GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—At a meeting held by the influential Friends in Philadelphia this week, to consider the condition of the negro refugees in Kansas, some new facts were brought to light. It appears from the statements made to them that the negroes are not all so needy as is supposed; some of them have money to buy land, and have bought it. The Freedmen’s Relief Association has bought 5,000 acres at $2.65 per acre, has made the first payment, and put some of the refugees to work on it. The second payment is not due for four years, and before that time they hope the blacks will have got Northern legs under them, so to speak, enough to be able to pay it themselves. Many of the older men and women, however, are not self-supporting, and never will be. The facts stated of their immediate need were so well authenticated, and the methods suggested for their help so practicable, that the Friends have taken up the matter in earnest.
—The Exodus is attracting increased attention among colored people in Virginia and North Carolina, though they are acting with more deliberation than is shown in Louisiana and Mississippi. A colony has been formed in Lynchburg to proceed West as soon as requisite funds can be collected. A colony in North Carolina has sent one of its members West to prospect.
The Indians.
—The Ponca Indians.—The Ponca Indians have always been peaceful and friendly. It is not known that any of their number ever killed a white man. In 1858 they released to the United States all their land, except about twenty square miles. In response to a clamor from the whites to get this from them a new treaty was made in 1866, by which the Poncas ceded 30,000 acres to the United States, and the latter ceded to the Poncas certain townships. On this land they built houses, raised crops, and lived happily and prosperously, but the white man would not let them alone. In 1877 Indian Agent James Lawrence, Indian Inspector E. C. Kemble, and Rev. S. D. Hinman, an Episcopal Missionary among the Indians, came and insisted that the United States wanted them to leave and go to the Indian Territory. This they refused to do. A paper purporting to be a contract was drawn up by these men; the signature of a half breed by the name of Lone Chief, who does not belong to the tribe, was attached to it. This paper was forwarded to Washington, placed on file without examination, I suppose, and the United States Army was ordered to see that the tribe was removed. I have seen and examined a copy of that so-called contract, and it is simply infamous to call it a contract. It is nothing more than a record of what was said at a council, and has internal marks that the speeches from which it quotes were never made. Yet on the strength of that paper, with all the chiefs of the tribe protesting against the outrage, these people, 715 in number, were taken and carried to the Indian Territory, and left in a malarial country, without money and without shelter, to get along as best they might.
Since that time, about 300 of them have died. But that is not all of this unspeakable villainy. The household and farm effects, horses and ponies and cattle, the whole not worth less than $200,000, were taken and sold, and the proceeds put into the pockets of nobody knows whom. The Indians got none of it. One of the chiefs, Standing Bear, escaped from the Indian Territory and travelled back into Northern Nebraska, that he might find exemption from death. Here he was arrested for being off his reservation, and started as a prisoner for the Indian Territory. On his way through Omaha, Mr. T. H. Tibbles, of one of the Omaha papers, interviewed him, and so thoroughly were that gentleman’s sympathies stirred by the recital of the old man’s wrongs, that he made an effort to secure his release by a writ of habeas corpus. In this he succeeded, and Standing Bear was released.
There were two points in law, either one of which would release him. First, the Indian is a person, and the Constitution prohibits any distinction being made against any person born in this country, on account of race, color or previous condition; and, second, if we regard the Indian as a foreigner, still the right of expatriation is a principle recognized by our Government, and under the operation of that principle the prisoner could not be restrained from his liberty. The judge, therefore, ordered his discharge. This is the first instance in the history of the country where an Indian has secured standing in a United States court. It is proposed now to bring suit for the recovery of the Ponca reservation. In the opinion of lawyers who have carefully examined into the case, the suit can be successfully carried; and if this is done, the heaviest blow ever yet dealt against the unholy treatment the Indians have received from wicked men will be given, and the way opened by which justice may at length be done these terribly abused people. There is need that the friends of justice and humanity throughout the country take hold of this matter vigorously. The Indian ring, with millions of dollars to back them, will fight to the bitter end. It will cost money to put this thing through. Not less than four thousand dollars should be in the treasury at the start. Col. C. G. Hammond was appointed treasurer at a recent meeting in Chicago, and is already receiving remittances. A committee was appointed to raise funds in the city. Let Boston take hold of this matter, and all New England follow. Able lawyers are ready to give their services free. Let money be forthcoming to raise the issue at once and carry it forward from step to step till victory crown the effort.—Scrooby, in the Congregationalist.
—The Interior Department has official information that white men have stolen about seven hundred horses from the Indians at the Red Cloud Agency, and run them across the Nebraska line, during the past few weeks. The State authorities are doing nothing to prevent similar raids upon the property of the Indians, and the military authorities, on account of the posse comitatus law of last year, stand by without intercepting or pursuing the marauders, although the stolen horses are driven right past Camp Sheridan and Camp Robinson, on the way to market, or to the horse thieves’ corrals. The Indian Agent, having no armed force at his command, is powerless to stop the depredations. The Indians, notwithstanding their keen sense of injury, manifest no symptoms of insubordination, but remain entirely peaceable, and are beginning to devote themselves to farming. The Spotted Tail Indians, within the past two years, have lost several thousand horses in the same way. These facts reinforce our plea for extending the jurisdiction of the United States courts over the reservations. But, as it is, the Department must be impotent indeed to rest supinely without bringing this matter before the Cabinet, and ascertaining whether there be not power somewhere in this Government to secure justice to peaceable Indians when robbed and plundered.—Advance.
—A report from Fort Ellis says that there are 400 Indians there starving, and their number is being daily added to. A band of 300 are reported within a few days’ march of Port Ellis, unable to proceed farther on account of weakness.
[THE FREEDMEN.]
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.