Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-04-28

wv several thousand individuals in this
country who are about to have the
boon of American citizenship conferred upon
them by the congress of the United States,
and who protest vigorously against that
honor. They protest on the simple ground
that they cannot compete with other citizens
of this country in the grand game known
as business. They know that to become citi-
zens means for them to become paupers.
Most of the people who are urging citizenship
upon them know this, too.
I These "aliens' are not foreign born. On
the contrary their ancestors have been mere
for several million years, and came originally
from Asia by way of Boring strait These
people who are trying to escape citizenship
are the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. The
measure which threatens to thrust it upon
them is the Indian citizenship bill, introduced
into the last house and likely to be passed
by this one. 1t provides that the Indians,
who are now wards of the government, shall
be made citizens, and that their property,
which the government has held in trust for
them, shall be divided among them to be
used as they please. The bill makes excep-
tions of several tribes which are supposed
not to be qualified for citizenship, but II
makes no exception of the Pueblos, despite
the fact that they are considered by many
to be utterly unfit for citizenship, and have
made a special plea to be excused from it.
Friends of the Pueblos are making a de-
termined effort to have these Indians spared
the burdens of citizenship. They are doing
this not only for the sake of the Indian, who
will almost certainly lose his lands II he is
not protected by the government, but also
for the sake of the country at large, which,
with the breaking up of the Pueblo villages,
will lose treasure OF the greatest historical
and scientific Value-One which has given
pleasure to thousands of Americans and will
give pleasure to thousands more. The Pueblos
are valuable as Yellowstone National Park
and Niagara Falls are valuable. They are
picturesque and charming in themselves, they
afford a wonderful glimpse of America as
it before Columbus came, and an oppor-
tunity to study primitive men who have kept
their customs and beliefs unchanged through
four centuries of contact with Spanish and
American civilization
The Disappearing Indian
Practically every other Indian tribe in
America has lost it's original character, and
inevitably so. The Navajo, who was a ma
rauder and nomad, has become peaceful
sheep herder. The Apache, who outfought and
outgeneraled the soldiers of Spain and of
the United States for two centuries, has be-
come dirty idle fellow with a perpetual
thirst for firewater. Some of the Oklahoma
tribes have become so civilized that you can
scarcely tell them from their white neigh
bors. So some Indians have degenerated,
some have died out, some have been absorbed
by intermarriage, some have gained foot
hold in the civilization that overwhelmed
their tribes Only the Pueblos have rema ned
as they were. And the reason is simple The
Pueblos were sedentary Indians when Amer
lea was discovered. They represented the be-
ginnings of a native civilization here They
had already built three-story communal apart
ment houses, they cultivated the land by an
irrigation system which the white men learn
cd from the /, they made pottery and cloth,
not only with skill, but with an art which is
admirable.
These Indians are not warlike and needed
nothing but the permission to live in their
strange houses and cultivate their lands.
They were capable of remaining a part of
civilization without change. This fact was
appreciated by the Spanish colonial admins
traitors who confirmed and protected the
PueblOs in the possession of their lands.
Mexico did the same when that country be-
came Independent Of Spain, and when the
United States took possession of New Mexico
in 1916, the treaty made with Mexico
once more confirmed the Pueblos in the pos
| session Of the land and made it impossible
for him to sell it. That is why the Pueblo
remains today as curious and beautiful
survival of primitive America.
Value of PuebIoS
More and more the Pueblo is being appre-
cated by artists, scientists and by Americans
in general who travel When he holds one
| of his strange dances, hundreds, sometimes
| thousands, of spectators come to watch.
! Every year a regiment of learned scientists
goes to New Mexico to study the Pueblos,