Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-10-09
INDIANS GET HEARING
Habeas Corpus Suit to Be Tried
in Federal Court at Cedar
Rapids
SEEK FREEDOM FROM PRISON
Parents of Indian Students lncarcer.
ated Because Children Do Not At
tend Reservation Schools Go to tho
White Mans court-Hearins May
Be Sensational.
Special to Times-Republfcan.

special to Times-Republ1can.
Cedar Rapids, Oct. 9.-When the trial
Of the Tama Indian habeas corpus case
opens in the federal court in this city
next Wednesday morning, 1t is prob
able that there will be a large attend
ance, eager to hear testimony which is
expected to be more or less sensational.
It's the old story of trouble with
the Musquakies on the reservation.
This time the dissatisfaction and stub
bornness on the part of the Indians
seems to be a little more pronounced
than it has ever been before. AS yet
there has been no bloodshed, but there
has been one death, and the feeling
on the reservation is said TO be dis
tinctly ugly 1t would not be at all sur
prising If the passive stubbornness of
the Indians should change to active
violence.
The Indians always have hated to
send their children to school, and
when the new agent, o. J. Greene, re-
Gently arrived from Oklahoma and be-,
gan to use somewhat more drastic
measures of enforcing obedience than
those to which they had been accus-
toned, their spirit of logged resist
ance seemed to increase. But Mr..
Greene is a man of determination. His
theory of the case is that the Indians
are wards of the government and
bound to obey the government officers.
The Indian theory is that they are own
ers of the reservation and the homes
thereon and they have the right and
the duty to protect their homes and
their families from the tyranny of the
agent.
The agent said that children be-
tween certain ages must so to school.
The Indian parents refused to send
their children TO school. The agent
discontinued the practice of using the
Tama county Jail. He built q new Jail
on the reservation. 1t is said to be one
of the most up-to-date and most san
itary jails to be found anywhere.
When it was finished. the Indians
were still stubborn. Finally four of
them. three fathers and a mother
thrown into Jail. That has thrown the
reservation into "a state of great ex-
citemeut. A man who was there the
other day said that every Indian on
the reservation was on a hillside from
which there is a full view of the jail,
singing. a tribal song supposed ito have
q bearing on the situation.
i Having got the Indians in Jail there
were more problems. The prisoners
refllsse to eat or to receive anything
whatever from the hands of their cap
tors. Meanwhile the school is still
practically empty. and the majority OF
the Indian boys and girls take to the
tall timber early in the morning and
do not return until after school hours.
There will probably be evidence at
the trial in an endeavor to prove that
recently the authorities chased
young squaw for hours and hours, in
fact until after dark; that finally she
stayed out in the woods all night-a
frosty highland that the excitement
OF the chase. the state of her health
at the time, and the cold of the night
refuse to eat or to receive anything
combined to cause her death.
AS already stated the case which
is to be heard is a Inabeas corpus case
directed against the Indian agent and
the indian farmer, commanding them
to appear in court with the bodies of
the four prisoners and show cause why
these prisoners are not given their
liberty. Whether they will he able to
have the bodies of the four prisoners
in court is problematical. They were
able to 7rag them into ail one at q
time, but it is doubtful if they can
drag all four of them to Cedar Rap
ids, the INDIAN view of the case being
that the captors have no authority
Mhateyer over them.