Indians of North America; Indians of North America -- Government relations; Indians of North America -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Third: the experiment of citizenship, except with the more advanced
tribes, is at the serious risk, amounting almost to a certainty, of the
immediate loss to the Indians of the whole of their scanty patrimony,
through the improvident and wasteful alienation of the lands patented to
them, the Indians being left thus without resource for the future,
except in the bounty of the general government or in local charity. On
this point a few facts will be more eloquent than many words.
The United States have by recent treaties or legislative enactments
admitted to citizenship the following Indians,--In Kansas, Kickapoos,
12; Delawares, 20; Wyandots, 473; Pottawatomies, 1,604: in Dakota,
Sioux, 250: in Minnesota, Winnebagoes, 159: in Wisconsin, Stockbridges,
to a number not yet officially ascertained: in Michigan, Ottawas and
Chippewas, 6,039: in the Indian Territory, Ottawas of Blanchard's Fork,
150. Time has not yet been given for the full development of the
consequences of thus devolving responsibility upon these Indians; but we
already have information, official or semi-official, to the effect that
the majority of the Pottawatomie citizens, after selling their lands in
Kansas, have gone to the Indian Territory, and re-associated themselves
as a tribe; that of the Wyandots, considerable numbers have attached
themselves to the re-organized tribe in the Indian Territory; that of
the citizen Ottawas of Blanchard's Fork, nearly all have disposed of
their allotted lands, and are still cared for to some extent by the
government as Indians; that of the Ottawas and Chippewas of Michigan, a
majority certainly, and probably a large majority, have sold the lands
patented to them in severalty,--in many cases the negotiation preceding
the issue of patents, two parties of white sharpers contesting for the
favor of the agent, in the way of early information as to the precise
lands assigned, and the disappointed faction, in at least one instance,
resorting to burglary and larceny for the needed documents.
It will be thus seen, that, of these Indians upon whom the experiment of
citizenship has been tried, more than half, probably at least
two-thirds, are now homeless, and must be re-endowed by the government,
or they will sink to a condition of hopeless poverty and misery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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