The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-04-26
Frederic Haskin's Letter
Spare the Pueblos.

washington, u. u. April "a
There are several thousand indi-
yiduals in this country who are
, about to have the boon OF Ameri-
can 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 citizens means for
them to become paupers. Most OF
the people who are urging citizen
ship upon them know this, too.
These "aliens" are not foreign
born. On the contrary, their an
cestors have been here 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 meas
ure which threatens to thrust it upon
them is the Indian citizenship bill,
introduced into the last congress
and likely to be passed by this one.
It provides that the Indians, who
are now wards Of the government,
shall be made citizens, and that
their property, which the govern
ment has held in trust for them,
shall be divided among them to be
used as they please. The bill
makes exceptions of several tribes
which are supposed not to be quail
fed for citizenship, but it makes
no exception of the Pueblos, de-
spite the fact that they are con-
sidered by many to be utterly unfit
for citizenship, and have made a
special plea to be excused from it.
Friends of the Pueblos are max
ing determined 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 if 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
valYe-one which has given pleas
ure 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 wonder
full glimpse of America as it was
before Columbus came, and an op-
, portunity to study primitive men
who have kept their customs and
beliefs unchanged through foul
centuries of contact with Spanish
and American civilization.
The Disappearing Indian.
| Practically every other Indiar
tribe in America has lost its orig.
inal character, and inevitably SO
The Navajo, who was maraudel
and a nomad, has become a peace
, full sheep herder. The Apache
who out-fought and out-generalet
!, the soldiers of Spain and Of thu
United States for two centuries, ha!
become a dirty idle fellow with {
;, perpetual thirst for firewater. Som,
of the Oklahoma tribes have be
!, come so civilized that you cal
! scarcely tell them from their whit,
neighbors. So some Indians hav'
degenerated, some have died out
some have been absorbed by inter
marriage, some have gained foot
} hold in the civilization that over
whelmed their tribes. Only tn,
Pueblos have remained as the,
| were. And the reason is simple
The Pueblos were sedentary In
dams when America was discov
cred. They represented the begin
nings of a native civilization here
They had already built three-stor,
!. communal apartment houses, the.
2 cultivated the land by an irriga
} ton system which the, white mel
learned from them, they made pot
!. terry and cloth, not only with skill
but with an art which is admirable
: These Indians were not warlik
= and needed nothing but the per
: mission to live in their strang,
: houses and cultivate their lands
4 They were capable of remaining
: part of civilization without change
This fact was appreciated by tn
Spanish colonial administrators
who confirmed and protected tn
r Pueblos in the possession of thei
r lands. Mexico did the same whel
that country became independent o
y Spain, and when the United State
y took possession of New Mexico il
lS46, the treaty we made with Mex