Indigenous Opposition to the Squire Bill
Jonas Stannup warns against the theft of tribal land by government commissioners, citing the suspicious nature of the 'Squire bill'.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Tacoma, April 2.—Jonas Stannup, father of the late Peter C. Stannup, was in the city this afternoon, and in talking about the reservation and the Squire bill, said: 'Agent Eells and the commissioners say our bill will never pass; that the Indian bureau has reported against it, and that will kill it. They may go against us, but we will never give up to them. They sneer and laugh at our bill and the three trustees we have selected, and say they will squander our money. They say our trustees only propose to give $50,000 bonds. I want to ask if these commissioners give any bond? They cry our people down, but ask us to trust them with $500,000 of our money.' Jonas Stannup says if his son had lived he would never have given up the land to the commissioners. He says he will always raise his voice in warning against Indian agents and the Indian bureau.
“They cry our people down, but ask us to trust them with $500,000 of our money.”
This is a direct record of resistance against the dispossession of Indigenous land. The 'Squire bill' refers to efforts led by Senator Watson Squire to open up Indian reservations to white settlement, a major site of legal and moral conflict in Washington state history.
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