OCR Text |
Show Uinta council, 23. the Secretary wishes to convey to you. A number of you speakers have said that you do not like my words. My words to you have been truthful. If I had presented the matter differently or in any other way I would not have been stating to you what I was delegated to say. If I said things pleasing to your ears which were not truths the Secretary would be very much displeased with me. How my friends,the statements of your speakhrs have convinced me that you do not understand what I have said. Prom your speeches you are evidently laboring under a mistake by thinking that I an here to negotiate an agreement with you people. You seem to be impressed with the belief that I am sent here to make a treaty with you for the opening of your reservation. You lose sight of the fact,or do not understand,that this which I present to you is already a law of Congress, I am here to submit thi3 law to you and explain every feature of it that you may understand,so that you may consent to take your allotments. One of your speakers said that every Indian tribe in this country had a reservation. That was formerly the case,but is not so now. There are now many former reservations that have been opened o and the Indians have taken their land in severalty and live like white men in every respect. They have homes and farms and they can go to the polls and vote for Congressmen and county officers just as the white men do. "Sfcere that condition has been brought about we find the Indians have advanced more rapidly; they have become like their white neighbors in almost every respect. How you are about to meet that condition on your reservation. Your reservation is going to be opened under similar conditions that governed the reservations in the Indian Territory,Oklahoma and elsewhere. |