Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1904-06-21
STATEHOOD
AND INDIANS
Subjects Of an Interview With
Commissioner Jones Who Was
In Santa Fe Today. v.~a.
EMPHATIC OPINIONS
1t Would Be Unjust to Merge the Two
Territories Into One Common.
wealth.

Hon. w. A. Jones, commissioner of
the Bureau of Indian Affairs; S. E.
Slater, financial agent of the bureau;
W. A. Jones, Jr., son of Commissioner
Jones, and J. T. Brown, the last two
students at the University of Prince
ton, were visitors in Santa Fe today
and guests at the United States Indus
trial Indian School, They are on their
way to San Francisco, California
where bids are to be opened for Indian
supplies, and on their way found suffi
cient time to visit Santa Fe, Albuquer'
que and the Grand Canon.
Commissioner Jones, whose vigorous
physique and youthful appearance, be-
lie his gray head and mustache, was
averse to being interviewed, as his Wis
it was of no official significance and
more in the way of pleasure trip, but
he nevertheless expressed himself
very forcibly upon number of ques-
tions in which the people of New Mex
leo are interestd.
Speaking of statehood, he said en-
phatically that he deems it an injus-
tice to merge New Mexico and Ari-
zona into one state against the will of
their people and that if the people of
those two commonwealth thought as
he did, they would prefer to remain as
territories for little while longer for
the day could not be far distant when
each would be admitted as a separate
state. He instanced conversation he
had with his friend, Senator Platt, of
Connecticut, which shows that the
movement to join the two territories
rests upon a misapprehension, for Sen
ator Platt in speaking of statehood
said that the Republican party cannot
afford to admit two states which would
send four Democratic Senators to
Washington. Mr.. Jones believes and
makes no bones of it either, that each
of the two territories is entitled by
right, by justice, by fitness to be admit
ted as sovereign states, independent
of political consideration and even if
Senator Platt's statement was correct.
Speaking of Indian education, he
expressed the opinion that the In
dians should be educated near their
homes, under the same climatic and
scenic surroundings and industrial con-
ditions as prevail in that part of the
country in which they live and that it
is a mistake to send New Mexico and
Indians to schools in other
commonwealths where the conditions
are quite different from those in the
arid section. 1t is his aim to have
more schools for the Indians establish
ed in the two territories, but says that
this is difficult work without voting
in Congress. The Da-
kotas, for instance, through their rep
have secured more Indian
schools now than pupils can be found
for while in New Mexico and Arizona
the schools cannot accommodate all
the children. However, part of this is
due to the fact that the Indians of the
southwest have been somewhat op-
posed to sending their children to
school and that even now it is difficult
to secure land from them to build
school houses upon. The government
will build $4,000 school on the Zuni
reservation and has completed such a
school at the Jicarilla agency.
Mr.. Jones also spoke of the recent
decision of the New Mexico Supreme
Court, which gives them the rights of
as well as imposes its bur
lens. such as taxation upon them. He
said that the government would make
an effort to have the Indians relieved
from the necessity of paying taxes, al
though, if perfectly assured that the
Indians would be dealt with justly and
protected in the matter of taxes and
water rights, he would not be averse
% the Indians assuming the privileges
and the responsibilities of citizenship.
In fact, he has always maintained, that
he Indian should work out his own
salvation as much as possible. and that
he fittest should survive. In this con-
lection he spoke words of high COM
nendation of the work of Judge w. H.
Pope, while United States attorney for
he Pueblo Indians.
Justifying the fact. that of late years.
he authorities insist that only Indian
children should be taught at the gov
schools, thus excluding many
of Mexican parentage who
claim trace of Indian blood. he said,
hat these schools were established ex-
,lusively for the benefit of the In
lians. However, if New Mexico, was
1ot financially able to educate it's chill
lren, the government should do so. But
by what he has seen and heard of the
rerritory's educational institutions
and it's public schools, they are ample
20 accommodate every child in the Ter
ritory.
He denied the report that has been
going the rounds of the press that the
Continued on Pace Eioht