Annual report of the Board of Indian Commissioners

TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

1893.

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1893.

REPORT

OF THE

BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

WASHINGTON, D. 0., February 2, 1893.

SIR: As required by the act of May 17, 1882, the Board of Indian
Commissioners respectfully submit their twenty-fourth annual report,

m

PEACE AND PROGRESS.

The year 1892 has been a year of quiet, earnest work and of sub-
stantial progress toward the end which has been the aim of all Chris-
tain effort, wise legislation, and executive administration for several
years, viz : The education, civilization, and complete absorption of all
Indians into our national life as American citizens. That end will not
be fully attained for many years yet, but a steady persistence in the
policy now pursued will surely win success.

During the last year there has been a gain in the school enrollment
and attendance of about 2,000 pupils. The same rate of progress con-
tinued, in about five years all the Indian children of school age will
be provided with the means of education.

Since the general allotment bill became a law, on the 8th of Feb-
ruary, 1887, allotments in severalty have been made to 15,482 Indians,
and of these about 9,600 have been completed during the last year.
Adding those who, under other acts and treaties, have taken allot-
ments, the whole number who have become citizens is more than 30,000,
and about 50,000 others are now receiving, or will soon receive, allot-
ments. At this rate of progress the work will be substantially com-
pleted in a* few years, and nearly all Indians will become individual
landowners and have the opportunity, at least, of making for them-
selves comfortable homes.

But to bring about these desirable results liberal appropriations by
Congress will be necessary for some years to come, both for education
and for assisting Indians who have received allotments in building
homes and beginning a new life of industry and self-support.

EDUCATION.

Since the first appropriation of $20,000 for the organization of Indian
schools, fifteen years ago, the increase has been more than one hundred
fold, the amount for this purpose being $2,312,385 for the current fiscal
year. „ Large as this sum is, it is less than 1 per cent advance upon
the grants for the previous year, and is quite inadequate to the needs
of a fully equipped Indian-school system. We therefore hope that for

3

4 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

the next fiscal year there may be a large increase of appropriations for
this purpose.

For the last ten years there has been, we believe, a growing convic-
tion on the part of the people of the United States that the solution of
the Indian problem is to be attained, not by any single piece of legisla-
tion and not by the adoption of any visionary plan of reform, but by
the systematic application to it of those principles of justice, fair deal-
ing, and popular education which lie at the foundation of our system of
government. Over 30,000 Indians have now become citizens of the
United States, and more than 50,000 others, through application for
land in severalty, have declared their intention to become citizens.
The application of the laws already enacted by Congress, before many
years shall have elapsed, will breakup the reservations and establish a
very large number of the Indians upon holdings of their own. Since
the Indians are thus on the road to citizenship in ttye United States,
the position to which the logic of our institutions destines them, is it
not clear that the supreme duty of the United States Government is
thoroughly to educate its wards?

The American people believe in popular education. Since the In-
dians are to enter upon the duties of citizenship, they should be pre-
pared for these duties by systematic education. The history of efforts
already made in educating the Indians proves conclusively that educa-
tion and social intercourse with educated people very rapidly remove
the customs and the worst tendencies which have marked Indian life as
savage life. Far more effectively than " campaigning" against him
does education "kill" the Indian and give us in his place the Ameri-
can citizen. The United States Government has for some years been
engaged in a work of education among the Indians which is more com-
prehensive in its scope, more practically efficient in its results, and
more hopeful in the outlook it gives upon the future of the Indians than
any other work which the Government has attempted for them. We
urge the Congress of the United States to make still larger appro-
priations for boarding schools upon the reservations, for educating
Indians at the Eastern schools, where they come in touch with civilized
life, and for day schools on the reservation. We believe that the en-
lightened common sense and the conscience of our country call for the
settling of the Indian question by the influences of the school-house
rather than by the influences of the barracks and the campaign. And
we respectfully urge upon Congress that instead of reducing the appro-
priation for Indian schools it should make a marked increase in that
appropriation for the coming year.

On the lowest motive of economy, if upon no higher ground, we might
urge the wisdom of increased appropriation for schools. Statistics
show that it is far cheaper to maintain a small army of school teachers
than a large army to follow the hostiles upon the warpath. Larger
appropriations for schools, for industrial training, for practical instruc-
tion in farming, will make the Indians self-supporting, self-respecting
citizens. This will lead directly to smaller appropriations for rations
to feed lazy Indians who will not work, and less expense for soldiers
to watch the discontented and the vicious.

But upon higher grounds than the mere saving of money we urge
upon Congress the obligation to furnish schools for Indians imposed
upon us by specific treaties and by the claim which the weaker and the
more ignorant have upon the stronger and more prosperous. Let pro-
vision be made at once for the elementary, common- school, and indus-
trial education of all Indian children. The United States owes this to

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

the Indian tribes. The people of the United States, we believe, will
most cordially approve the carrying forward of that liberal policy of
education for Indians which has marked the work of the Department
for these last years, alike under Democratic and Eepublican Presidents.
We sincerely trust that the appropriation for Indian education for this
coming year will be increased by the present Congress.

Enrollment and average attendance at Indian schools, 1887 to 1892.*
ENROLLED.

Kind of school.

1887.

1888.

1889.

1890.

1891.

1892.

Government schools :
Trainin0" and boardin0"

6, 847

6,998

6,797

7,236

8,572

9,634

Day -

3,115

3,175

2,863

2,963

2,877

3,481

Total

9,962

10. 173

9,660

10, 199

11,449

13,115

Contract schools :
Boarding . .

2, 763

3,234

4,038

4,186

4,282

4,262

Dav JJ...

1 044

1,293

1,307

1.004

886

839

Boardin0" specially appropriated for.'',

564

512

779

988

1,309

1,344

Total

4,371

5,039

6, 124

6,178

6,477

6,445

Public day schools

190

Mission schools not assisted by Government: 11
boardin0' 146 day pupils

157

Aggregate

14, 333

15, 212

15, 784

16, 377

17, 926

19, 907

Increase

1,549

1,981

AVERAGE ATTENDANCE.

Government schools :
Trainin^ and boarding

5, 276

5,533

5,212

,
5,644

6,749

7,622

Dav

1 896

1 929

1,744

1,780

1,661

2.084

Total

7 172

7 462

6 956

7 424

8 410

9 706

Contract schools :

2 258

2 694

3 213

3,384

3 504

3,585

Dav ° -

604

786

662

587

502

473

Boardin f, specially appropriated for

486

478

721

837

1,172

1,204

Total

3,348

3,958

4, 596

4,808

5,178

5,262

Public day schools

.

106

93

Aggregate 7

10, 520

11, 420

11, 552

12, 232

13, 588

15, 167

Increase

1 356

1,579

* Exclusive of five civilized tribes.
HIGKHER EDUCATION.

A significant movement was begun at the last Mohonk Conference,
which we hope may produce good results. It was suggested by Miss
Alice Robertson that help is needed by bright and promising Indian
scholars in the pursuit of a higher education than is now given in the
Government and contract schools, and it was voted to raise a fund for
this purpose, to be called the "Mohonk Fund.'7 A committee was ap-
pointed to supervise the disbursement of the fund. The project was
earnestly indorsed by Commissioner Morgan, who said he believed in
the thorough education of a sufficient number to become leaders among
their people. That Indian young men and women have ability, when
rightly trained, to become successful teachers, physicians, and, preach-

G REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

ers is proved by such examples as Dr. Eastman, a physician at Pine
Ridge Agency, and his brother, Eev. John Eastman, Presbyterian pas-
tor at Flandreau; Dr. Susan La Flesche, physician at Omaha Agency j
Aimie Dawson, teacher in the Santee training school; by the company
of preachers among the Nez Perces trained by Miss McBeth, by others
in the diocese of Bishop Hare, and by the scores of Indians now
engaged as teachers and missionaries who have gone out from Santee,
Carlisle, Hampton, and other training schools.

The establishment of a special Indian college has been proposed, but
the institutions now existing are sufficient to furnish a good common-
school education, and the colleges and professional schools are every-
where open to Indians. All that is needed is money to aid those who
are willing to help themselves.

The Mohonk Fund is a hopeful beginning. It was announced before
the close of the conference that $1,600 had been given to that fund
for higher Indian education.

RETURNED STUDENTS.

As the number of Indian pupils leaving the training schools and
returning to the reservations increases, their condition and needs pre-
sent a problem of growing interest and perplexity. Their position is
new and strange. They have been taught various arts and trades,
but at their old homes they find few opportunities, and they have no
facilities for any practical use of the skill acquired. The blacksmith,
the tinsmith, the tailor, the shoemaker, the wagon -maker, even if he
could open a shop or factory, would find no demand for his work and
products among his people so long as the Government furnishes free
a'll that he could offer. A few find employment in the agency shops
and in the schools as teachers. Others have selected their allotments
of land, and, with praiseworthy energy and industry, have built com-
fortable homes and have become self-supporting citizens. It is sur-
prising that, under such difficulties and against such adverse pressure,
so many are doing as well as they do. But it is inevitable that many
will return to the ways of their fathers and lose what they have
acquired unless some method is devised to put them in a position to
hold fast to the civilization they have attained.

One plan which has been suggested is to colonize these educated
Indians by placing them together, either on a tract of land entirely
apart from the reservation, and perhaps remote from it, or on a sepa-
rate portion of the tribal reservation, in a village or town of their
own, where they could practice the civilized ways they have learned,
with mutual support and without molestation or interference. As an
illustration of the latter plan we may cite the Rosebud and Pine
Ridge reservations. The Rosebud Agency and the nearest Indian
camp to the white settlements are 35 miles from Valentine, the nearest
railroad station. Most of the intervening tract is on the reservation.
About half way there is water, a small lake surrounded by elevated
prairie, and here, it is suggested, would be an excellent spot to locate
a settlement of returned students. It would be about 18 miles from
the Indians and about the same distance from the whites. -Special
encouragement should be offered to married couples, and aid granted,
by loans or otherwise, to build homes and barns and to supply stock
and implements. They would also need help in erecting schoolhouses
and starting various mechanical trades, as well as in making roads.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 7

Such a colony would be able to resist degeneration and might exert a
most salutary influence both on the neighboring whites and Indians.
We think this plan is more likely to be satisfactory to the Indians
themselves than the proposal to settle them on remote reservations.

The prosperous Flandreau settlement is an example of what Indians
can do who have the courage to break away from tribal rule and be-
come independent.

Such a plan would require some modification of the present allot-
ment methods by setting apart a certain tract for the class of returned
students only, but this could be done, we think, by Executive order,
and we commend this plan to the earnest consideration of the Govern-
ment as presenting a possible solution of some of the present difficulties.

Another plan proposed and earnestly advocated by some is to dis-
suade all graduates of the training schools from returning to the reser-
vations, and induce them to find homes and employment among the
whites.

The success of the Carlisle and Hampton " outing system " is a strong
argument in favor of this plan, and observation and experiment abun-
dantly prove that it is contact with civilization that civilizes. The
few who, like the Eastmans and jthers before named, have broken the
chains of tribal bondage and communistic tradition and have gone out
among the whites, have shown that, given the same opportunities, the
Indian has ability to compete with other races. If all the young men
and women trained in the schools could be persuaded to take this
course, in a few years the number of reservation Indians would be very
small. But just here is the trouble; they can not be persuaded.
Family attachments and land interests draw them back to their former
homes, so that only a few, even of the Carlisle graduates, stay in the
eastern communities where they have spent two or three seasons, and
have done good work. Since then Indians, even educated Indians,
will not go to civilization; in some way civilization must be carried to
them. One way of doing this, proposed by Senator Teller some years
ago, is to manage the allotments so that at least alternate quarter sec-
tions shall be reserved for white settlers, and thus intersperse civilized
families among the Indians. To some extent this has been done, per-
haps undesignedly, on the Santee and Sisseton reservations. But it is
too early to pronounce a fair verdict as to the effect of this commin-
gling of the two races.

INSPECTION AND PURCHASE OF SUPPLIES.

A meeting of the Board was held on the 3d of May, in New York,
at the Indian warehouse, to assist the honorable Commissioner of In-
dian Affairs in the opening of bids and the awarding of contracts
for Indian supplies. Five hundred and fifty-six proposals were re-
ceived, a much larger number than in any previous year. These were
all unsealed and read in public, many contractors and their represent-
atives being present. As soon as the bids could be scheduled the
work began of inspecting samples and deciding the awards. The
business was conducted with absolute fairness and impartiality by the
Commissioner, expert inspectors being employed to test the equality
of the several lines of goods, nc> one of them, nor any member of the
Board, nor the Commissioner himself, knowing the name of any con-
tractor offering a sample until after the award was made. This work
was continued from day to day for about a month, one or more mem-

8 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

bers of the Board of Commissioners being present the whole time to
give advice and help. Samples were found of good quality and suit-
able for the service, with the exception of blankets. For these only
one bid was made, and the sample offered was condemned as of inferior
quality. The bid was, therefore, rejected, new proposals advertised
for, and the award was made later at the Indian office in Washington.
Meetings have also been held at Mohonk Lake and in this city, at-
tended by many engaged in missionary work among Indians, and oth-
ers interested in their welfare. The discussions at these conferences,
held for many years, have done much to mold public opinion, to excite
public interest, and to raise the tone of the Indian service.

INSPECTION OF AGENCIES AND SCHOOLS.

During the year 1872 Messrs. Garrett, James, and Lyon, members of
the Board, have visited many agencies and Indian schools in the
Indian Territory, Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, Idaho, Oregon,
and Washington. The reports of these tours of inspection, transmitted
herewith, contain much interesting information and many practical
suggestions. Some occasion for criticism was found, but on the whole
the reports show a healthy condition of affairs and present an outlook
bright and hopeful. It is evident that the spirit predominating among
the workers is encouraging, and that the work carried on under the
efficient management of Commissioner Morgan, with the valuable as-
sistance of Superintendent Dorchester, is far better in character and
result than has ever before been done. t The improvement in methods
and in workmen is constant. The authorities at Washington are profit-
ing by experience, so that fewer mistakes are made and better returns
for the money appropriated by Congress are visible.

These visits of Commissioners are welcomed with great cordiality,
and we hope that they may be able to give more time to this work. It
" tones up " the service and tends to encourage the workers, who are
very much isolated and need the sympathizing help of the friends of
the Indian.

PURCHASE OF LANDS AND CASH PAYMENTS.

Under the operation of the general allotment act nearly 26,000,000
acres of land have been ceded by Indians, and agreements have been
completed and are now awaiting ratification by Congress by which
10,000,000 acres more will be added to tbis vast area open to settle-
ment. For the purchase of these lands many millions of dollars have
been appropriated, and the larger part of the purchase funds are depos-
ited in the United States Treasury to the credit of the Indians, with
provision that the interest shall be expended for their benefit or paid
to them in cash.

The Indian appropriation act for the current year provides, in sec-
tion 8 — •

That when, in the judgment of the Secretary of the Interior, any Indian tribe,
or part thereof, who are receiving rations or clothing under this act, are sufficiently
advanced in civilization to purchase such rations and clothing judiciously, they may
commute the same and pay the value thereof in money, per capita, to such tribe or
part thereof, the manner of such payment to be prescribed by the Secretary of the
Interior.

This provision of law we consider important and wise, for though in
former times cash payments were largely squandered in gambling and

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 9

other vices, now the conditions are changed. Some tribes have made
so much progress in civilization that they can be trusted to make a
prudent use of their own money.

There sterns to be no reason why Indians who are fellow-citizens
should not have the same rights and the same treatment that we de-
mand for ourselves. We should be indignant, and perhaps rebellious,
were the Government to take the interest on our bonds and with it buy
for us our food and clothing. So the Indians say, " You call us citi-
zens, but you take our money and buy our beef and flour, our coats
and vests, our wagons and plows; we can buy our own supplies and
get better value lor our money." And in many cases this is true. Some
will spend their money foolishly in the purchase of useless ornaments,
but like all other people they will learn the value of money by experi-
ence.

THE INDIAN SERVICE.

Our observations in the field convince us that the Indian Service has
greatly improved during the last few years. The order of the Pres-
ident, recommended by Commissioner Morgan and Secretary Noble, ex-
tending the civil-service classification to all the school employes, has
given great satisfaction to all interested in Indian aifairs and has al-
ready produced good results.

We have now in the service a corps of superintendents and teachers
of high character and attainments, zealous and devoted to their work.
The same may be truthfully said of a large majority of the Indian
agents, who have proved their competence and efficiency by a faithful
discharge of duty. But a complete and thoroughly efficient service
will not be attained until the appointment of agents is lifted out of the
sphere of politics and fitness is made the sole test for such appoint-
ment and permanence in service is assured to those who are found com-
petent for the discharge of their duties

We commend to the consideration of Congress these words of the
President in his late message :

If any legislation is possible by which the selection of Indian agents can be wholly
removed from all partisan suggestions or considerations, I ain sure it would be a
great relief to the Executive and a great benefit to the service.

Possibly this desirable end might be reached even without legislation
by the appointment of a commission within the Interior Department to
examine all applicants for the office, and by making the recommendation
of this commission requisite to the nomination of agents to the Senate.

CONTRACT SCHOOLS AND MISSIONS.

It is well known that the missionary societies, representing several
Christian denominations, have determined to ask no more aid from the
Government after the current fiscal year for the support of their Indian
schools. This action will reduce the number of contract schools, but
we trust it does not mean an intention to close such schools, but rather
a purpose to continue them as mission schools, with increased vigor,
by means which the churches will furnish; and those mission schools
will be needed for some time to come, for a large number of pupils who
otherwise would have no opportunities for education, and the value of
the moral and religious training which the mission schools give can
not be overestimated. In' their transition from savage to civilized life
the Indians need all the restraints and safeguards of Christian influ-

10 * REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

ence and instruction. The best work that has been done for them in
the past has been that of Christian missionaries; and, much as we
prize secular education and industrial training, individual homes, and
citizenship, the best results can not be secured without a right educa-
tion of the heart as well as of the hand and head. Make the Indians
good Christians and they will be good American citizens.

LEGISLATION NEEDED. »

*

First. The act of March 3, 1891, which provides for the adjustment
and payment of claims arising from Indian depredations, should be
so amended as to protect the tribal funds now held in trust by the
Government, which are threatened with entire destruction. Claims
have been filed in the Court of Claims amounting to more than
$34,000,000, and many others in addition have been filed in the Indian
Office, making the whole amount probably not less than $40,000,000.
All these claims constitute a lien upon tribal funds, and should a large
per cent of them be allowed, but very little will be left for the benefit
of Indians. They have no means of defense in these suits, being una-
ble to employ counsel or to send witnesses to testify in their behalf.
Some of the claims are just, and worthy claimants ought to be reim-
bursed for losses they have suffered ; but it is not just to impose pen-
alties upon whole tribes for the crimes committed by a few, or upon
innocent childern for wrongs done many years ago by their fathers^
nor is it just or right to divert trust funds from the purpose for which
they were granted.

The subject is ably discussed by Commissioner Morgan in his last
annual report, and we concur in his recommendation that the law be
so amended as ato divest it of its arbitrary and confiscatory charac-
ter."

Second. The laws of 1871 and 1872 relating to contracts of agents
and attorneys with Indians should, we believe, be repealed. Great
abuses have grown up under this system of contracts, and large
amounts of money appropriated for the benefit of Indians have gone
into the hands of claim agents.

With so many earnest friends now working gratuitously in their
behalf, the Indians rarely need the help of such paid agents; and when
counsel is absolutely necessary to secure their rights, we think that the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs or the Secretary of the Interior should
be authorized to employ attorneys to prosecute their claims and defend
their rights.

Third. We urge the early passage of the act now pending in the
Senate for the relief of the Stockbridge Indians in the State of Wis-
consin.

Fourth. More ample provision should be made for irrigation of arid
lands occupied by Indians, where without irrigation successful farming
is impossible.

Fifth. Eecogniziug the good results which follow permanency in
office for capable and faithful agents and employes, and the utterly
disastrous results of the frequent changes which, clearly the effect of
partisan bias in too many cases, have so often crippled the service at
agencies where good work for Indians was well under way, we urge,
above everything else, for agents, as well as teachers, matrons, and
physicians, permanency of tenure where efficiency is shown, and we
respectfully request the President of the United States to continue

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 11

good agents in office and to make nominations for the Indian Service
only upon evidence of especial fitness for the work, and not in any case
as reward for party services.

MERRILL E. GATES.
9 ALBERT K. SMILEY.
* WM. H. LYON.
WM. McMiciiAEL.
WM. D. WALKER.
JOSEPH T. JACOBS.
PHILIP C. GARRETT.
DARWIN E. JAMES.
ELBERT B. MONROE.
E. WHITTLESEY.
The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

APPENDIX.

REPORT OF THE PURCHASING COMMITTEE.

SIR: The purchasing committee of the Board of Indian Commissioners submits
the following annual report for the year 1892 :

In compliance with advertisement from the Indian Bureau, dated April 2, 1892,
sealed proposals for annuity goods, supplies, and transportation were opened on
May 3, at the Government warehouse, No. 65 Wooster street, New York, in the
presence of Hon. T. J. Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Gen. Cyrus Bussey,
Assistant Secretary, representing the honorable Secretary of the Interior, and
several members of the Board of Indian Commissioners.

There was a large attendance of bidders ; also reporters from the leading commer-
cial papers. Proposals were received and read from 554 bidders, and after a very
careful examination of the bids and samples, awards were made and contracts
entered into with 216 of the bidders.

The following gentlemen were appointed inspectors, who assisted in the examina-
tion of the great variety of samples offered. They also examined the goods when
delivered to see that they were equal in every respect to the samples from which
the awards were made : Thomas Walsh, for dry goods and notions ; Herman Wisch-
mann, for groceries; Dr. R. G. Eccles, for medical supplies; John Peyser, for har-
ness, leather, etc. ; Robert B. Currier, shoes, etc. ; James A. Bronson, for hard-
ware; William T. Jeffrey, for flour; Charles E. Teale, for school supplies, clothing,
etc., and E. L. Cooper as general inspector.

The inspection for several years past has been very rigid, and contractors have
learned that they must deliver goods equal in every respect to the samples, and only
two instances have been reported that goods were rejected, one a small delivery of
coffee, the other a case of bed ticking, both of which were promptly replaced by
the contractors to the satisfaction of the inspectors.

Maj. Robbins, superintendent of the warehouse, reports that the number of schools
has increased, and he has shipped to 178 points of delivery, as against 162 two
years ago. There were received and entered 1,440 more invoices than last year.

The shipping season was delayed somewhat this year by the failure of Congress
to pass the appropriation bill till July 14. This caused a delay of two weeks at the
start, and again the excessive hot period we passed through this summer caused
great delay on the part of the manufacturers, who in many instances were com-
pelled for awhile to stop their shops and factories. Last year he was practically
through shipping the year's supplies by December 1 ; this year was unable to close
up until January 1. Has still some supplies for the new schools to go forward, but
is so near through that the working force of the office and warehouse has been
reduced to the usual winter basis.

A much better quality of goods generally has been purchased for the Indians this
year than formerly, particularly blankets, dry goods, clothing, and shoes; 33,200
packages were received and shipped this season from July 15 to December 31,
weighing 4,730,500 pounds.

WILLIAM H. LYON,
Chairman Purchasing Committee.

Hon. MERRILL E. GATES,

Chairman Board of Indian Commissioners.

REPORT OF HON. PHILIP C. GARRETT.

ALANDAR, MASS., August 23, 1892.

DEAR SIR : As commissioned by you, under date of May 27, I have visited a num-
ber of the Indian schools supported by the Government, and a few of the reservations,
being governed in the choice of a route by the advice of Commissioner Morgan and
12

REPORT, OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 13

Secretary Whittlesey, and including Denver, which was directly on the way from
the Sioux reservations which I visited to the schools at Grand Junction and Fort
Lewis, Colo., specially commended to my notice by the Commissioner. At Denver 1
had been invited to occupy an evening of the sessions of the National Conference of
Charities with a discussion of "The Indian Policy." A report of the evening's dis-
cussion I send herewith. It was considered of especial value to hold this discussion
in the State of Colorado, which has suffered much in the past from troubles with the
Indians, and which now seems bent upon removing the last vestige of the Utes from
her borders to lands in Utah less adapted to their civilization.

Leaving home on Monday, June 6, I stopped first at Carlisle to visit Capt.
Pratt's school, chiefly for purposes of comparison. This is the largest and one of
the oldest (if not the oldest) and best of the distinctively Indian schools, and much
honor is due to Capt. Pratt, who has foregone the chances of promotion in his chosen
profession and consecrated his life, amid many discouragements, to most earnest and
and well-directed efforts to raise the Indian' to the plane of United States citizen-
ship.

There were 770 pupils on the roll, many of whom, however, under Capt. Pratt's
famous " outing system," were now out on farms and in families for the summer, at
the same time learning civilized ways, and earning money which is placed to their
credit on account books at the school, and in pass-books similar to those of a saving
fund, and is at the disposal of the pupil. Two interesting instances of the application
of this money were related to me by the captain. His boys had asked permission to
fit up an old'blacksmith's shop, with their own money, as a Y. M. C. A. b'uilding, and
had not only altered it themselves, but equipped and furnished it for that purpose.
And two of the older boys, occupying a room together, had proposed to paper their
room, and had done it quite tastefully ; following which almost all the rooms had been
neatly papered by the larger boys, at their own cost, and with their own hands.
There are 333 acres of land under cultivation and furnishing instruction in agricul-
ture. This is not enough for a school of the present size, and if it is to be further
enlarged I should think it advisable to secure more laud. There is a fine dairy here
with an excellent and copious spring, and the cattle, hogs, horses, and poultry are
all such as to set the Indians an example of good stock-raising. They make all their
own shoes and clothing at Carlisle, and the girls are taught laundry work, dress-
making, and sewing, besides ordinary housework. The boys are trained in harness-
making, carpentry, tin work, and blacksmithing, and in making wagons for sale.
All of these trades are useful, but after all the practical result is that few of the
Indians apply any of them but farming if they go back to their reservations. The
schooling shows excellent results, and is carried far enough to fit pupils for entering
the public grammar schools. The printing and publication rooms afford an outlet
for some of the literary acquisition on the spot, and may prove useful to some stu-
dents afterwar ds.

White's Manual Labor Institute, established under the will of Josiah White, which
I visited the following day, is some 5 miles out of the city of Wabash, Ind., and an
interesting and successful institution. This is not a Government school, but re-
ceives national support. It is small; there were 81 on the roll, and 75 Indian
children actually at the school at the date of my visit. If is characterized by a
strong family feeling, and an affectionate personal interest in the pupils, on the part
of superintendent and teachers ; and probably more individual attention to each
pupil .than usual. •! was afterwards told, on one of the reservations, that the
Wabash pupils showed the best results of any of the schools, but this may have been
an individual opinion. Certainly the children looked very comfortable and happy
at the school. The outing system is not used, but there is a relatively larger atten-
tion given to farming than at Carlisle, the farm containing 750 acres, of which 200
are woodland. On this farm they had 80 head of cattle (cows, heifers, and steers),
77 swi ne, and 65 shoats, and 200 sheep, besides perhaps as many lambs. Their horses
were of powerful breed, very different from the wretched little Indian ponies usually
seen on the reservations. Elmore Little Chief, a Pine Ridge boy, and a Quapaw
girl had formed an attachment for each other, and were about to be married, and
the superintendent was solicitous that they be furnished at Pine Ridge with a house
and utensils. I found, when I reached Pine Ridge, that <£apt. Brown had already
been written to on the subject; but the case suggests the constantly recurring doubt
and anxiety, lest 110 means can be found of preventing young people from losing
much of the civilized ways they have acquired. There is less danger probably, of
relapse into savage life, when a couple who have been educated together marry be-
fore returning to the reservation ; and this inclination ought, by no means, to be
discouraged, because the young people will then be a mutual support, and better
braced against the ridicule of their pagan clansmen.

