THE INDIANS.
The arms of the State of Massachusetts, which appear at the head of all official acts, and upon the seals of office, are an Indian with his bow and arrows. Over his head is an arm holding the sword of Justice. Is this sword designed to protect or oppress the Indians? The Legislature now have the opportunity to answer this question, and as they answer, will be the record in history. The principal community of Indians in this State, the Marshpee tribe, have presented their complaints before the Legislature. Though an unwise attempt was made by some few of the Representatives from the neighborhood of the Indians, to prevent the reading of their petition, it was received with marked kindness by the House, and ordered to be printed, a favor which the Indians did not think of asking.
There is evidently a disposition in the House to prove that our sympathies are not confined merely to the Georgia Indians, for political effect.
MR. HALLETT,
I perceive that your paper has spoken a good word now and then for the native Indians of Massachusetts. There is no class of human beings in this State, who have more need of a candid and humane advocate.
I do not know much about the remnants of a once noble and hospitable race, and yet I know enough to make me grieve for them, and ashamed of the State.
For about two hundred years, the laws have prohibited Indians from selling their lands to whites, within this Commonwealth. This restriction, designed originally to protect the natives against fraud, has, upon the whole, had an unfavorable effect upon their happiness. If they had been at liberty to dispose of their land and depart with the proceeds, or even without the proceeds, to seek some new location, they would in all probability have been happier. Nor have these prohibitory laws had even the poor effect to protect them from the rapacity of their white neighbors. These have contrived to clip the corners of those simple people, and to get hold of their pleasant and fertile vallies in a very surprising manner, considering the strictness of the law.
But the great ground of complaint is, that no native Indian, or descendant, is allowed by us to be a man, or to make himself a man, whatever may be his disposition and capacity. They are all kept in a state of vassalage, under officers, appointed sometimes by the Governor, and sometimes by the Legislature. The spot of his own ground, which he may cultivate, is annually rented out to the Indian by an overseer; and provisions are doled out to the tribe according to the discretion of "Guardians," "Trustees," &c. Their accounts are presented to the Governor and Council, who allow, and the Treasurer of the Commonwealth pays them as a matter of course. I dare not say whether those accounts are in all cases correct, or not. If they are, we ought to be thankful to the honesty of the Trustees, &c. not to the wisdom of the Legislature in providing checks upon fraud.
But the effect upon the Indians is the great question. This is decidedly bad. They are treated more like dogs than men. A state of tutelage, extending from the cradle to the grave; a state of utter dependence, breaks down every manly attribute, and makes of human creatures, designed to walk erect, creeping things.
But there is another very great evil, if I am rightly informed, which calls loudly for the interposition of the Legislature. The Marshpee and other Indian communities in this State, are not included within the jurisdiction of any incorporated town. The consequence is, that they are without police, except what the Trustees and other officers appointed by them, exercise. These officers never live among them; and the consequence is, that the Indian grounds are so many Alsatias, where the vagrant, the dissipated, and the felonious do congregate. Nor is this the fault of the native. It is the fault of their State; which, while it has demolished Indian customs, has set up no regular administration of municipal laws in their stead. Thus I am informed, that at Gayhead, spirituous liquors are retailed without license, and that it is considered that there is no power which can reach the abuse. There are many industrious and worthy people among these natives, who are anxious for improvement, and to promote the education and improvement of their people, but a degrading personal dependence on the one hand, and the absence of nearly all incentives and all power to do good on the other, keeps them down.
The paupers among these natives, who are at some seasons of the year a majority or nearly all of them, are supported by the State, and there must be a great opportunity and temptation to the agents of the government to wrong these poor people. The agents always have the ear of the government, or rather they are the government. The Indians have nobody to speak for them. They are kept too poor to pay counsel. I think it is not too much to say that almost any degree of injustice, short of murder, might be done them without any likelihood of their obtaining redress.
Why should not this odious, and brutifying system be put an end to? Why should not the remaining Indians in this Commonwealth be placed upon the same footing as to rights of property, as to civil privileges and duties, as other men? Why should they not vote, maintain schools, (they have volunteered to do this in some instances,) and use as they please that which is their own? If the contiguous towns object to having them added to their corporations, let them be incorporated by themselves; let them choose their officers, establish a police; maintain fences and take up stray cattle. I believe the Indians desire such a change. I believe they have gone as far as they are allowed to introduce it. But they are fettered and ground to the earth.
I am informed that many of the stoutest whalers are produced among our small Indian tribes. I am also informed, that they are defrauded by the whites of a great part of their wages, which would otherwise amount to large sums. If some respectable men could be trained up and fostered among these people, their intelligence and influence would be invaluable to educate, protect and guide their seafaring brethren. Under such auspices, they would, after the years of peril, return and settle down with snug independence, be a blessing to their brethren, and respectable in the sight of all. Now they are so knocked about, so cheated, preyed upon and brutalized, that they think of nothing, and hope nothing, but sensual gratifications; and in consequence, die prematurely, or live worse than to die.
The Christian philanthropists of Massachusetts little know the extent of evil, which there is in this respect. I entreat them, I entreat the constituted authorities, to look to it.
WILLIAM PENN.
I use these pieces chiefly because they partly correspond in truth and spirit with what I have already said. Let our friends but read the laws, and they will see what the sword of the Commonwealth is intended for. In the second article there is a grievous mistake. It says that the government has assisted us. The Marshpee Indians have always paid their full share of taxes, and very great ones they have been. They have defrayed the expense of two town meetings a year, and one of two of the white men whose presence was necessary, lived twenty-five miles off. The meetings lasted three or four days at a time, during which, these men lived upon the best, at our cost, and charged us three dollars a day, and twenty-five cents a mile, travelling expenses, going and coming into the bargain. This amounts to thirty-five dollars a trip; and as there were, as has already been said, two visitations a year, it appears that we have paid seventy dollars a year to bring one visitor, whose absence would have been much more agreeable to us than his presence. Extend this calculation to the number of seven persons, and the other expenses of our misgovernment, and perhaps some other expenditures not mentioned, and see what a sum our tax will amount to.
The next article is from the Boston Advocate of December 27, 1833.