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You
have a big lake to procure fish from and dense woods to hunt
in, near your homes, whilst the tract that we ask you to cede must be
cultivated
to produce anything. A reduction of
your reservation to a reasonable area, such as a cession of that tract
would
leave, you would be comparatively safe, you would not be asked for any
additional
cession in the future, at least not in the life-time of some of you old
people
who I see before me, and after the young men grow up and find that they
have more
land than they need they may offer to dispose of it, but that is in the
distant
future. With your reservation
remaining as it is without reducing it by the cession of that western
portion
you can rest assured that it will be opened up to settlement without
your being
consulted. It may not be this year,
it
may not be next year, it may not be year after next, but it is sure to
come
within a very few years. The
growth
of this country is such that there is a great rush for land, more land
is
needed for homes for settlers, and the Department that has charge of
the Indian
Affairs is powerless to prevent it being opened, as public sentiment
demands
it. And the public through their
members in Congress, their senators and representatives, demand that
where Indians
have more land than they require for their own use that they be paid a
reasonable price for it and open it to settlement.
That is why I say the President, the Secretary of the
Interior
and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are powerless to prevent it. You
are now
in a position to protect yourselves in a way that very few Indians are,
also to
receive a large per capita payment for years to come.
And if we agree upon a price for the land, there is no
question
but that we can agree upon the terms, that is for the number of years
that the
payments shall continue. There are a
number of you people before me that are getting old like myself, and by
having
something to provide for your declining years, the next ten years,
would be a
great benefit not only to your-
