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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. LXVII that,while on tho one hand we have the opinion of a United States judge tlrat the Pueblo Indians should be treated as citizens of, the United . States, on the otl~er,w e find the Department to have uniformly treated them as wards of thenation. The two positiousseem hardly reconcilable. Tile status of these Iudians is now getting to be an important. ques-tion. Quite recently a delegation composed of leading men of the Ix- !eta sud Sauto Do~uingo pueblos, claiming to represent the various Pueblos of New Xexico, vib;ited this cit~.s, eeking the interventioll of the Goverument against the threatened taxatiou of their 1a11ds by the Territorial anthorities. Aggressions upon their lands and insidious en-deavors by the whites, under corer of alleged leases, to obtain possex-sion thereof, requiring an appeal to the Territorial courts to maintain the rights of the ln~lians,h ave been reported to this office; and suits, in which the authority of the Uniled States district attoruey to appear on their bellwlf is denied, are now pending. In this c o ~ ~ r ~ e ci tt imoa~y ~h e remarked that under the statutes of New Mexico the PuebloInilia~~usn, til they shall be declarcd by C0ugres.i to have the right, are exclncled from the privilege of rotillgat the popular elections of ' the Territory, except iu the L'eleetio~ifso r overseers of ditches to mhicl~ they belong," and in the elections proper to their pueblos or villages to elect t,heir o6icers acoording to their ancieut cus. toms. (Src. 1137, Rev. Stat., X. Mex., 1884.) In 1854 t.he Cougress of the United States in the contested election oase of Lalie 9. Qallegos, decided that the Pueblo Indians were not citizens and not entitled to vote. (Honse Report No. 131, Thirty-third Congress, first session.) In view of the material condition of these Indians, which in the maiu is but little changed from that when they first came under the author-ity 09 the United States, and of the embarrass~nentsj vhicl~ are likely to arise by rertson of the action of the Territorial goverumeut on the question of taxation, I think it a subject which fairly co~nmends itself to the attention of Congress, t,o the end that some measures may he take11 lookiug to a defiuition of the true status of the Pueblo Indianx, and for the protection of their lands and property, whioh it is clear thcy are not themselves able to protect; I will add that., upon the recommendation of this office, the Depart-ment, on the 22d September last, addressed a letter to the governor of the Territory of New Mexico requesti~~hfimi to use his iatlnet~cein tlie necessary direction to obtl~in a suupeusion of action by the couuty auchoritie,~u ntil snch time ns the matter can be full^ considercdby Oon-gress and the status of the Pueblo 1111liausd efined. ATTEMPTED APPROPIZWTION BY WHITE SETTLERS OF LANDS BELONG-ING TO THE ZURI INDIANS. Under date of June 12 last,, Yaequi Pie, governor of Zufii, addressed a communication to the President complaining that certain yhite men |