On the whole, although I had little opportunity to see the schooling at the insti-
tute in my brief visit, the impressions received of the work of the school were favor-
able. *

14 REPORT OF THE BOAKD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

I returned to Wabash after dark, and took a midnight train for Chicago, en route
to Rosebud Agency, reaching Valentine, Nebr., the nearest point on the Fremont,
Elkhorii & Missouri Valley Railroad about 2 a. ni., June 10, and at 7 drove 35 miles
to Rosebud agency by stage. The land, up to the very line of the reserve, is taken
up and cultivated, but here the cultivation1 ceases, the agency being near 20 miles
from the border, and no Indians, except a "Squaw Indian" named O'Brien, living
near the line. O'Brien appeared .to be setting a good example in the way of raising
cattle, which was, of course, profitable to him, feeding them, as he din*, without
cost, on the range. At the Halfway House, where we stopped for a rude lunch, a
picturesque object was encountered in a young Indian, mounted, and with carbine
strapped to his horse's side, who told an interpreter he was hunting for a lost pony.
Certainly no such object was visible on the broad prairie, as far as the eye could see.
From here to the agency, scarce an Indian or a tepee was seen. The site chosen for
the agency buildings was a remarkable one, half way down the sandy sides of a deep
canon, whose wooded shelves were beautifully adapted to ambushes. Most of the
buildings were within a high fence inclosure of open pickets. Within this were the
agent's offices, the guard house, stables, and warehouses. The first fact I realized
was the immense extent of the reservation and the scattered condition of the Indians ;
the former being about 55 miles wide by 150 miles of greatest length. I give these
figures, and others, not vouching for their perfect accuracy, but as they were given
me. A rectangle of these dimensions would include four millions and a half of acres;
in point of fact, owing to its irregular form, I understand the tract to contain about
3,000,000. This includes the Mauvalses terres to the north, and a good deal of bad
land besides. In these Bad Lands there are still grizzlies and some game; but as
the Indians do not live by game, and the purpose is to civilize them all, there is
really no particular advantage in so large a reservation — no benefit, I mean, to the
Indians. Having, to some extent, acquired the white man's idea of value in land,
they may claim a right to it, but it is of no practical use to them. To me it seemed
that there would be an advantage in moving the agency to good prairie ground
about 18 miles nearer the railroad, where there is water, and setting apart the valua-
ble land between that point and the Nebraska line to colonize married couples of
educated young Indians, under conditions favorable to the retention of all they have
gained. I would like especially to commend to the consideration of the Government
and those concerned with the civilization of the Indians some plan such as this, as
possibly valuable by aiding them to resist a relapse into savage ways. It was mel-
ancholy to observe thousands if not millions of acres, which might be utilized for
raising cattle, and some of it for raising grain, lying idle, while millions of pounds
of beef are fed to the Indians yearly, without effort on their part. The extent to
which they receive all they want, of every kind, gratuitously, and the manifestly
pauperizing effect of the system on the Indians, were conditions which I had never
before adequately realized. There is too much reason to fear that, if prolonged, it
will prove their ruin, and completely counteract the efforts to fit them for citizenship.
This is a subject, I am sure, meriting the very serious consideration of thoughtful
persons, who can in any way influence a solution of the difficulty. To police the
extensive reservation, Agent Wright has 55 men, armed like our municipal police,
with maces and revolvers. He makes one use of these men which I did not find ott
the Pine Ridge reservation, and which seemed to me a very good one, i. e., to enforce
attendance at the day schools. Of these, there are now 13, with an average of 25 or
30 pupils each, and a policeman attends daily at each school, reports the pupils who
are present, and hunts up the absentees. His report is compared with the teacher's,
and is a check on the accuracy of the latter. It is argued that there is an advantage
in the children going to day school when young, even if they afterwards go to a
Government boarding school on the reservation, and perhaps ultimately to one of the
large training schools, because of the influence of these children on the home life of
their parents. There would seem to be something in this, but, for thorough habitu-
. ation to civilized ways, an education apart from parental and tribal influence is
manifestly .necessary. Nor is this civilization going to be retained, without it is
somehow isolated after education. My observation disappointed me as to the extent
to which the acquired civilization is retained after returning to the reservation. It
is not satisfactory. And it is easy to see that it can not be retained on the reserva-
tion. The pupil at the Government school is taught English ; he is taught farming,
carpenter work, smith work, harness-making, etc. When he returns, his people
talk Dakota— all the carpenter and smith work the Indians need is furnished to
them gratuitously, perhaps by treaty. If he tries farming, he does not find the
abundance nor the quality of tools he has been taught to use. His path is beset
with insurmountable difficulties, and he soon becomes discouraged, and gives up the
fight. I am satisfied that unless the educated young Indians are colonized in a
society of their own, and a positive effort made to assist them in keeping what they
have gained, the civilizing of the whole mass is going to be a tedious task. With-
out support, instead of leavening the rest, they are yielding to the stolid pressure

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 15

in favor of the old savage life in very many instances; and even when they do not
actually return to "the blanket/' they lead useless and disappointed lives.

The 13 schools oil the Rosebud reserve are supplemented by the St. Mary's Episco-
pal Mission with 44 scholars, and the St. Francis Catholic Mission with about 100,
the latter working on refractory material in Sky Bull's camp of n on -progressive In-
dians, about 7 miles from the agency, and apparently doing good work with the
children. This is the nearest camp to the agency buildings.

An effort is being made to induce the Indians to raise beef. Cows and bulls have
been distributed to them, and it is proposed to pi ce out 1,000 more at an early day.
Hitherto the Indians have, slaughtered the calves when they felt like eating a mess
•of veal. To prevent this, Agent Wright is endeavoring to keep an accurate census
of the herd, and to brand the calves as well as the <'lder animals, each Indian's by
his own brand: and the Indians are held to a strict account for them. The great
tendency is to raise ponies, iiot for any use they are put to, nor for sale, but simply
as a sort of standard of wealth, for the pride of possession. As the Indian ponies
are of very poor breed from any utilitarian point of view, this is to be discouraged.
It is constantly urged as a reason for failure in farming that they have iitft horses,
the ponies being neither docile nor strong enough to do the work.

There are 6 farmers employed on the reservation, and, if they are the right men,
they ought to be able to do much towards training the Indians in farming. An im-
portant step has been taken in the beef issue by establishing substations at different
points over the reservation. Formerly the beef was all issued at the central station,
and the Indians from the most distant points consumed nearly all their time between
issue days corning and going. Issue day was a great day, the cattle, as issued, being
hunted down like buffalo, and shot running. This is no longer allowed, and conve-
nient slaughter pens are erected where the cattle are shot with revolvers, and their
carcasses issued to the Indians. The substations not only result in great saving of
time, and thus remove excuses for not working, but prevent the congregating of
large numbers of Indians to carouse and concoct mischief.

I spent some time looking through the storehouses, to get some idea of the honesty
of the goods received. Articles of food and groceries generally were good, but there
were many complaints of other goods.

A point was made as to the larger farm machinery, which sounded sensible, i. e.,
that instead of changing about from one make to another, according to bids, the
Department ought to select the best machine, and only take bids for it. It is impos-
sible to keep on hand pieces to repair such a variety of maphines, whereas if only one
make, and that the best, were used, the machinist could always match broken and
worn out pieces, by maintaining a stock on hand. The Pioneer reaper was too com-
plicated, and Walter A. Wood & Co.'s simpler and more easily understood.

Agent Wright appears to be a man of great courage, thoroughly adapted to con-
trolling the Indians in troublous times. He is also much interested in the progress
of the people under his charge, and has had large experience among them. He may
not be as popular as some, but I believe he is highly respected, and would be feared
by the troublesome class.

The time I allowed did not permit me to see the widely scattered schools. St.
Mary's school was* about to close for the season, and was 12 miles away, and the only
one I really saw in operation was that at the mission of St. Francis, which pleased
me much. These fathers and sisters are very devoted.

Agent Wright reports that about 100 families in the eastern part of Rosebud Res-
ervation are ready to take allotments in severalty. If they do it will probably be
a contagious example.

Although the Pine Ridge immediately joins this reservation on the west, as the
agencies are about 100 miles apart, the best way of reaching Pine Ridge is to return
to the railroad and take a train to Rushville, Nebr., which I did, reaching there early
Sunday morning, and taking stage 25 miles to the agency. I was pleased to have
the privilege of attending a service in the Dakota language that evening, and hear-
ing a sermon fluently and impressively delivered by a native preacher to a well-
dressed native congregation.

While here I was most kindly and hospitably entertained by Dr. Charles Eastman
and his accomplished wife, formerly Miss El'iine Goodale, who warmly seconds his
natural interest in the native population. It was an especial privilege to ride among
the Indians \vith him, because his popularity and knowledge of his native tongue
gave one special opportunities to acquire correct impressions of the people. I formed
the highest opinion of the wisdom, energy, and devotion of the agent, Capt. Leroy
Brown, who, it seemed to me, ought by all means to have a permanent appointment,
on account* of special fitness. I have not a doubt that the efforts to displace him,
of which there have been rumors, have their origin with designing men, whose wrong
purposes are defeated by his directness, integrity, and patriotic singleness of inten-
tion.

Capt. Brown devotes much of his time to moving about among the Indians, learn-

16 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

ing their needs, opening schools, and establishing important reforms. He has
created 5 snbissne stations for beef, and 6 school districts, with 18 day schools,
soon to be increased to 23, with from 30 to 45 pupils each. There are 100 police,
which arc not, however, used to police the schools.

The schools are supplemented by the Catholic mission school in the charge of
Father Jutz, a Swiss, highly respected by the Indians, aided by sisters of St.
Francis. There are 120 pupils here, and it is reputed to be a valuable mission, but
the day I visited it the school was closed for a picnic, and the children were having
a fine time with pony races and games. The Government training school is not ap-
parently fulfilling its purpose as an industrial training school, although I feel sure
the superintendent and matron are pious and excellent persons, and probably well
adapted to the care of a school of different character.

In a drive which I took with Dr. Eastman, of some 40 miles, through the Wounded
Knee district, the evidences of settlement and content were most gratifying. Very
few were living in tepees. Many of them were, in fair houses, with civilized interiors
and pictures on the walls, showing that they are not really so antagonistic as is sup-
posed to white men's ways. We were usually greeted with a hearty "How!" and
there were evidences of contentment and happiness on every side. The little farms
fenced in and under cultivation were numerous, and the roads in pretty good condi-
tion, much better than I have seen them in some parts of the States. There were
still stories of ghost dances, and Agent Wright had two Indians in the Rosebud
guardhouse, charged with making ghost-dance shirts; but there was no indication
that there was much significance in this, or that the dancing was indulged in to
much extent.

Indeed, there seemed to me to be strong reasons to hope that we have seen the last
Indian war, especially as the American people are coming more and more to under-
stand the nature and origin of these wars. A Hood of light was thrown on this sub-
ject by a hotel keeper at Rushville, who told me candidly that the stories of danger
from Indians which become current in our paper!* and lead to fighting are all exag-
gerated. Persons who reap benefit from the presence of an army arc the ones who
create the excitement, and in the recent Sioux disturbances, that the Chadrou people
thought that a war would be a great thing for this part of the country, and telegraphed
for troops for protection, though they admitted no protection was needed, but " it
was a good thing to get up a war — it made business."

Special attention has been directed to the Ogalalla Sioux at Pine Ridge by the re-
cent outbreak ; but I suppose they are fair types of the different divisions of this
great tribe, which only vary, one from another, according to their varying environ-
ment. If so, it is instructive to note the great extent to which civilized means of
living have already been adopted and savage ways abandoned. The tepee, when
used, is built no longer of the skins of beasts, but of army duck. Tents, however,
are in a large measure abandoned in favor of small houses, quite as good as many
; white settlers live in; better than many moss houses and dugouts. They sleep on
bedsteads, sometimes of rude manufacture, but still bedsteads. They use utensils
introduced by the white race. Their roads are fair, and they now delight in driving
wagons, and do most, if not all, of the reservation teaming. They use civilized sad-
dles and harness. They have abandoned their barbarous methods of burial, and to
a greater or less degree they are accepting our fabrics for clothing. Considering
their notorious tenacity for ancient usages, this amount of concession is an earnest
qf complete conversion.

From Pine Ridge I retraced my steps to Norfolk and went north to Emerson, on
the edge of the Winnebago Reservation, in order to form an idea of the result; so
far, of the division of land in severally, driving a short distance over their land the
same day, and on the next, 18 miles, to the agency for the Winnebagoes and Oniahas,
now under one agent, Maj . Ashley. This was on the 18th of June. I was sorry to find
him absent, but had satisfactory interviews with the chief clerk and Mrs. Ashley.
The outlook was not wholly reassuring, almost the whole Winnebago Reservation
being overrun by whites, Who, in defiance of law, have leased their land of the In-
dians, in many cases for five years, paying the rent in advance. The settlers have been
in possession so long undisturbed that they construe the silence of the Government
into assent, and have erected permanent improvements on the land, while the Indi-
ans have received the five years' lease money, and probably spent it. The intruders
are so numerous that it will now be difficult to eject them, and the country around,
if not clamorous, is a unit for the division and improvement of the Indian land for
the sake of the consequent increase in business. Of the 111,000 acres on the reserva-
tion, the Indians cultivated 6,150 acres last year, and raised 20,000 bushels of wheat.
The Omahas formerly raised about the same amount, but last year only about 8,000
bushels. Three-fourths of the Winnebago land is leased to a land company at from
10 to 50 cents per acre, and sublet at $1 per acre per annum. Flax is generally
planted the first year (for seed only), and after this breaking in, then corn. The
Indians whom I saw were mostly in citizens' dress, and many spoke English. The

REPORT -OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 1 7

little fa.r:ns they cultivated themselves locked very well. I did not see a single
tepee near the agency; they live in houses. Of the 133,000 acres on the Omaha Res-
ervation, the Indians cultivate 6,420, but a deplorable state of things exists here,
Mrs. Ashley asserting that only 4 out of 1,200 Indians are free from the vice of in-
temperance. This is ascribed to the absence of an agent resident with them, and to
the fact that a large sum of money has recently been disbursed to them, and the
temptation is strong to waste it on liquor in the neighboring towns. The boarding
school at Wiunebago, with 81 scholars, was burned down in February, and is a seri-
ous loss.

I have given the plain, unvarnished story, as it was given to me, about these two
reservations, and it reveals some of the dangers that beset the solution of the sev-
eralty question and rocks upon which the Indian may go to pieces on his voyage
toward civilization if warning signals and careful navigation are not used. As to
the extent of the evil of intemperance among the Omahas, to the question which I
put to Mrs. Ashley, whether she meant that almost all the Indians became intoxi-
cated, or only that they were addicted to a moderate use of intoxicants, sha replied
that she believed they were most of them drunkards. It is some consolation to
know that the Indians themselves had aroused to a sense of the evil, and the day
before had held a mammoth temperance meeting. Whether they will be able to
overcome the habit is another question.

On the following day I proceeded north to the Santee Agency. The hotel is on the
opposite side of the Missouri, which was now greatly swollen by the June flood. A
small skitf for foot passengers, and a ferry boat propelled by horsepower for ve-
hicles, were the media of communication, the agency being some 2 miles beyond the
river. The agent, who was a political appointee, without either knowledge or in-
terest in the Indians, has been tried in the furnace of affliction, joined Dr. Riggs'
church, arid has become zealous and warmly interested in his work, though he never
would have undertaken it had he known what it involves to be an Indian agent.
Like the Winnebago country, the neighborhood of the Santee Sioux is a beautiful
farming region, and, as there, fine farms, which require but little breaking up to
bring under cultivation, are in the immediate vicinity. The Dakota farmers raise
corn and feed it to hogs, the corn being worth only 15 to 20 cents per bushel, while
the hogs bring 4 cents per pound. The Hope boarding school (one of Bishop Hare's
series), is at Springfield, opposite the Santee Reservation, and is a very creditable
school. The reservation contains about 87,000 acres, and there are 830 Indians, or
thereabouts, of whom 126 are enrolled in the Government school, and about 100 in actual
attendance. The school I did not see in operation, but the boarding house was a poor
and slovenly place, in bad repair, and altogether below par. The children sleep two,
three, and even four in a bed. They have no industries but farming, and from what
I heard and saw I do not believe the farm instruction compares well with that at other
schools. Rations and annuities here, as in other places, are doing harm and tending
to keep the people back. The redeeming feature is the Riggs mission, the admirable
work which is well known and of long standing. Dr. Riggs has about 150 pupils
boarding in a series of attractive buildings, a carpenter shop with very practical in-
struction, a smith shop, shoe shop, and printing office. The chapel is in the midst
of these buildings, and is also used as a schoolhouse. He has good and thorough
teachers, and is doing a beautiful work. An excellent, practical cooking class
among the young women was receiving instruction from a teacher who had fitted
herself for this-purpose.

The superintendent of printing is justice of the peace under the new regime, and
has a tough task to introduce a system of law. The great difficulty seemed to
be to obtain any recognition of his decrees in the adjoining courts, where it was
easy to set them aside. He is earnest and intelligent, and much interested in the
solution of the problem of law for the Indians, and I am mistaken much if his
experience will not prove of great value in the discovery and remedy of the difficul-
ties that confront this question during the transition period.

The case of Yellow Horse had been referred to me for inquiry by Commissioner
Morgan. I found his petition to be a renewal of an old complaint which had been
definitely settled by instructions from the Department, and there appeared no good
reason for its revival. All that seemed to me to be required was that the agent refer
the Department by date and number to its own letter of instructions.

From Springfield, S. Dak., I took up my journey to Grand Junction, Colo., stop-
ping, however, at Denver to attend the National Conference of Charities and hold one
session on the Indian question. Although the subject is not a popular one in Denver,
there was a large and attentive audience, who remained to a late hour, listening to
the discussions with manifest interest.

Grand Junction is a small place at the junction of Guunison and Grand Rivers,
and the school is about 2 miles from the station. It is in the midst of an arid coun-
try, of desert appearance, and at the time I was there, on the 4th of July, was lying
in a blazing sun, shadeless and dazzling. The country has that peculiar fawn-col-

14499 2

18 KEPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

ored beauty peculiar to the Great American Desert, the view being bounded by
barren bluffa beyond the rivers. The ground is valueless without irrigation. The
town of Grand Junction has fruit-growing prospects, and with ample reservoirs and
canals it may be that necessary irrigation can be provided for all of the country trib-
utary to it. It has now a population of about 1, 500, and the people are contem-
plating the erection of smelters for the precious metals, not because these are exten-
sively mined in the vicinity, but because they argue that the railroad grades, which
are often heavy in this region, favor the location. The smelting would not add to
its value as a place for an Indian school, but the fruit-growing has a certain value
for Indians Avbose home is likely to be in lands requiring irrigation and of soil
friendly to fijuits. In every other respect this location seems to me unfavorable for
the purpose. Unfortunately the soil on the school land is poor and the farm without
an adequate supply of water. The pupils number 92, of which 56 are boys and 36
girls, all from points south of them, being Navajocs, Mohaves, Yumas, San Carlos,
and Mescalero Apaches, and a few of them Utes. Without more dormitory space
they can not accommodate a larger number. There are 160 acres of laud, about half
of which is under cultivation, most of it in alfalfa; but this requires much water,
and the supply is very short. Some fruit trees have been planted, which are not,
liowever, well taken care of, and need cultivating.

If the school is to be kept up, much money will have to be spent; more ground
and of better quality ought to be bought and devoted to fruit; an abundance of
water secured, and a canning establishment erected, with box making and tinware
making as adjuncts. The boys are already taught some carpeutry, harness making
and shoemaking, and the girls cooking, sewing, and the ordinary household occu-
pations. The boys' bedrooms and the schoolrooms looked untidy, torn papers lying
loose around the latter, which had been closed since June 30. The bath rooms were
also in bad condition. The children looked happy, and were observing the 4th
with foot races, sack races, and blindfold races, under the immediate supervision of
the superintendent, Mr. L em in on, the ladies and girls looking on, under an ex-
temporized shed. The thermometer marked about 100 degrees. Mr. Lemmon has
some excellent ideas, one of which is the same as that heretofore recommended in
this report, of colonizing young couples off their reservations. He thinks it will
come to this, and recommends southwest Missouri as a good place for trying the ex-
I periment. As to this, I am not qualified to express an opinion, having no knowledge
of that part of Missouri. Mrs. Lemuion claims very good results for their schools.

No doubt success can be made to attend such a school even here. I was much
interested in it at the time, but after visiting the Fort Lewis school, the expediency
of continuing that at Grand Junction seemed questionable. I am not able to see
anything special to commend the location. It draws its supply of scholars from ex-
actly those sources natural to Fort Lewis, which lies "between them and it, and does
not draw any from the two reservations near it over the Utah line, which would
seem to be the one intention in placing a school where it is.

Fort Lewis, a recently abandoned military post, lies about 12 miles southwest of
the flourishing city of Durango, on a broad plain of excellent arable land, with
plenty of water flowing through it in the La Plata River. Though not so beautiful
as Grand Junction from an {esthetic point of view, it is very beautifully situated for
the purpose to which it has now been devoted. The military reservation comprised
over 20 square miles, and it is proposed to retain 15 square miles, or 9,600 acres, for
school purposes, an amount which the people of the neighborhood think unreason-
ably large. The buildings, which surround an oblong plaza or parade ground prob-
ably 1,000 feet in length, are said to be seventy-three in number. They are certainly
numerous, and many of them substantial and adapted, with slight alteration, to their
new use. There are the conditions here for a very large and successful training-
school. As a matter of fact it is but just begun, Mr. Morgan, the superintendent,
having come here on the 7th of March last with the first 5 Indian children. They
now number 48 — 14 girls and 34 boys — all from the neighboring tribes, 26 of them
being Mescalero Apaches, 16 Southern Utes, and 6 Navajoes. Their calculation is to
have 300 next year, and ultimately at least 500. I apprehend it would be easier to
build up a school of 1,000 here than at Carlisle, at least if Capt. Pratt had the doing
of it. That is not saying that so large a school is expedient. Young as it was there
was admirable elementary instruction being given, and Mr. Dutcher, the industrial
teacher, has a model garden, in which the young Indians are employed, with crops
of potatoes, cabbage, onions, beans, peas, lettuce, and celery — such a garden as I
had not seen elsewhere among the Indians. Probably tinder the influence of persons
who wish to remove the Utes from Colorado, they, and the Jicarillas and neighbor-
ing Navajoes, are resisting the sending of their children to the school, but it is hoped
this prejudice will be overcome. Mr. Charles Bartholomew, the agent of the South-
ern Utes, assured me, while at Duraugo, that he would use every etfort to improve
the feeling toward the school on the part of his Indians, and induce them to send
their children. On the whole, my impressions of the possibilities of this as a leading

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 19

training school were most favorable, but I do not see the advantage of maintaining
two so near together as this and that at Grand Junction with so little upon which
to bnild a school as there is at the latter place. «

I did not make a point of leaving the train to look over the reservation of the
Southern Utes. so recently visited by Messrs. Kane and Eiter of the Indian Rights
Association, and fully reported on. I had, however, some conversation with Agent
Bartholomew, and carefully observed the Southern Ute country about Ignacio and
along the Los Finos and Los Animas rivers. It seems to me there could not be a
greater mistake than to move Indians from lands so favorable to farming and place
them in rough, wild hunting ground, simply to gratify a clamor for their land from
people eager for the wealth that conies to those who buy it at Government prices.
At the same time, I do not believe from the looks of things that these Indians are
progressing much, if at all, nor that any great elforts are being made to utilize this
land for their benefit. Very little of it is under cultivation, and the Indians are
sparsely scattered in blankets and tepees along the rivers, apparently leading a lazy
life. I do not see why the eastern part of the land might not be sold at auction
prices for their benefit, leaving their entire tribe with much more land than they
will ever use near the Fort Lewis school.

I would like to reiterate as to the Fort Lewis school land what I have already said
as to other places, that it would seem to me a wise disposal of as much of the 20
square miles in the former military reservation as is not needed for a model farm to
colonize educated Indians on it in married couples. No such advantage is found at
Grand Junction for the Uintah and Uiicompahgre Utes, but here is a grand oppor-
tunity to set apart laud near a school for theNavajoes, Jicarilla Apaches, and South-
ern Utes.

The Haworth Institute, at Chilocco, Okla., the next school which I visited, in this
last respect resembles the Fort Lewis school. It has 8,640 acres of splendid prairie
land, and here it does not require irrigation. If the tribes that are tributary to this
school need 'colonizing, here is an opportunity for that, and for aught I can see it
would have the same value for them as for otners. Of 199 children now at the school,
there are 44 Pawnees, 20 Caddoes, 36 Shawnees, 31 Sac and Foxes, 12 Otoes, 9 Kio-
was. 2 Apaches, 5 Delawares, 1 Iowa, 13 Pottawatomies, 13 Poncas, 4 Tonkawas, 6
Winuebagoes, 2 Cheyennes, and 1 Wichita, representing 15 different tribes. Of
these 122 were boys and 77 girls. I have not been able to see any general principle
or system by which selections are made from different tribes for the various schools.
It seems to be haphazard. It occurred to me whether it would not be better to fol-
low some lines of selection according to the proximity of the reservation to the
school, etc. It would favor economy in transportation, and probably promote
health, and might still have ample opportunity to mingle tribes and break tribal
lines through acquaintance formed at school. In this connection I asked Mr. Place,
the disciplinarian of the school, whether it was an advantage or disadvantage that
a Government training school should be near the home of the scholar. His reply
was that "it would be popular with the people about here for him to say advantage,
but that he really thought the farther they were apart the better it would be."

Mr. Cusick, the farmer, appears to be a 'very competent and efficient person, and,
as might be expected with so large and fertile a farm, the agricultural feature is
here the prominent one. Indeed, it is Mr. Cusick' s opinion, that with a little start
from the Government, the farm could be made to pay all the expenses of the school.
In point of fact, that consideration ought to be very secondary to that of furnish-
ing training to the Indians, and there is some danger of this important relation
being lost sight of; but if the farm can be made to serve both purposes, it is well.
At present, I am pretty sure the subject is wrong end first. I understood the far-
mer that he had only 12 boys at a time, out of the 122, on this immense farm. Even
allowing for 3,000 acres still used for grazing purposes by outsiders, and for the
number of boys too small to do much, it would seem that 50 at a time would not be
too many to practice daily in the field, and the farmer complains of the need of
more help to secure his crops and get necessary work done. Still fewer, very few,
of the boys were learning shoemaking, carpentering, or tailoring, and perhaps none
blacksmithing, though there was a good shop. There seemed to be a great want of
system about the work, comparative little regard being paid to giving steady in-
struction in the several occupations to the boys, who were suddenly summoned
from one to another repeatedly, according to the exigencies of shop or field. This
ought to be remedied. It may have been due partly to the absence of Supt. Cop-
pock, whom I was sorry not to meet. He had gone to Washington.

Of the cattle, 450 in number, 30 were milch cows, the remainder fattening on the
luxuriant prairie grass, and in splendid condition. In addition to these, of live
stock, there were 150 hogs and 100 shoats. There was a scarcity of good, strong
teams, and Mr. Cusick thought he should have 1.000 sheep also. He has 200 acres
in wheat, 155 in oats, 150 in corn, 30 in orchard, garden and vineyard, and 8 in
potatoes. A cattle shed, 400 feet long, affords winter shelter for the cattle, and the

20 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

buildings generally are substantial and good. The estimated yield of wheat was
20 bushels average, of oats 40, and of corn 50 to the acre. The products of the
farm are used as yet almost entirely for the school, though the farmer's estimate of
the profit on them last year is $10,000. It will be seen that a very small part of the
farm is in crops, apparently 6^ per cent of the whole acreage. They probably may
sell 2,000 bushels of wheat this season. New buildings are going up for enlarged
school accommodations; and location, plant and everything commend the school
as the favorable nucleus for a large training place for the tribes of Indians in
Oklahoma.

The last place visited by me, on July 13, was the Haskell Institute at Lawrence,
Kans., too well known to require much description from me. I believe it is the next
school in size to Carlisle, having 513 pupils, 180 of them girls. The number was re-
duced below 400 at the time of my visit by the absence of 125 at their homes.
Twenty-nine different tribes are represented. There are four principal buildings,
handsomely built of light-colored stone, these being two boys' and one girls' dormi-
tory, and the school building; and there are sundry others of smaller size. The
shops for the different industries, where the children continue their industrial
training throughout the summer months, are excellent, and comprise carpentry,
wheelwrighting, shoemakiug, tailoring, and painting. No especial prominence is
given to farming, apparently — it does not, at least, compare with Ha worth in that
respect. The farm consists of about 650 acres, all cleared, and on it are over 100
head of cattle and 100 hogs, with no sheep. The school consumes, on an average,
about one beef daily. From 5 to 15 boys were in each manufacturing department.
The students make their own shoes and clothing entirely. The girls do the house-
work and sewing, but I did not learn that much effort was made to teach them
sewing by hand, which one would think the most important kind for them.

The wheelwright shop is a notable feature, and is quite extensive, turning out car-
riages and wagons for sale. Some complaints were made of the hemlock- tanned
leather and harness hardware. The harness-maker thinks the inspector does not
know the pieces for which proposals are asked, by name. Assistant Superintendent
Swett says they are in need of a chapel for 1,000 seats and a gymnasium. As to sew-
ing machines, Mrs. Meserve, the wife of the superintendent, who was absent, told
nie that she recently found nearly all the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in Indian Ter-
ritory living in tepees, but found sewing machines, as well as other luxuries, in the
tepees. Mr. Seger, of the Seger colony, had told her that when he entered a camp
of Indians he always asked for returned students, and upon being shown a tent occu-
pied by such Indians, he always made for that tent, because he was sure to rind there
a basin of clear water to cleanse himself with.

The children looked well and happy in spite of the intense heat. Mr. Swett told
me that their mortality was not over three a year, which would be only three-fifths
of 1 per cent. There is a hospital and resident physician on the grounds. They
have abandoned the open cistern for bathing, being convinced it was the means of
spreading contagion, especially diseases of the eyes. They now use separate bath-
tubs, and flowing fountains for face washing.

