The Alaska daily empire., 1915-03-20
.SyLZER PLEADS
 INDIAN CAUSE

Although it has been advocated 10 } many years by an political portie ] in Alaska. and although grand iul
 ies have recommended it ln their rl
 ports filed with lhe United State 3 judges ln the North action lUoklne {
 the establishment of the politica status of Indians in Alaska has neye
 been definitely started until yestei day, in the Territorial Soneie whei ] Senator Suizers bilI to proclaim Cha ! enfranchlsoment Of natives who hayl ! severed an tribal relationship, wa
 introduced The measure providel ] an examination by majority or th,
 teachers ol any government schoo
 n Alaska
 Senator Sulzer declares the bn
 would remedy condition which ho. i been of great detrIment to the Ter
 ritory Tt seems to me-. he said "that the enactment Of law regard ing citizenship Of the natives, In ac cordance with the provisions of my bin, or some similar bin, is one of the most important matters that can be considered by our present legisla ture"
 A Regular "Footbalw
 .The citizenship or natives has been a very badly mooted question for long time In Alaska, and feel that we should do everything In our power to endeayor to settle the mat. ter and definitely establish the stat Jus of the intelligent native 40 the present time he appears to be In sort of twilight zone dangling In the air. unable to get a clear foot hold either above or below
 The Indian was here first and we have an important obligation to per form In assisting him to reach the higher levels, and we should hold out an incentive to him that win en- courage him to learn and strive to live in such way that he may reach the heights. At the present time we an know that there are some of our native population who are highly in. teiligent industrious. capable and law.abidlng people, and there is no reason why they should not exercise the rights of citizenship As a mat. ter of fact, they are citizens entitled to an Che rights privileges and am munltcb Of citizenship under the laws Of the United States. and some of them have been exercising these rights. but the difficulty has been just how Co determine who is and who is not entitled to citizenship. t hos heen a matter that necessar. lly has had to be determined and tried out in each individual case up. on its merits and Che poor unfortu. nate native is constantly in an awk ward position Of not Knowing wheth CT be is a citizen or whether he is not
 "lt is Q matter that Is fully as im- portant to the white people as to the native because where some are ex- ercising citiznship it is but natural that they all desire to do the same thing, and 1t will be generally ack- that it would be unwise at lhis time to have a wholesale ! movement in this direction. but un- less some such laws as is provided for In this act is put upon the stat l ute books there is grave danger that such will be the case This would cause much confusion controversy. ! and difficulty with election boards and in many other ways. and 1t is a I condition that should be provided for lt this time
 'The native. himsolf. does not de- sire anything unreasonable and is anxious 10 avoid any general move nent that would ultimately mitigate against him, but he does want to nave some method provided by which his statute can be definitely deter. mined. and to have an incentive that gin encourage him to strive to reach , higher plone.