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Show LAW FOR INDIANS. p-p~~--~ ~~~~~~~ REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. IX arefuge to the most lawless and desperate white men in America. There the vagabonds, the outcasts, the criminads, the most immoral and licen. tious of the population of the western portion of the country take up their abode, because there they are practically beyond the reach and operation of law, and can live lives of crime and debauchery with impu-nity and without reproach. Such men seriously obstruct, if they do not \ render nugatory, every eftort to give assistance to the Indians. I By the conceutratiou of Indians on a few reservations, it is obvious that much of the difficulty now surrounding the Indian question will vanish. Many agencies now conducted at large expense could be abol-ished. The aggregate boundary.liues between the reservations and -- country occupied by white people would be greatly reduced, and the Jly predercssors have frequently rallrd at tcut io~to~ thestavtliag fact that we 11avew ithin our midst 275,UUO [~eolslet,l ie least irrtelligr~~pto r. tion of our popolnrion, for !\.hum we provide 110 law, either li)r their protection or for thep~inixhment ot'crime cornn1ittc.d alnolla tl~en~selves. Civilizntiou even ;inlong white mru conld not lolig exist wirl~octt tho gnarantees which laa alone affords ; yet our Inllians are re~sitted I)J a I danger of violence, bloodshed, aud mutual wrong materially lesserred. The sale of liquors and arms could be more efYectually prevented; bad white men could more easily be kept out of the Iudia~cl ountry; neces-sary supplies could be more cheaply furnished; a far smaller military force would be required to keep the peace; and generally, the Indians, being more co~npact, could be more efficiently aided and controlled by the officers of the Government. I\loreover, lnrgc bodiesof land would be thrown open to settlement,.proceeds of whose sale would b.e ample to defray all expense of the removals. ALLOTBIENTS IN SXYERALTY. 1 ! i It is doubtful whether any high degreeof civilization is possible with-out individual ownership of laud. The records of the past and the experience of the present testify that the soil should be made secure to the individual by all the guarantees mhich law can devise, aud that nothing less will induce men to put fbrtb their best exertions. No gen-eral law exists which provides that Indians shall select allotments in sev-eralty, and it seems tomes matteroE great moment that provision shoold be made not only permitting, but requiring, the head of each Iudiar~fa m-ily, to accept the allotment of a reasonaWe amount of land, to be the property of himself and his lawful heirs, in lieu of any interest in any common tribal possession. Such allotmel~tss hould be inalienable for at least twenty, perhaps fifty years, and if situated in a permanent Indiar reservation, should be transferable only among Inclians. I am not unaware that this proposition will meet with strenuous opposition from the Indiaus themselves. Like the whites, they have ambitious men, who will resist to tlre utmost of their power auy change tending to reduce the authority which they have acquired by personal etfort or by inl~eritance; but it is essential that these men and their claims should he pushed aside and that each individual should feel tirat his home is his own; that he owes no allegiance to any great inan or to any faction ; that he has a direct personal interest in the soil ou which he lives, and that that interest will be faithfully protected for him and for his cfiildren by tlie Governmeut. |