The love of the Indian children for their homes was manifest, when I asked a lot
of young Pine Ridge girls which they liked best, Pine Ridge or Haskell. Their
faces beamed all over, as they shouted with one accord uPine Ridge." This is per-
fectly natural ; they liked Haskell, and were happy there, but they loved their homes.
Like other races, the children get over this somewhat as they 'grow older, and are
willing to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

As I have incoporated in what I have thus written such suggestions as occurred
to me in connection with my observations, and have already prolonged this report,
perhaps beyond a reasonable length, I will not at this time supplement it with any
extended comments. I will content myself with urging that it does not seem to me
the American people are enough impressed with the necessity, first, of putting an
end, in some righteous way, to the present pauperization of the Indians by gifts,
doles, and support from Government without equivalent labor ; and, second, of taking
steps of some kind to prevent such waste of the results of education as now usually
follows the return of educated Indians to the reservation, even to the extent, in
some instances, of a relapse into barbarism.

My tour was full of interest and instruction to myself, and I shall be gratified if
I can in any way, however humbly or imperfectly, turn it to account for the good
of the cause which the Board of Indian Commissioners was created to serve.
I remain, yours very truly,

PHILIP C. GAKRETT.

Hon. MERRILL E. GATES,

President Board of Indian Commissioners.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 2 L

REPORT OF HOX. DARWIX R. JAMES.

NEW YORK, September 16, 1892.

DEAR SIR: I li^ve the honor to present the following report of my visit to Indian
reservations and schools, in compliance with your request of April 16:

Of training schools I visited Teller Institute, at Grand Junction, Colo., and Har-
rison Institute, Chemawa, Oregon.

Of reservations with their schools, the following: Siletx and Umatilla, Oregon;
Tulalip, Puyallup, and Yakima, State of Washington ; and Nex 1'erce", Idaho. At
some of these places I had the companionship and valuable assistance of Mrs. James,
who, as president of the woman's executive committee of the Board of Home Mis-
sions of the Presbyterian Church, has had much to do in school work among the
Indians.

We found the task of getting to and from the reservations somewhat laborious
and the work before us on arrival fatiguing, but it was a labor of love, and we were
grateful that it was our privilege to meet so many earnest workers in their respec-
tive fields of labor. Everywhere we were received with great cordiality, and we
found the time we had alloted for the several fields altogether too short, as there
were so many questions to be discussed and so much to be examined and considered.
I am persuaded that more of this work should be done by the members of the Board,
for it " tones up" the service and tends to encourage the workers, who are very
much isolated and need the sympathizing help of the friend of the Indian.

As a whole, I am convinced that progress is being made, and that the work being
carried on under the efficient management of Commissioner Morgan, with the valu-
able assistance of Superintendent Dorchester, is far better in character and result
than has ever before been done. The improvement in methods and in workmen is
constant. The authorities at Washington are profiting by experience, so that less
mistakes are made and better returns for the money appropriated by Congress are
visible.

While progress seems the order of the day, and the spirit predominating am6ng
the workers is encouraging, still we saw many places where improvements can be
made, and where the expenditure of more money is imperatively demanded to insure
greater success in teaching, and in guarding the health of scholars. Then, again, it
is lamentable that so many Indian youth of school age are not in school at all, and
never have been, and children, too, who live near good schools, or upon what might
be termed favored reservations. The agent at Siletz informed us that all the Indian
youth of school age upon that reservation were enrolled as scholars, but at all other
reservations visited, in answer to the same question, we found that scarce half, or
only part, were in school. The truth is, however, if the children should present
themselves they could not be accommodated, the accommodations being altogether
inadequate. This is an humiliating acknowledgment after so many years of effort
for the education and elevation of the red man.

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING SCHOOLS.
TELLER INSTITUTE.

It was a bright and cheerful May morning when \ve drove over the mile and a
half of road between Grand Junction and the grounds of the school. Being Satur-
day the school was not in session. Some of the younger girls were enjoying them-
selves on the grass and in the swings; boys were noticeable here and there, some
working, some upon the farm wagon, and others moving about upon various
errands. A handsome picket fence separated the grounds from the highway; the
buildings, many of which were new and fresh, presented an attractive appearance,
and the grounds were as well kept as could be expected where so many children
were tramping about. Altogether we were favorably impressed with what we saw
even before alighting from the carriage. The principal buildings are of brick,
and are in good condition, but there is great need for additional buildings. A
new laundry is much needed, estimate for which has been sent to Washington, also
a building for commissary stores, and sheds for wagons and stock. Superintendent
Lemmon has a small sum of money left over from the construction of the barn,
which he has asked the Commissioner to permit him to use in the purchase of ma-
terial for the sheds, wrth a, view to having them put up by the young men who are
learning carpentering, with the aid of the industrial teacher.' The new barn is
large and commodious. The boys care for it and keep it clean. Furniture, other
than beds and bedding for the new house lately completed, is sadly needed — chairs,
tables, window shades, etc. These, doubtless, will be forthcoming ere long, as the
Commissioner has the matter of their purchase under consideration ; meantime they
are at considerable inconvenience to get along. The new building is well constructed

22 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

and is kept scrupulously clean. The dormitory for the girls, the dining-room, and
kitchen are faultless. The farm, consisting of 167i acres, is level, but the soil is
heavy with considerable clay, and therefore not well adapted for gardening purposes.
Alfalfa grows luxuriously with irrigation, and the herd of fine Holstein cows, pur-
chased last year, nine in number, is in excellent condition. This being an industrial
training school, it is very desirable that there be added to the farm a piece of land
which can be purchased and which is adapted to the raising of vegetables. It does
not adjoin the school farm, but is not far away. The boys do some farm work, but
there is little they can do under the circumstances; were the other land added, the
boys could rind much employment. Irrigation is indispensable; up to the time of
our visit there had been no difficulty about the supply of water, but the superintendent
was anticipating trouble with the irrigating company, the Travelers' Insurance Com-
pany, of Hartford, which has succeeded to the control. Very satisfactory work was
being done in the harness shop, shoe shop, and carpenter's shop ; especially was this
the case in the harness and shoe shops; the boys who are working gave evidence
of capacity and good training. Mr. Lemuion is giving some attention to the raising
of bees, which he hopes to develop into an industry of some importance. He has
a plan for making the sale of milk a means of income, and it was with this thought
in view, that he secured the money from the Indian Commissioner for the purchase
of the Holstein cows. Both of these plans seem feasible, and I hope he may succeed,
for it will be an education for the boys, as well as a heip to the school. There are
94 scholars, of whom 58 are boys and 36 girls, twelve tribes being represented. A
new teacher, Mr. Frank Terry, with his wife, came a half hour before our arrival.
He came from Oklahoma, and was appointed under the Civil-Service rules. Half of
the scholars are engaged in study and half in industrial work. The boys and girls
seemed to be happy and contented. Two were seriously ill, and were in the sick
rooms, one a boy, the other a girl, both suffering from pulmonary troubles. The
physician is a kind man, but said he could do little for the sufferers.

The school not being in session we could not examine the scholars in their studies,
but everything we saw indicated good management and thrift in all departments.
Particular attention was given to the supplies furnished under the contracts. The
merchandise from New York received during the year had been excellent in quality,
and no fault could be found except in minor matters. The drugs and medicines
were likewise faultless. Mr. Leinmon at one time had serious difficulty with the
Salt Lake City contractor who furnished the flour, but the matter was adjusted and
the quality is up to contract.

HARRISON INSTITUTE, CHEMAWA, OREGON.

A training school in all its branches. Mr. C. N. Wasson, superintendent, com-
menced work April 1, 1892. Farm consists of 264 acres, and is all capable of culti-
vation, although but 51 acres are cleared and under the plow. Ten acres are in a
young orchard. Since March 1, Mr. Savage, the industrial farmer, with his Indian
boys, has cleared between 10 and 11 acres, and regrubbed and taken stumps from
several acres more. Will have 50 acres in vegetables this season, besides 1 acre in
blackberries. Farm presented a good appearance. Twenty boys have part in the
work, of whom several were plowing and others hoeing, as I wajked over the fields.
It was an encouraging sight. The boys care for the live stock, some 14 cows, which
they milk, 4 horses and 17 hogs. Twenty-three hogs were recently sold by the agent
for $356.95. In the carpenter's shop under Mr. Krop were 8 boys; at one time he
had 11. Shoemaker, Mr. Steiger, has 8 boys. In this shop I saw some excellent
shoes, the best I have yet seen. Four boys had been working in the harness shop
under Mr. Thompson, but were temporarily transferred, as there is little unworked
leather on hand, and certain other work was pressing. There Avas made up and for
sale six double harness for heavy team work and one handsome set for carriage.
Mr. Boughman, wagon-builder and blacksmith, keeps 8 boys at work; they have
on hand and for sale one buggy (two seated), three hacks, two farm wagons" ready
for market, and four others completed, except last coat of paint. In the tailor
shop, under the care of Mr. Hogan, 3 boys were at work (sometimes there are 4);
also 6 girls ; all of the coats, vests, and trousers, and most of the under-garments
for the boys are here made, and mended as occasion requires. The shop is roomy,
well ventilated and lighted, and presented a very busy appearance. Mr. Fisher,
temporarily employed as painter, had 6 boys at work. They have accomplished
considerable, but much work remains to be done. Some of the buildings were need-
ing a good coat of paint very badly. Engineer, steam-fitter, and tin-smith, Lewiis
Reed, has 4 boys at work, off and on. The bakery employs 2 boys.

Crirls' industriex. — Mrs. Reed, instructor in dressmaking, is very successful in
teaching; she had ten girls at work and the garments shown would do credit to any
seamstress. In the laundry some twenty girls were under instruction, and seven in
the kitchen. At the tables and in dishwashing twenty girls are employed, but the
kitchen was not very clean.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 23

In Miss Miles, the matron — who oversees the girls' apartments, the mending, etc. —
the school has a careful and watchful person; she nses more or less of the girls to
assist in her department. The small boys do such chores as bringing in the wood
for fuel (heating is by steam, but some stoves are used), which is all cut by the older
boys. In the hospital, under the supervision of Dr. Rice, physieian, and Mrs. Adair,
acting nurse, were three girls who were learning to cook proper food tor invalids, a
thoughtful and happy service. The school numbers 132 boys and 100 girls. D. E.
Brewer, the disciplinarian, was searching for two boys who had ran away before my
arrival. There was considerable discontent in the school, which had grown out of
the long and serious spell of sickness, and the many deaths which occurred during
the winter and early spring. It was a very serious matter, and has tended to create
a prejudice against the school in other schools from whence scholars are promoted to-
Cheniawa. The physician, Dr. Rice, who came after the epidemic had passed, spoke
of it as having been the modern disease of la grippe, but it was very fatal in its re-
sults, carrying off many scholars. At the time of my visit there were 6 boys in
the hospital, also 4 girls, but none were seriously ill. The physician informed me
that the neighborhood is not malarious, although one of the boys lying in the hos-
pital showed some symptoms of malaria ; he also informed me when iii the (flspensary
that he was using much quinine in his practice. The truth is, the drainage is bad",
the boys' closet being in a deplorable condition, while that for the girls, though not
so objectionable, is bad enough — old-fashioned vaults, insufficient water, and the
drains being carried only a short distance beyond the fence bounding the grounds
on the north.

I advised Mr. Wasson, the superintendent, to revolutionize the system and to
make a thorough change The heating is by steam and is altogether inadequate;
in fact, the work of introducing the pipes Avas wrongly done. Indeed, the job rnay be
pronounced a failure, there being great waste of heat from the pipes 'because of
errors in laying them through the ground. The steam power as applied to the laun-
dry and the application of steam for heating purposes could not have been arranged
in a more wasteful manner if an effort had been made to that end. My judgment is
that both should be rearranged upon an economical plan. The steam boilers need
much repairing, and in other places repairs are very necessary — closets for instance,
also the great frame which holds the water tanks. This, too, was faulty in con-
struction, and as a result the foundations are falling to pieces; besides, the timbers
were not strong enough.

The bakery is an insignificant affair for so large a school; badly arranged and old.
Much paint is required, and many panes of glass to fill the broken places. The boys
with their industrial teachers can do considerable of the work of painting, carpen-
tering, and glass setting^ but they need the materials. The steam fitter thinks he
can do much in way of betterments in his department. It is quite certain that con-
siderable expenditure of money and labor is necessary to put the buildings in proper
condition. The new edifices, such as the residence of the superintendent and the
hospital, are well constructed and are models in their way. The examinations of
the scholars in their classes was satisfactory and I had few suggestions to make.

I confess to have experienced much pleasure in witnessing the work being done
at this training school, both in the schoolroom and in industrial departments. It
is a great work which is being carried forward, and everything possible to make it
a success should be furnished. The serious sickness during the winter and spring
should bo carefully investigated and the causes, if local, removed.

SILETZ.

The Government road from Toledo, the nearest town upon the railroad from which
to enter the reservation, being in bad condition, I followed the advice of the mail-
carrier and made the journey on horseback. It was an enjoyable trip of nine miles,
for the road ran over the hills and for part of the distance through a noble forest of
pines.

The beautiful lower valley in which the agency and school buildings are situated
is very attractive. Good fences surrounded handsome fields which were under cul-
tivation ; several two-story houses were to be seen (belonging to Indians), and nearly
all houses, whether belonging to Indians or the Government, were painted. I counted
twenty such painted dwelling houses as I approached the agency.

The school buildings are on an elevation a short distance from the agent's office;
these have recently been repainted, which gave them a pleasing appearance. There
was an air of " push " about the agency and school premises which was cheering. The
agent, Mr. T. J. Buford, impressed me as being a superior man for the position, full
of energy and resource, and much in earnest in getting work out of the Indian. He
had two at work plowing swamp land near the agency, others in grubbing out
stumps in the school lot, and still others with horses and scraper were at work grad-
ing in front of the school building. These were working out some obligation — for

24 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

instance, one Indian wanted 'a tarm wagon; the said farm wagon is issued, but in-
stead of giving it freely from the Government he exacted so many days' work at
grubbing on the school ground, which the man and his father were doing. Tlie men
plowing the swamp lot were constructively in jail, to which they had been sentenced,
but the agent was giving them freedom during the daytime conditioned upon their
working for the Government ; at night they were locked up. As to the others I did
not learn the particulars.

improvement seemed to be the order of the day. The farm work is kept well in
hand as an object lesson for the Indian. Mr. Buford says that they watch him very
closely; when he commences to plow they follow, when he sows his seed fhey imi-
tate him, and so on through all the farm work. I saw no idlers loafing around the
agency; on the contrary 1 saw people at w<»rk in various places.

At the sawmill, three teams, belonging to three Indians, weie being loaded with
lumber. The Indians had cut the logs, floated them down the river, sawed them,
and were now taking away the finished product.

Government furnishes tlie sawmill and lends the farmer, who is also a- mill wright,
to assist and instruct in this industrial work. I counted four Indian teams which
were dra%ring fence rails for Mr. Buford; all teams had good horses; not an Indian
pony did I see. Little whiskey finds its way into this reservation, and no rations
h;»ve been given for many years, except to the old and infirm. Mr. Buford has made
an earnest appeal for shoes and clothing also, for these needy ones who cannot help
themselves.

Yet there is another side to the picture, not so encouraging, in the fact, as the
agent stat -d, that there are still many Indians living in mere huts, and making
little effort towards improving their condition, seemingly uninfluenced by the tide
of progress.

Mr. Jenkins, the special allotting agent, has made about one hundred allotments;
his predecessor, Mr. Matthews, made about two hundred and fifty; some three
hundred and fifty more are to be made. I learned of 110 dissatisfaction with the
work of Mr. .Jenkins, although I made careful inquiry; he is well adapted to the
work he has in hand.

As an indication of progress, I mention the fact that a young Indian who had
spent ten months at Chemawa was erecting a small building for a photograph gal-
lery. He had taught himself the art, through careful study, and, it wa<* said, does
very acceptable work; he is going into the business as a means of livelihood.

School. — In reply to the question " How many children of school age, belonging on
the reservation, are not in school, " the agent s.ddthat all children of school age were
enrolled in this or other schools. The scholars in this school are mostly small, the
older boys and girls having been sent to other schools. The boys do a little work
in the garden, and in wood cutting; the girls work in the laundry and kitchen and
do some sewing and mending.

The boys' dormitory is altogether too small — three to a bed. During the winter
forty-two boys occupied fifteen beds. Girls' dormitory sufficiently large, but here
they put two girls in each bed. The difficulty is, the bedsteads are old — more mod-
ern ones are to come. Dormitories are in good order; also the clothes room. Out-
side the building the closets were in bad "condition, and the windmill, which had
only been erected a short time and from which so much had been expected, had
blown down and was so badly damaged as to render it useless. A horse was wearily
going around and around, pumping the water to the elevated tank. Something
must be done to remedy the evil. Mr. L. C. Walker, superintendent, and Mr.
Buford, the agent, are working in harmony in all that is being done.

Physician. — The agency doctor is Eugene S. Clark, who is a young man of prom-
ise, full of /eal for the welfare of the Indian. He gives illustrated lectures to the
scholars three times a week, upon such subjects as physiology, anatomy, or hygiene.
Though young, he says the scholars take great interest in the lectures and make
surprisingly correct answers to his questions at the close of the lectures. He is to
make an effort to reach the parents and is to give them a talk upon tuberculosis,
habits of cleanliness, the spitting habit, etc. Mr. Clark is doing a good work, as
were all the officials whom I had the pleasure of meeting upon this reservation,

TULALIP.

We approached this reservation from Marysville on the railroad by means of a
skiff rowed by a small lad. Distance, 6 miles. The wagon road was rough and
muddy. Up 'to a recent day a steamboat from Seattle has made trips with some
regularity, and we learned that after June 30 a new arrangement was to go into
effect whereby better accommodation will be had with the outside world. We came
to the school (contract school), under the care of the Sisters of Charity of Providence,
before reporting at the agency, and we came unannounced and unexpected. It is
due to the superintendent, Rev. N. J. Power, and to the lady superior and teachers,

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 25

that we say we found everything in good order and the work going forward as effi-
ciently as though wo had written in advance that we were coming at a certain hour.
This school was mildly criticised in the report made by Gen. Whittlesey two years
before, as follows: ''The school not being in session 1 cannot speak of the instruc-
tion given, and my only criticism is that some of the teachers speak English imper-
fectly."

The criticism would not hold at this time, for since it was made there has been a
thorough reorganization evidencing the good effects of said visit. Rev. Mr. Power,
who was sent here by the bishop, is an unusually good selection for the position of
superintendent. He is a young man, born in Boston, and with the patriotism, edu-
cation, and liberality of views which we usually expect from a native of that favored
city. On coming here he changed the working force and reorganized the system
from to]) to bottom with results which are very satisfactory. We spent much time
in the class rooms listening to the reading and recitations. In their reading exer-
cises the scholars held up their heads, opened their mouths, and spoke in clear, full
tones, in good English. It was a pleasure to hear them and was quite exceptional.
At the blackboard they demonstrated propositions put to them by ourselves or the
teacher equally well;' their writing was surprisingly good and their copybooks
clean. In their musical attainments they were also very successful; their songs
were all of the patriotic kind and were enthusiastically rendered. In the large and
luxurious garden the industrial teacher had a number of lads at work. In the bakery
were two boys, and the carpenter and shoemaker had a scholar or two. Some of the
boys were useful in the laundry and at handling the wood after and before it is
sawed by steam power. The clothes press, where are kept the extra suits, was a pat-
tern of neatness; the garments for each boy were folded and laid by themselves, and
beside each pile was the extra pair of shoes which had been carefully blackened.
The scholars are taught neatness as well as politeness. With the exception of the
laundry and chapel all the buildings belong to the Government; the buildings are
old and originally were roughly put together. The boys' dormitory is low in exiling
and is excessively crowded; the double-decker bedstead spoken of by Gen. Wliit-
tlesey is still in use; the girls' dormitory is almost as badly crowded.

A request has gone to Commissioner Morgan for a small sum, $866, whereby to
enlarge the sleeping rooms; also for $1,200 for the introduction of water to' the
grounds and buildings. The " Sisters" built and thoroughly equipped, at an expense
of $3,000 furnished by themselves, the steam laundry, with an attachment for saw-
ing wood. They need a water supply very much. They have a contract with the
Indian Bureau for 105 scholars; the average attendance is 124, while at one time
there were 140. They manage their business with such economy and thrift that they
get along with this excess of numbers and conduct a successful work with inadequate
accommodations, and do it all with an enthusiasm which is pleasant to see. One
feature was especially commendable, viz, the close surveillance under which the
boys and girls are held, there being no intermingling at improper times and no irreg-
ularities. The "Sisters" were preparing for the closing exercises of the school and
were seriously deprecating the departure of the scholars, for, they said, that most of
them would go to the hop fields during hop-picking season, the effect of which
was usually very demoralizing. When they returned in the autumn much of the
work of taming and reducing to submission had to be done over again.

We were so unfortunate as not to meet the agent, Mr. Thornton, who was absent
upon business for the other reservations which are under his care. From his clerk
and the physician we learned of his solicitude for increased school accommodations
for the rive reservations. Around Slaughter, on the Muckleshoot Reservation, were
fully 50 children of school age, who attended nowhere; on Swinomish Reserva-
tion are others, and at Fort Madison still others. Lummi has a day school, but
there are youth upon this reservation who live at too great a distance to attend and
who should be sent to a boarding school. Mr. Thornton is also very anxious that a
special alloting agent be sent at an early day " with authority to allot all unallotted
tracts on each reservation and to fix and determine the status of all allotments or
filings heretofore made." (See his report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
dated August 19, 1891, p. 458, Vol. i, of the Commissioner's report for the same
year.) We conversed with a number of Indians as we called upon them in their
houses, upon the subject of their allotments— each one had his allotment, or knew
where it was, but not one had received his patent. Mr. Thornton wants the work
completed, that his Indians having their patents may exercise their right to vote at
the polls, and he would like to see them vote this autumn.

PUYALLUP.

It was a matter of regret that we were unable to meet Agent Eells, who was
absent on business.

The clerk, Mr. Bell, took us to the school where we met the superintendent, Mr.
Chalcraft, and the other workers in this hive of industry. At the time of our

26 REPORT OP THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

visit there was more than the usual amount of work going on, as preparations were
being made for the closing exercises of the school. The roll of the school includes
140, the average being 136. Of the older boys 19 were out on a camping
excursion, an educational trip arranged and managed by Mr. Chalcraft, who has
been with them most of the time.

Other of the boys were working in the fields, hence the reason why some of the
classes showed up somewhat poorly in attendance, but the recitations for the school
year were virtually concluded; the closing exercises were to occur within a few days.
Six or seven were to graduate, each graduate receiving a diploma. The course of
instruction is somewhat in advance of the regulations of the Bureau, and graduates
are sufficiently advanced to enter the High School at Tacoma. Being so near a
growing young city with its intense vitality and enormous ambition, it is quite
natural that a school of Indian youth, even, would absorb some of the enthusiasm of
the vicinage. Mr. Chalcraft uses the circumstance of the surroundings to enlarge
and develop the minds of his pupils.

He naturally follows a different course from most superintendents; his camping
out for ten days with 19 of the older boys is one indication of it; he makes
the occasion a school of instruction as well as a means of recreation. Two years
ago he assisted them in organizing a branch society of the Independent Order of
Good Templars, which now numbers 50 of his young men and boys. They are
very fond of their society and take part in all of its business, and, in fact, in several
instances representatives from it have met with representatives from other similar
societies of whites for the purpose of organizing new societies.

Another innovation is the establishment of a very attractive reading room, which
is well stocked with literature, and which is considerably patronized by the schol-
ars. Altogether, the superintendent impressed us as being an excellent man for the
position he occupied.

Great improvements in the grounds and buildings have been made during the last
two years.

The buildings were all in good order and well painted ; the new and older buildings
were in harmony and attractive. The dormitory for the girls was unusually pleas-
ant ; the storeroom in perfect order ; all floors were clean and the grounds were being
put in good condition. There has been some moving of buildings within two years,
the new arrangement being an improvement to the grounds as well as to the build-
ings. The arrangements recently made for fresh water were abundantly successful;
the supply is ample and is a great blessing. Steam pipes for the laundry have just
been introduced; also the fittings for the circular saw wherewith to saw the fire-
wood. These are of the best kind and the workmanship of the best. The bath-
rooms are inadequate, there being but two tubs for the boys and two for the girls in
their separate rooms. A request has gone to the Commissioner for enlarged facilities
that are most certainly needed. The new water-closets are models for any school.

In the school room we could see that excellent work had been done : the class in
arithmetic which we examined was well advanced, and the reading and writing very
commendable. After dinner the entire school assembled in the chapel, where they
sang for us and where we had the opportunity to see them together and to address
a few plain words of advice and admonition before taking our departure.

Y A KIM A.

We came to this reservation with preconceived notions which, however, the agent
quickly dispelled. We had heard such favorable words from persons whom we had
met that we were of opinion that upon this reservation, at least, the Indian had made
considerable advancement. Mr. Lynch informed us that there were the usual two
sets; some are good farmers, have good houses, good farm wagons, good horses and
stock; but many are wild, caring little for civilization. Of the latter we met a
party or two of blanket Indians en route to the mountains with their ponies and
other belongings.

There are 1,400 Indians upon this reservation, of whom about 60 are Roman Cath-
olics and 100 Methodists.

With Mr. and Mrs. Lynch and the field matron, Mrs. Miller, we visited a grove near
the Methodist church, where the good Methodist people were preparing for a camp
meeting to be continued for many days, and to extend beyond July 4. for the pur-
pose of checking the revelry and license which is often indulged in upon reserva-
tions on the great national holiday. Here we met a few Christian Indians who were
assisting the whites in arranging a bower. The agent and his wife, also Mrs. Miller,
the field matron, were in cordial sympathy with the work; in fact, the plan orig-
inated with them, and they were doing all in their power to make it a success.
There are many old and decrepit Indians upon the reservation who are exceedingly
destitute, and for wlibm the Government does very little. The agent and his wife
do all within their power to relieve them; also the field matron, who is bringing to
the work large experience and a love for the poor and downtrodden.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 27

Even if the Indian was a model farmer and very fond of work, there is compara-
tively little farm work that he can do upon this reserva tioii because of lack of water.
Wherever there is water for irrigation it is used with good results, but it -is a small
matter, as its limits are circumscribed, there being no general system of irrigation
and no money to provide it. With irrigation the land is productive; even as it is,
much of it is good grazing land. Considerable many cattle are raised, but more
horses; the latter, however, is an inferior beast and commands but a small price
when sold. Buyers were on the reservation when we were there ^yho purchased, on
one of the days, 40 horses at prices ranging from $4 to $8 each, $10 being consid-
ered a good price. It is more profitable for them to raise cattle and the agent favors
it. Col. John N. Rankin, the special alloting agent, and his surveyor are hard at
work at their task, and up to the time of our visit had rather more than 100 allot-
ments made upon the books. Col. Rankin seemed admirably qualified for the place
and was meeting with few difficulties, none but what he had been able to settle
without trouble. The buildings occupied by the agency and school are grouped
about the magnificent oak grove which abounds in springs of fresh water. Orig-
inally erected for the Army, some of them were well built, whilst others were the
usual barracks and outbuildidgs suitable to an army post. Whatever they were
originally, there was need of extensive repairing and considerable paint at the time
of our visit. The school buildings proper are quite inadequate to the needs of the
reservation. The number of scholars enrolled is 120. Mr. Lynch has been upon
the reservation a little over one year, and Mr. Roberts, the school superintendent,
five months. During their service the attendance of scholars has doubled. When
the requisitions went to Washington more than a year ago, they called for the neces-
sary supplies for 60 scholars ; with an increase of 60 more it can be readily seen
that there was a probability of a shortage in nearly every article used. This has
been the case, causing considerable inconvenience and accounting in a measure for
the shabby appearance of some of the boys. Mr. Lynch informed us that undoubt-
edly there were more than 250 children of school age upon the reservation, while the
school accommodations were insufficient for half of that number. At North Yakima,
outside the reservation, the "Sisters" have a contract school numbering about 70
children coming from various places, a few from this reservation. Mr. Lynch was
very desirous of increasing the school facilities and bringing in the delinquents, and
had made application to the Commissioner for an enlargement, but a reply was re-
ceived from Gen. Morgan, while we were upon the reservation, to the effect that the
appropriations by Congress would not permit such expenditure this year.

Mr. Leeke, the special agent, had recommended an enlargement of the main build-
ing containing the dining room and kitchen on the first floor and the girls' dormi-
tories above — a much needed improvement, as the quarters are cramped. The teach-
ers also using more or less of this building, they, too, were anxious for the enlarge-
ment. The site for this building is bad, the land being filled with springs, so that
the rear yard often has pools of water coming from said springs or remaining after
a storm. Mr. Roberts was making an effort to remedy this serious evil through
digging a blind drain to carry the surface water off beyond the grounds. Both the
agent and the superintendent seemed to have many ideas for improving the sani-
tary condition of the place, which is bad, but they may not be able to accomplish
much from lack of support from Washington. A new laundry, for which a request
also went to Washington, is sadly needed, also a small steam engine and boiler to
work the laundry, pump the water to an elevated tank, and saw the wood.

