The Indian Dispossessed
for the assessment of their property with the view of collecting taxes, the majority of them will, if the Garfield promises are kept in good faith before them, probably remove to the Jocko within another year."
It must be borne in mind that the Indians were wholly without the protection of law, with no standing in the courts, and no vote or other representation of any kind. An Indian was not even declared to be a person in the eyes of the law until 1879. Now if there is one principle of government that does not find a place in the boasted declarations of the Free and Equal, it is that of taxation without representation. How will a scheme so un-American be received at the seat of Government?
The Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his report for that year to the Honorable Secretary of the Interior, says:
"The remaining 350 Flatheads, under two chiefs, are still in the Bitter Root Valley, and hold no communication with the agency, and are trying to maintain themselves on their farms. Whether they will prove equal to the competition which the settlements have brought around them, and be able to save their property from sheriff's sale by prompt payment of taxes, is yet a question. Amid the eager desire to gain possession of their valuable farms, there will be few days of grace after the taxes are due."
It is a curious coincidence that at this time the country was celebrating the one hundredth anniver-
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