The Normal Record. July 1898

              THE NORMAL RECORD.
21
is to sweep from the face of the earth a
distinct class of God's people, the American
Indian, will be their murderers, and in the
next world will have to account for the same
—although it is a bill which, as claimed by
the gentleman just finished speaking, Mr.
Parker, as having in it an element which will
make the Indian self-reliant, taking him from
the deteriorating reservation and putting
him in a position to be fast steamed into the
harbor of civilization, and also giving the
pioneers, the civilizing germ of all countries
at all times, a chance to go into, settle up,
and purify this present Indian home, claimed
by some as being a nest of robbers from
which come all sorts of evils.
The pioneer who lives on the border of this
reserved land, we are told has many complaints, and one is that he supports the
Indian in idleness, i. e. the land which is
now held by the Indian is wanted by the
pioneer, which always has been. The pioneer
moves in upon the reserved land, builds a
house, clears a strip of land and, if he is not
disturbed within a month or a year, he accepts it as his own. But the Indian objects
to such a proceeding, which always has not
been. Then the pioneer appeals to the government, and if the government can buy the
land from the Indian it does so; and. in turn,
the pioneer buys it from the United States,
yet the money he pays to the government,
he says, supports the Indian in idleness.
Now, as an illustration, suppose that in the
community in which you live lived a man
who was considered by the majority of the
population of that community as being one
who was mentally incompetent. This same
man moves in upon a little tract of land
which you own and which is your only resource—all on this earth that is dear to you-
yea, it is even your life—and accepts and
claims it as his own. Then, after finding out
that his premeditated robbery would not
work, he pays you the amount that you ask.
The next day we see this same man standing
on a street corner creating a great howl, in
which he says, "Rome was once filled with
an idle, worthless class during the free distribution of corn, so then will this community
reach the same end, for I am this day supporting one of your number, John Doe, in
idleness."    I  say  that  then the  community
would rise as a single man in favor of having
him sent to the nearest insane asylum. Yet
this man, who has proven himself in my mind
to be a would-be robber and a lunatic—does
he not stand on the same platform as does
the pioneer ?
The next great redeeming factor that this
bill is professed to be in possession of, is that
it teaches the Indian self-reliance. But does
not the first clause in this bill say, "That
each male Indian of the age of 21 years be
given 160 acres of land, and " (the gentleman,
as usual, looking out for the ladies) "each
female of the age of 18 years be given 160
acres of land ?" Now then this part of the
bill, according to the self-reliance argument,
would have to be thrown out, because that
gift of 160 acres of land that is of such a
quality that any Indian will derive a Jiving is,
in my judgment, a gift that a king would be
proud to receive—for a tract of land that
will place all of the crop in the sack at the
depot is worth $1,000,000 an acre. For if
you can conceive the amount of work that
an Indian does who is born with "spring-
fever," then you are at a point where you
can determine the amount of work that the
160 acres must accomplish.
For these two reasons, giving the Indian a
vast amount of land the value of which he
does not recognize and having for a promoter
of this scheme a lunatic, a would-be robber
or a thief—for these reasons, he will be fast
steamed into a harbor—not one of civilization, but one which will prove to be a more
disastrous one to the Indian than has the
harbor of Santiago proven itself to our
Spanish "friend" across the Atlantic.
I said, this bill when once passed would go
on a journey of havoc, ruin, destruction and
extermination, because, according to the
bill, all Indians must be treated alike—those
that are civilized and those that are not.
After the bill is passed and the law is enforced we will see a stubborn revolt among
the civilized Indians. They will say, "From
what Father does this order come that makes
us all farmers ?" I imagine, and it is plausible, that from his environment the Indian
has come into possession of just a little of
Uncle Sam's independent spirit and again he
says, "I will die before I lower my head to
such  tyrants"—which   speech   is   in  exact