The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-08-21

else property rights and receive fec
cimple patents to their allotted lands.
For several years the Indians COM
potency has been passed upon in indi-
yvidual cases, but lately the applicants
for the test have been SO many that
another expedient had to be devised.
recently tried among 700 OF the
So the commission experiment was
omahas. $40 OF whom were listed as
first-class. 200 as second class and only
100 as third class men. Thus ma
jority got their citizenship. and now
another competency commission is
about to examine the Umatilla res
ervation, In Oregon. Ultimately each
reservation containing reasonable
number OF progressive Indians Will be
sorted out In the same manner.
Our 10000 Indian Voters.
We already have 1929 red citizens.
they tell me at the Indian bureau.
This means that less than half the
300,412 Indians of the country remain
wards Of the nation. About 10000 got,
their citizenship rights under the gem
years ago q special act made citizens
of all members Of the Five Civilized
Tribes In Indian Territory. now Okla
homa, which new State thus got about
117.O00 Indian citizens
Over $4,000 Indian Voters This Fall.
This fall about 45,300 Indians will
have vote. $4,000 of these casting
their ballots In Oklahoma. where most
OF the redskins are Democrats.
This privilege of the ballot is one
that only the States can confer, but
Tn ~ 1x,hn !,
missions award citizenship and their
lands in severalty. will thereafter
have no difficulty In voting save In
New Mexico and Nevada, which bar
all OF their race from the polls, and
In Louisiana, where the grandfather
clause" refuses tho ballot to citizens
whose father or grandfather were not
entitled to vote on January /, 1857
Only nine other States make any suf-
frage distinctions as to Indians. Those
which have not severed their tribal
relations are barred from the polls In;
Michigan, Montana, Oklahoma and
Wisconsin. while Maine and Washing
ton exclude Indians not taxed. and
Michigan. together with North Dako-
| ia, bars those lacking the customs OF
civilization.
Indian Voters of Eastern States.
New England has some 400 voters
Of aboriginal blood. chiefly the Pens
obscot and Passamaquoddy fishermen.
basketmakers and guides of Maine and
the Varsity and Herring River tribes
OF Massachusetts. Rhode Island and
Connecticut divide soma 100 Indians
voters about equally between them.
New York has upward of 800. chiefly
Oneidas, who, within the past gener-3
alton have divided their reservation
into shares and have become agri-
cultural citizens in contrast with sev-1
eral thousands Of Onondagas. Senecas
and Tuscaroras. who still live upon
their State reservations, deprived of
citizenship.
In Pennsylvania some 400 odd abo-
rhymes have the ballot In scattered
communities, Including that OF the
Cornplanter Senecas, of Warren county,
and the other Indians admitted to-
tho the. polls in the East include upward
OF 100 descendants OF the Powhatans.
near Jamestown. Va. and about 000
Cherokees In North Carolina, Georgia..
Alabama and Tennessee. together with
over 500 remnants OF various tribes In
Mississippi all OF these figures repre-
sentinE5 male citizens OF voting age.
lLouisana's famous grandfather clause
lfdIsfranchised about 100 OF our copper
lcolored citizens. a
With only l3S,O0O Indians non-cltl-
zens remaining under national guard
ianship, and with the competency COM
missions about oAsort these out BY
the Interesting process MANNED, the
yexed problem OF the most wronged
and most pathetic element of our pop
|ulation would seem to DO nearing
solution. Most Of the prospective non-
|5competents. outside the extremely
primitive settlements, are aged braves
and squaws. already 50 near the enc
OF llfe's trail that the campfire lights
OF the happy hunting grounds illumine}
their furrowede brows Until the short.
journey Is ended, the poetry Of the
brooks. the lore OF the forests and the
spirit voices moaning in the woods
VIII interest them far more than
and loss. Soon the generations farther
back along the way Will see the last
and copperX finger OF warn.