The friends of the Indians have watched with much solicitude the action of the recent Congress on the numerous bills before it relating to Indian affairs. It is a matter of great rejoicing that the most important of these, the General Allotment Act, has passed. This allows the Indians to take their lands individually by allotments and patents, and makes the allottees citizens of the United States. This bill is far-reaching, and covers in a measure the objects aimed at by some of the others which failed. Among these last is the Sioux bill, which proposes to divide up and dispose of parts of the Sioux reservation in Dakota. In another column will be found an excellent article, by Rev. A. L. Riggs, showing the loss, and yet the incidental benefits, that may arise from the failure of this bill. We will only add, that some of the provisions of the Sioux bill can indirectly and after some delay be carried out under the General Allotment Act.
The failure of the Mission Indian bill is a source of unrelieved regret and indignation. These Indians, whose sad story is told so pathetically in Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Ramona,” are still left unprotected, and their lands are still exposed to the incursions of unscrupulous white men. It is to be hoped that the nation will demand of the next Congress that justice shall be done to these Indians.
Lincoln Memorial Church, Washington, D.C., has hitherto carried on its work in the Lincoln Mission building. This building is held in trust by the Lincoln Industrial Association to sustain educational, industrial and religious work. This association was in no way connected with the church; it had several local enterprises under its auspices in the same building in which the work of the church was carried on. Thus the growth and usefulness of the church were greatly hindered, as it had no control of the building and the various enterprises carried on in it. It was clear that a church representing a higher type and standard of Christian life and worship than the average church of this community was greatly needed in this growing section of the city. It was also evident that if the Lincoln Memorial Church should supply this demand, steps should be taken to so adjust the property and renovate the building as to make a permanent church home and to promote the most hopeful growth of the work by putting all the departments of work carried on in the building under the management of the church. Secretary Beard and Superintendent Ryder, of the A. M. A., and the pastor and officers of the Lincoln Memorial Church held a conference, October 29, with the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Industrial Association to consider the most practical plan of putting the control of the property and all departments of work, educational, industrial and religious, carried on in the building, under the auspices of the Lincoln Memorial Church.
After the subject was fully discussed the following resolution was unanimously adopted by the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Industrial Association: “Resolved, That the Lincoln Industrial Association hereby declares itself in full sympathy with the desire of the Lincoln Memorial Church that the entire property, together with all the auxiliaries in Christian and industrial work, be put under the direction of the Lincoln Memorial Church here organized, and to that end any additional action necessary will be carried out.”
When the action of the conference was presented to the church it was voted that the church accept the trust and that steps be taken immediately to repair and improve the church and parsonage and all other parts of the building, as far as practicable, so as to make the building more desirable as a place of worship and center of Christian work, and a home for the pastor’s family. A building committee was appointed and an appeal was made to the public and friends for funds for the immediate repair and improvement of the building.