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Show INDIAN AS fl LAWYER. I FULL-BLOODED SENECA HAT PRACTICE AX GOTHAM BAB. John L. Snyder Will Be First Bed Man Ever Admitted It Legislature Legisla-ture Approves Hill Bofore It Graduate of Carlisle. New York. John I Snyder, a full blooded member oT tho Seneca tribe, wilt bo the first Indian to practice law at the bar of the stnte of New York, If the governor approves a bill which tho legislature has passed to authorize tho state board of law examiners to admit him to tho bar examination. As Snyder Is not u citizen of the state, u special art was necessary to enable him to take the bar examination, nnd this was Introduced by Senator Albert T. Fancher, who represents the Fiftieth Fif-tieth district, of which Snyder Is n resident. Tho young Seneca Is a pro-tego pro-tego or Senator Fnnr.hcr, who Is n JOHN L. SNYDKIl. (Full-Illooded Seneca Indian Who May Soon Practice Uiw In Now York.) wealthy bachelor largoly interested In oil wells. In tho formidable Indian league of tho Six Nations, which once held in subjection tho territory extending from -tho Hudson to Uiko Suporlor nnd from the St. Lawrence to tho Delaware, tho Seneca nation played a prominent part. When tho leaguo wns finally broken nnd its members scared after af-ter tho revolutionary war tho whlto men took possession or Its lands und the remnant of the heneca trlbo wns finally settled upon a resprvutlon nonr Salamanca, In Cntlaraugus county. The Scnccas still live on this rosorva-tion rosorva-tion as a tribe, retaining their tribal customs and traditions. At tho samo tlmo they have adopted much from tho civilization which surrounds them, und thoy mingle freely and on equal terms with their whlto neighbors. In the veins of tho young Seneca lawyer runs somo of tho oldest nnd purest blood In America. Tho lino of his descent goes back to the times bofore bo-fore Columbus crossed the Atlantic and Is lost In the traditions of his rare. Of all the Indian tribes tho Six Nations wero the proudest nnd their merciless league represented the extreme ex-treme advance or Indian statecraft. Snyder Is 28 years old, six feet la. 'ii5Bl height, with an athletic figure and the' i '.fiBJJ case of bearing that Is conferred by P his descent through centuries of forest ,. ancestry. Ho lives on the reservation jP with the 2,700 other members of hli .. PJ tribe. Ho married n Seneca girl and they havo two children. Several members or tho Seneca tribe havo risen to distinction In the call-i call-i lngs or civilization. Gen. Ely Parker, - who served ns n civil cnglncor on the staff or Gen. Grant and who copied from Grant's notes tho famous terms of surrender which wero given to Gen. Lee, wns n full blooded Sonera and n graduate of tho Albany Normal school. BBV t Oscar Snyder, fnthor of tho applicant I for admission to tho bar, was a school-i school-i nuito of Jnmes S. Whipple, state for- BBl est, fish nnd game commissioner. Ho was killed In a railway accident. i I His son was educated at tho Carlisle! Indian school, nnd he is now studying pBfl law in an ofllco in Salamanca. Ho Isi permitted to practice In tho peaco-makers' peaco-makers' court, which Is tho Indian pH court on tho reservation and which corresponds to tho county court In tho jPJ Judicial plan or tho state. Ho cannot tnko tno regular stnto bar examination without an enabling act because ho la IPjfl not n citizen. uflfl Ho might abandon his tribal relation pBfl nnd becomo n citizen wero it not for pBl tho fact that by leaving his tribe ho pBl would sncrlffco his Interest In tho pBl tribal possessions, which nro held In pBl common. A hill Is now pending In congress to dlssolvo tho tribal relation pBl or tho Scnccas and to mako them all pBl cltlzons. When this bill becomes ' a pp lnw tho tribal property will bo ill- pBl vldcd among tho members or tho tribe pBl nnd each Senccn will havo nbout 2,000 PJ with which to start on his career of Independence. Snyder therefore finds IPJ himself placed In n dilemma, if ho HH waits until tho property is allotted ho will bo too old to becomo a member BBb or tho stnte bar, and If ho anticipates flH his citizenship by leaving his trlbo he will loso his share of tho tribal lands,' Senator Fanchcr's bill opens a way out of this difficulty by providing that JBpJ Snyder may bo examined for tho bar,' HH "notwithstanding the fact that said Snyder Is not n citizen, provided thatj HH nt tho tlmo or applying for admission lo such examinations ho shall be oth-' erwlso qualified to tnko tho same and PVJ shall comply with tho rules of tho jPJ court or appeals and or the state board or law examiners In rcsr ' t thoretn; BBb nnd upon passing such c umlnntlon' jPJ tho snld Snyder shall bo rJnilttcd to HBb practice lnw In this stnto, with the PJ samo powers nnd subject to the samo HBb duties ns If he woro n citizen." j BVJ Friendly rclntlnns exist between tho1 Scnccns nnd their white neighbors,) . some of whom havo been adopted Into P the trlbo as a mark of esteem. Com- P mlssloncr Whlpplo wns thus ndopted a) : P row weeks ago at a formal ceremony, which was n great event on tho res- ervntlon. Ho received tho Indian P nnmo of Odonjen. Tho ceremony of, HP ndoptlon was frequently practiced by . HAb tho Indians ns a means of supplying P tho losses caused by their constant 9Al warfare with each other, and many BAl whlto prisoners In tho early dnys owed BAl their lives to adoption. BVJ |
