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Show 176 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. There is 710 law or equity in this. Government may take land for public purposes, on paying its proper value for it. It caimot seize from one to give to another. There is no legal point here we need tear. But more, the treaties made after these acts of Congress recognized no such grant. These were solemnly ratified, and are supreme law. We do not believe that even ail Ii dian reserve could he violated under such circumstances. But further, have we an Indian policy ? Is it the purpose to keep the Indian Terri-tory for Indians? Is the experiment of Indian civilization really to be honestly tried there? At the present moment we are moving tribe after tribe of semi- civilized and barbarous Indians there, on the pretext of trying- the experiment. Shall we, then, give great grants of the land of these people to railroad companies, and be compelled to cir-cumvent and destroy our whole policy in order that they may find purchasers for it? At first these companies thundered against the Indians ' for raising a Chinese wail to etop railroads and the march of civilization. They demanded a route to the Gulf, on the plea that the interests of commerce required it. Right of way for their roads was granted them by the Indians by treaty. Now they demand land to pay for the building of their roads, on the plea that their legitimate business could not have got them built. I want the commission to look this matter square in the face. Is there to be a belt forty or fifty miles wide, each way through the Territory, filled by white people, who will have grog- shops all the way along f Under what ' law are these people to live? Not under Indian law f Shall there be a lawless belt, or shall we be forced to destroy the Indian governments and Indian civilization; to revolutionize our so- called Indian policy, and blast it, in its very inception, in order that great corporations may make money through our bad faith out of lauds that neither belong to them nor the ' United States? It is sixteen years since I went to Kansas. Then the different tribes had funds and reserves, including the best lands of the State, guaranteed to them. Under various pretexts of civilization, they were induced either to sectionize, or in some way to admit white settlers. Behold the result. To take away the fragments of these people before they are utterly destroyed, the Government is making haste to remove them to the Indian Territory, and now, before they are all in their new home, are we to be in haste to repeat the same wretched experiment? A word about a territorial government for the Indian Territory. It is no doubt de-sirable, as soon asit can honestly and really be done, to consolidate these different nation-alities. The job, however, is a far greater one than most people anticipate. I had companies or regiments from most of these people in my command during the war, and from ten to twenty thousand refugees of all kinds around my camp. I think I know something of theih. Their degrees of civilization widely differ from the Cherokee, with their complete legislative, executive, and judicial system, to the Osages, and still wilder Comanches, who have little government of any kind, and none but their wild tribal one; of voting and judicial matters they have no experience. Even in a coun-cil or legislature, eacli speech and bill, or motion, would have to be interpreted into twenty or thirty languages. 1 think they can be educated to the highest standard, but it will take effort and time. To destroy the good governments already there for such an experiment would be disastrous. It should be a work, and a great work not an arbi trary act. Who is urging this measure? The Indians themselves protest against it. It is pressed by the railroad companies, who wish to take their lands, and by the squatters, who are hungry ' to jump upon them. In closing, I would entreat you to give these matters your profound attention. Great issues hang upon them. Mistakes we cannot afford to make. It is my opinion, and I submit these three points to your judgment: First, to maintain the integrity of their possessions, and that their lands shall never be taken but with their consent, and only for their full value to them. Secondly, that no territorial government shall be forced on theni, or introduced, or permitted until they are prepared for it, and that it shall only be a government of their own people; and, lastly, that we make every honorable effort to Christianize and civilize but never arbitrarily change their condition, until they shall really have been prepared for the change; that we will not permit our wish, that they be civilized like us, to run away with our judgment ; that their consent be obtained, and that they be encouraged to make necessary changes, rather than driven into them, well knowing that the latter will surely fail and only make them, vagabonds and outcasts in our midst. The convention then took a recess of forty minutes to allow the committee on reso-lutions to retire and report. After recess, The committee on resolutions reported the following, which, being separately consid-ered, were unanimously adopted : RESOLUTIONS. Resolved, 1st. That this convention heartily approves the humane policy of the Gov-ernment toward the Indians, and we earnestly recommend that they be secured iu possession of their lands, and be protected from encroachments. |