The Washington herald., 1922-02-05

which murder will out and chick
ems come home to roost Is being
illustrated again insthis instance
by the California Indians. Tney
gre reaching around behind CAM
fornia's romantic chapter Of gold
discovery and gold-rush history and
bringing out the untold. chapter,
the dark, and II must be confessed.
the shameful chapter And they
are bringing Il out not with
malice prepense-and- aforethought
vindictiveness, but rather in the
form of UNFINISHED business" They
are bringing IL out because 1t is the
foundation of their case" by which
they seek TO establish their rights
sunder unfulnlled treaties OF which
they ask settlement by the gov
srnment-settlemen after seventy
years OF waiting.
Eight ON Mission.
There are eight Indian delegates
in washington. come to look after
the interests of the remaining co.
600 California Indians, and chosen.
financed and sent here by their
own people. Their mission, or. as
they are more likely to call IL
themselves. their business here is
ITO persuade Congress to pass their
court Of claims bill, designed to
enable them to bring their plea for
. settlement before the United States
Court of Claims and have II ad-
Indicated just like any unpaid bill.
Not beaded and feathered and
buckskinned Indians are these, not
pictorial and story-book Indians.
but 4 modern, tailor-made variety,
= to be remarked on Washington
streets because OF their WestSrn
swing. the Western spread and roll
- of their hatbrims, and their cop
perry and IL may be among the
smiling, easy-going Pale Faces,
their rather GRIM set aud saturn
inc expression.
The business settlement they are
asking is Of the eighteen treaties
Of Is51-2 eJ which they ceded all
of California to the United States
Government under the agreement
that they were to have 100000
acres reserved to them and receive
about SI,s00.eoo worth Of goods,
cattle, implements, clothing. and
educational provision. They signed
these treaties, the 400 chiefs and
-headmen OF the 800 tribes and
bandS Of California Indians put
ting their thumb-marks and crosses
ON the dotted line" And they
lived UP to them; they kept their
part of the agreement But never,
from that time to this have they
r received fulnllment of the treaties.
The story of the unfulfillment is
the dark chapter, the shame and the
% tragedy behind the romantic story
OF "the days of old, the days of
gold" that still give a thrill in
song.
white Man Broke Promises.
The eighteen treaties became the
lost treaties to the California In
dams. The solemnly signed papers
Of the white man were taken away
and the promises made in them, so
clear in the Indian mind, never were
kept, though the Indians waited as
the years came and went, and their
numbers dwindled and the white
mans increased, until now seventy
years Of waiting are gone and most
Of the Indians with them, for from
a population of 10000 at the time
Of the making Of the treaties. there
has been a shrinkage to the 10000
Of today.
Their treaties mysteriously be-
came the lost treaties: but the white
man knew how and why. The white
man coveted the California gold. He
didn't want to miss any Of IL, and
surely not by giving away to a lot
OF Indians 100000 acres Of Cali
fornia, any one OF which might
have gold in Il. So the resourceful
goldrushers, the clever. bold adven-
turers from all the land, sent one Of
their own to Washington to pro
tect" their interests. The Senate
went into executive session. the
treaties were not ratified, nor, OF
course, fulfilled. The Indians be-
gan their seventy years of wistful
waiting and wondering when the
white man would keep his promises.
Even yet they wait and wonder; for.
having kept his own promises, the
Indian can not believe that the
white man, grown so rich, so power
full, so numerous, actually will in
the end repudiate those promises,
blandly proclaim himself a liar and
a cheat.
Pushed From Fertile Lands.
They died numerously and miser-
ably while they waited by eviction,
starvation and disease" II Is on
eiaIly admitted. They were pushed
hack. and back, and back, from
whatever the white man wanted.
until the rocks, the barren spots and
the almost inaccessible mountain
Businesses were their refuge, and
they did. indeed, fall so low in their
struggle to survive that they ate
> wild roots and grasshoppers and
lizards and angie-worms. In their
'1stoic resignation and determination
TO persist, their old people refused
To- te-sat sven of what they had-gave
their share to the children. because
I'VE have lived our lives; we can
not be OF use any more; but the
children have their lives to live, and
they must be given their chance"
= Those old people passed on their
claims-and hopes; pledged the
young to hold the white man to his
promises And so, while the white
man bounded the Indian back and
back. until he'd bounded him al
most on the map, the Indian sill
emily carried the bitterness of dis
appointment in his heart. perhaps
,Scorn; but always hope. Hope for
a better day, and, maybe, a better
white man.
Then California Recalled.
After half a century of forget
fulness, neglect and abuse the peo-
. pie Of California few here and
there-and the government remem-
o bered. and by appropriations
sought from Congress and aid from
The once of Indian Affairs some
aressing emergencies of the Cali