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Show '26 . REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIES. untutored mind is possibly incapable of comprehending. In this new career he will be alone, and alone he must solve the problems of his life. Whether he will be able to successf11Il.y conduut his own affairs, cope with his more intelligent.and more active white neighbor, and make himself a good citizen, is aproblem for the future to solve. OITIZENSHIP INEVITABLE. The policy above ontlined will eventually make all Indians citizens of theunited States, when the Indian reservation will no longer appear on our maps, and the autonomy of the tribes, a fact to us, will be mere history to the generations that will come. Nearly every year Congress has taken a step toward the full recog. nition of the individuality of the Indian, the final abolition of tribal or-ganizations, and the total extinction of the tribal sovereignty, and this is what the future has inevitably in store for the race. It may be re-mote, but the time is surely eomillg when these alien, quasi-independent nations within our territorial limits will have disappeared, and the indi-vidunls coqposing them will have been absorbed in our population, be-coming fully and eornpletely subject to the jurisprudence of the United States, both civil and criminal. STATIJS OF INDIANS IN MEXIOAN QESSION. In the preceding discussion of the political status of Indians reference has been had to all the Indians in the United States, althongh the status of those within the territory ceded by Mexico by the treatyof Fehroary 2,18&8, and known as the '6 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo" (9 Stats., 929), is not so clear as that of other Indians. The tribes whioh came into the United States by the Louisiana and Florida purchases had not by any treaties with 8pain or France been made subjects or citizens of either of those countries, so their political relatious to the United States at the time they ca.me within its jurisdictional limiits were not in any manner different from the relations then existing between the United Statex and othn* t , r i h r ~w ithin the territory originally belonging to the English oolonien. I Tre8.t~o f Guadalupe Hidalgo.-The eighth and ninth articles of this treaty provide a8 follows, viz : ARTICLE VIII. Mexicans now estabiinhed in territories previounly belonging to Mexico and which remain for the future witbin the limits of the United States, as defined by the present treaty, shall be freeto continue where they now reside, ortoremove at any time to the Mexican Republic, retmining the property which they possess in the said territories, or disposing thereof and removing the proceeds wherever they please, without their being sabjeoted, on this account, to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever. Those who shall prefer to remain in the add ,territories may either retain the title and rights &B Mexican citizens, or acquire those of citizeosof the United Ststes. But they shall he nuder the obligation to make their election withiu 1 year from the date |
