These complaints and lamentations have been a thousand times repeated, in vain, in the speeches of the Indian orators, when the agents of the United States Government endeavor to make propositions for the purchase of their lands. A feeble ray of hope for the preservation of a great number of Indians is left, if the law proposed by Senator Johnson is adopted in sincerity on both sides, by the Government and by the Indians. Mr. Johnson proposes to establish three territorial governments in the Indian Territory inhabited by the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws and other tribes, with the provision of being admitted later as distinct members of the confederated United States. On the 25th of last November, Harkins, chief among the Choctaws, addressed a speech on this subject to his nation, assembled in council. Among other things, he said to them: " I appeal to you, what will become of us if we reject the proposition of Senator Johnson? Can we hope to remain a people, always separate and distinct? This is not possible. The time must come; yes, the time is approaching, in which we shall be swallowed up; and that, notwithstanding our just claims! I speak boldly. It is a fact; our days of peace and happiness are gone, and forever. No opposition, on our part, can ever arrest the march of the United States toward grandeur and power, nor hinder the entire occupation of the vast American continent. We have no power nor influence over the most minute project of this Government. It looks upon and considers us in the light of little children, as pupils under its tutelage and protection; it does with us as seems to it good. Can the Choctaws change the face of things? If the desire of life is not extinct in our hearts; if we would preserve among us the rights of a people, one sole means remains to us: it is to instruct and civilize the youth, promptly and efficaciously. The day of fraternity has arrived. We must act together, and by common consent. Let us attentively consider our critical situation, and the course now left us. One false step may prove fatal to our existence as a
nation. I therefore propose that the council take this sub