Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-22

~ AeSN ed States to resign It's guar
IM 6 dianship of the American
IA M Indian is but one of the
1Asl signs Of his being swallowed
up by twentieth century civilization,
and of the coming Of his final disap-
pearance from the vast domains over
which he was once supreme. For gen.
erations he has been the ward of the
nation. Deprived of his natural her
itage by the march of Caucasian SUI
premacy, he has learned to lean on
Uncle Sam for everything, even down
to his daily bread. Now a new order
of things has come about. Uncle Sam
is playing the role of the mother bird
which pushes her young out of the
nest and forces them to learn to fly by
flying. He has decided that most Of
them are able to take care of them
selves and their property, so he is Civ
ing most of them their patrlmony-in
necessary cases making some of 1t over
to them in, such a way that they can
not ALLEVIATE 1t. but leaving them free
to spend or to husband the rest ac-
cording to their own desires.
The passing of the Indian does not
mean the dying of a race of people; 1t
is rather the absorption by greater
and stronger race that finally leaves
not a trace of the weaker. There are
nearly 100000 Indians in the United
States today, but only about 10000 of
these have the pure blood of their race.
There are only about 10000 of them
who have not adopted civilian clothes,
either wholly or in part, and more than
half of these have a speaking ac-
quaintance with the English language
With increasing intensity the forces of
civilization and progress are warning
against Los primitive instincts, and
the stern old warriors of a hundred
ambuscades see their children
snatched up and converted to civilized
ways. This leads to intermarriage, and
that to race amalgamation.
Nearly 80 per cent of the Indians of
the United States have the blood of at
least two of the great races of man
kind There are many who add negro
blood, and cases where even the fourth
race has been added. This comes about
when a Chinese or a Japanese mar
ries into an Indian family that has
black, white and red blood in its veins.
Where the Indian loses himself Is
where he marries and intermarries
with the whites. Perhaps the average
American would not be sure of the
classification of one-half of the In
dians in the United States. No one
would think of taking Senator Owens
or Senator Curtis for Indians except
that those who know them declare in
the vernacular that they are good In
dians," yet they are classed with the
300, 900 Indians in this country. While
the legal Indian-the one who has as
much as one thirty second part of In
dian blood-is increasing in number,
the real, -blooded Indian is de-
creasing rapidly, and from the Shin
necocks, Long island neighbors of
Theodore Roosevelt, to the Yumas of
Lower California there is the same
story of declining racial integrity.
1t is said that when Columbus dis
covered America there were at least
forty-eight different stocks inhabiting
the territory north of the Gulf of Mex
leo, and that from the Straits of Magel-
Ian to the Arctic ocean there were at
least hundred different stocks of In
dians. In the United States there has
been such an amalgamation of the
tribes that there are but comparative
ly few stocks left, but in South and
Central America the Indian has more
than held his own. Most authorities
agree that when the white man came
to take possession of the North Amer
lean continent there were not more
than a million Indians here. Either
this would argue that they had not
been here a great many generations
or else that the perllS OF tne war pain
were greater than we know. Race
suicide has never been marked trait
of the Indian.
Uncle Sam has been pretty fair
guardian for the Indian in spite of all
the heart throbs of pity the sentiment
talists have felt. Since he started into
the business of running this nation in
1889 down to the present time about
half a billion dollars has been spent
in taking care of these wards of the
nation. The new policy of the gov
ernment means the gradual with
drawal Of direct support and the final
allotment of the property of the tribes.
The annual appropriations for the In
dian service will decrease as the years
go by. Under this policy the lands OF
all intermarried whites, all freedmen
and all mixed bloods having less than
half Indian blood among the five civ
ilized tribes are set free, and their
owners can hold it In fee simple. The
from one-half to three-fourths Indians
get absolute possession of all but their
homesteads, which are kept tnalien-
able. The homesteads are to remain