The Odanah star. [volume] (Odanah, Ashland Co., Wis.) 1912-1916, 1914-10-30
Subscriptions Rates.
WHAT WE ivDI--
ANS MUST DO
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among his tribe to defray expenses TO
Washington and back IN order TO
carry their complaints and be heard
and considered in their rights, the
Sunerintendent with the aid OF the
Indian policemen takes this indian,
takes the money away from him ana
gives back the money TO tnose con
tributed. puts him in jail and Dranos
him as a grafter.)
NV Indian friends, it seems that we
have no voice in ur~affairs. 1t seems
that all we can do is to sit there
like dummies and see our property
fade away and wonder what next. our
woods 90 TO the Forestry Reserve;
cur fertile lands to the Irrigation Pro-
iect: our rich minerals TO the miners,
and our waters to the interested
narties that build dams and proflt
within our Reservations. In all OF
these it seems that we are counted
out. If our Society is going TO amount
to anything, Go you not think we
ought in some way stand up for our
people? If this taking away what be-
LONGS to US continues very much
longer, where do you suppose we will
land?
AS the Society CT American Ia
dians, it is our duty to protect and
aid in some way-to stop these
wholesome smuggling away of our
peoples property. Can you imagine
any other race allowing this without
their consent?
The sooner the Government abol-
ishes the Indian Bureau, the better
it will be for us Indians in every way.
The system that has kept alive the
Indian Bureau has been instrumental
in dominating over our race for fifty
years. In that time the Indians wei
fare has grown to be secondary and
the Indian Bureau the whole thing,
and, therefore, a necessary political
appendage of the Government. 1t
sends out exaggerated and wonderful
reports to the public in order to
suck the blood of our race, SO that it
may have perpetual life to sap your
life, my life and our childrens' future
prospects There are many good
things to say about the Indian De-
partment. It started out right with
our people. 1t fed them, clothed them
and protected them. from going out
side of the Reservations. It was
truly place of refuge. They were
dominated by Agents; now they are
called superintendent. On the Res
ervations our people did not act with
out the consent of the superintend-
emit; they did not express themselves
without the approval of the Superin-
tendent, and they did not dare to
think for that would be equal to the
Superintendent. Yesterday, today.
our people are in the same benighted
condition. AS Indians they are con-
sidered non-entities. They are not
any thing to themselves and not any
thing to the world. (
1t would be wrong for me to come
here and tell you that the Reserva-
ton System is good and helpful to
our people and that the Indian Bur-
eau should be perpetuated when
know in my heart that it has been the
greatest hindrance on the road from
Indian life to civilization.
5, Look at New York and Chicago
cities and the tepees on Reservations.
Look at Harvard, Yale, Princeton and
Madison and the day schools on In
dian Reservations; hear the jscreech-
ing locomotive and the whir of indus
try and see the light of electricity
and behold the grand panorama OF
agriculture gardens from the Altar
tic to the Pacific Coasts, from Car
ada to the Gulf of Mexico and then
the lounging Indians around thu
Agency buildings and under shad ]
trees. Paradoxical as the Statements
may sound, it is nevertheless true
that the greatest obstacle that lie
along the path toward the solution al
our problem is the existence of ths
Indian Bureau at Washington. 1t il
the power plant that supplies
life current to the Reservation
1t is a strange situation that the
Indian Bureau would seem to exie.
for no other purpose than to pre-
serve the Reservations. In other
words the source from which the In
dian ought to find relief from the
evils of the Reservations SYSTEM is thc
very source without which the evil
would not exist.
Do away with the Indian Bureau
As an Indian Society, we must nc
shy, be timid and shrink and hold
back on this stand against the Tndia~
Bureau. The Indian Bureau viii NO
free itself. If we are progressive fo,
our peoples interests, we must b.
the first ores to voice it; we must frs,
start the wave of public sentinaen,
throughout the breadth and length 81