Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-02-21
1.-THE MERCiLESS sAVAGES"
BIackfeet Indians, Now at Our Mercy,
Treated Without Chivalry or
Ine$ieA

Blackfeet Indians, Now at Our Mercy,
Treated Without Chivalry or
Justice
One Of the misdccds cited against
George Ill in our Declaration OF InI-
dependence was his bringing upLr us
the mcrciless Indian savages and
their known rule OF warfare. And
some of the most interesting and up-
lifting literature of our country is
that depicting the hated redskin
falling before the unerrins ailI OF
white heroes. The American Indian
was long our natural and ever
adjacent enemy. We learned to hate
him. He fought us for more man
200 years, rather calamity sometimes,
and for cause. We beat him.
Far days those, my brothers. far
days. Once we fought CALAMITY al
so, hated keenly, like men, like war
riors ourselves. But for this pos
trate foc-nevcr as barbarous as our
last civilized fOc-Wc always have
forgotten chiValry and justice. We
have beaten him not alone by super
Tor arms, but have disintegrated nm
mentally and morally. No means or
manner of destruction have We felt
beneath us. The low and cunning
conduct which has gone on behind
our general ignorance of the con-
ditiGn of the abicct Indians of toGdy
has rolled up a record of infamy be-
fore which any warrior or any
gentleman would blush and turn
away.
The Indian has not been the equal
OF the Negro before our laws. But
he had more of which he might be
robbed. and he was robbed. The
allotment Of lands to the Indians.
in 2randiOSe gesture inviting them
TO forsakc the hunting trail and he
come farmers like ,hp white men,
was the most cunning thing we ever
did to wipe them out. To the tribal
lands. the hunting grounds. the rcd
man chung with all his zeal, his
fighting instinct. That was the only
kind OF land title he ever under
stood. Put him on Il quarter section
and say to him. This is yours" and
he never understood Nou at ali II
meant nothing to him. So the more
valuable individual allotmcnts were
parted with as fast as or faster I!.an
they were allotted. usually under il
legal contracts. made before the
patent was issued. 1t is not too
much to say that half OF the land and
most OF the money of Okla homa
have no actual title under it. | once
studied the question of Indian allot-
ments in Oklahoma III the course of
some magazine work. 1t was the
foulest mess | ever saw in all my
life.
The record runs much the Same all
over the West where 4 foot of dcsir-
able land remains in any Indian
reservation. For instance. do YOU
know anything of the Blackfeet poo
pie: The story of This. the most
makes a typical sordld little drama of
civilization. In 1885 the United
States admitted the indian title to the
old hunting range of the Blackfect.
over Il strip in and around what is
now Glacier Park. 800 miles by ABOUT
80. In 1867 the Indian Bureau,
without the consent of the Black
feet. cut down their lands to a
strip OF 60 miles by $50. Some white
men in Montana wanted the land.
In 1883 the buffalo passed-the
white skin hunters had done their
work. Five hundred Blackfeet star
we'd to death that year. In 1887 the
Blackfect sold to the United States
for $l,500,000. the eastern part of
their reservation. In 1896 they sold
GLACIER Park for like sum. The
Indian Bureau bought for them cat
tie, cut off their rations. told them
to go to work. Work? At what. and
where They starved They ate
their issue cattle, for they had moth
ing else to eat. Close al our mills.
factories, stores. farms, and how
could YOU and | eat?
Then came the white mans last
Observation-Disclosures allotment. Each
Blackfoot got 800 acres of land.
What could he Do with it? He
starved. Now the Indian Bureau
took $960,000 of the Elackfoot money
without their consent-and built
a nisfit. terribly over-expensive ir-
risatlon system. 1t served the lands
of white men but not OF the Black
feet
Reduced now 10 less than 1000,
the mighty Blaclfcct nation staryos.
They are dying fast-like the
ChoctaWs of Eastern Oklahoma. The
Government has played ducks and
brakes with their lands, with their
funds. 1t will give them no mere.
y strong effort is making to raise
private funds to feed the women and
babies. But that fund mas no Hoover.
Inc Ukraine. Armenia, the Near East
lands which have no horrors worse
than those existing today in Amerl-
ca-are closer to our HEARTS than
this Near West. in Montana, where
annually hundreds of thousands OF
comfortable citizens go motoring for
pressure Five miles from the jazz
bands of Glacier Park the Blacklcct
Stalve. Weak, broken at last, they
nave drawn their blankets over their
heads. Between them and death TO-
DAY there stands a private fund
not s96o.ooo. not $4,000 900. but
precisely S210.
Messieurs. faitcs vos jeux! sings
the croupicr of fate Les icux sont
1aits. Soon the last work. Ricn ne
va plus.
Nothing more goes. There is
nothing left. The bureaus, the Of
1lclals, our chosen chiefs, our Cabi-
net members. guardians of our honor
as warriors and gentlemen, will
cease to steal from the HELPLESS. The
defeated, the broken and the diving
"hen there is nothing left to steal.
EMERSON HOUGH
In Public Ledger