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Show \ • V « . " " '". F.V*>^*o But there's a man in the Senate who asks questions, and Senator Borah asked questions of Senator Bursum when the bill was presented for adoption in September. To these questions Senator Bursum gave answers which were sweep-ingly incorrect. Senator Borah was not in possession of the information which showed that Senator Bursum either had been grossly misled or was grossly misleading the Senate. Altogether, the "Senate felt comfortable in passing the bill. Then in November the Senate reconvened. Things had been happening meantime. The Pueblos had joined in a mighty inter-tribal council, the first in history, and unanimously had denounced the bill. They, the "interested parties who urgently wanted the Bursum bill," had formally stated they had never been asked about the Bursum bill but on the contrary had been refused information when they sought it from the Government attorney who had drawn the bill. And Senator Borah and other Senators, and the Board of Indian Commissioners who are advisory to the President, had been given the cold-no, the red-hot facts of the situation. Not all the facts-as yet- but all the facts they needed. Therefore Senator Borah moved that the Senate, which had passed the Bursum bill, cancel its action and recall the bill. The Senate recalled the bill. Such a rebuke is not often administered to a fellow- Senator or to a member of the Cabinet. Now the Bursum bill must face Congressional scrutiny alongside the substitute legislation, drafted by the friends of the Indians, which the Pueblos themselves have formally endorsed. Issues bigger than the Pueblo question are going to swing round the Bursum bill. There are twenty New Mexico pueblo groups. They live in twenty-three villages and hold a fee-simple communal-ownership title to nineteen land-grants conferred on them by Spain and conferred again by Congress in 1859. One pueblo, Zuni, occupies a reservation. M;fny of the Pueblos hold in addition a communal fee-simple ownership of lands granted by Spain to non-Indians, which the Pueblos purchased. 1 be Pueblos are the only Indians who have bought land on a large scale; all other tribes have sold land or been robbed of it. 1 hesc Indians are "ward* of the mBy w Government." Their guardian has not guarded them against trespassers, and all the pueblos save Zuni have lost much land, while some, like Picuris, Tesuque, San Ildefonso and many others, though holding a clear legal title to abundant land and water, have seen their land occupied and their water stolen until now they face dreadful alternatives. They must gradually starve or they must forsake their homes, their tradition, their civilization and disperse into railroad towns, mining towns or as tramps by the roadside. Some are choosing to starve, a smaller number is dispersing, but all are still believing in an ultimate justice and decency in the American Government. Ihere is reason to think that this belief is justified. Believing, they are still hoping. Origin of the Bill "I be law is clear, having been enunciated by the Supreme Court in 1913, and it is that these pilfered lands and waters belong to the Indians. Therefore it is "up to" the United States Government to institute suits to recover the lands for their rightful owners. It has been told* how Judge Hanna of Albuquerque, for a brief term (under Secretary Franklin K. Lane) Government attorney defend- It was told in SuNShThovv R. E.Twitch- I ell of Santa Fe was through Secretary 1 Fall made special attorney to defend the A Indians at $8400 a year, and how he ^ J published in .March, 1922, a brief which 9 crusbingly showed that if these suits were * pushed to a determination the Pueblos j would get back their lands. And how, to J observers made dizzy by the quick change | of front, Mr. Twitcbell presented himself . in June, 1922, with A. 13. Renehan, attorney for non-Indian claimants, as coauthor of the Bursum bill which validates these trespasses or claims and invites new claims against the Indians without practical limit. How these men went to Washington and met with Secretary Fall, and then how the Bursum bill entered the Senate as an "administration measure" endorsed, lo! by "all interested parties," of whom the Indians are the parties first interested. The Bursum bill is a direct response to the Sandoval decision of the Supreme Court of 1915 and to Judge Manna's embarrassing procedure aimed to recapture the land and water booty and enable the Indians to make a living. But it goes further than validating, through "secondary evidence," claims and trespasses ancient and modern, with and without "color of title." It smashes fatally at the internal life of the Pueblos by giving to the Federal Courts "exclusive jurisdiction" over such internal arrangments, including the right to hold office at the will of the Pueblos. Any discontented individual Indian can drag the whole community, including the aged men, the caciques or priests, the governor and his council, into court for a determination of pueblo domestic questions by the rules of evidence. Its aim is to nullify the self-government and shatter the moral links ing the Indians, did his duty and ef- which bind the old with the young, the fectively pressed these suits in 1918. Testi- individual with his community mony was taken and arguments were had, and "the Court-well, the Court has refrained from handing down any decision at all. Why? No suggestion of incorrect conduct on the part of the Court is made; there has been none such. But the presumptively winning plaintiff is the Indian Bureau of the Department of the Interior whose chief, Secretary Fall of New Mexico, sponsored*the Bursum bill as an "administration measure." •it-c SuNrtCTtcir Jaai.-.iy, IOL'3, pn«<; 2'2. To finish about the Bursum bill. The Indians were to be its victims and the White voters were told, "Go to it; the Bursum bill will take care of you!" Closer scrutiny has revealed a deeper plot, a far different aim. First, the Bursum bill requires each claimant to Indian lands to institute suit to have his title cleared. True, the Court is made a rubber-stamp, and must clear those titles regardless of facts or the customary rules of law. But a lawyer is |