The building containing the chapel and recitation rooms is a two-story affair, but
it is shored up with heavy timbers on one side to keep it from overturning in case
of a heavy gale.

The garden was in a good state of advancement, and vegetables for the scholars'
tables were abundant. At supper they were eirjoying a->ple sauce, raw turnips,
warmed potatoes, and bread. We met the scholars at the tables, at morning wor-
ship, and in their classes. They are usually young and many of them had not been
long in school, hence were not far advanced. The state of morality was low when
the superintendent took charge. He claims that fchere has been much improvement ;
from what he said there certainly was great need of a radical change.

At each of the agency shops there were two Indian boys who were learning the
trades. The boss blacksmith, Abe Lincoln, is an Indian, and was a former scholar.
He was -spoken of as an excellent workman. William Embree, carpenter, Daniel
Boone, harness maker, and Wilbur Spence, sawmill, are likewise Indians; also Frank
Meacham, disciplinarian. Frank had four years' instruction at a Friends' school in
Indiana. He is held in high esteem by those associated with him. Rev. Mr. Helm,
missionary of the Methodist church/holds services at the school on three Sabbath
evenings each month. A Sabbath school Is maintained and a service of song con-
ducted each Suudav afternoon.

28 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

UMATILLA.

Upon this reservation there are 1,000 Indians, and, as Mr. Deffenbaugh, the super-
intendent of the Government school, informed me, fully 200 children of school age,
with two schools, the Government school, which liad 82 upon the roll, with 76 in
actual attendance, and the Kate Drexel school, numbering, as we were informed,
somewhere near 80 scholars. Presuming the facts are as presented, there are still
upwards of 40 who are nonatteudants, so far as known. The school has been occu-
pying its new quarters for six mouths. 4 miles away from the old school home.
Very little fault can be found with the buildings, as they are comfortable, com-
modious, and well contructed. The main building, containing the dining room,
kitchen, and the teachers' rooms, as well as the girls' dormitory, is a frame
structure, while the boys' dormitory, the new chapel, and class-room building (two-
story), and the laundry are of brick, and are all modern in their construction and
well built.

The chapel was just finished and was being cleaned preparatory to using it for
the closing exercises, which would occur within a few days. The grounds had been
leveled, plank walks laid, and a new picket fence erected, surrounding the premises
upon three sides. The only criticism which we had to make was that the general
plan was too contracted; that sufficient space had not been taken, thus bringing
the buildings too near together and not leaving much playground except outside
the boundary. The garden was not promising because of lack of water. This
country is adapted to the raising of wheat, and it is a question if a garden will avail
anything without irrigation, but Mr. Deffenbaugh intends to try again next spring,
selecting land lying at a higher altitude. A windmill or some other appliance is
needed to pump water from the kitchen well to an elevated tank. At present all
the water used upon the premises is pumped by hand and carried in buckets from
this one well to where it is used. The laundry building is a good one, but is of
no material use, as it is entirely without appliances. In arranging for power it
might be desirable to utilize it in pumping the water, running the laundry, and
sawing the tire wood, all of which could easily be accomplished by the same engine if
planned beforehand.

The scholars in attendance are larger in size and older than those we have met at
most of the schools. One young man was quite ill with pneumonia and some heart
difficulty, to whom the superintendent was giving much personal attention, to the
forced neglect of other duties, emphasizing the great need of a competent trained
nurse.

The young man died shortly after we left; there had been two other deaths during
the year. We were impressed with the conviction that the superintendent, teachers.
matrons, and others were overworked. Doubtless this has been an exceptional year,
owing to the moving to the new quarters, but all seemed to be worn and anxious.
The appointment of an assistant matron would afford some relief, and the appointee
should understand the methods of a trained nurse. The rooms and grounds were
reasonably clean, as they ought to be, considering that everything was new; but
the work of cleaning the new buildings and getting them ready for occupancy was
very great, more than the subsequent work of keeping them clean. We came to this
place on the Sabbath, with the thought to attend divine service with the school, but
unfortunately, owing to the sickness of the scholar, no services were held. Usnally
the scholars' meet for religious instruction in the school, although those who are
Romanists can attend the Roman Catholic Church, and those who are Presbyterians,
the Presbyterian Church, bofh of which are upon the reservation. We regretted
that we did not meet the agent, but it was not his fault. We did not meet the allot-
ing agent either, but we learned thnt he was making fair progress in his work.

NEZ PERCE.

Matters upon this reservation were in a condition of unrest and dissatisfaction.
Special Agent James A. Leonard had been sent to make an investigation, which had
already commenced. At his request, I was with him during two days in the exam-
ination of witnesses as to the conduct of the reservation agent. It is not desirable
or necessary that mention be made of the evidence taken, as the report of Mr. Leon-
ard, as well as mine, has gone to the Commissioner.

Abuses have been growing during a series of years so that the fault of the exist-
ing demoralization can not all be charged to the present agent, but the time has come
for a radical change and the introduction of a new order of things.

So much time was given to the investigation of abuses that we were unable to see
as much as we desired of the better side of affairs, for there is a better side in spite of
demoralization and abuses. The school at the old fort under Mr. McCoiiville is very-
prosperous, and there are many honest, faithful Christian Indians who are waiting
and praying for a change. For a long time they have been depressed and broken

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 29

down, for tb oir side is unpopular arid at a discount. The condition of the Langford
claim and the difficulties in their churches have been very serious and caused them
much anxiety, but they are hoping for an improvement.

The effort to establish a ferry across the, Clear water River from the agency is a
commentary on the way in which the Government work is prosecuted upon this res-
ervation. Twice it has broken down just as it was ready for use. It was finished
for a second time after our arrival, and our plans were to leave the reservation by
this route, but before we were ready, and our visit only extended over four days, it
had completely broken down again and it seemed to us to have been a needless acci-
dent, if it was such.

The lower school was closed June 28 by order from Commissioner Morgan, and the
scholars were leaving on the day of our arrival. There were 60 scholars here, the
younger children of the reservation. The school building is large and comfortable,
and the place presented an attractive appearance. The Lapwai River runs along one
side of the grounds, while on the opposite side is a row of large shade trees which
are kept fresh by running water. An impression was abroad that this school was to
be permanently closed and the scholars transferred to the larger school at the old
fort. This latter school was in excellent condition. Mr. McCoiiville, the superin-
tendent, allowed no interference with his plans, and, being heartily supported by
his assistants, had one of the best disciplined and most enthusiastic schools of all we
had visited. The studying was practically finished, but we attended an evening
entertain men thy the scholars, consisting of declamations, recitations, dialogues, and
singing, which was very enjoyable; the affair would have done credit to any school
anywhere. The brass baud is also an interesting feature of the school; the semi-
military drill and marching of the scholars to and from their meals and to and from
the chapel were good features. Mr. McConville is well adapted to his place; full of
enthusiasm and always on the alert, nothing escapes his notice ; he knows where the
scholars are and what they are doing, and withal he is very much beloved by the
scholars.

Henceforth all clothing for the scholars will be made upon the premises and by
the scholars, under the supervision of the industrial teacher. The farmer is an In-
dian ; the carpenter, shoemaker, harness-maker, and blacksmith are likewise Indians.
They were all taught at Chemawa. The laundress is also an Indian.

The drainage is very bad and needs attention. The buildings were erected for the
soldiers and were part of the military post. Those used for the boys' dormitory and
for the general dining room are poorly adapted to the purposes. The building" used
by the girls is spacious and comfortable; it accommodates 100. The physician,
Dr. West, secured, three trained nurses from Portland, who have departments of
labor, and can be called upon in times of sickness — an arrangement which seemed
to us to be eminently wise. The building used as a hospital is sadly in need of
a new roof. The medical appliances were few and old; we adyised the doctor to
ask for a complete set of modern instruments, such as the Indian Bureau sends to
the agencies and schools, and which are so necessary at times. The stock of medi-
cines was likewise small. Miss Alice Fletcher, the special agent for the allotting of
lands, was .meeting with many obstacles, but she was persevering at her task and
was steadily making headway against much opposition.

In conclusion, I would respectfully suggest that no more schools be contracted for
until those now established are put in better condition. I would recommend that a
skillful sanitary engineer be employed to visit the schools, plan the methods of
drainage to be carried out under the supervision of the superintendent, and examine
ventilation of dormitories and class rooms, recommending such changes as are nec-
essary to health, which recommendations should be faithfully carried out by the
superintendent.

A trained nurse should be employed in every school, who should be able to give
lectures on nursing to the older pupils.

DARWIN R. JAMES.

MERRILL E. GATES, LL. D.,

President Board of Indian Commissioners.

REPORT OF HON. WILLIAM H. LTON.

SIR: My visitations among the Indians the past year have been very limited. I
have only visited the Flandreau Indians in southern Dakota and the Pipestone Res-
ervation in southwestern Minnesota.

I found among the Flandreau Indians many good farms, with large fields of grain
of different kinds, comfortable farmhouses and barns, good horses and cattle.

It was to me a very pleasant sight to see Indian men and boys running the mow-

30 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

ing machines and reapers, stacking' hay and grain, as in my judgment the adult In-
dians will never become self-supporting and ciArilized to any great extent until they
become more familiar with agricultural pursuits generally. I visited the Indian
day school at Flandeau, which appeared to be in a good condition.

I found that the Government was building at this place several large buildings
for an Indian industrial school. The main building, two story brick, with stone
basement, is 140 by 41 feet, with extension in the rear 42 by 23 feet. At the right of
the main building, 100 feet distant, is a two-story and basement building, 71 by 43
feet, and 100 feet to the left is another building, two story and basement, 82 by 36
feet, and still another building in the rear, bakery, boiler house, and fuel room, 63
by 60 feet.

I think Flaudreau is one of the very best places for a school of this kind to be
located, as Indian scholars from the different reservations will have an opportunity
of seeing in this vicinity belt-supporting and self-respecting Indians living in com-
fortable houses and successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits, which, in my
judgment, will be of great benefit to them in connection with the education they
receive in the schoolroom.

From Flandreau I went to the Pipestone Reservation in Minnesota, only about 15
miles from Flandreau, and was greatly surprised to find that the Government was
building a very fine building at this place for an Indian industrial school.

The main building is 12U feet front and 80 feet deep, two stories and attic, with
kitchen in the rear, 22 by 27. The Avails are built with the best Pipestone granite,
with jasper trimmings. Wood Avork inside, all first class.

I have been trying to get an explanation, but haAre not succeeded as yet, wh ya
building of this class, superior to many college buildings in our country, should be
located at this place, as the reservation is only 1 mile square and no Indians living
on it permanently, and Arery feAv in the State of Minnesota Avithin 200 miles.

If this building Avas intended for an industrial school for Minnesota Indians, I
think a better location would have been in northern Minnesota, at least 200 miles from
its present location.

WILLIAM H. LYON.

Hon. MERRILL E. GATES,

Chairman Board of Indian Commissioners.

PROCEEDINGS or THE BO All D OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS AT THE
TENTH LAKE MOHONK INDIAN CONFERENCE.

FIRST SESSION.

WEDNESDAY, October 12, 1892.

The tenth annual conference on Indian aftairs was held, through the' hospitality
of Mr. A. K. Smiley, at the Lake Mohoiik Hotel, Ulster County. N. Y., October 12,
13, 14, 1892.

The conference was called to order by Mr. A. K. Smiley at 10 a. m., after prayer
by Kev. S. J Fisher, D. i>.

Mr. Smiley expressed his pleasure in welcoming the members of the conference to
its tenth annual session. Many persons who had usually been present were kept
away by the conventions of the Episcopal and Congregational Churches and by the
celebrations of the discovery of America; but there was a large accession of new
members, a0d especially a large number of those who have in the last year been in-
vestigating the Indian question in the field. u It has been our aim always," said
Mr. Smiley, "to bring people together from various denominations, from various
associations, for the benefit of humanity, and to let each speak what he thinks with-
out reservation ; but the spirit of this conference has been kindly and Christian, and
we have always been able to arrive at a unanimous conclusion. I received one or
two letters saying that there was no need of a conference this year, because there
was nothing to grumble about. We may hear some grumbling, but I hope it will
be in a right spirit.

" We all looked upon Gen. Fisk, who was so long our presiding officer, as a very
remarkable man. We all missed him when he was gone. We have been very fortu-
nate, too, in his successor. I shall nominate as our chairman President Gates, of
Amherst." Mr. Smiley then put the vote, and Dr. M. E. Gates was unanimously
elected president of the Mohonk conference.

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT GATES.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends of the Indian: I have often asked myself why it is
that these Mohonk conferences carry with them such a sense of gracious freedom
and delight in intercourse. I rather suspect that it is because we carry out here
what some one who has thought wisely along these lines has said is essential to the
complete happiness of all rational people : to have a piece of unselfish work on
iand, one which concerns the highest and best interests of humanity. There is some-
thing in the phase of the question that brings us together — in all its phases and in
the tone of feeling upon that question — something in the romantic history of these
people whom Bishop Whipple styled, in words no one will forget who heard them,
" the people of the unsatisfied heart, the restless eye, and the wandering foot;"
there is something in the history of the relation of our own people to this race that
in itself provokes a kind of atmosphere of romance m these gatherings. And when
we have met here year after year, as many of us have, and have seen how many are
the points to be considered if we would helpfully forward these people on the way
to civilization, we begin to understand the need of conference. Many of us have
learned it, not along the lines of our first preconceived ideas, but along the line of
these ideas as modified by discussion with others who have had a wider range of
facts; and many of us have learned that the question is not so simple as it seemed
at first sight.

What is the essential point of view for one who would help the Indian? What is
really the nature of this Indian problem ? Tell me what is the color of the trees at
Mohonk this week? There are so many questions to be considered, there are so
many different conditions in the different tribes, that we have found ourselves
driven back more and more upon a few very simple principles. Indeed, the wisest
work done in social reform always does find itself driven back to such principles.
And, while no one is foolish enough to imagine that he can solve the Indian prob-
lem by a phrase, if we were asked to put into a phrase the ripened fruit of our delib-
erations, I think we should have to say, " Education of the head, the hand, and the

31

32 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

heart; christiani/atkm, and helpful aid toward independent manhood, after the
man has been set upon the way of education.'' Along- this line this conference has-
made very decided progress.

We can not meet without remembering those who have been w it'll us and are not
with us. Two voices have been silenced this year which, though never heard per-
sonally in these conferences, are the voices of men of world-wide reputation, whose
interest in us has been so constant, and whose helpful words to our members have
been so repeated and gracious that we must mention them. That most chi valric and
high-souled of gentlemen, George William Curtis, the most aristocratic of democrats
and the most truly democratic of aristocrats; the man who made you believe in the
nobility and dignity of American citizenship; the man who, although the perfect
flower of culture and thorough breeding, never for a moment lost his faith in the
common people — he has sent his greetings repeatedly to this conference and has
never failed, by pen and voice, to recognize its work. And that other voice that
sounded in the hearts of so many of our citizens and of the citizens of the world,
the voice of that poet who had a hereditary right to say " thee"aiid "thou" to the
sons and daughters of peace with whom we meet — the Quaker poet has sent us his
greeting time after time, and has always made us feel how deeply he was interested
in the progress of the people whose romantic connection with the scenery of New
England he has forever perpetuated.

And in the circle of those who have gathered here we miss some, as always. There
are many whom we shall not forget, although we do not name them. But we
press on hopefully toward the future.

THE DANGER OF A HALF-FINISHED REFORM.

There comes to every reform which concerns itself with the social life and legal
institutions of a people, after a period of theoretic success, a time of grave practical
danger. We are precisely at that point now with reference to Indian reform and
legislation. The days of romantic illusion — when all who thought of the Indian
thought of him through the mirage of Cooper's romances; when the "last of the
Mohicans" was the accepted type of the Indian— have forever passed away. The
disillusionizing hand of the newspaper correspondent has been lifted up against
that view; and those of you who have seen the reservations know that the actual
Indian is very different from the romantic being who passed current in romance
throughout Europe and indeed in America. And, following that, the work of those
who first made appeals to the sense of justice of the nation has been done. The
winded words of Helen Hunt have been heard wherever there are hearts to listen.
The work of the story-teller with a purpose has bean done. The freshness of these
presentations of certain phases of injustice to the Indian has been somewhat lost.
The reproach of a "century of dishonor," with its broken treaties, seems in a
measure to have passed away when we can answer, "'All that has been changed by
the statutes of such and such a year." The time lias passed when the advocacy of
the claims of the Indian to fair treatment made a man or a woman marked in a
community. So many of our better newspapers have fearlessly and persistently
advocated the just tieatment of th », Indian, so many ministers of the gospel have
been reached by the information put in circulation through the agencies of the
Indian Rights' Association, of this Conference, and of the Women's National Indian
Association, that there is hardly a community throughout our land where the wrongs
of the Indian have not been eloquently presented and where some sentiment has
not been awakened in favor of doing him justice.

Now, when such a period has beer reached, comes this dangerous crisis to which
I have alluded. And time after time those who watch the history of reform know
that a reform at this stage has failed to become effective for lack of persistent,
wise, intelligent effort along the lines that are required to bring law and life into
vital connection, without which law is of no value. When a reform affects favorably
but a small number in a great nation, it has happened more than once in the history
of civilization that the interest awakened by the first presentation of wrongs suffered
has subsided before the wrongs are fully redressed.

We are just at that period now in this reform. We have upon our statute-books
laws that promise much. Think of the progress of the last seven or eight years !
Eight years ago the systematic attack may be said to have begun upon the evils of
herding [iidians on reservations, against the debasing and pauperizing effects of the
wholesale issuing of rations and against the awful injustice involved in refusing
all protection of law to more than two hundred thousand native-born Americans.
For us to ask, then, for land in severalty and individual homes for the Indian; for
us to demand, as a few daring ones did demand, that the Indians should be endowed
with the rights of citizenship as soon as they took their homes; for us to ask, above
all, for civil-service reform in any part of the Indian Service ; for us to demand of
the Federal Government so broad a preparation for the educational needs of these

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 33

people as virtually should mean schools for all Indian children — for us to ask these
things seemed to many but drawing in fancy upon Utopian possibilities. And yet
but eight years have passed, and now for five or six years the Dawes severalty bill
has been upon our statute books, and in the neighborhood of 20,000 Indians have
already received land in severalty. Except the. 58 agents, civil-service reform has
been so extended as to cover the larger part of the most influential employe's of the
Indian Department. We have already done more than we dared to hope for eight
years ago, when the men who ventured to express that hope were regarded as
dreamers.

We have been exceedingly fortunate, in this reform, in having as chairman of the
Indian committee in the Senate one who kept his ear open to the view of the theor-
ists and the dreamers, but who knew the difference between an abstract principle
and a piece of legislation, one who knew how to turn a deaf ear to the spoilsman and
the obstructor, and who has helped forward all wise measures. Senator Dawes, who
crowns a period of senatorial service (which he saddens his own constituents by say-
ing must cease) by visits to the reservations this last month, comes to us with fresh
facts during the sessions of this conference. Very largely with his practical and effi
cient aid, these principles, considered and formulated here, have been reduced to prac-
ticable laws, and are effective to-day. It is no longer true that we have a quarter of
a million people without law. It is* no longer true that we are herding the Indians
on reservations away from all good influences. It is no longer true that it is hopeless
to speak of civil-service reform. When we remember how painfully slow many legal
reforms have proved to be, even in our land, where economy of legislation is not a
characteristic economy, we may well felicitate ourselves upon the past.

But, when a conference like this begins to look back upon what has been accom-
plished rather than forward to the work that remains to be done, the symptom is a
dangerous one. What is the question for us to-day? It is this. Do we belong to
that class of people who go about asking for a reform, are willing to be known as
having a hand in it, and who maintain their interest just as long as there is a little
reflected glory from it, and then drop off when there is call for steady, persistent
effort, after the delight and the charm of the thing have been lost? Or do we pos-
sess that most valuable Anglo-Saxon trait, " staying power,'7 in the determined res-
olution with which the ground already occupied shall be maintained and advances
made all along the line? I think this'conference will be a critical and decisive one
in that respect. If we let go now, all who know anything about the history of leg-
islation understand that these statutes will be dead letters, and that, in the process
of change which they have initiated., to leave the Indians without further legislation
would be to make the last condition of these people worse than the first. The work
of such a body must still be maintained for years, until these people are safely guided
through the transition years into full citizenship.

But we need not wait for that so long as some of us have sometimes feared. What
an inspiring spectacle that was in New York, day before yesterday, when, marching
in column, came the 350 pupils of the Carlisle School, led by that iron man with
tender Christian heart, Captain Pratt, marching so well, headed by their own band,
that they brought out rounds of applause ! They contrasted very well with the lads
from one of our universities, though I know the type so well that I do not misjudge
them, who came up in white hats lettered "We are the people/' fell into line, lower-
ing their hats so that the President might read; then, with their sneering and jolly
college cheers, passed on, after they had turned up their trousers because, they said,
"it was raining in London"! But if some grave man from a European country had
seen them, and had seen, following them, these young Indian Americans carrying
themselves so well in their neat uniforms, with their prompt and respectful and
manly uncovering before the President, so fine in their bearing that the crowd rose
and cheered them, such a one, watching them, might have said, "There is something
very promising for the future of these people in these native-born Americans."

There are still 250,000 of these Indians left in this country. We say, sometimes,
"it is so small a number." It is a small number, and yet it means a great many
homes. If a city of that size were blotted out by fire or prostrated under pestilence,
how our sympathies would go out to it ! It is a quarter of a million ; and, if we
have sixty^millions and more in this country, still that means that one in each 250
of our people is an Indian. Sure, .there is an opportunity for work still. They have
still to be educated until they fall naturally into the ranks of American citizenship.

So manifold and so manifest have been the disadvantages which attend a change
in the personnel of the Indian service that, in general, friends of Indian reform have
dreaded a change of the administration, because it was so uniformly the occasion for
such changes in the Indian service that it deprived it of its best servants and most
approved friends among the agents and the employes of the department. But both
the distinguished candidates for the office of President of the United States, in the
campaign which is now in progress, in their administration of affairs have professed
themselves, and proved themselves, wise friends of this reform. Whatever our

14499 — -3

34 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

party preferences may be, we have the right to hope, and confidently to expect, from
the successful candidate, whichever of the two lie may he. an intelligent and con-
sistent interest in the objects which we have at heart . Tin- application of civil serv-
ice reform by President Harrison to a considerable number of The appointees in this
department assures us a certain element of permanency in the service, eveu if the
election should result in a change of administration. And yet the lamentable re-
sults of displacing valuable Indian agents without any good cause and simply to
make room for political appointments, have been so disastrous in these late years,
even under Presidents whose professions of devotion to civil-service reform and the
interests of the Indian have been loud and repeated, that I am sure I voice the sen-
timent of this conference when I urge that we memorialize Congress most strongly
for such legislation as may be necessary to place Indian agents beyond the reach of
changes dictated by partisanship in the interests of spoilsmen, and insure such per-
manency of tenure for the Commissioner of Indian Affairs as shall secure the success
of a policy which requires eight or ten years of uninterrupted development to show
its best results.

And let me say that I feel a very grave anxiety now as to the attitude of the great
bodies of Christians in our country toward the great work of Indian education. If
the increased facilities for education provided by the Government shall simply result
in the Christian people of this land withdrawing from the work they have under-
taken among the Indians, in the feeling that the Government is doing all needed
work among them, I think the future looks very dark for this people. For, mark you,
the next ten or fifteen years will fix forever the ideals of these communities, as the
Indians pass out from reservation life into the life of States and Territories. Now,
what are the ideals to be fixed on these communities? Unless the power of the liv-
ing Christ come to the rescue, we shall have the saloon — that awful danger of the
Indian already — the saloon, and the lowest type of border civilization, fixed upon
them forever. There was never so strong and pressing a demand for the heat and the
light that comes from the great heart of Christ alone, to work upon a people and fix
their institutions, to make those communities forever like the communities of Iowa
and Kansas, where Christian principles went into the shaping of the ideals on which
its homes are founded. There was never so strong a demand for the Christians of
our nation to put double the number of missionaries and teachers among these peo-
ple, to flood them with a new and large stream of Christian influence, while the
ideals of citizenship and of home are forming. They may be so formed as to make
these people most valuable citizens in the future. Then let us not give up the mighty
motive power of Christian love and thought and Christian life in work among the
Indians.

For my own part, it becomes increasingly clear to me with each added year of ob-
servation and experience in this work that we can in no other way so thoroughly
benefit the Indian as by drawing him out of his seclusion into the influence of
civilized Christian society. While there must undoubtedly continue to be commu-
nities in which Indians — Indian citizens — shall for some time form the majority of a
township' or of a community, there should not be any sections in our country Avhere
white people of good character and helpful purpose should not be intermingled with
such Indian residents. When we contrast the slow progress in civilization made by
Indians who remain among their own people with the rapid and steady progress
made, and the strong manhood and womanhood developed ; when the better pupils
from Indian schools in the East are placed out in white communities for six months
or a year, and associate as equals with white children in our schools, and become
members of Christian families, I am very clear in my own conviction that the more
Indians we bring to schools in the central West and in the East, and the more
thoroughly Indians thus brought into civilized communities are dispersed for at least
half the year and become practically familiar with Christian home life upon the
farms and villages of our country, the more quickly will the entire Indian problem
disappear. Christian duty forbids our waiting for the slow lapse of generations to
civilize the quarter of a million Indians upon our soil. The work should be accom-
plished by us within the next twenty years. Education is the only sure road, and
Christian helpfulness the only sure and effective assistance in traveling this road.

On motion of Mr. H. O. Houghton, Mr. Joshua AY. Davis, Mr. J. Evarts Greene,
and Miss Martha D. Adams were elected secretaries.

On motion of Prof. C. C. Painter, Mr. Frank Wood was elected treasurer.

On motion of Gen. C. H. Howard, it was voted that a business committee of five
members be appointed by the Chair. The committee was appointed as follqws :
Hon. Philip C. Garrett, Mrs. A. S. Quintou, Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk, Mr. H. O.
Houghton, and Gen. C. H. Howard.

The opening address was "A Survey of the Year's Work," by Gen. E. Whittlesey,
of Washington.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 35

sntvKY OF TIIK YKAR'S WORK.
[By Gen. E. Whittli-sey.]

The work of the year has been a quiet and steady work; and there has been
progress all along the line, along the same line upon which we have been working
for several years past. What I have to say may perhaps be grouped under three
heads — lands and homes for Indians, education, and legislation.

The work of allotting laud has been going on during the year as rapidly as the
means provided by the Government would permit ; perhaps as rapidly as would be
wise, although many Indians are now asking for homesteads who can not be pro-
vided with them at once, for the reason that the Department has not the means to
do the work of surveying and allotting the lands. A quarter section of laud given
to an Indian is not a home, by any means; but it furnishes a site where a home may
be built. And more and more every year the Indians are availing themselves of the
opportunity that is given them to build themselves comfortable homes and to gather
around them the means of making life happy as it never has been before. This
matter will be fully presented by and by by our friend, the prince of allotting
agents, Miss Fletcher.

Upon education I need say very little, for that subject has been before us year
after year ; and we have reached that point where we can say that more than half
the Indian children are already provided with the means of education, and are at-
tending school. It was but a very short time ago, Mr. Chairman, that we thought
it a very interesting announcement when we said that one-fourth of the Indian
children were attending school. We shall hear fully upon the subject of educa-
tion from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who has given his time especially to
that work.

Legislation upon Indian affairs in the last session of Congress has not been so ex-
tensive or so important as during the session of the Fifty-first Congress, and yet
some legislation of importance can be reported. One matter was the ratification of
the agreement witli the Colville Indians in Washington, by which a large portion of
the extensive reservation occupied by them will become the property of the United
States, and a large sum of money be paid to the Indians for the lands which they
cede. Another act passed was to carry into effect the recommendations of the com-
mission appointed to settle certain difficulties among the Mission Indians of south-
ern California, of which our host, Mr. Smiley, was the chairman, and the work of
carrying out the recommendations of the commission is now going on. Another act
by the last Congress was an act passed for the more effectual prohibition, or, rather,
restriction, of the sale of liquor in the Indian Territory, including the sale of beer
as well as of spirituous liq uors. Another provision — this last was included, I think, in
the Indian appropriation bill — was to sanction the deeds and records of the Indian
Laud Office, and authorize the use of a seal by that office. It may not at first sight
appear to you that this is very important, but it has its bearing'upon a very large
amount of property, the conditions of which have been very uncertain. And still
another act was an act to complete the allotments to the Cheyenne aud Arapahoe
Indians in the Indian Territory, which had been suspended a year before for want
of means to carry out the work which had been begun.

