aties have been frequently
broken by the United States, both in the letter and the spirit, while,
on the other hand, the Indians have acted in good faith and with a high
regard for their national honor. It is also a fact not very creditable
to the Government that treaties have been materially amended in the
Senate and not again submitted to the tribe, who were not even made
aware at once of their altered provisions. I believe this would be
considered a piece of sharp practice in the case of any people able to
defend itself.

The breach of treaty obligations on the part of this Government has led
to a large number of Indian claims, involving millions of dollars, which
represent the efforts of tribes or bands which feel themselves wronged
or defrauded to obtain justice under the white man's law. The history of
one or two such may be of interest.

Most of the Oneida and Stockbridge tribes exchanged their New York
reservations for a large tract of land in Kansas, and started for their
new home in 1830, but never got any farther than Green Bay, Wisconsin.
There the Menominees invited them to remain and share their reservation,
as they had plenty of good land. The Stockbridges had originally
occupied the beautiful Housatonic valley, where Jonathan Edwards
preached to them and made them good Presbyterians; nevertheless, the
"Christian" colonists robbed them of their homes and drove them
westward. They did not resist the aggression. If anything is proved in
history, it is that those who follow in the footsteps of the meek and
gentle Jesus will be treated unmercifully, as he was, by a hard and
material world.

These Stockbridges went still further with their kind hosts, and
ultimately both tribes accepted the hospitality of the Ojibways. They
made their unfortunate brothers welcome, and made them a free gift of
land. But now observe the white man's sense of honor and justice in
glaring contrast! For _seventy-five years_ the United States Government
failed to recompense these people for their Kansas land, which they
never reached, and which in the meantime was taken up by settlers, and
gradually covered with thriving homes and fertile farms.

The whole case was scrutinized again and again by the Congress of the
United States from 1830 to about 1905, when at last a payment was made!
The fact that the two tribes remained in Wisconsin and settled there
does not invalidate their claim, as those wild Ojibways had no treaty
with t