OCR Text |
Show 26 If the defendant is on the lands of the pueblo, without the consent of all the inhabitants, he may be ejected or punished civilly, by a suit for trespass, according to the laws regulating such matters in the Territory. If he is there with their consent or license, we know of no injury which the United States suffers by his presence, nor any statute which he violates in that regard. The judgment of the Supreme Court of the Territory is, therefore, affirmed. Although we agree with the findings of the Court in some particulars, we must disagree with the idea that because the Pueblo Indians have certain qualities, they are, therefore, not entitled to similar protection under the United States to that which they received under Spain and Mexico. As we review the actions of the territorial legislature of New Mexico and consider the findings of the territorial courts as they examined these actions in the light of laws of the United States pertaining to Indians generally, and even when some of these cases are referred to the Supreme Court of the United States, in retrospect some considerations demand further discussion: First, it is apparent from examples cited from these cases that the legislators, lawyers, and judges were uninformed in some cases and misinformed in others in relation to the nature, the lifeways, and the law-ways df the Pueblo Indians and of the Indians, in general, of the United States that they were continuously and sometimes in such extreme generalities using for comparison; and second, it is apparent that what impressed the Anglos involved at the time was the extent to which the Pueblo Indians were unlike the Indians of the United States, generally, and how much they were like the ideal Hispanos and Americans |