same right to ap-
peal to the local courts.
In the able report of this commit.
tee of the meeting held in 1898 It was
recommended that all controversies
between Indians, and between them
and white people should be adjudi-.
Gated in the federal courts. This
would involve a great expense to lit
igants Federal courts are held at
distant places. The costs in those
courts are much heavier than in the
local tribunals. The amounts Involved
in Ipdian litigation are usually small.
Il therefore seems to us that II would
be best to leave such matters to the
local courts.
The reasons advanced for giving ju.
to the national tribunals is
that the Indian could not get justice
In the courts of the state. But w.
think that this is no Longer true. In
the days when he was frequently on
the warpath, numbering and scelping |
men, women and children with cir
Of frlghtful atrocity, the |
hatred againsth i'm on the frontier was
bitter. Now, however, he is rather
an object of pity. and our belief is
that he would meet with justice, and |
often with favor and indulgence. be-
fore the juries of the neighborhood.
We therefore recommend that the |
'severalty act" be extended to all In
dians, and that its operation be left |
no longer to executive discretion.
G. b. ROSE,
CHARLES N. POTTER.