From the Boston Pilot.
The Puritans of New England and the Cavaliers of Virginia alike
treated the Indians as though they had no rights of manhood. The
Catholics, Baptists, and Quakers treated them kindly and justly. The
Puritans took Indian lands without permission or compensation. The
Catholics, Baptists and Quakers bought lands from the Indians in an
honorable way.
The two policies have been in conflict for nearly three centuries.
The Government has held to the policy of buying lands from the
Indians, thus recognizing their ownership; but it has not always paid
the price agreed upon. Now, under the lead of Senator Dawes Congress
has passed a bill which annuls the treaties, and overrides all
proprietary rights of every tribe, except nine of the most civilized.
His bill is the "Indian Land in Severalty Bill." It pretends to be in
the interest of the Indians, but that pretense is a fraud. It is
wholly in the interest of railroad companies, land syndicates, and
private white settlers.
The treaties of 1868 and 1876 guarantee the Sioux tribes undisturbed
possession of their reservation in Dakota. Not an acre of that land
can be taken from them without the consent of three-fourths of them.
So read the treaties signed by the United States Commissioners and
confirmed by the United States Senate.
The Dawes Severalty Bill takes the Sioux reservation from the control
of the Sioux without asking the consent of a single Indian, surveys it
as though it was a body of public land, and then says to the Sioux:
The Government will return a small homestead for each of you, as
individuals, and after twenty-five years you shall have titles to
these small tracts, but the remainder of the reservation, (about
four-fifth) must be opened to white settlers.
The Sioux protest against this outrage, and have appealed to the
National Indian Defence Association at Washington, D. C., to protect
their rights. This association has resolved to test the
constitutionality of this bill in the Supreme Court of the United
States, and asks all friends of justice to sustain them in this legal
contest.