The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-27
poLrCY AND pRAcaucF.

CT has there been seen a wider variance between policy and practice. As The lJournal knows. or certainly ought to know, the sale of liquor to the Indians or the giving or bartering it, has been enc Of the greatest curses they have had to bear or to contend against. Not only the white traders but the officials of our government have supplied intoxicants to 4 the Indians, shamelessiy openly and con Itinuously. The fire waters of the pale face have degraded them, mentally. nor ally and physically from the beginning. and 1t was supplied them in many cases by those who were supposed to be their guardians
 If we come down to the actual truth of affairs neither our government nor our people can feel very proud of the way the red men have been dealt with. Treaties have been made with them for hundreds of years which were to endure and re- main inviolate 'as long as the grass grows or the water runs,' as they would express 1t, and they believed it. Those treaties have been kept just as long as it suited the stronger eide to keep them, and no longer. If some statesman had declared that "the Indian has no rights which the white man is bound to re- spect." there would at least have been no hypocrisy about it.
 To go back only about seventy years a reference. to some of the treaties made with our Alabama Indians will make clear what we refer to. Tn 1895 solemn treaty was entered into with the Chero- kees by which it was covenanted that that nation shall In no future time without their consent be included within the territorial limits or Jurisdiction of any State or Territory" A similar cove nant was made with the Creeks and 'should never be embraced or included within or annexed to any territory or State, or be erected into a Territory without the full and free consent of the tribe owning the same" Again, our gov ernment by treaty with the Choctaws and Chicasaws agreed that ''no territory or State shall ever have the right to pass laws for the government of the red men and their descendants, and that no part of the land granted to them shall ever be embraced in any State or Territory" l These are a few of the instances, and we refer to them because they affected the tribes with which Alabamians are familiar from the names left by them in every nook and corner of our State. Has one of these treaties been kept in violate on our part? As The Journal says in another place. "during recent years new treaties have been made and new conditions have arisen which in eff feet abrogate the old treaty relations. Every one of the five tribes has surren- dered to the Federal government It's tri- bunal authority, and consented to allot- ment of it's. lands in severalty. On top of this Congress passed law making Amer ican citizens of all the individual mem- bers of these tribes. So the territorial Indians have lost the right of self-gov- ernment guaranteed them by the old treaties. However as long as they re- main under the Federal Jurisdiction they will have prohibition, but if they and their lands are attached to Oklahoma they are in danger of losing it. With open saloons, the Indians would be doom- ed. The settlement of the liquor question agreeably to the Indians and white peo- pie will be difficult task for those who favor single Statehood"
 Yes. new, treaties have been made" beyond doubt. and in many instances the new ones were made without the slightest regard for the good faith or ob- ligations of the old ones. What our gov- ernment at one time agreed to do was not considered binding whenever circum- stances or exigencies demanded change. l Each new treaty has been made with an eye only to what our government or our people wanted, and without consideration of past pledges.
 1 We are not arguing or contending that our government should not have taken possession of the lands of the Indians, or that 1t should not have brought them under the rules and regulations of our government. Those who believe in the doctrine of predestination in connection with mundane affairs, must believe that it was predestlned that the Anglo-Saxons should control the North American con- tinent for all time to come. Predestined or not, the stronger nations from the days of the patriarchs to the present time. have taken possession of the coun- tries of the weaker ones. The civilized Christian nations of earth will conquer and rule the heathen and the savage. Whether that is always done in a right way or not, and whether we do or do not sympathize with those who must sub init or be obliterated from among men. does not change facts, and facts are what we must be governed by.
 But while we must be governed by the unalterable logic of events, without re- gard to sympathies or feelings, we can certainly regret that our government has not always kept faith with the red men. Being most powerful 1t was peculiarly incumbent on us to set them an example of fidelity to pledges and of unalterable devotion to fairness and justice We were bound to teach them. both by pre- cept and example, that solemn treaties are inviolable and that a compact brok- en by one party cannot be considered
 binding on the other.
 Have We any right to wonder or com
 plain if the Indians have at times thrown
 of all restraints and obligations of trea-