The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-10-31
What is an Indian?

America-so called from the supposed
! identity of America with India" Bu
this definition, while it may answer
ordinary school book purposes, doe:
not go far enough-certainly not fal
enough for the Indian himself, mol
for those who have taken upon them
selves the task of seeing that the pres
ent descendants of the original Ameri
cans get their rights in the civilized
communities they have become part
of through no act nor desire of theiI
own.
This facC was brought so forcibly be
the Indian and Other Dependent Peo
plies this year that one of the most
important planks in its annual plat
form called upon the government to
define just what an Indian is. In 9th
er wOrds-IIow much white blood can
flow in his veins before he ceases to
be an Indian in the eyes of the law
and becomes a white man.
For the past thirty-three years teach
ers of Indian schools, missionaries
whose work lies among the Indians,
government Indian officers and EN-
ployes of the service and wealthy men
and women who have labored for the
Red Mans welfare without compensa-
tion have been meeting at Mohonk
Lake in the Shawangunk Mountains of
southeastern New York to exchange
views and adopt recommendations
which they have urged upon the feder-
al government with varying degrees
of success. This year the conference
concluded that the confusion as to the
Indians legal status lay at the bot
tom of many of his long standing ills.
Troubles of this kind first claimed
attention when the government recog-
nized the Indians title TO reservation
lands which of late years have devel-
oped great value through the discov-
cry of oil or minerals or from the in
creasing natural value of this prop
erty as farming or timber land due to
the march of civilization and the set
tlement of the western territories. In
many instances these lands have been
bought from the Indians and opened
to settlement and the proceeds have
been deposited in the United States
treasur to the credit of the various
tribes. The division of this purchase
money has made many Indian families
but it has also raised up a
multitude of impostors who claim a
share in the division by virtue of In
dian blood.
Another phase of the problem has
been the definition of what constitutes
a full blood" Indian and what a
'miXed-blood." In a laudable effort to
save the Indian from the wiles of un !
white men who have in |
1uced him to barter his inheritance |
'or a fraction of its value, the govern
nent in at least one instance provided |
hat only those of mixed blood could !
dispose of their lands. This law has
proved of little value to the Indian be-
,ause in many cases those who have
'obbed him, have been able to con-
,ince the courts that their victims had
enough white blood in their veins to
Dring them within the "mixed-blood"
lass; although in many cases this
raction of Caucasian blood was so
small that to all purposes the victim
vas wholly Indian. Certainly il did
lot give him the education or the
bility to guard his property.
The Lake Mohonk Conference, as
Is name implies, deals not only with
he Indian, but with other races no
ess uneducated and dependent which
ave come under the American flag
ince we began to assume our share
f the white Mans Burden" The
atives of Porto Rico, judging from
he testimony of such well qualified
illnesses as Governor Arthur Wager
f Porto Rico; Manuel V. Domenech,
of the interior; Jorge
,ominquez, a member of the insular
oard of health; and Howard L. Kern,
ttorney general of Porto Rico, are
lany of them even more in need of
elp than the aboriginal American
overnor Yager emphasized the singu-
lr fact that the Porto Ricans abso- :
ltely refuse to live up to one of the
enerally accepted laws governing the
irth rate. In all civilized communi-
es hard times and increasing diff
1lties in their struggle for existence {
ave invariably checked the growth OF {
opulation. Not so in Porto Rico. I
here the laboring classes have gone I