Now, under these various acts a very large amount of land that formerly belonged
to the Indians has become the property of the United States and has been thrown
open to settlement, bringing white settlers into close contact with the Indians, and
exerting upon them the influences of civilization upon their border. And a large
amount of money has been paid to Indians for the lands they have ceded — a very
large sum of money indeed. A resolution was passed at the last session of Congress
for the payment of some three millions of money to the Choctaw Indians for their
claim upon lands west of their reservation. This money, deposited for their benefit
in the Treasury of the United States or paid into their hands, may, in some cases,
work to their injury rather than to their benefit. We have, in former years, often
deprecated cash payments to Indians, and to Indians who have made no progress
toward civilization such payments have generally been an entire waste of the money
put into their hands. But the time seems to have come now when certain Indians,
who have reached a considerable degree of civilization, should have the handling of
their own property, and learn by experience the use of their own money. Some of
them will waste it — many of them will, perhaps — but they must learn the use of
money by experience just as we have all learned it. A provision has been inserted in
the Indian appropriation bill for the current year, authorizing the Secretary of the
Interior, in certain cases where he may think the Indians capable of managing their
own affairs, to pay them cash instead of the supplies that are provided for in the
treaties with them. I hope that this will be done, but that it will be done with
great caution.

In regard to this matter of wasting their funds : When the agreement was made, a
couple of years ago or more, with the Sisseton Indians of Dakota, a large sum of
money was" secured for them on account of an old claim which they had against the

36 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Government, and that was paid over to them in cash. Soon reports came that they
were throwing it away to buy carriages and ponies and jewelry, and misusing their
money to a very large extent. I wrote to the clerk of the agency, himself an edu-
cated Indian, Mr. Brown, and asked him to make an investigation, and report to me
just the facts on the subject. This he did, and gave me all the details, naming the
men and the women who had received money. This was his conclusion : "A certain
number, not a large proportion, are wasting their money as has been alleged ; but
the great majority are making wise use of it. The men are buying agricultural
implements, and improving their farms and houses. The women are hoarding their
portions to buy provisions and clothing for their children in the coming winter." Now,
I suppose if we were to take three or four hundred thousand dollars and distribute it
to a thousand people in some village here in the neighborhood of Mohonk, some of
the people would find a good use for their money, many would carefully save it, and
a good many would go to saloons and other places and wraste it. I do not think
Indians, after they get some education, are very different in that respect from white
men. I believe that the time has come for gradually reducing the issue of rations,
and giving the Indians their own money provided for them by treaty, and letting
them spend it themselves and learn how to use it.

Mr. MOSES PIERCE. You said that the money that is paid to these Indians is de-
posited in the United States Treasury. Is there any way of getting that money out
excepting by an act of Congress.

Gen. WHITTLESEY. It must be by an act of Congress.

Mr. PIERCE. Is it an easy thing to do to get the money for the Indians?

Gen. WHITTLESEY. They have 'the interest of it every year.

President GATES. It is a great pleasure to us to have with us to-day the Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs, Gen. Morgan, whose works speak for him.

ADDRESS OF COMMISSIONER MORGAN.

About three years ago, soon after I had entered upon the discharge of the duties
of my present office, it was my privilege to meet in this conference. I remember
asking you at that time what you wished to have done ; and I was told by your
genial president, Gen. Fisk, that I should very soon learn what you wished to have
done. I return to you now after three years of practical work in the office. I have
learned during that time what you wanted done, and I have sometimes thought that
you wanted about as many kinds of things as there were members of the conference.
I wish, however, to recognize the fact that the view of the conference, although
diverging in minor details, has been, on the whole, a united view ; and the public
sentiment that has been created by the discussions here has been most helpful in
.securing the legislation and in administering the laws that have been passed in the
Indian Office. And I should not be true to my conviction if I did not express to you
my sense of obligation, as an officer of the Government, for the support that has
gone from this place to those who have been engaged in the difficult work of ad-
ministering Indian affairs.

It seems a very simple and easy thing, I have no doubt, to persons from the outside,
to run the Indian Office. I am reminded of a story told of the late Dr. Wayland.
While president of Brown University he was in the habit of meeting a number of
the students on Sunday as a Bible class. At one time he was unfolding to them the
wonders of the Proverbs of Solomon, when one young man said to him : " Mr. Presi-
dent, it doesn't seem to me that the Proverbs of Solomon are so wonderful; they
seem very simple." Good old Dr. Wayland looked at him and said : " My son. won't
you make a few and bring in?" I have felt sometimes, when I have seen how easy
it seemed to people outside to manage the Indian Office, like saying: " I will step
aside and you take the chair for a month and try it."

As has been said this morning, the Indian question, in one aspect of it, is as varied
as the colors of the leaves on these beautiful hills. And yet, so far as it pertains to
the Indians in their relation to the Government of the United States, I am inclined
to think that the solution of it has already been found and is embodied in the phrase
"American citizenship." For just so soon as the Indians have become American
citizens and each individual among them stands upon his own feet, they become
merged in our national life, losing their identity as Indians and appearing simply as
citizens. Thus the Government will have no more to do with them as a body differ-
ent from the rest of us than it has to do with the French or Italians or Bohemians or
any other body of people who come among us to make their homes. Just so soon as
the Indians have become citizens the Indian problem, as a national question, ceases
to exist. There will remain a great many Indian problems so long as we look upon
that people as human beings, as people in whose personal welfare we are interested,
as people for whose children we have a care. If we desire that they be elevated
in the scale of civilization, that they be Christianized, that their sons and their
daughters may be highly educated, that all their modes of living may be improved

REPORT OF THE HOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 37

and brought into harmony with our own, just so long there will be an Indian prob-
lem for every reservation and, indeed, I am inclined to think for every Indian. But,
so far as the Government is concerned, the question is solved when they have become
citizens. I look upon the Dawes bill, therefore, which became a law February 8,
1887, as the radical turning point in this entire question of the relation of the Indians
of this country to the General Government, and upon the application of that law as
the crucial test in all this matter.

I have already said that, so soon as the individual becomes a citizen, becomes an
individual, a man, he ceases in so far to be an Indian ; that is, in so far as he has
any relation to the Government. So there go.es of necessity, with the application of
the land in severalty law, the entire system of Indian reservations. There cannot
be a reservation in any proper sense, except for those who are banded together as a
tribe, regarded as separate and peculiar. The moment the Indian has become a citi-
zen he ceases to be peculiar: he has no claims upon the Government to maintain for
him a reservation. The whole reservation system, then, must be wiped out of exis-
tence; and this is rapidly becoming the case wherever the Indians have taken their
lands. There can, for instance, be no system of Indian courts where Indians have
become citizens of the United States; there can be no system of Indian police. At
Sisseton and Santee, and other agencies where the Indians are taking their land,
they are asserting their rights as citizens under the law, so that they refuse to recog-
nize the authority of Indian police and to obey the judgments of Indian judges;
and more and more they will come to refuse to recognize the authority of the agent.
And the Indian who has become a citizen, who is told that he must rely on his own
judgment, very quickly learns to say to his chief, "You are no longer chief"; he
comes to recognize that in himself as a citizen dwells the sovereignty, that he is
chief of his own household, of his own affairs. And so the rule by chieftainship
passes, by necessity, not immediately, and yet quite rapidly enough, out of exist-
ence. Along with this will go necessarily the whole system of issuing rations, and
the maintenance of an agency system. Everything else that pertains to theMrulian
administration ceases of necessity, so that I have looked with some degree, not only
of interest, but of apprehension, upon the rapidity with which lands are being al-
lotted.

In an article by Prof. Thayer, published, I think, in the Atlantic Monthly, he in-
timated that it would take a very long time to bring about a change by the appli-
cation of the law of severalty. An army officer published recently an article in
which he said that it would take a hundred years for the Indian Bureau to apply
the land-in -severalty law. I have taken pains, in my annual report, to gather to-
gether the facts in regard to the number of those who have already taken their
lands in severalty.

There have been 30,738 allotments completed. Those to whom allotments are
about to be made number 26,691. This means that the agents are already at work
in the field. And 25,636 more are in the act of receiving their allotments, making
in all Ml, 344 allotments that you might regard, for all working purposes, as accom-
plished. I have concluded, therefore, that, if we were disposed to push the work in
this line, with the force now engaged, all the allotments that ought to be made can
be completed within three or four years. I do not hesitate to say that, if it were
thought wise, all the allotting of lands could be finished absolutely within four
years more; but I doubt the wisdom of it. There are many cases where I am in-
clined to think it would be a very unwise thing to allot lands to Indians as they are
now — for instance, among the San Carlos Apaches; and there are others I should
put in the same class. So, recognizing the far-reaching consequences of this act,
recognizing that, when the Indians have taken their lands and received their
patents, they cease ppactically to be Indians and become citizens — that they pass
out from the control of the Indian Office, and refuse to send their children to school,
I have felt that it is a very grave question whether this law should be rapidly and
suddenly put into execution.

That brings me, then, to the second point in my mind. I have said that citizen-
ship is the solution of the whole problem, so far as it stands related to the
Government. Now, so far as it stands related to us as individuals, as those
who wish their welfare, the great question that confronts us is the preparation
for citizenship. Mere citizenship is only opportunity. Citizenship carries with it
no new powers, gives no added talent. It simply opens the way; and, unless the
Indian is prepared to take advantage of the opportunity that is afforded to him,
he will derive not only no advantage from it, but in many cases his later condition
will be worse than the first. If we look, therefore, to his welfare, to his growth,
to his accumulation of property, to his development of a home, to his rising in the
scale of being, so that he may have better clothing, better food, and better social
surroundings, and adopt better habits, and become an intelligent man, with his
books, with his newspapers, his elnvches and his Sunday schools, his social gath-
erings, and all that— if we look for this result, we must see to it that there is a cer-

38 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

tain amount of preparation afforded to him, or at least an opportunity for this prep-
aration. I have given, during the last three years, a great deal of attention to this-
matter. The preparation consists at least of two great lines of work. First, he must
he afforded an opportunity of self-support. The mere alloting of a quarter-section
to an Indian is a very simple thing, which can be done on paper by anybody who
knows how to write and has a little tact. But to enable that Indian, when he has
received that 80 acres, to make a home out of it, is another matter. A great
deal of the laud we are allotting to Indians is unfitted to agriculture. One of the
great problems among the Sioux is the fact that their land, for the most part, is of
this nature. It would answer for grazing purposes, but that requires a larger area.
The Navajo people are an illustration of the vast territory required by herders.
They have a reservation of 12,000 square miles, and they have pleaded for an exten-
sion of their territory because they can not support their herds and flocks on the land
they have. They extend south and north and east and west, and they are in con-
stant conflict with the white settlers on the west because of the lack of facilities for
grazing. They have a million and a half sheep and goats, and they find it impossi-
ble to provide for them on the limited land they have. Now, if we are to allot lands
to the Sioux Indians in South Dakota, and insist that they shall make a living by
farming, we are demanding of them the impossible. So the question has presented
itself again and again whether it is not possible to develop stock-raising among
these Indians; and during the last few months the Indian Office has purchased and
distributed to them more than 30,000 head of cattle ; and they propose to distribute
20,000 next year, and 10,000 the year after, which will fulfill treaty obligations. A
great many sheep have been purchased for the Indians at Fort Berth old. The In-
dians at Fort Peck were also furnished sheep. A great deal of attention has been
given to developing the idea of stock-raising among the children in our schools.
We grow our owh beef at Fort Hall. We are preparing to do the same thing at
other schools, with a view of enabling the Indian boys to become acquainted with
scientific methods of caring for stock.

A great deal of attention has also been given to the question of irrigation. Thou-
sands of acres of the land that we are asking these people to occupy are absolutely
valueless unless it can be irrigated. We are spending now $250,000 in the develop-
ment of an irrigating system among the Crow Indians of Montana. There is now
available on the books of the treasurer between $30.000 and $40,000 for irrigation
elsewhere. We are carrying an irrigating ditch through the Fort Hall Reservation
in Idaho, and have been building quite extensive works among the Piinas, and
carrying water from the Gila River. Wherever it is profitable to spend money it is
being done, with the idea of developing a system of irrigation to make it possible
for the Indians to cultivate the land and secure a support.

One great difficulty is the costliness of it; $100,0 ;0 goes a very little way in de-
veloping a system of irrigation. I suppose, if we are to do anything permanent and
really helpful for the Navajoes it will cost $500,000. Gen. McUook has kindly
offered to detail Army officers to make the surveys of the reservation, and to desig-
nate places where it would be practical to enter upon such a scheme. Unless some-
thing of this kind is done, I am afraid that there will be trouble.

These are simple illustrations of the one general proposition that the office is at-
tempting to prepare the Indian to utilize the land that is beiug allotted to him.
The second line of preparation, and that to which I have given special attention, ia
the education of the children. I have believed, and I still believe, that the only
hope for the Indians is in the education of the rising generation ; and every effort
has been made, first, to improve the schools which already exist, to make them
as efficient as they can be made, to provide proper buildings, to open up the farms
in connection with them, to provide a suitable class of employes, to arrange for
them a definite course of study with a fixed line of text-books, and to secure, if
possible, a competent corps of intelligent men and women who will consecrate them-
selves to their work as teachers. In this respect I think there is universal testimony
that the Indian schools have been greatly improved. In the second place, attempts
have been made to establish new schools wherever it was possible. There are, of the
nonreservation schools, either completed or in process to be completed and in oper-
ation before the end of the fiscal year, twenty — one in Pennsylvania, one in Mich-
igan, one in Wisconsin, one in Minnesota, and so on around the whole circle. When
these twenty schools are completed they will accommodate 5, 000 pupils. There have
been some new schools put upon the reservations. It has not been possible to carry
on the work on the reservations as it has seemed to the office it should be done, for
lack of money. It has been insisted that the Indian Office should establish schools,
where a simple form of education could be carried on. and that they should be cheap.
When I entered the office, the limit was $10,000 for a school, including furniture.
This was afterwards raised to $12,000; and by dint of hard work, it was raised last
fall to $15,000. Now it is simply impossible to establish a school, far from a rail-
road, out on a reservation — a school which shall accommodate 50 children — for

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 39

$15,000. I have tried to an<l I have failed. I advertised for a schoolhouse among
the Navajoes. I got no bidders. I have said : " Congress does not want me to do the
work. 1 have urged it, I have pleaded for it; I have done everything in my power.
The responsibility does not rest with me. You can not establish an industrial
sehool on an Indian reservation for $15, <)()().''

The work has progressed, however, notwithstanding all the difficulties in the
way ; and a special effort has been made to secure increased attendance. I am glad
to say that the reports of the year ending June, 1892, show an increase in enrollment
of over 4,000. The number enrolled during the last year in the schools con-
trolled wholly or in part by the Government is 19,763. This marks a growth of
more than 25 per cent in the enrollment during three years. Certainly, in view
of the enormous difficulties attending it, it is a result over which the "friends of
Indian education have reason to congratulate themselves. I believe it will be
possible still further to increase the attendance, even among schools already estab-
lished; and I believe that there ought to be additional schools built for the Navajoes
and some others. If the rate of progress maintained during the last three years
can be kept up for another three years, practically all the Indian children of school
age can be put into school.

But at this point we are met by the question of compulsory education. Many of
the Indians do not desire to have their children in school ; others are unwilling to
have theirs taken away from home. If they could have them in school where they
could see them every day, they might possibly consent; but even that is not sure. The
day schools among the Pueblos are right at the doors of the parents, and it is there
that we have the greatest trouble in securing attendance. If we undertake to com-
pel the children we are met with a great many difficulties. I do not care to discuss
that at this point, but at some time during the meeting of the conference I should
like to tell you what I think about compulsory education. I may simply say, in a
word, that I believe that when we look back over the history of ourludian'people for
a hundred years and see that we are, by the old system, rearing successive genera-
tions of savages, and when we know that if we allow them to fallow their inclina-
tions there will grow up other generations of saA^ages — then it seems to me that it is
simply ordinary wisdom for us to say that our duty to the children is plain — to take
them,' by force if need be, by arms if we must, and put them in schools where they
will be kindly treated, properly fed and clothed, and carefully nurtured and pre-
pared for intelligent manhood and womanhood and for the duties of American citi-
zenship.

There is one other question on which I will touch as I pass, though Dr. Gates has
alluded to it. It is in reference to the relation of the churches to this matter of In-
dian education. I visited two weeks ago the San tee training-school, and was the
guest of Dr. Riggs. I was made welcome. I had the privilege of speaking to the
pupils and employes in the school. I looked about the institution and made myself
somewhat familiar \vith it, and came away with a deeper impression than I had
carried there of the inestimable work that is being done there. And yet the ques-
tion has often come to me, would not the same amount of money, the same devotion,
the same Christian expenditure be made to more advantage in a little different
direction ? I found a large number of little boys and little girls there learning the
rudiments of an English education. It occurred to me that, if they were allowed to
learn this at the Government school, and if this normal school and training school
could be made a school of a higher order for training young men and women after
they had finished their elementary education, fitting them to become teachers and
preachers and lawyers and physicians — giving them that higher training which
they can not get in the Government schools, which at present they are unable to get
from the colleges of the country — would not the same expenditure that is now made
in that admirable school be of vastly more benefit to the Indians themselves? I.
know that there are difficulties and objections in the way. Yet the same thing oc-
curred to me as I visited the admirable school in Tucson. If Mr. Pullman and his
corps of workers could receive into their institution young men and young women
who have been through the Government school and give them the higher training,
they would confer upon them an inestimable benefit. Let us bear in mind that our
nationality, the wonderful development of the civilization of the United States, is the
result of two great forces. One is the common school, reaching the mass, and the other,
not less forcible, is the work of the colleges, the great institutions of Harvard and
Brown and Yale and Williams and Dartmouth and the rest, which have sent out into
all the walks of life cultivated men and women who have been trained for the higher
orders of service. They have become the legislators, the controllers of public opin-
ion, the men who have shaped the destinies of this nation. We are neglecting that
for the Indians. They are getting a common-school education; they go out from
Carlisle and Hampton with a smattering of learning, scarcely more. If we leave
them at that point, they will go out more helpless. Now, if we can lay our hands
upon the young men and women of talent, of genius, of power — and there are plenty

40 REPORT OF THE BO.VRD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

among the Indians — and help them to a college education, to that higher, broader,
Christian education that makes them leaders among their people, we shall do for
them what has been done for us. We shall repeat history among them. There, it
seems to me, is the want which we are in danger of failing to recognize. Ther» are
Indian men and women who are susceptible of the highest culture. They can be
trained to become leaders. They can be fitted for professional positions of all kinds.
As at present constituted, our system of education leaves that great part of their
training out of sight. There are very few of them who are being fitted for such
leadership.

Let me give you two pictures. At Pine Ridge is an Indian, Dr. Eastman. After
finishing his work at Sautee and going .to other institutions of learning, he gradu-
ated at Dartmouth College, and from the medical department of Boston University,
and is to-day a cultivated, educated gentleman, competent to undertake the vast
responsibilities of caring for the sanitary condition of 5,000 people, standing before
his own race as an illustration of the power of culture, as a leader among them,
pointed out by them as showing what can be done for an Indian by training. One
such man has an influence not simply over his own tribe; it does not stop short of
all the Indians in the country.

Again, I went out the other day into what is called the Bad River Country, into
a little Indian camp, wLere there was poverty and destitution. I spoke to one of
the Indian men. He shook his head and disappeared, but came back in a few min-
utes bringing a little girl, and said " English." She could speak English. She had
been at school at Santee five years she told me. Now her eyes had failed and she
could not go back. She was 11 years of age, slender, and delicate. Her face was
dirty, her hair uncombed, her clothes untidy; she was living the life of a barbarian.
She could not help it. \Vhat can a little child do? Sleeping on the ground, eating
out of a common pot, living without furniture, almost without food — what can she
do? What can ten such little girls do scattered among the tribes?

I say to you then, ought we to go on multiplying institutions which send out little
boys and girls with, say, five years of training, while we are neglecting to furnish
these people such Bxamples as I have spoken of, of strong men and women, com-
petent to go on, and, instead of being overwhelmed by the barbarism about them,
to rise above it? I have felt — I may be all wrong — that if the churches would but
recognize that the Government is now doing this preliminary work, is educating
these little boys and girls, is giving them this rudimentary preparation tor life, and
has made it possible for the churches to do what they could not do ten years ago,
namely, to give to the young men and women of talent and genius who are coming
up through the Government schools that broader and higher and richer culture,
they would accomplish what the Government can not undertake to do, what the
Indians themselves are powerless to do, and what, if not done by the churches will
not be done at all.

A DELEGATE. To what extent have lands been ceded by Indians during the present
year?

Gen. MORGAN. I ana unable to answer that question in detail. There are several
commissions now at work. We have a commission negotiating with the Yanktons
for the cession of their surplus lands. Another is negotiating with the Turtle
Mountain Indians, another with the Crows for a modification of their claim. We
are negotiating also with the Pyramid Lake Indians for the cession of Walker River
Reservation, and a commission has been sent to the Shoshones in Nevada, to secure,
if possible, a cession from them.

Gen. HOWARD. Does not the school at Santee have for its principal object the
higher education, the preparing of young men and women to go back to their tribe
as missionaries, as leaders, and as examples? That is the way I have understood it.

Gen. MORGAN. I think that is true, and yet it might remain that I found at Santee
50 per cent of the pupils under 14 years of age, so that it is impossible that the
higher work could be done. It seemed to me that the higher work that they are
prepared to do there might be enlarged and made the principal, if not the exclusive,
feature of the school.

President GATES. Sometimes we gain ground by a brief free parliament as we go
along. Can Dr. Mowry tell us what proportion of our public school children leave
school before they are fourteen?

Dr. MOWRY. Somewhat more than 75 per cent, I think. I was about to inquire
if there are many cases of Indians in our higher institutions of learning, like Dr.
Eastman's case. An interesting case came to my knowledge recently of a full-
blooded Indian from Mr. Duncan's colony, who is now a sophomore in Marietta
College — an intelligent and cultivated gentleman, who passed some weeks in study
at Martha's Vineyard this summer.

Gen. MORGAN. Theoretically, there is no difficulty about such cases. The diffi-
culty is in finding Indians who are desirous for the education, and who can support
themselves while pursuing it. Dr. Gates knows of Henry Kendall, at Rutgers, who
entered the freshman class, but has gone back to his people, and has done more for

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 41

them than any ten others that I know of, because he had gone far enough in his
education to get breadth and power. He wants to return and complete his course,
but does not see the way.

President GATES. The way has been opened this fall. The circumstances under
which he was called home were such as to make me honor his manhood. This sum-
mer I opened the way for him to complete his studies; but his regard for his family
friends holds him there for another year, at least.

(leu. MORGAN. Susan La Flesche is another illustration. She graduated from a
medical school in Philadelphia, and is filling the position of Government physician
among her own people. Carlos Moiitezuma, a young Apache, was educated by the
boys at Champaign University, Illinois, and is now the physician, by appointment
of the Indian Office, among the Shoshones. Mr. Cook, who has recently died, was a
graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, and was a man of wonderful power and in-
fluence. Mr. Walker, whom I met the other day, was also a graduate, who went to
Harvard for a number of years. Miss Anna Dawson. who has been at the Normal
School at Framinghani, since finishing her course at Hampton, is teaching at Santee;
and they give her the most unqualified indorsement. There are two young Indian
lawyers practicing at Omaha. Mr. Walter Lyman has been at Yale College. And
so I might go on. There is no question there are enough of these cases to show that
this is the line of hope for these people.

Dr. WARNER. Is not the reason that Santee and other schools do not do more of
this higher work because they do not have the pupils? In other words, they are
no more than full, and take high and low alike. Is not the difficulty, so far, that
the pupils do not come?

Mr. EDWIN GINN. The number of pupils in our high schools in Massachusetts, in
the better cities, is less than 4 per cent of the school children. You can see how
small must be the number of Indian pupils who can be expected to apply for higher
education.

Dr. RYDER. Looking back at the two pictures of Dr. Eastman with his large in-
fluence, and his power, and of the little girl who drifts back to the tepee, I am
brought to ask if, after all, both are not the result of the training of boy and girl
at Santee? Dr. Eastman gained in the Santee school his desire for a higher educa-
tion. I think that school should have the honor of his after success as well as the
discredit of the little .girl who drifts back to heathenism.

President GATES. Now let us hear something from the woman's side of the work.
Let us hear from one who has carried into it the heart and the helpful sympathy of
womanhood along with the careful methodical way of doing business, which in the
past we men have been too much accustomed to arrogate to ourselves. Let us hear
from Miss Fletcher.

EXPERIENCES IN ALLOTTING LAND.
[By Miss Alice C. Fletcher.]

It is seven years since I had the pleasure of standing in this room. Six of those
seasons have been spent in carrying out the provisions of the Dawes bill. Every
one of those six autumns, while you have been gathered here listening to the experi-'
ence of those who have been out looking over the field, and have been meditating
upon wise ways of future work, I have been in my tent among the people, meeting
many of the problems, perhaps from a point of view a little different from those
that meet your gaze here. During those six seasons I have been instrumental in
giving the provisions of the law and dividing the land to over 3,000 Indians and
covering a territory not far from 300,000 acres. The bill, after working under it for
six seasons, rouses more interest and enthusiasm in my mind than when I began. It
is a very remarkable bit of legislation. Striking broadcast over a country so widely-
diverse in physical conditions and in the possibilities for the people, it is wonderful
that you can do so much with it. Wrapped up in that bill are these two principles
to which our president has called our attention as the one working force in all mat-
ters of social reform — the calling up of the individual Indian into the responsibilities
of citizenship, aud the loosening about his neck of the bonds of tribal property, per-
mitting him to take that which is his share and go forth free.

Indians have been accustomed to regard their homes, their land, in a sense as
property. I know perfectly well the reverent and religious feeling of many of the
old Indians concerning it. In all the tribes all over the country, of course changing
and varying in their methods according to the nature of the country, spots were
always recognized as individual homes. The Indian, I think 1 may say, speaking
of him broadly— though it is always a misfortune to speak of them broadly, because
Indians are so very diverse — the Indian all over the country has always had a little
point that was home. It has been the exception where that was not true. There-
fore, the idea of ownership in land is not so foreign as people have been wont to re-

42 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

gard it. The severalty act, however, presents the land to him in somewhat of a new
aspect, as a bit of individual property that shall be not only a source of revenue to
him, but something that is to remain with him and pass in a given line to his heirs,
and also as something which must be looked at from a mercantile point of view, as
to trade and the nearness to market. All this is new.

In going out to allot the land, I find the people living in their little villages,
grouped together upon their farms, almost always in the valleys. I have had ex-
perience with three tribes, one of them in very different conditions from the others.
Among the Omahas and the Wiunebagoes the Missouri River, which bordered the
eastern side of their reservation, was the old means of communication with the out-
side world; and on the little creeks which emptied into it, and in the little nooks
where there were wood and water, the Indians were living, naturally in their old-
time villages. At the time I allotted the Omahas, where to-day you see the various
farms, Indian and white, there was not anything but birds and coyotes and rattle-
snakes— not a road, nothing but a few old trails by which the tribe used to go out
to hunt the buffalo. The railroad, however, v as being built; the reservation, in a
sense, had turned over ; what was before the front door was becoming the back door,
and what was nothing and nowhere was the way into prosperity. I pitched my tent
on a little knoll, and there I remained for six weeks ; and there I remonstrated and
urged and used all the influence in my power to get the Indians to take their lands.
They said : ;< You have brought us out here to kill us. There is no wood, and there is
no water." I told them wood would grow, and water could be had for the digging;
but all that was new to them. I remained, however, until I persuaded some of them
to be killed, so to speak; and 50 families were allotted in this vicinity. Those are
the prosperous people of the tribe to-day. It was impossible to persuade any more
at that time.

When I allotted the Winnebagoes, some years later, the Omahas came to them and
said: "Listen to her. Do not be afraid to go. Every one of us who would not go
with her is now wishing we could get the chance to go there. Follow her and she
will help you. It will be well for you." The result was that I had very little dim
culty there. But the Winnebagoes held patents issued to them in 1871 and 1876;
and at the time that they were allotted under those patents it was the idea that the
old Indian nation must be conserved. Under this idea 40 acres were given to each
in the woods and 40 acres on the prairie. The result was that they had a right to
that land, and a good many of the old people would not move at all. So, while I
pushed the young folks out, there are a good many of them who will inherit land I
am sorry to have them inherit. These I speak of as incidents that an allotting agent
may often have to meet. You can not, however, make the Indians see just as you
see.

The Nez Perces are living under very ^different conditions. There you have a terri-
tory that is lying between the Rockies and the Cascades, in the more arid region of
our country. The uplands of that reservation, generally speaking, can be used as
wheat lands, however; but in that country summer fallowing is an absolute essen-
tial for a crop, so that the farms are large in extent, and half the fields must lie fallow
in any summer. Most of the Nez Perces, however, had very few lands on these
uplands; they were living in the canons.

