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Show / EEPORT OF T H C~OM MISSIONE:R OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 26 A PREOARIOUS SITUATION. The Government has now full care of the estates of the Indian tribes as represented by their laud8 and by their trust funds upon which inter. est is annually paid to them and for their benefit, and, to a limited extent, it has control over and care of the persons of the Indians themselves. It is in these respects that our relations to the Indian tribes and to the Indians themselves have been said to resemble those of a guardian to his ward. This paternal oare and oontrol of t,heir affairs was assumed by the United States by virtue of the necessities of the situation and not by virtue of any power granted the nation in the Constitution. The degraded condition of the Indians, their thriftless habits, and their ignorance of and inability to adapt themselves to the customs of the whites, as well as to cope with them in commerce, all required that some proper authority should be exercised in protecting the tribes "against further decline and final extinctionn and their estates from waste and destruction. As the only power competent under the cir-cumstances to exercise this guardian oare it &evolved upon the United States. When the Indians shall have become citizens of the United States this paternal control will cease. They will no longer he subject in any respect to'restraiut by this office, but will have the right to go where they plea~ea nd when they please. Their contracts will not be sub-ject to approval by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs or the Secre-tary of the Interior, but will stand on an equal footing with those of other United States citizens. There will be no restriction of trade with them, and in fact whatever rights may be enjoyed by a citizen of the United Statea will be theirs, and they will no longer he subjeot to arrest at the instance of a United States Indian agent or by the Indian police, nor to trial and punishment by the courts of Indian of- fensesfor misdemeanors over which those courts now have jurisdi'~ 1t0' 0. At the same time, with the exception that their lands received under allotment laws will be exempt from taxation for a period of twenty-five years, and possibly longer, they will be subject to theburdens borne by other citizens, and must manage their own affairs. Except in a very few cases where the members of a particular tribe have had peculiaradvantagen over others, in acquiring the hahitsandcus-tolns of our civilizittion and a knowledge of the laws of our commerce, the Indian naturalized into the United States, nnder recent laws pro-vided for the purpose, will find himself in a most precarious and dan-gerous situation. Unaccustomed to the recognition in him of any rights ' as an individual, and accustomed as he is to regard himself only as an integral part of the unit represented by his tribe, subject to the control and protection of the United States, he will find himself suddeuly re-leased from his wardship and ushered upon the threshold of a new life, with new privileges and new responsibilities, the gravity of which his |