The people are divided into three large settlements. Those on the Lapwai, where
the agency is stationed, number perhaps a little more than a third of the tribe. A
large andVery remarkable settlement is some 20 miles away, at Kameah, and another
group in the North Fork region. The people, as I said, live in the little canons. Those
at Kameah were in a little valley that contains about 3 square miles, all told. There
are altogether about five or six hundred of the Indians in the Lapwai. It is a nar-
rower valley and some others branch out from it, so they are a little more scattered,
but always in the A'alleys. Here they had their little gardens and fields, hardly
more than 20 acres to any one. In fact, under their treaty they were given or assigned
20-acrelots; and the whole reservation was surveyed" into* such lots. The conse-
quence was that the work became exceedingly difficult in adjusting these improve-
ments, as every man was extremely tenacious, and the women a little more so, of
the orchards and bits of garden. And although the Nez Perce allotments record
only 1,908, it stands for the work of about 3,000. The people had to have repeatedly
explained to them the possibility of taking their lands on the uplands, and this new
idea presented of the merchantable character of the land itself. There is no railroad
that strikes the reservation, although one has been surveyed. There is a branch of
the Northern Pacific that comes down near the northwestern corner. North of the
Clearwater the land is very fertile and well fitted for the raising of wheat; and I
urged upon the thrifty ones to settle there; for one must always pick out those who
are enterprising; the first thing one must do is to make inequalities. I Avent first
to these progressive men, those who were willing to risk something to move out,
who had a desire to prosper materially ; and I always found that they were those who
had had their children in school. I succeeded in persuading a large number of these

REPORT OF THE BOAKD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 43

people to take this laad. In doing that I had to read my letter of instructions in
L&rge t\ pe, so to speak, because the old treaty provided that the people should he
allotted in their bands and closed up together; and J was informed that I was, as
far as praet ieahle, to observe tliis. But 1 considered that it was practicable to honor
the observance, in the breach. Therefore I taught that the entire reservation be-
longed to the entire tribe, and that to say that the man from the southeast part of
the reservation is not to take his land in the northwest was nonsense. The whole
place was free for whoever would be willing to take the choice of the best. I have
had a great deal to overcome on this reservation; but I was glad to rind that, as
twenty-one years have gone on, the spirit of understanding, the education that grew
among the people-in discussing these affairs, were most marked. I think yon will
find very few Indians there to-day who will not tell you that the whole tribe had the
freedom of choice, and that the whole of the land belonged to the Nez Perces, and
not to this head man or that head man.

The experiences of the early years of the allotment were very interesting. It was
very difficult indeed to make people understand that the land was of any conse-
quence; it was always water. The Indians themselves took up the joke: "The
white man wants land, but the Indian wants water." But to take nothing but rocks
because there is a spring, I was finally able to demonstrate to them, was foolish.
The practical working of the law, however, is an education in itself.

Another point which I always considered of the first importance was to inculcate
in their minds that our Government was not a one-man power, but a government of
the people. Therefore, I always explained to the people Avhat county their allot-
ments would lie in, and where the boundary lines of the county were; that a county,
again, was divided into precfncts, and that the people of a precinct elected their offi-
cers; and I explained to them the duties of these officers. Very soon they began to
understand that allotment was going to bring to them something more than a bit of
land ; that it brought responsibilities — responsibility for the roads, the bridges, the
conditions of the precinct.

All these things, of course, are not marking out, surveying, putting down the
monuments, arid walking round and showing the Indian his corners, but it is show-
ing him his corners in another sense. These are the corners he must know if he is
going to be a man. The real work of an allotting agent lies between the lines.

I also felt that it was quite essential that they should understand the matter of
descent, which again was something new. Being myself farmer, from study of In-
dian relationships, with their methods of treating the subject^it was easier for me
to explain to them. The result of it was that I think you will find very few7 of the
Nez Perces who will not be able to tell you from whom they will inherit and where
their land will go when they die. For "the purpose of trying to overcome the diffi-
culties which the law gives in a land as arid as that — because a man could not really
live on 80 acres of agricultural land — in order to give them the benefit of larger
fields I have grouped together the families— that is, those who would inherit one
from another — so that there is a chance for larger fields, and in the case of death as
little disturbance as possible in those who work the land. I speak of these practi-
cal details as showing the way it works at the other end of the line. These are the
things that will make the difference between prosperity and failure in the working;
out of the law.

Wherever you go you have to adjust the work to the conditions, of course; and
there among the Nez Perces the conditions were very different from what they would
be in a prairie country. I had, however, some allotments about which it was im-
possible for me to exercise my best judgment. I will tell you of one man, who was
himself a leading man in the Nez Perce war. He is known as Yellow Bull, a very
excellent man, a good worker, and brought admirable letters from the Army officers-
and the agent. He had made up his mind to take his land 011 the Nez Perce Reserva-
tion, however, and he came for allotment, with his son and some other members of
the family. He was so good a worker, aud had so good a start, that I was quite
anxious he should take a good allotment. I spent a good deal of time with him,
going out and trying to get him to locate properly; but he always came back to one
place. I told him it was a miserable place — he never could do anything with it;
there was not a spot in the whole that he could make a garden out of, and he could
not plow a foot of the land. But he said : "I want that spring. When I was a little
boy I used to go there with my father. When I was a young man I always went
out of my way to take a drink from that spring, and that was where I went when-
ever I was hunting. And all the years I was in the Indian Territory I was hearing
the water of that spring; and I want that spring." Yellow Bull has got the spring.
But I have given his sou and his relatives some good land near by, so I trust he will
prosper.

I always regarded the lav, as far as allotment was concerned, in one single aspect;
that is, it is the dividing of inherited property. I want to thank Senator Dawes
again for getting that amendment through. Of course, I want every one who has an

44 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

inheritance to get the very best; but that is all. And, as Gen. Whittlesey said, it
4s a site for a home, it is not a home. Much more, as the Commissioner so wisely
said, much more depends on the making it a home. But now I want to come back
East, and to say a word to you who are looking West.

Please remember it is a site for a home and the division of inherited property. Do
not always be going round gathering statistics as to how many Indians are living on
their allotments. It does not amount to much. What does it mean? It simply
means that you have a theory in your mind that every single Indian is going to be a
farmer. He is not; and you will be disappointed, and will think allotment is a fail
ure, and your theory will be your own enemy. The Indians are not all going to be
farmers. It is not in them ; it is not in human nature. And in the seven years since
I stood here the conditions are changed as much as, if the physiologists are correct,
my body is. It is all changed; and the law has changed it, thank God! So, looking
at the statistics that you are gathering, please remember what I have said. Few
know how to gather statistics, still less how to use them.

A DELEGATE. Will you 1ell about the man you gave the law book to?

Miss FLETCHER. That was one of the judges at Kameah. At Kameah is this re-
markable settlement where Miss Sue McBeth has left the great mark of her work.
Kameah is some 70 miles from the agency, and has been removed from the agency
influence; and these Indians have risen to a degree of independence and intelligence
that is very remarkable. In the Kameah settlement Felix Corbett was elected
judge. The agent ran one candidate, the people who were opposed to him ran an-
other; and the result was that the Christian, progressive Indians put up their can-
didate, and he was elected. I was some 50 miles away at the time this happened,
and the next day Felix Corbett came to my tent. Heisaid: " The people have hon-
ored me by electing me their judge. You tell us we will be citizens when our lands
are allotted, and that we will live under the laws of the land. I want to do right;
it seems to me it would be well for me to try to administer my office under those
laws, and I would like to "have a book to tell me about them." I entered into some
correspondence with some lawyers, and it resulted in my presenting him with a copy
of the revised statutes of Idaho, under which he administered his jtfdgeship during
the last year, was reflected the present year, and is going on in the same way. I
am informed, however, that he has been found fault with because he does not col-
lect sufficient fines. He told me that he had been able to manage the people with
only one offense wiere he had had to collect any fine, which I think was a good
record for KamealP and Judge Corbett. But Felix can not read. However, his
daughter has been^it Chemawa school, and she has read the statutes to him.

I have not begun to speak as I wanted as to the way in which allotment stimu-
lates the Indian to go forward and make a beginning. The change which has come
over the people in the four years I have been with the Nez Perces is remarkable.
And remember that time is necessary for careful allotment work.

In answer to a question from Prof. Painter, Miss Fletcher said : As to the wis-
dom of the Indian having time for his choice, if you have time to give him more
than one choice, it is wise. I think I do not overstate the fact when I say that I
have certainly changed between 500 and 800 allotments among the Nez Perces as the
result of the growth of the people in making better choice. I think the people to-
day are allotted as well as I could do it. I have left only two grumblers behind me.

President GATES. What is needed is evidently a wise kindness, based on a devo-
tion to the scientific and theoretical side of the question. It was as a specially
qualified student of ethnology that Miss Fletcher first became interested in the In-
dians. Then, as she drew near the problems, the humanitarian side of it grew upon
lier; and she has loyally given year after year of such self-denying toil as makes
her properly a mission worker in the Indian service. Such work as this of which
she has told us calls for sublime heroism. It is this sort of devoted work, by one
who is exceptionally fitted for it, that is needed in settling the Indians in severalty.

Gen. MORGAX. I would like to emphasize one point of which Miss Fletcher spoke.
I have been impressed with the fact that the idea of land in severalty is not a new idea
among Indians. I have recently traveled on five of the New York reservations, and
found that the Indians there own their own homes. They have a title, they buy
and sell among themselves, and in numerous instances they have accumulated prop-
erty and have made for themselves even beautiful homes" This is one of the diffi-
culties which meets us when we try to apply the allotment act universally, because
in many instances it would deprive these men of their accumulations, which they
have made by their own thrift and industry during many years. The fact that In-
dians so often hold their land individually has, I think, been misunderstood. The
Navajos have large individual holdings of personal property.

President GATES. Do you find that anywhere except in New York State ?

Gen. MORGAN. Yes, it is practiced elsewhere.

A DELEGATE. Do they deed land from one to another?

Gen. MORGAN. Among the White Earth Indians they have not finished taking

REPORT OF THE BOARD OP INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 45

their land in allotmen*;s, and yet they own their own homes. Whether they deed
them I am not sure.

President GATES. I suppose that would be very largely limited to reservations
which were well surrounded by civilization; or do you think not?

Gen. MORGAN. I think the practical individual ownership of land is much more
widely distributed than is generally supposed.

Mr. J. EVARTS GREENE. I do not know much about the official facts in regard to
individual holding of land or how it came to be as I found it, but I was traveling in
Kansas thirty-five years ago, and I saw a great many Indian farms then. They had
good houses^and well-cultivated lands. They were Shawnee and Wyandotte In-
dians, and there were considerable areas of country which were occupied by them. I
am sure they were individually occupied, if not individually ownexl.

Gen. HOWARD. The same thing prevails with the Pueblos. They have their lands
in common, but each has individual allotments.

Adjourned at 1 p. m.

SECOND SESSION.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT, October 12.

The conference was called to ord«r at 8 o'clock, the president in the chair. The
tofJic for the evening was announced to be " Fresh News from the Field," and Hon.
Henry L. Dawes was asked to speak of his impressions during his recent journey.

SPEECH OF SENATOR DAWES.

I have been greatly interested in this work of Indian education. I have watched
it from the beginning, which is fifteen years ago. If you will allow me a personal
allusion, I made a motion in the Senate to appropriate $20,000 out of the Treasury of
the United States for the education of Indians. It was the first dollar ever taken
out of the Treasury for that purpose. The next year they appropriated $30,000, and
from that time on, watching it with peculiar interest as a sort of infant of my own,
I have seen it grow until last year the appropriation was $2,225,000. In the aggre-
gate in -that time they have taken out of the Treasury of the United States in fur-
therance of this design to educate the Indians, $15,200,000. They have built and set
in motion twenty training schools outside of the reservations, like Carlisle and
Hampton. I tried to count UJD this evening those that I knew of on the reservations.
I can count sixty boarding schools, I do not know how many day schools. More
than half of all the Indian children are now in attendance upon schools at the ex-
pense of the United States. At the last session the Senate directed its Indian Com-
mittee to visit these schools.

I do not suppose it would be profitable to take up each one of these schools and
describe it. We visited one in Wisconsin, a yet unfinished structure, in rapid
progress, so as to be open before cold weather comes, fine enough for a college. We
visited two at White Earth Agency, one a Government school and one a contract
school; one at Pierre, N. Dak. ; Hope School, on the banks of the Missouri; and on
the west side of the river two schools, the Government school at the agency and
that remarkable school maintained by the Congregational church, the Santee Mis-
sion School. We visited also the schools at Genoa, at Lawrence, Kans., and at
Chilocco in the Indian Territory. They are not all alike; they ought not to be all
alike. As was said by some one to-day, there are no two Indians alike; and there
are no two reservations alike, and there are no two bodies of Indians in such con-
dition that the school of one should be the type of the school in another. We
found schools that we're wonderful in the work they were doing, in the appoint-
ments around them, in the character of the pupils, and the character of the teachers.

You know already much about the Santee Mission Training School. I was deeply
impressed with the devotion, the consecration to the work, which characterized the
life of Mr. Riggs and that of his father before him, and the quiet force with which
they pushed on the work; but I wish they would forget the Sioux language. All
the criticism which I could make about that school lies right there.

At Genoa there are 300 pupils in a training school upon a farm of 400 acres. A
hundred and sixty acres of it are rented to the superintendent, who pays $300 rent:
and he told nie this year he had made $5,000 out of it. The school raises broom corn in
the forenoon, and learns the spelling book in the afternoon. It raises sugar beets a
part of the day, and a part of the day it teaches the ordinary studies of school.
They had several thousand bushels of sugar beets this year. They have an applica-
tion from a great corporation in Nebraska, that is erected for the manufacture of
Sugar out of beets, to devote their whole farm to the raising of sugar beets for them.

46 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

The school is in most excellent order. It is accomplishing a great work in that line,
.although I am not quite certain that it is the best use to make of a school to see
how much money you can make out of it; but all that money is turned into the en-
largement of the facilities of the school, and therefore that school is stronger and
better than it otherwise would be. The only criticism that occurred to me there
was that they are not training these boys and girls exactly in the way that they will
be :il tie to support themselves, when they go out and stand alone. They know how
to carry 011 a great farm. I am afraid that they will be homesick when they get
oil a little one.

Haskell Institute, at Lawrence, Kaiis., has 600 acres of land; and there are 500
scholars, as fine looking a body of boys and girls as I ever looked upon. Haskell
does not devote itself to seeing how much money can be made, but what is neces-
sary for the support of the school is raised, with the exception of flour, upon the
place; and the work of the school is conducted more particularly to that end. Mr.
Meserve is managing that school with wonderful success. It has gone through many
trials, as everything in Kansas has ; but it has come to be, by the side of the Kansas
University, a rival institution whose students are copper-colored.

If I should pass down to Chilocco, there is a training school of a different char-
acter. It is in the corner of the Indian Territory bordering on Kansas. It has about
300 pupils. Of course, on its 8,000 acres it cannot carry on farming in any way that
the individual Indian will ever have an opportunity to imitate on his own 80 acres.
The superintendent is a man of remarkable tact and faculty for the position in which
lie has been placed. They told me there were 600 stacks of hay on the place. They
raised a large amount of corn, and they had there the beginning of a new industry
which interested me very much. I believe the commissioner intends to continue it
on other reservations. It is a nursery for raising fruit trees and shade trees to give
to the boys when they go out on their allotments. Every bit of the work except
that of a single white man, who is paid $600 a year to superintend it, is done by
the Indians. He gave me this inventory of what he had in his nursery for the first
year: 15,000 yearling apple trees, 2,000 cherry trees, 8,000 peach trees, 10,000 grape-
vines that will be ready to transplant next year, 1,000 Russia mulberry seedlings,
600 raspberries, 600 blackberries, three-quarters of an acre of strawberries, 1 acre of
grapevines set out. That is one year in the work of the boys, taken care of by one
white man. There is no feature of the work upon the land which struck me so for-
cibly as that. Every boy who goes out from that school takes with him fruit trees
and shade trees enough for his little home; and he starts under the refreshing shade
of these trees, which is itself an impulse toward civilization.

In all these training schools there are workshops where the scholars are being taught
trades. In the one at Genoa $2,000 worth of brooms are made, which cost the estab-
lishment $1,000, thus they make a gain of $1,000 on brooms alone. Every boy is to
.have good tools when he goes out. Every shoemaker, every carpenter, and every
broommaker is to be fitted out with tools, so that he can work at his trade. Every
•scholar works on wages, from 2 cents a day, for the little fellows, up to the wages of
an ordinary man. I went out to see them stripping the brush for the brooms of its
seeds. They have a machine driven by horse power that revolves a cylinder with
great swiftness and that strips the brush of the seed, and a dozen or inore little boys
were taking up the broom brush in their hands and carrying it to the machine, and
they were earning 2 cents a day, which is taken out of this common fund, the earn-
ings of the establishment.

The superintendent took me around to show me the farm. We were driven by a
young Indian 20 years old. While the superintendent was telling of this plan
of his, to pay each one wages, I turned to this driver and asked him: "Are you
working on wages? What do you get a month?" " Thirty-five dollars." "What
do you do with all that money?" "Oh," said he, "I spend it," and drove on his
horses. The superintendent turned to me and said, "I will tell you how he spends
that money. He is a Winnebago ; he has a father and mother on the reservation,
and his poor father within two or three years has got to drinking very badly. He
is on an allotment, but the fences got down and everything was going to ruin. This
boy has taken his two sisters away and brought them here and is taking care of them.
He got with his own money a lot of these Keely medicines and sent to his father,
and, whether it was the medicine or not, his father has not drank a drop now for a
good many months, and the home is brightening up. He sent him $80 to shingle
the barn and to fix up the house, and his father feels now as if he were a man again,
and is doing the duty of a husband and a father."

I saw a bright Omaha girl at the table and asked him about her. He said: " She
sends home her money. She has sent home enough to dig a well and to furnish the
house."

I never felt so much as if it was worth while to live as when I looked on those

children, and thought that fifteen years ago there was not a school of Indian schol-

.ars conducted by the Government, and, when some of us tried to start this move-

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 47

nient wo were met by a United States Senator with the statement, on the tloor of
the Senate, that he had lived tor twenty years among the Indians, and it was im-
possible to civilize or Christianize an Indian.

But, my friends, take three hundred of those in a single school lifted up out of
the lowest life on the continent into citizenship, their faces illumined with thought
and with possibility, and looking hopefully into the future. Men are sometimes
gloriried who give money to their State or otherwise for benevolent purposes. But
what is money to the man who makes three hundred good citizens of the Tinted
States? Who can compare the, wealth to the country, the wealth not only of the
present and of to-day, but going on, — not like the money spent and vanished, but
going on from year to year, and multiplying from being to being in all time to come?
He who adds a single citizen to the citizen wealth of this country adds more to it
than he who simply adds dollars.

President GATKS. We are now to hear from a gentleman who, while a member of
Congress, so constantly aided* the aims of this conference that his name became very
familiar to us before he took a place upon the Board of Indian Commissioners — the
Hon. Darwin R. James, of New York.

Mr. JAMES. I had the honor of being sent out into the field with Mr. Dorchester,
tne superintendent of the schools, to look over the work that is being done under
the management of Commissioner Morgan, in the extreme Northwest, in Washington,
and Oregon, and Idaho.

I visited first the school in western Colorado, at Grand Junction — a small in-
dustrial training school, numbering only about eighty-two scholars. It is a well-
equipped school and well managed, under a superintendent of whom we received
very favorable impressions. The farm work was not very successful, as the 167
acres were adapted to nothing except the raising of alfalfa. I have advised the
Commissioner that an adjoining piece of laud be purchased, which can be turned
into a garden and cultivated by the boys. Something is being accomplished by the
boys in their industries. In the shoe shop and harness shop I saw good work. The
superintendent is trying to develop two new industries — the bee industry and the
raising of cattle. The Commissioner has purchased for them ten fine Holstein
cows, and they are trying to raise milk to sell at the neighboring towns.

At the great school at Chemawa, near Salem, they had a new superintendent, who,
with his excellent assistants, was improving the appearance of things very rap-
idly. There were 51 acres in garden, furnishing vegetables for the table, 10 acres
in fruit trees, and 1 acre in berries. About fifty boys were engaged in work on the
farm, in the shoe shop, the carpenter shop, the tailor shop, etc. This school, how-
ever, had had a terrible visitation of grippe during the winter. Thirteen had died,
and there had been much sickness for months. This had had a depressing effect
upon the school. I was led to think, in this school and in other schools, that the
ventilation and the sanitary arrangements were not as they should be, and that the
sickness was in part due to' want of care in this matter.

At the Siletz Agency, on the Pacific coast, north from San Francisco, there is an
agent full of knowledge and full of interest in the affairs of the Indian, and he has
developed that agency into a well ordered and respectable community. I saw many
two-story Indian dwellings, the houses well painted. I saw the Indians drawing
"for the sawmill the lumber which they had themselves cut and floated down the
river. An Indian had wanted a farm wagon and the agent issued one, as he had a
right to, but he said: "Now, in part payment for this, I want you to do so many
days' work at carting stumps out of that land." And, when I was there, the Indian
was vigorously at work carting the stumps. He was also getting work out of two
men who had been sentenced to the lock-up, Strictly, they were in the lock-up, but
really they were out plowing a field and doing first-rate work. At night he turned
the key on them and there they were.

A good deal depends on the agent, or, in ease of a school, on the superintendent.
At Puyallup Agency we met a remarkable man, admirably adapted to the superin-
tendency of the school. Puyallup is near Tacoma. He has an idea that the Indian
ought to imbibe a little of the spirit of Tacoma, and so he has allowed them to
organize a society of Good Templars, and arranged a library and reading room for
them, and when we were there he had a party of the boys on a camping expedition,
studying as they went. He carries his instruction so far that the graduates from
his school are ready to enter the high school at Tacoma.

We visited another agency where things were as wrong as they are right at
Puyallup. At the Nez Percees Agency, where Miss Fletcher has been doing her work
of allotting land, there is a man who is utterly unfit for the place. I do not, how-
ever, consider that he is entirely to blame for "the condition of things, for he is the
inheritor of the iniquities of previous .agents, and at the adjoining town there is a
sort of- ring which works to debauch the agents. But in every instance except this
one the agents were doing all they knew how to do for the advancement of the cause.

Hon. William H. Lyon, also of the Board of Indian Commissioners, was introduced
to speak upon the same subject.

48 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Mr. LYON. My observation in the field has been very limited this season. I have
been only in southeastern Dakota and a little in southwestern Minnesota. My at-
tention has alwavs been given to the adult Indian, while most of what we have
heard to-night has been in the interest of the young. To give land in severalty is
a good thing, to build an Indian a house is a good thing, to give him implements is
a good thing, but he does not know how to use them. I think it is just as impor-
tant to have farmers sent out as instructors for the men as to have teachers for the
schools. The farm is a running gear simply. It is good for nothing unless there is
something built upon it. Again, many of the allotments are not suitable for farm-
ing without irrigation, but these Indians could be taught to become herders and
stock-raisers. I was delighted to hear that something had been done with regard
to that.

My experience this summer has been among the Flandreau Indians in South Da-
kota. I was taken to the reservation by Rev. John Eastman, and the first sight
was a very pleas.ant one to me. Mr. Eastman pointed out 15 stacks of grain on a
farm belonging to an Indian woman with a son 16 years old. I found excellent
farmers in the settlement. One Indian farmer had 40 acres of first-class wheat,
about the same of oats, and a large field of corn. I was also delighted by the schooj
buildings going up on the Flandreau Reservation. I think there has been more
done in the past season then there has been in fifteen years before. I hope that the
purchase of cattle will increase. I am sure the Indians can be taught to raise their
own cattle and sheep as well as ponies and dogs, of which they have plenty. And,
above all, I hope for the development of the system of helping the people to have
homes. It is a real cruelty to educate an Indian child in the schools, and then send
him back to a tepee, where thirty or forty Indians sit in a circle about a fire in the
center.

President GATES. There has been a very general wish expressed that we may hear
a few words from Mrs. A. L. Riggs, whose husband has been associated so long with
the work at Sautee.

Mrs. RIGGS. About twenty-two years ago we commenced our work among the
Dakotas. Whenever I think of the commencement of our work, there comes to my
mind a little picture that I can never forget. As the old rickety steamboat neared
its landing, 1 saw standing on the sandy bank an old, wrinkled, tangled-haired
Indian woman. There she stood motionless, and seemingly perfectly unconscious
that she was the only human being visible in that little wilderness of woods, wil-
lows, and wild rice. ' As we stepped off the steamer, an army officer, who was carry-
ing our little baby girl in his arms, said to me, " Do think you can make anything
of that woman ?" At that moment I did not feel like undertaking any such task;
but I saia to him, " I do not know that we can, but I feel sure that we can do much
for the children." Ours was to be the educational work, and that means a good deal.
It means work with the hands, and constant living examples to these people. One
who goes among the Indians and expects to do anything for them must expect to be
viewed and interviewed at all times, from early morning till night. When getting
breakfast, we expect to see these people step in upon us, and they linger around
during the day; that is, t^ey did when the work was first begun; we do not have
so much of it now at Santee, * They stood around to see how we did things, and that
is quite an education in itself. And, then, in the evening, after we have tucked the
children away for the night, they sit around to see what we do and how we do it.
It is a great thing to be approved by an Indian woman or an Indian man. This first
Indian woman whom we saw on the bank was a very frequent visitor in the early
years. Some of her children are earnest Christian Avorkers among the Dakotas,
and some of her grandchildren are in our school.

We do not feel like giving up the primary work; we feel that it is a very impor-
tant part of our school life. We often wish to do more in advanced work, but we
see the necessity of a real Christian trafning from the very first. The Bible is our
text-book from "the beginning. We want to be sure that the children are learning
about Jesus, and that they are building up Christian character from the first if they
are to do the work which we expect of them. If we were to give up the primary
work, it would be a great disappointment to our earliest pupils, for they are look-
ing forward to having their children attend the same school where they commenced
their education. And we feel a very strong attachment to these old pupils, and
we, too, are looking forward to having their children with us. The children also
think a great deal of going to this school. They look at us very often in a little shy
way, and say, "Pretty soon, mamma says, we will be old enough to go to Dr. Rigg's
school." They think a great deal of doing what those who have gone before them
have done, especially in education.

President GATES. When we see how easily we grow impatient with each other, and
when we find that the recurrence of certain themes that we discuss from year to year
is a little wearisome, and then when we think what it must be to touch Indian life,
and only Indian life, day after day, through twenty years of self-sacrificing work,

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 49

teaching constantly by example, then I think we feel as if \ve might to recognize, by
rising and reverently bowing before them, the missionaries who com*' to us from such
fields as this. If there are still 20,000 Indian children not in school. I think we had
better gather in 19,500 more of i hem into other schools, before we interfere with any
of those who are attending the Santee school,, and others like it!

Mr. £miley. Miss 1 >awcs, Gen. Morgan, and Miss Fletcher spoke with warm ap-
proval of different features of the work of the Sautee school.

President GATKS. Fvery reform that makes progress must number among those
who are interested jii it not only the advocates before the public, but a certain pro-
portion of unselfish but very busy men and women, who, whenever a special occa-
sion for service, arises, are willing either to leave their own work, or to "make time"
by special sacrifice, and to do these special deeds of service. We are now to hear
from one who, when the Mission Indian affairs became critical, gave to it weeks of
patient and loving service — one who does much for the cause in a way so quiet that
those who do not know him do not know how these things get done — Mr. Joshua
W. Davis, of Boston.

Mr. DAVIS. .Speaking of latest impressions only, they will be from middle and
northern Dakota; but some of the features which I would note are to be observed
in other fields, as I have reason to know from correspondence and previous visits.
I have just been present at the annual gathering of the Indian churches of Dakota,
attended by at least live hundred visitors, with a nearly equal number, as was told
me, from within 20 or 30 miles from the meeting-place, who were considered resi-
dents, and acted as hosts. These last had saved up 2 tons of flour and 25 head of
cattle out of their rations, as provision for their guests, and other supplies in pro-
portion.

A feature that especially interested me was the decided encouragement that the
Indians themselves felt from the gathering, showing this as they spoke of it to each
other and to us. Scattered so much as they are, they have felt themselves a little
folk ; but, gathered thus together, they now feel strong to stand before their people,
and to do more.

Eight had come 160 miles and forty-five 350 miles in their own wagons ; and
31 wagons, bringing a number which I did not .ascertain, came in one train from
Cheyenne River, 100 miles and upwards. And it was an inspiring sight to see them
wheel, with military precision, into a semicircle and pitch their tents, and, later,
gather night and morning at the center of the line for worship.

There were present representatives of some dozen or more Young Men's Christian
Associations, showing themselves deeply in earnest in the number and spirit of their
meetings. They wanted additional badges for their members, and the requests
from eleven of the societies to purchase these for them called for 244 badges. Now,
an Indian may love a badge as a matter of ornament; but it is not for ornament alone
that they use them. There were two who had been having a controversy with each
other, and one said afterwards, "I remembered I had the badge, and I kept my mouth
shut." Another older man, who had seen much trouble and was depressed, said one
day : "Do you see any difference in me? Don't you see I haven't something I usually
have f" pointing to the place where he usually wore the badge. "My heart is greatly
troubled. I do not feel right, and I have thought I ought not to wear the badge till
my heart was right." Not worn for ornament only, you see. They take encourage-
ment, too, from their increased harvests, not simply in a few cases where they had
made gains in their acreage and in the product of their farms, but because they see
their neighbors, too, have gamed, and altogether have a considerable increase in their
crops. "Look at our stacks!" they say.

And they are going to make more advance, and not simply in the matter of their
farming. The returned students feel that they are increasing in numbers, and are
encouraging each other in maintaining their stand. In very many cases, the girls
come home from school, and substantially renovate the home with their cooking
and their new methods. Now, what we need to do is to meet them with careful pro-
vision, by governmental influence and by our missionary influences, helping them
to keep lip this strong, encouraged feeling; and we shall find that they will respond
to what we do for them.

With what sort of fiber, what steadfastness, will they hold to their new purposes?
Have you read in the last American Missionary the story of the little boy in the
hospital, who said, when he was in great pain, and the tears were silently rolling
down his cheek, "The water come, but I no sing." And the same determination
runs along moral lines. Miss Pingree, the faithful doctor at the Standing Rock
Indian hospital, having a case needing all her attention one Saturday evening, told
the boy he must go to bed without his bath then, but he should have it next day.
It might be 12 o'clock before she could be free to attend to him. His reply was:
"I sit up. I no bath Sunday." The higher strain of Indian character is illustrated
in the case of a young man who drove a second team down through the reservation
for us five years ago, who was then thinking about the new way, but said to his
14499 4

50 REPORT OF THE BOARD OP INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

companions, in effect : "I have told you that I was not satisfied with the Indian
way: but yon say I am not ill earnest. I will be as earnest as any of yon; and, if
I am not better satisfied by New Year's, I will tell yon.'' All through the following
months he was xealons in old Indian ways, being a leader in their dances. When
New Year's day came, there was to be a dance, and he appeared as nsual, dressed for
it. The same evening the Christian Indians held a prayer-meeting, and, to the sur-
prise of all, he walked in arrayed in his dance dress. And by and by he quietly
rose and said: "Yon know what I said. I am not satisfied; and, if any feel as I do,
let them stand up here with me." Two arose and stood up with- him, and he took
off the dance ornaments and laid them down.

That man set himself to work at home, and also driving out to the camps (scattered
groups of Indian houses) and talking there about the new way. He is now a dea-
con in the church, and I received the communion at his hands iit the recent gather-
ing. He is preparing to go to the Santee school for the winter, because he wishes
to talk better, leaving his winter farm work to his family.

The present leader of the Sitting Hull band, which was one of the hotbeds of
opposition to all progress while Sitting Bull was alive, is his nephew, One Bull.
And he has become a member of the church and is sending six of the boys of his
baud to Santee, saying that he wants them to go to school where they will be taught
in the Bible. Four others of his boys were also desiring to go.

There is progress among them. There is an element that we can train up to make •
strong and iiseful citizens. I can guarantee, from observation, that there will be
fine qualities in some of them. It is true there are a great many discouragements:
there are many dark features. Make all allowance for these. But I say that we shall
have from this race an element that will be of value to us and a credit to them.

I thank our chairman for speaking as he did this morning of the need of patient,
persistent continuance in our efforts to help this race stand up as worthy citizens and
as-Christian citizens.

The next speaker was Miss Clara Snow, a teacher in the Hampton school.

Miss SNOW. What I am to say to-night will be on the subject of the New York
Indians. I have been in the Hampton school five years, my home being in this State.
As I was coming home for the vacation, they asked me to come 'through the New
York reservations and to select for them twenty-four Indians, who were allowed us
under the new appropriation.

Two New York Indians had been at Hampton before I came, and stayed but a little
time. One of them, I understand, went back to the Onondaga Reservation. He has
kept up his carpenter work and is putting up some very creditable buildings.

AVhen I went to Hampton I found a boy by the name of Charles Doxoii, who was
working his way through on the same basis as the colored students. They work all
day at the mill, or some place where they are learning a trade, and go to school for
a short time in the evening. That gives them very little schooling; but it helps
them to put aside a certain amount to their credit, which they can use in the com-
ing years and go to school during the day, working only two days a week. Indians
come upon a different basis, having their schooling paid; but this New York Inr
dian had to work his way like the colored student. He worked in the machine shop,
and by and by he had enough money to go for his senior year all day at school.
When he finished school he went to Syracuse and entered a manufacturing estab-
lishment. He did well, and got a better position next year in the car shops, where
he is working now. When I went to Syracuse I went to the car shops to see him,
and asked him how I should get out to the reservation. He said that if I would
wait till 6 o'clock he would take me. At six he came, as nicely dressed as any
gentlemen, with a horse and carriage, and drove me out. He said, "No one seems
to take much interest in us. We are glad to see anyone from Hampton." His em-
ployers speak very well of him, both as a man and a workman, and he is having an
influence on his reservation. The others look up to him and want to be like him.

On that reservation is another boy, now at Hampton, who came there to work his
way through in the same way. He is not a strong man like Doxou, and has made
up his mind to be a clerk. He is in the office at Hampton, learning to do that sort
of work. Another boy who has been there is here to-night. Chapman is going to
tell you a little of his own experience; but I will say for him that he, too, is work-
ing his way through. He went b,ack home, and then went to Scheuectady into a
car shop, into a place where he could get $2.25 a day ; and his younger brother of
18, who is in the wood shop at Hampton, got a place there to cut wood in pat-
terns for machinery. Both the. boys afterwards came back to the school. Chapman
said, "We thought that an education was worth more than two or three dollars a
day." Chapman, who is going to speak to you, is not one of our best-educated
boys. He has been to the night school, working his way; but he has done very
creditably, and now he has the chance to go to school during the day.

The next point I want to speak of is the eagerness of the Indians to come to school.
When I went to the New York reservations I did not know whether I could get

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 51

such a class of students :is I wanted. They had told me to bring those who had had
some education and could go into our advanced classes. I got a man to drive me out
on the Oneida Reservation. I stopped the lirst person I met, and asked for the home
of the Scenandoahs, saying 1 was their teacher in Hampton. He told me at ouee that
lie had a nephew who wanted to go there. 1 inquired about him and the nephew is
now ;ft Hampton. Mrs. Scenaudoah greeted me very warmly, though she could not
talk much English, and did everything she could to make me feel how welcome I
was. Another woman who lived in the same house came to say that she wanted her
children to go to school; and everywhere 1 went there was the same interest in my
errand. I found that 1 could take from Oneida all the twenty-four, and a good
many more; audit' I could have taken all the children on these reservations who
begged to come to school, and whose parents begged for them, 1 think I could have
had a hundred or two.

On the Oneida Reservation the Indian school has been abolished and the children
are supposed to go with the whites. As a matter of fact, they do not go. I do not
know what the trouble is. On the Onondago Reservation is one school. It is taught
by the Episcopal minister in the morning, but he is old and feeble, and an Indian
woman teaches it in the afternoon. She is an Oneida woman, and 1 understand some
of the little ones are learning the Oneida language. She hears them read twice
round, as I understand, and sends them home. Somehow they are not enthusiastic
about going to school there. They were very eager to go away to school. I told
them to learn all they could at their own school and perhaps by and by they could
go to Hampton. They brightened up immediately, and 1 have thought perhaps that
is the solution. In these district schools they do not exactly see the object of going
to school. If they thought they were going to be sent away to school they would
work for it.

I saw none of the teachers, but I was told by the older Indians and by the mis-
sionaries that the teachers are often young and inexperienced and that the children
do not get the instruction that their parents got from the old teachers who came
there with the missionary spirit and took real interest in them. Indians, from my
experience in teaching, need to feel that someone is very much interested in them.
They need a teacher who will arouse their ambition. On the Onondaga Reservation
the people talked about a Miss Remington. Everybody said: " Do you know Miss
Remington? I wish we had Miss Remington." Miss Remington was two years at
Hampton, and then she went to Onondaga, with the most earnest, devoted Christian
spirit, working as a missionary and teacher. Often I was told, "If it had not been
for Miss Remington I would have been out there on the hills and I would not have
known anything to-day." It seems to me that such a person is what the girls need,
and the mothers and the young boys who ar*e growing up. More such women as
this Miss Remington, or Miss Collins at Standing Rock Agency, would be a great
deal of help on the New York reservations. I found a temperance society which
had been established by Miss Remington, and it had influenced that reservation so
that it was said there was much less drinking there than at the other reservations.

Mr. Chapman Scenandoah, an Oueida Indian from the Hampton school, was asked
to speak.

Mr. SCENAXDOAH. Friends, it is the first time I have been before such a congrega-
tion. What little English I can speak I am going to tell you how I got to be what
I am now. My home is in this State, on the Oneida Reservation. We belong to the
Six Nations. I was inclined to go to school, but did not know where to go. The
white neighbors made preparations to close the schoolhouse. But I want to speak
a, good word for that lonely little house. It was there I got my first lessons in
speaking the English language. I was 8 years old. For five years I had a friend
whom 1 could not see to speak to him about going to the Hampton school. In the
summer of 1888 I saw him again, and asked him about the Hampton school. He
said I would have to work hard to go there. I told him no matter how hard I
worked so long as I had a chance to go to school. That fall I entered Hampton
school. I was put to work in the machine shop handling a sledge hammer. I
worked ten hours a day, and after supper I went to school. At 9 o'clock, the close
of school, I had to go to the Indian boys' quarters and report whether I had been
speaking English or Indian through the day. I usually spoke English all I could.
I went home that summer for vacation. The second year I stayed all the year, and
worked in the Edison Electric Works in Schenectady as a machinist. The second
vacation I was back there again, and from there I went to the Albany railroad shop.
I got $2.25 a day. Maybe a good many of you might think — why did I corne back
to the school when I was earning that amount of money? But I feel that education
is worth more to me than $10 or $15 a day. I want to have a machine shop of my
own some of these days. I would like to give Indians a chance to learn a trade and
learn in a manufactory. The principal part of this civilization is knowing how to
work and have a trade, and not just work on a farm, which about all of them do.
It is not what people like to do on a farm. It did not seem possible that New York

52 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Indians should be helped by the Government to get an education. But I hope you
people will help to get this appropriation, will be iaithfiil to the Indians, and see
their progress.

Mr. GARRKTT. May I call the attention of the conference to the fact that this
Oueida Reservation has been broken up and the land distributed to the Indians in
severalty? 1 think that is one of the secrets of the progress of the Indians in this
State; and it is very true, as Miss Snow has said, that what is needed on the other
reservations in missionary elfort.

Mrs. CRAXNKLL, of Albany. There are some people present who do not know what
Miss Snow meant by what she called an "appropriation for the New York State
Indians." Would it not be well for Gen. Morgan to state what it is? From a New
York State point of view I think it as important a feature in the educational line of
work for Indians as anything accomplished during the year.

Gen. MORGAN. I hardly know where to begin. These Indians of New York have
nor been admitted to the schools supported by the Government until the present
time. 1 made inquiry soon after entering upon my present duties, and learned that
the Secretary of the' Interior of the former administration had ruled against it,
chiefly for the reason that there was not sufficient money, but also because it was
felt that the State of New York could take care of them. I had numerous applica-
tions made to me, however, from such young men as this, who plead to be admitted
into the schools at Carlisle or Hampton. Alter consultation, and a great deal of his-
tory which I will not take time to narrate, I asked the present Secretary of the Interior
to allow the New York Indians to be admitted to these schools on the same basis as
other Indians, and he very readily consented. There are now at the school in
Philadelphia forty-two Indians taken from these reservations. Miss Snow has told
of twenty-four that they purpose to take to Hampton, and I think there are sixty
or seventy-five at Carlisle.

I have been criticised pretty sharply for this action. It lias been condemned as
severely as anything I have done. I want to corroborate what Miss Snow has said.
I have been at the New York reservations. Everywhere I was appealed to to allow
the children to enter these schools; and I think I could to-day put live hundred of
them into these institutions. The complaint was universal: " Our schools are poor.
They do not satisfy us." It was a hopeful sign, showing that the people had out-
grown the schools established for them by the State of New Y'ork, and they are
demanding something better.

President GATES. Let me ask you to be encouraged, and not alarmed, when we
have a somewhat stormy session "and speak out decided views. Some of you remem-
ber what a stormy time we had over these same New York Indians, and whether
statements then made about these Indftins were or were not true. If half the energy
that was spent in quarreling over the question just what the status of these Indians
was had been spent in getting them into industrial schools, where they would
have had good Christian influence about them, how much more would have been
accomplished! It was the things that were said, though they were painful at the
time, that brought out the facts and convinced us that we' had been neglecting
these Indians, right here in the heart of this Empire State ; and now we are getting
on the right track, because we were not afraid then to speak out.

THIRD SESSION.

THURSDAY MORNING, October 13.

The conference was called to order at 10 o'clock by the president, after prayer by
Rev. F. F. Ellenwood, of New York.

President GATES. Among the matters to be considered at Chicago, at the Exposi-
tion next year, is the Indian question. The authorities who llave in charge- the
World's Fair Auxiliary have sent to us a deputation Avith an invitation to us to
share in the discussion of the history, the status, and prospects of the North Ameri-
can Indian race. It gives me pleasure to introduce to the conference this morning
Col. Davidson, of the Highland Park Military Academy, near Chicago, who is
the chairman of one of these committees and who has been delegated to present to
the conference this invitation from Chicago.

Col. Davidson explained the purpose of the Indian congress and some of the
difficulties connected1 with the arrangements for it, and asked for the advice of the
conference with regard to the best means of carrying out the committee's plans.

Geu. C. H. Howard also spoke on the same subject, suggesting the appointment
of a committee from the members of the conference to confer with the authorities of
the World's Fair Auxiliary congresses upon the matter, this committee to be ap-

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 53

pointed by the president. This suggestion was approved by the conference, and
the committee was appointed as follows: Hon. Albert K. Smiley, Hon. Henry L.
Dawes, Rev. F. F. Elleiiwood, D. r>., Miss Alice Fletcher, and Mr.' Herbert Welsh.

President GATES. We enter now upon the distinct programme of the morning,
under the general theme "Education." We are to have, first, a brief address from
Mr. Philip C. Garrett, of the Hoard of Indian Commissioners, who has recently come
from the field. He will speak upon those phases of the question indicated by the
title of his paper, "The influence of returned scholars."

ON THE INFLUENCE OF RETURNED SCHOLARS UPON THEIR TRIBE.

[By Hou. Philip C. Garrett.I

There has been much discussion as to the amount of impress made by returned
students on the uncivilixed tribe, and I fear the friends of the Indian have been too
ready to take an ultra-sanguine view of it. Recent observation forces me to the
(•(inclusion that circumstances are not favorable to the best results. I would not
utter a breath that would lead to an undervaluation of the inestimable benefits to the
North American Indians of a thorough Christian English education. I would by no
means draw any inference adverse to education would strengthen this at every
point and extend it till every child is taught. Nor would I disparage the teaching
that is now given; but I am emphatically convinced that there is greatly wanted
a mordant. The education received by the Indians at our great schools is beautiful
and even brilliant, but it is not a fast color; the rain of barbarism on the reserva-
tion washes it out or dims it so seriously that it does not illuminate and enlighten
the residue of the 'tribe to that extent that will lead to rapid civilization. "AS to
this, it is said, and will be said again, that we are theorists and that rapid civiliza-
tion is not to be expected. And very truly it is not to be expected, either at the
hands of those who sit with folded hands or of those who work, if they shut their
eyes and do not seek for the remedy 6f manifest evils and the removal of manifest
obstacles. The difficulties are great; they are immense. Of so much greater im-
portance is it to see and recognize them in'their fullness and not disparage them, and
to use the more effort to overcome them, so much the more necessary is it to resort
to heroic and unusual measures to remove them.

My conviction is strong, based on personal observation during a visit to some of the
reservations this summer, that it is well-nigh an impossibility to educate Indians, and
send them back to the reservation where the ancient ways prevail, with an^ expec-
tation of ingrafting the civilization learned at the school upon the tribe. There-
turned pupil may do well; that is, he may do no ill. He may do well enough to earn
a good report and be classified with those " doing well." He may do as well as cir-
cumstances permit. And yet, instead of leavening the tribe with civilized leaven,
it can scarcely be otherwise than that, after two or three years, he is not distinguish-
able from those he left behind when he went away. The refined, civilized, scholarly
boy or girl of the school becomes an Indian again. He is leavened by his tribe and
the cultivated graft degenerates nearly into a wild olive tree again.' It cannot be
otherwise if the educated scholar is merely carted back to the tribe and dumped out
on the reservation to shift for himself. What can he do with this education there?
His tasks have been raised above those of his parents and have become uncongenial
to them. For the trades he has learned so laboriously and so succesf'ully there is no
use. They do not want hard shoes; they do not want tin spouts nor tin kettles,, nor
Parish fashions, nor even harness and wagons. And, when they do want them, all
they have to do is to go to the agency and ask for a pair of shoes, or a kettle, or a
wagon, or set of harness, and they are given them. One young man or two, out of
a hundred or a thousand, may get. employment, not as principal, but as assistant
carpenter, painter, tinsmith, leather worker, or wheelwright. For the rest there is
absolutely 110 occupation in their chosen and familiar trade on the whole reservation.
Even the appearance of the scholar is displeasing to his friends his short hair, his
European clothes, his English speech. Why should he abandon the comfortable
clothing of his ancestors and make of himself an outlandish oddity !

He is charged with the heinous crime of having abandoned his faith and turned
white man, a much more serious offense than it was to be a witch in the seventeenth
century in Salem village. He is convinced that education and civilization are good
things ; but he is well-nigh being ostracized by all his friends and neighbors for think-
ing so and acting on it. He gradually loses the light, and sometimes falls into utter
despair of utilizing his acquirements and gives up the ship. Oftener, probably, his
attainments simply lapse into harmless desuetude; and he retains a belief in them,
somewhat marred by the utter impracticability of using them. He has no libraries,
no books, no newspapers, or other periodicals. * Worse than all else, he has very little
or no congenial society near at hand. He is, perhaps, on a large reservation and the
nearest educated acquaintance miles away. He wishes to marry, and it falls to his

54 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

lot to wed an Indian lass who has not been to a Government boarding-School, and
this gives the coup <l< yrat'c to his civilized life. Here it ends. Is this an overdrawn
picture .' Is it not the literal reality as to nine out of ten of those who go back to
uncivilized tribes? It is vain to say that rapid civilization is impossible. That is
not true. Ask Capt. Pratt or Gen. Armstrong if most of their boys and girls who
have had a four years' course, and been away from their tribe that length of time,
are not, in large measure, civilized. Has not Capt. Pratt told us that the adolescent
son of Satanta, caught red-handed on the warpath, was converted in nine years into
an educated Christian missionary? Have we not seen the contrast wrought by one
year's contact with refinement stamped indelibly on the faces of the captain's pupils
and faithfully recorded by the sun in contracted photographs! Does not every class
that graduates bear testimony to their complete transformation into civil and peace-
able beings? Then why, as the savage traits are thus rapidly melted away in the
crucible of our schools — why are not the tribes from which they come and to which
they return rapidly transmuted into the same material? For the same reason that
the cultivated flower, taken from the hand of the florist and returned to the barren,
wind-swept moor, degenerates to a weed again — because the conditions of improve-
ment are withdrawn from it.

Now, there are certain strongly marked characteristics of the Indian which make
more difficult than ever the problem of tribal conversion. A Celtic or Anglo-Saxon
boor, taken from the bogs of Ireland or the fens and moors of rural England, educated
at Oxford, and then returned without helps to his barrens, would degenerate and
he more worthless and unhappy than ever. Of an Indian this would be true to a
greater degree. The love of home, race, and kindred is intense with him. I ap-
pealed to a group of bright-eyed Ogalalla girls at the Haskell Institute, where they
seemed very happy, to know whether they liked Haskell best or Pine Ridge, and
was almost startled by the quickness and unanimity with which they answered,
beaming all over with eagerness, "Pine Ridge." It is difficult to induce them to
leave their tribe. Patkaxana Pattee, who was in my employ, and a model of steadi-
ness, industry, and efficiency, could not be tempted to remain East, where he had
mWried the charming daughter of a Cherokee chief, but must go and live with his
aged mother among the Sioux.

Another trait of the Indians is a certain self-sufficiency, belief in their own ways
as really the best ways. I was told by one experienced in contact with Indians
that he never saw an Indian who did not think himself the superior of white men.
Mrs. Caswell, in her instructive Life Among the Iroquois Indians, tells us that
"the Iroquois call themselves the 'older people,' and the white man ' our younger
brother.'" This feeling is partly based on certain foundation theories of life, of
what constitutes happiness and of what superiority consists.

Gen. Lewis Merrill, an old Indian fighter, thoroughly familiar with Indians, in
a recent very interesting article in Arthur's Home Magazine, writes: "The domestic
life of the Indian is largely what the natural instincts of the human race and the
special condition in which the Indian maintains his existence might be expected to
make it." The Indian is a philosopher; he might have entered the Concord School.
The Brook Farm theorists had one phase of the Indian philosophy. But whoever
has read Thoreau's Walden will recognize in it the philosophy of an enlightened
barbarism, educated in the colleges, capable of wielding a pen, having a knowledge
of good English, and all this coupled with a belief in barbarous life*. Thoreau. who
rejoiced in an experience of two years' savage existence in the woods of Walden,
speculated thus: "In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the
best and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think that I speak
within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the air have their nests, and
the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civili/ed society not
more than one-half the families own a shelter. The rest pay a tax for this

outside garment of all * * which would buy a village of Indian wigwams."

Here are some of Thoreau's aphorisms:

-Your life looks poorest when you are richest." "The town's poor seem to me
often to live the most independent lives of any." " Cultivate poverty like a garden
herb, like sage." " Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.''

And Thoreau is not alone. Who of us does not see a fascination in camp life and
tent life? No;. the love of ease and self-indulgence and open air is not limited to
tramps and red men. Even the intellectual Greeks included an Epicurean school,
with numerous votaries, among their philosophies. Theirs, too, was the philoso-
phy of the lotus-eaters.

From the craggy ledge the poppy hange in sleep.

All thiiiti's have rest; why should we toil alone?

We only toil, who arc The first of things.

Xor hearken what the inner spirit sings,

" There is no joy but calm.''

Give us long rest or death, dark death or dreamful ease.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 55

There is something to be said in favor of a pastoral lite, if only on the score of
contentment arid health, and it is not easy to answer some aboriginal arguments
against the avarice of the white race and their restlessness and discontent. And
yet certain of our own financial theorists, who think it unnecessary to a country's
welfare to cultivate its industries, thereby advocate a 'relapse to the pastoral state.

This, in so far as it implies a simple life, without metropolitan culture and refine-
ment, is tending toward aboriginal conditions. How much does their logic vary
from that of the thoughtful Indian !

Our predecessors on this continent are models of conservative radicalism and rad-
ical conservatism, and have strong faith in their ancestors and themselves.

If, then, the Indian has a certain measure of reason for the faith in Paganism, we
may not lightly ignore it. We must recognize it, in order to get so en rapport with
his thoughts as to deal successfully with the scheme we have taken in hand, to wit,
that of convincing him of the merits of civilization. As Gen. Merrill says, "The
failures of accomplishment in Indian schools and missions are, in large degree,
because of failure on the part of the good and devoted people who have charge of
them to appreciate that seed is fruitful only when the soil in which it is planted is
suitably prepared for its growth.'' And i< you must first change him from the sav-
age, with savage ideas and aspirations, to the civilized man, with some
knowledge and respect for the essential laws of civilized human association."

I think we have not estimated at their full value these two obstacles in the way
of success: (1) The Indian's reasonable preference for his present mode of life; and
(2) The natural longing of even educated youth to return to their kindred, who love
th«mi, and to the wild and easy life of their tribe.

Entirely do 1 agree with Capt. Pratt, in view of the first of these conditions, that
the educated boy and girl should not be plunged, warm from his school, into a cold
bath of savage life again, without antidotes. , But, in view of the second, how are
we to induce most of the young people to remain amid civilized surroundings? And
is there any modification of their post-graduate treatment that will save the educa-
tion they have gained, and apply it to a decent life of American citizenship? It is
clearly difficult to retain the valuable results that ought to flow from this education
under present conditions.

Three plans for the accomplishment of this may each be feasible under the varying
conditions of different cases :

(1) Placing the Indians, after the completion of their education, among white
people, either at wages or in business on their own account.

(2) Colonizing them apart on tracts of laud secured for the purpose, and selling
or renting to each Indian so much of said land as he is aide and willing to pay for,
in installments or otherwise.

(3) Setting apart, on the edge of the reservation of each tribe, a sufficient area
to accommodate returned students with homes, between the white settlers and the
rest of their tribe, and allotting, selling, or renting an adequate portion to each
returned student.

The first of these is Capt. Pratt's plan. His outing system paves the way for it.
I believe it is the best of all, when it can be applied, because it takes the" Indian
away from retarding influences completely, and keeps him surrounded by the atmos-
phere into which the school has introduced him. The difficulty is to applj7 it, for
the reasons J have cited above; namely, the parental opposition to permanent alien-
ation of his child's longing for his home. And. when these are surmounted, there
is the further hardship to him of residence where there is no other Indian society, no
entirely congenial companionship, ^specially of the other sex. These are causes
that must constantly operate to deteli* young Indians from accepting permanent res-
idence away irorn home, unless some plan of colonization or other form of associa-
tion is provided by which they will enjoy familiar society. If school graduates
could be thus settled in pairs or in groups, which perhaps can occasionally be done,
this objection is partially removed; but Indians are quite as social, quite as grega-
rious as other races. There is nothing with them in the pagan state quite equal to
a grand feast and powwow, with plenty of dog-soup and a long carouse.

Everything considered, plan two, of colonization on special reservations provided
for educated Indians, seems to me to answer the purpose best, and to be at the same
time a feasible plan. The young Indian should be provided by the Government with
a house, a small tract of laud, and a few implements and animals, as a loan, return-
able in installments, the Government retaining the ownership, or a lien on this
property until paid for. Provision should be made, in selecting the land, for a
village of sufficient size to supply patronage to young mechanics of various trades —
tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, carpenters, etc. Whites need not be excluded;
but some control should be kept, at first, if not permanently, over the character of
white settlers, so as to exclude bad or designing men. Without enlarging more
upon this plan, it is enough to say that it would supply society of entirely congenial
sort, educated and refined by the culture of the large Indian schools; and there need

56 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

be no reversion to barbarous conditions. I was gratified to find one or two of the
school superintendents to whom this plan had also occurred, and to whose judgment
it had commended itself. This was the case with Superintendent Lemmon, of the
school at Grand Junction, Colo. In the last report of Superintendent Coppuck, of
the large school at Chilocco, I liud the following recommendation, under the head of
"Our needs and the future:'' "Open up small farms for training young married
couples in self-dependence, toward self support, under a farmer and visiting matron,
hoping to prepare them for earning a subsistence on their claims after a course of
three years of such schooling."

Mr. Coppuck's suggestions perhaps had reference to placing the young Indians on
the Chilocco Reservation, where there are 8,640 acres of fertile prairie land, and is
therefore in indorsement of the third plan referred to above. It is, however, in line
with the recommendation to colonize educated Indians in married couples. Mr.
Lemmon's idea was distinctly in favor of plan two for distinct, isolated, educated
reservations; for he suggested southwest Missouri as a favorable location. Such

of

price of laud remains cheap. From these reservations there would be no objection
to thrifty and prosperous Indians spreading into the surrounding country,' or mi-
grating to where richer soil or proximity to markets might tempt their investment
of accumulated money. For the future tendency should be to facilitate the most
perfect freedom for civilized Indians to go and come wherever they please, aud»ex-
ercise all the rights and immunities of American liberty.

The third alternative presented in this paper has some advantages, conspicuously
that of exerting a renex influence on the tribe itself. f o settle the returned students
on a strip of the reservation itself occupied by their tribe, preferably on that part of
it contiguous to white settlements, thus making a butter between white civilization
and Indian barbarism, and ultimately perhaps something better, a mediator, a recon-
ciler, is a plan with manifest merits. The effect on the returned student, however,
would not probably lie as good as in either of the other two methods. It would be
too near to a barbarism for which he would have filial respect, and would be liable
to its contagion. On the other hand, it would be easier to persuade him to adopt it;
and he would at the same time enjoy civilized companionship and support, and
would be almost certain to retain more of what he had gained than if. as at pres-
ent, he were simply merged again in the ojd tribal life. During the tentative
period of the colonization experiment it might be well to putthis plan to a full and
fair test, and discover whether the beneficial effects of the educated reservation on
the tribe surpassed the deleterious effects of contact with the tribe or not. Excellent
opportunities present for this test — for instance, on the broad, unoccupied tract of
laud between Valentine, Nebr., and the Rosebud Agency, and also on that part of the
Pine Ridge Reservation between the agency and Rushville. Nebr., using, as illustra-
tions merely, places visited by the writer this summer.

A modification of the plan is that proposed by Superintendent Coppuck, of set-
tling educated young Indians on tracts of land connected with the schools, and
keeping them under tutelage. There are not many schools with enough ground to
spare from farm-school uses for this purpose. It is the case, however, at Chilocco,
Okla., and at Fort Lewis, Colo. Mr. Coppuck's proposition was limited to three
years, and is good as far as it goes, but in that form does not meet the require-
ments of a settled and permanent life. I would prefer that modification of the plan,
making the residence permanent, and permitting the Indian to acquire the land.

Before concluding, let us revert a moment to the very difficult problem how to
eradicate barbarism on the reservation under "the Indian's reasonable preference
for his present mode of life." just to emphasize three points: One, that people often
judge of the Indian's progress by the wrong standards. Dress is one of these. As if
the wearing of a moccaMn, which, after all. is a beautiful slipper, easy to the foot,
a specific against corns and bunions, and allowing the muscles and sinews their
natural and healthful play, were a sin, and our hard and uncomfortable boots a
Christian virtue. The Indian's dress, when he is clad, is not so irrational, and ought
not to be taken as an index of the degree of his enlightenment. Secondly, that it is
probable a much greater change is going on, and has taken place in his ideas, than
we have any conception of; and, remembering how long it has taken to convert the
Briton of Boadicea's days into an Englishman of the Victorian era, we have cause to
congratulate ourselves on the marvelous change already accomplished in the North
American Indian. And yet, thirdly, for reasons already given, no other process what-
ever is likely to succeed in civilizing the latter with anything like the rapidity with
which it will be effected by education of the rising generation; and our thought
must be turned to insuring the retention by each generation of what they gain. We
are making an incalculable waste of means if the millions expended on this educa-

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF IN-DIAN COMMISSIONERS. 57

tion do not redeem the beneficiaries from savage life. It is sunk, in that case, in a
bottomless slough of barbarism, like Buuyan's cartloads of instruction in the Slough
of Despond. The civilization attained by the schools needs to be clinched and riveted
into the generation more than has been done yet, and its healthy principle made not
only as epidemic, but as chronic, as the Paganism it supplants. Therefore, I say, we
need a mordant, something that will fix and fashion the education on eacli genera-
tion, with a ratchet attachment to the dye, so that the deleterious and sulphurous
influence of the barbarous "old man, which is corrupt," shall not be to make this
attained civilization fugitive, but solid and perpetual. We want not only to find
this mordant, but to avoid solvents. We do not want to do anything which, by our
own act, will destroy all that we have wisely done; and the question which I sub-
mit is whether, in sending the educated Indian back into the heart of his tribe, we
are not doing this very thing, and plunging his newly-acquired civilization into a
solvent that will dissolve it away.

President GATES. What is wanted is a "fast color" in education. The influence
of a rising philosopher on the tribe, whether he is educated at Carlisle or at Har-
vard, might be tested practically for us if we were to ask ourselves how abiding and
overmastering would be the influence of a college boy, newly indoctrinated Avith
tariff reform, who should walk into a congress of old Republican leaders to convince
them that his new way was the better way. It is evident that this indisposition to
be immediately influenced by indoctrinated youth is not confined to the Indian race!
Let us listen hopefully to the next speaker, who is to deal with "compulsory edu-
cation."

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.
[By Gen. T. J. Mnrgan.1

We must either fight the Indians, or feed them, or educate them. To fight them
is cruel ; to feed them is wasteful; to educate them is humane, economic, and Chris-
tian. We have forced upon them — I use the term not in any offensive sense — citi-
zenship, and we are limiting severely the period of preparation. Unless they can
be educated for the proper discharge of their duties and for the enjoyment of their
privileges as citizens, they will fail to be properly benefited by the boon that we are
conferring upon them. The Government of the United States has at large expense
provided accommodations for from twenty to twenty-five thousand of their children
in schools maintained wholly or in part by the Government. The people will not
long continue to expend these two and a quarter million dollars a year for the edu-
cation of these children if those to whom it is offered are unwilling to accept it. If
they refuse to send their children to school, these schools will be closed, and the
people who have been made citizens will be thrown upon themselves, and be left to
survive or perish, according to their individual inclination. A large body of them
to-day are unwilling to send their children to school. The schools are open, they
offer to them every facility for learning English, they offer them free board, free
tuition, free clothing, free medical care. Everything is freely offered, they are
urged to come, but they refuse; and there is growing up, under the shadow of these
institutions of learning, a new generation of savages. We are confronted, then,
with this simple proposition: Shall we allow the growth of another generation of
barbarians, or shall we compel the children to enter these schools to be trained to
intelligence and industry? That is practically the question that confronts the In-
dian Office now.

Let me illustrate: At Fort Hall, in Idaho, where the Shoshones and the Bannocks
are, there is a school population of about two hundred and fifty. The people are
degraded. They Avander about in the mountains. Their women do most of what
little work is done. They live in a beastly way (I use thfe term thoughtfully ; I have
seen it), and they are refusing to send their children to school. We have spent
thousands of lollars in making the school at Fort Hall one of the most attractive
reservation schools that is anywhere to be found. We have 2,000 acres under fence.
We have a large herd of cattle, and we have a noble body of employes. We are
pleading with these people to put their children in school on the reservation, almost
within sight of their own homes, within 20 or 30 miles'1 ride of any part of the res-
ervation; but they say: "No. The medicine men say it is bad medicine." Now,
shall we compel them .'

In Fort Yuma the Indians live in the sand, like lizards, and have till recently gone
almost naked. They send their children to the school until they reach the age of
ten or eleven years. Then they are out, the girls roaming at will in that vicinity,
the boys loafing about the miserable village of Yuma, wearing their hair long and
going back to the ways of the camp. One of the saddest things I ever attended was
an Indian mourning feast on that reservation, within sight of that school. Now,
the question for me is, Shall I compel those children to enter school, to receive a
preparation for citizenship .'

58 REPORT OF THE BOAttD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

At San Carlos are the Apaches, who are regarded as the most vicious of the Indi-
ans with whom we have to deal. They are held practically as prisoners, the San
Carlos Agency being under control of the military. For years there has been a mil-
itary officer in command, supported by ^wo or three companies of colored soldiers.
The conditions on that reservation are simply deplorable, and I would not dare in
this audience to more than allude to the conditions existing there. These people
decline to send their children to school; but I have within the last twelve months
taken from that reservation about two hundred of them. They are to-day well fed
and properly clothed, are happy and contented, and making good progress. Did I da
right ? ( Voices, Yes ! Yes ! )

I must illustrate by numerous other instances. We have provided these schools
for the benefit of the children; not, primarily, for our own benefit. We have done it
in order that they may be brought into relationship with the civilization of the nine-
teenth century. It is an expression of the sentiment that is generated here on these
mountains. It comes, I believe, from God. Now, then, the question is simply, Shall
we say that, after having made this abundant provision and having offered it to the
children, we will allow those who are still savages in their instincts, barbarians in
their habits, rooted to their conservatism — that we will allow them to keep their
children out of these institutions of learning, in order that they may be prevented
, from becoming like white men and women f

I say, No; and I say it for these reasons: We owe it to these children to see to it
that they shall have the advantages of these schools. We owe it to their cnildren
that are'to come after them that they shall be born of educated parents, and not of
savages. We owe it to the old people themselves. The most pitiful things that I
have been confronted with on the Indian reservations are the old men and old
women, wrinkled, blind, and wretched, living on the ash-heap, having no care, with
no protection, turned out to die. The other day, as I stood by the side of that little
Santee girl, her father said to me, as he pointed out an old wrinkled woman, "My
mamma"; -and a most horrible creature she was. We owe it to these people to edu-
cate their children, so that they can go back to their homes and take care of the
fathers and mothers who are no longer able to take care of themselves. We owe it
to ourselves. We have undertaken to do this work; we have laid aside sentiment;
we have laid aside everything except regard for the welfare of the children, and
simply said, This thing ought to be done. Now, I say the one step remaining is for
us to say that it shall be done.

I would first make the schools as attractive as they can be made, and would win
these children, so far as possible, by kindness and persuasion. I would put them
first into the schools near borne, into the day schools, if there are any, or into the
reservation boarding schools, where there are such. Where it is practicable, I would
allow them large liberty as to whether they shall go to a Government school or a
private school. I would bring to bear upon them such influences as would secure
their acceptance voluntarily, wherever it could be done. 1 would then use the Indian
police if necessary. I would withold from them rations and supplies where those
are furnished, if that \vere needed; and when every means was exhausted, when I
could not accomplish the work in any other way, I would send a troop of United
States soldiers, not to seize them, but simply to be present as an expression of the
power of the Government. Then I would say to these people, "Put your children in
school"; and they would do it. There would be no warfare. At Fort Hall to-day,
if there were present a sergeant or a lieutenant, with ten mounted soldiers, simply
camped there, and I sent out to those Indians and told them that within ten days
every child of school age must be in school, they would be there. Shall it be done?
It mitt be done if public sentiment demands it ; it will not be done if public sentiment
does not.

President GATES. Do it.

Now, we are to hear from Miss Alice Robertson, who1 needs no introduction to this
conference or to the Christian people of the country.

Miss ROBERTSON. As I have before said here, it seems to me that we discuss the
subject of Indian affairs too much as an abstract idea, a theory. If we could only
•think of the Indians as real people, as individuals, as they who once held all this
vast country that is now ours, and by whose poverty we are rich, it seems to me
that we should come nearer to the real" question.

I have been asked to speak on the subject of returned students. We have not
many returned students among the five civilized tribes, as the Government training
schools are not open to them. At one time. 25 Creek children were allowed to go to
Carlisle.

Most of these have done very well. One of the boys is speaker of the lower house
in the Creek legislature; another is national tax collector. Most of the girls have
married well: part of them have been teachers. A few, both boys and girls, have
done badly; but they are in the minority.

I think a mistake we make is in expecting too rapid results. There are those who

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 59

/

say that the whole Indian people may be educated and uplifted to a thoroughly
civilized life in a single generation. I do not believe tins. We must have patience,
and work on hopefully in spite of the discouragements of seeming failure. We must
remember that really good work is slow work. What is .quickly done is usually no
less quickly undone. I am neither surprised nor discouraged by what we have just
been hearing about the condition of returned students. It is hardly to be wondered
at that the influence of heredity, of environment, the love of friends, the strong
power of early associations, should together prove more potent than the influence of
the few years spent as lt a stranger in a strange land/'

Should it be reported here that (dl returned students, or even //<w///all, were doing
well, we should have, reason to doubt the 'correctness of the statements. We have
no right to expect more from the Indians than we do from our own people, and not
all college-bred men become successful or even useful in after life. But none of the
work is lost. It may seem to have been ineffectual ; but, like the " bread cast upon
the waters," it will be found after many days. There will always have been some
healthful influence, no matter how thoroughly the student may have seemed to
return to former conditions.

When I was quite a young girl, in the mission school under my father's care were
two very dull little boys. Hopelessly stupid they seemed, so that they could not
keep up with others; and finally, they were given over to me to be incessantly
drilled. What a task it was ! How I used to go over and over and over the simplest
lesson, and with such little success ! Finally, they drifted out of the school without
having seemed really to learn anything.

Many years afterwards, when we were beginning a new school out among the
Creek full-bloods, among the throng gathered upon the opening day was a decently
dressed man, who greeted me with delighted recognition and such expression of
pleasure as is quite unusual among these people. I tried in vain to imagine who he
could possibly be, but was no less astonished than delighted to find that he was one
of my stupid little boys of long ago. He had a little farm, was a town chief, and
now had come to bring his eldest boy to school. This boy was well dressed and
very bright-looking, and afterwards made a capital student.

We may be sure that no effort is really lost. The young people who go back to
their tribes make a better atmosphere about them. The next generation will show
results that this does not.

I did not like a proposition that was made yesterday — that of entirely taking the
little ones from the mission to tLe Government schools, writh the suggestion that
mission schools confine themselves to the higher education of the young people after
they shall have finished their course in the Government schools. We do not want
to give up the little ones. The earlier years are the impressible ones, and it is then
we must give practical Christian training If the Government can only do a part
of this work and desires the aid of the churches, why not give to them the earlier
training, itself providing for the finishing education? We all know how lasting are
the impressions made in early childhood. If. as we believe, a Christian education is
the best education for the Indians as for all other people, it should begin as early as
possible. We want opportunity to mold and to form character, not simply to pol-
ish oft0 the work of others. And then, too, the work of the Government and of the
churches is done in a different way. The Government makes appropriations from
the public Treasury for the educational work it does. The work of the churches is
done through the gifts of many. It comes through the personal sacrifice often of
people of moderate means, who, like Froebel, ulove God and little children." Their
belief in, their sympathy, for our Indian mission work is in proportion as it lies in
this direction. In the church under whose auspices it .is my privilege to work, the
raising of funds for our mission school work is left entirely to the women. I am
sure that the mother hearts, so quick to respond when we are trying to care for the
little ones, would not be stirred as deeply in behalf of higher education, so that we
should find we could not make this change of work.

But why could not the Government provide for higher education ? It has its West
Point, where students are received, upon examination, who have been previously
trained in other schools. Why could not some such system be applied to its Indian
educational work?

Mr. Smiley spoke yesterday of his desire that an institution might be founded and
endowed for the higher education of our Indian young men and women. I most e'ar-
nestly wish that a movement might be begun in this direction, not, however, in the
establishment and endowment of an institution for the education of Indians exclu-
sively, but rather in the establishment of a fund to be used as scholarships for individ-
uals ; not to send young Indians to associate entirely with Indians, " comparing them-
selves with themselves," but scattered here and there, singly or at most in groups
of two and three, among your own schools and colleges. Thus they would have the
benefit, the stimulus, of contact, of association, of competition, with a higher cul-
ture than their own. And so I would favor the inauguration of an effort in the di-

60 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

rcctiou of assisting especially promising young men and women in securing training
for lives of greater usefulness. I would have this done with the utmost care. I
should make it difficult to secure this aid, allowing it only after students have shown
will-power, endurance, and perseverance in overcoming obstacles. I would not per-
suade any of them to accept an education, and by injudicious kindness lead them
into dependent lives, to come gradually to believe, through the way in which, with-
out individual effort, they have been cared for, that the world or' the Government
" owes ttfeni a living." I have feared this was too often the tendency in the case of
returned students, who expect easy agency places with good salary, and there not
being enough for all, discouraged, "go bq,ck to the blanket." If they are to have
lives filled with sternest conflict, their training for civilized warfare should be like
that of their own people in fitting the young warrior for his destined future. He is
earl} taught to endure pain and hunger. Warriors, unlike poets, are made, not
born; and success must be sought beyond rugged hills of difficulty, over which the
aspirant fights his way, instead of being " borne on flowery beds of ease.7'

And so, as far as possible, I would make our promising young Indian youth " work
out their own salvation." I would have these scholarships open only to those whose
past record has shown a strong purpose, an ability to overcome; and I would have
them the reward of success in competitive examinations.

President GATES. Ought we not to start that here this year i

Miss ROBERTSON. I feel very strongly upon this subject because of my desire to
obtain such opportunities for some of the brightest of the girls in our school at
Muskogee. I have been very anxious that bright, promising girls who were to be-
come teachers should have at least one year of life outside of the Territory before
going out into life's struggle. In no other way can they obtain such knowledge of the
relative value of things as by being thrown entirely outside all previous associations.
As a usual thing, the interest shown in my girls, when people have seen their bright
faces in photographs, have heard of their intellectual progress and their promise of
becoming useful women, has suddenly collapsed when I began to suggest the prac-
tical interest of spending some money* to help equip these girls for doing better work.
Among my girls was the daughter of Captain Sixkiller, who was chief of Indian
police for all the eastern part of the Indian Territory. He was a man of dauntless
courage, a perfect terror to evil-doers, who did his duty without fear or favor. He
was most foully assassinated in revenge for an arrest made in the line of his duty,
and dying thus, left a helpless family.

The daughter, who came under my care, showed marked ability. In scholarship
and deportment her record was most excellent; and I shall never forget her faith-
fulness on the occasion of an outbreak of fever. With tireless unselfishness she
watched beside the sick until her pale face admonished me, just in time, of her too
great self- forgetfuln ess. I tried very hard, but vainly, to obtain for her the advan-
tages she was so well worthy of receiving. She is noAv teaching, and, I understand,
quite successfully.

Can not some one take up this idea of a fund for the higher education of such
students? Would not this be a practical way of showing that we are really inter-
ested in the Indian people f

And now do not be discouraged about work for the Indians, even though this work
is not all brightness. Life is not all sunshine ; there must be shadow, too ; but, en-
couraged by the sunshine, undaunted by the shadow, let us press on to greater effort.
If these people were already all that we would have them, possessed of the Christian
virtues and graces, there would be no occasion for effort, even this Mohonk confer-
ence would be unnecessary; but what we have heard assures us of much work still
to be done. Let us take courage and go on, doing all that lies in our power toward
its accomplishment.

Mr. Edwin Giim, of Boston, moved the creation of a fund by this conference, to be
called the Mohonk fund, and to be devoted to the education, at schools in the East,
of such specially qualified pupils as Miss Robertson had described.

The motion was unanimously adopted, and the president appointed the following
committee on the fund: Hon. Rowland Hazard, Mr. Edwin Ginu, Miss Alice M.
Robertson, Mr. Moses Pierce, and Mr. Job Jackson.

President GATES. Now we are to hear from Miss Cook, the " walking encyclopaedia"
of Indian affairs. There is nothing connected with the Indian department that she
does not know, and few good things there that she has not helped to do.

FIELD MATRONS.-
[By Miss Emily S. Cook.]

Miss Fletcher has said that an allotment is only a site for a home. One might go a
little further, and say that a house is only a place for a home. When you take a
board house of one room, put in it one window, and have that window liberally

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 61

smeared with dirt, the tloor partly boards and partly earth, and a roof that will leak
most of the time Avhen it rains; then if you put in a stove to replace the open lire of
the tepee, and close every outlet, and put in men and women, old and young, sick
and well, persons and animals, the improvement of the house over the tepee is not
at all manifest* It is a breeding place for disease, and by no means a hotbed of
civilization. Indeed, as it eomesNto be recognized, one feels inclined to give the defi-
nition, " Home is where soap is." '

An Indian man has a farmer who tells him how to build his fences and when to
plant his seeds, and how to draw the furrows, and how to work in the shops and
forges and in the mill, and it is not expected that his boy will learn all this in
school, and that he can wait to die and let his boy take his place and carry out the
lessons. The man himself has instructors furnished him by Government and by mis-
sionary societies. The boy and girl are put into school. But the Indian woman is
very largely neglected. Tin- Indian woman, like the white woman, is conservative.
She is used to doing hard work, to being put in the background, and not used to
being aggressive, and she is dominated by the fashion. It takes a great deal of
patience and effort to reach the Indian woman. I do not think that orderliness and
cleanliness and all the gifts and graces which go to make a home are always intui-
tive. A woman's instincts will fail her sometimes without a previous education to
help her out.

To a small extent the Government has realized that the Indian woman is suscepti-
ble to influence and improvement, and that she loves her children and will do for
their sake what she would not do for herself. It has done this by making provision,
within a few years, for field matrons. Last year thirty-five hundred dollars was
appropriated for field matrons, whose especial'work should be to go among the In-
dian women on the reservations and to teach them in their homes the arts of home
life — how to make soap, to scrub floors, to make bread, to make beds, to broil and
bake instead of always frying, how to care for their children, how to make sickness
something less than a horror to the patient, and in all ways practicable and some
almost impracticable, to give the Indian woman an idea of what can be and should
be in a home. The Indian man can look over his neighbor's fence and see how things
are done. The Indian woman can not look in at her white neighbor's window; she
must have some one come into her house and explain it. And the field matron has
been provided for that purpose. It has been tried now upon eleven reservations, * sup-
plemented by teachers of domestic economy — different, not in the work they are to
do, but in the fund from which their salaries are paid. Mrs. Dorchester has been
interested in this and has spoken very pleasantly of the work* done in the Yakama
Reservation. She has begged to have one sent to the Zunis in Arizona, who live,
more like ants in an ant-hill than like human beings. A good deal is being done
among the Moquis in Arizona, who are now leaving their houses of many stories and
building for themselves separate homes surrounded by little gardens. The Govern-
ment is not able to answer many of these calls on account of the small appropri-
ation. But it has been increased this year to fifteen thousand dollars, and the aim
of the Government is to send field matrons to places where the conditions are those
of the transition period. It is of no use to send them to the tepees and to the old
savage lines of life, but where allotments are being made and houses built and new
ways introduced, then is just the time for the field matron to save the Indian
woman frtmi utter discouragement because she has not the. appliances of civilized life
and does not know how to get them nor what she wants. For she is receptive, and
can easily be made to know these things by a kind womanly tact and friendship.

The field matron must have all the virtues and most of the graces. She must be
somewhat mature in years, must possess tact, judgment, Avinning ways, must be very
strong physically, and utterly indifferent to personal comfort ; and the Government
has assured the possession of these qualities by making the salary as low as sixty
dollars a month. The missionary societies and the Women's Indian Associations have
nominated the women for these appointments.

There are many hindrances to this sort of education. The appliances which the
field matron needs are numerous. She may have to go long distances, and needs
means of transportation ; she ought to have some sort of house to which women can
come in groups and learn the ways of a civilized home; and she ought to have a place
where she can help particularly the returned students. I do not know any place
where a field matron can do more work than by putting out an encouraging hand to
a boy or a girl who has come back to the fire damp of reservation life till he gets a
little breath to go on. She can organize lend-a-hand clubs; she can be a center of
influence.

It might be asked how this differs from a missionary. I do not think it differs at
all. It is only an official missionary. It might also be urged that the reservations
are many, and the homes are still more numerous, and^ a few field matrons can not

Yakama. Navajo, Scget- Creek, Moqui, Jicarilla, Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Ivickapoo, Suppai, Santec,
Mission Indians.

f>2 ItKPoKT OF TIIK HOARD <>K INDIAN COMMISSIONERS,

do any I Inn1.', which will maKe an impression on I he mass. That ;ilso midit he t me ;
only, a. Mi , I leleher han .said, persons who are ready for it ma\ In- impel] :i push
for w ; i I'll \\ 1 1 1 "' 1 1 \v I ! I r ii.i Mr t hem I <> I a Ke such ;i st and I h:i I I hey can he of Use to I hose
:i roil in I I I ii' 1 1 1, .'Mill in homes which she can not i ea eh , so ! li:i t I In 'IT will hr a con I :i - inn

of IMMIII- Mink inv, on i hr reserval ion.

Mi,. D\i;wi\ K'.. I \\iis. | \ i ,il.-d I In- mat run al IhcYaKama K'e.serx :i I ion, :i ml \\ MS
intense! y inlere.s led in herwol'K. She \\;is in full :icroril \\ilh Ihr teachers, the
Hiipi-riiilriMlrn! , :iinl I In- ai;enl ; :unl I saw in her In HIM- ^armenls which she was phut
liiuu lo :iid I he \\ 01 1 ir M in naklQg. She \v;is M.I I onl\ ;i friend |o I he \\ omen, she was
:i help l«> the men in ad\isin;; them ahoul their la rilling. I have I'd I lor some time
I 1 1:1 I I 1 1 1 s i .1 .nl II I I on ol' the 1 1 lies I ion, " What e;in he done to help the ret n I lied .si 11
drill . .' " \\edo not \\;int to open :i ne\\ reservation tin them. \\ e want these re
tinned student- lo minde \\ilh their while iieidihors ; luit we want to make the
I i an.si I ion e:i ,\ from fheir sdiool life, with their aeojiired t;istes, hack lo their old
lite. I think the solution i. in Held malrons. The Women's Indi;in Assoeiii t ions
in iv, hi do ^ood hy support in- I In-se Held m:il i on *, lor the < .o\ em men t :i p pro print ion
: ,11 Hi. 'lent . \ t I he same I line I \\ ;M 1 1 lo he; ir lest i moil y to I he ;idinir;ihle !e:ieh
i he < .«> vein men I schools which I visited. I \v;is prejudiced ;i^;i inst t he ( io\ ^j'n-
menl .1 ho««| . Imi | miisl eon less ih.'il my prejudice h;is \;inished. I c:in not now
ree:ill :i II-.K 'Ini or :i ,n |iei i n I enden I whom I should w ish removed.

M i , I'l i 1 1 ii i i:. II' I .im not wnm;;, Mrs. I lorchesl er's interest in lidd m;i I rons
w;is aroused h\ liei olis,-i \ a I ion ol I he \\ork of Miss Kale Mclielh, who has labored
ilinoiii; the women ••! I \n- \e I'erci - trihe lor lonrteen \ears, and has \er\ largely
re\ olnt loni/ed I heir mode of li\ IIP

Now. \\ ill yon :il low me lo COO16 haek to I he BOhOOlaf \\'hen I was once at I lamp
Ion, in I lie ra i pen I er shops. I sa w I he ^ i r Is w or k i n ^ there; and I was more pleased
with that I han w i I h any I h i M". el e I ,.i \\ . 1 do AMlire VOD that, if in \ on r industrial
(ohoolA yOU will make I he ;;ii Is a part of I he working force ol t he shops, you will do
a \ ei \ lai L;e -i i \ ice i n I he ma I I er of I ml i an homes. \ n\ hod y who k now s an\ I hi 1114
ahonl pioneer life Knows that the woman has to me. I a 1 1 sort s ol eond i I mns. A
woman ninsl know how to saw a hoard, to dn\e a nail, and do any other neerssars
repairs. for hread inakiii" it is necessary I o ha \ c a I a hie. JToil OHll ifot Illftke raised
Urea d on I he Around. A I a hie re<|tmes the use of hoards and nails ; and lrri|iient ly
a w om;m, i l I hei e is lo he a lahle, must make it. In this ma 1 1 er of makinu' soap.
Mi , Mellel h told me her d 1 Ilieil 1 1 ies The N. I1, i , , | ;ii e so e \ feed i n u 1 \ economical
in I lien use for food of all part s of I he an ima I I ha I I here w as rcall \ nothing ofwhicL
to make i he soap. A ml , w hen she assemhled I he \\ -omen to m;tKe soap she found
I hey had In -en oh|i;;ed to Kill a n a M i ma I e\ press! \ lor I he fat . Train yOUT girls, then,
into a K no w led ",e ol I he use of I ools. I do not want to sect, he mistaKe made with
Indian women of lakin^ them out of the lidd work and inaKinu them devotees of
the Kitchen stove. I, el the Indian woman learn tomaKe her garden. One of the
hesi pi. res of worK al >;:i nli'ii i ii» I saw at Sanlce, wh.-ie the work was all done Uy
jjirls. I'he lad\ in ehai i;e \\ as hersell a farmer's daughter. 1 ,im nc\'er afraid to
woman with a hoe in her hand, and I heliex c that the hoys may well he I audit
lo sew . 1^ is a -real d. al heal I hier for ho\ s and d i Is i .. ha \ e eoed neat ion on t lies.
lines.

President ( ; \ i is. Now , proceed in i; w i t h t he a p pointed programme, w e a re I .» hear
from 1,'rv. Mr. James \|. Km • on ••( 'on I ract Schools and the ( io\ ernmenl ."

i M:I \\ . ONTRA.01 •) BOO! 9.

M Km:', M. u.|

In i e present in«; "The Nat ional League for I he Protect ion of A m en can 1 nsl i t u t ions"
hdoro this eonlerenee, I desire it to he dearh understood lhat we ha\e notln
sa\ in opp.isit ion to I he eon! ra« I schools which are not under denom ina I iona 1 con
t rol. 1 1 is against the pa i t nersh ip Uet w ecu I he Nat ional ( Joveninieu I ai-il t lie eh n re lies
that we contend, as a dan :-ei . >n.s sle|i in the direction of I he union of church and
state.

I'roni the rcporls from workers in the field, and from the char:ictei of the di.-eus-

sions to whirl i I lia\ e listened during t he pi ogress of t h is con ference. I am convinced

that I he I line is a I hand w hen I h is eon ference, i f it proposed I o lead pi o-ress i list , a ,1

uplv record it. oii^ht to call upon all the religions denominations to refuse to

r. -eei\e lunds fiom the National lre.isur\ lor Sectarian Indian ediicalion.

The ( 'ommissioiier ol' I ndia n Allan's in his report for IS'.t'.'says: •• Ther«dias heen
din inv, I he past \ ear a L; real deal of pnhlic discussion re^ardin^ t he matter of con
tract schools, and there is a \.r\ general consensus of opinion amoim I he m'eat
i he people that t he work of ed neat ion for the 1 ml i;nis should he earned on
eil he i li\ the Go VOrilinent, through 1 1 > »\\ n a m-ncies. or h\ indi \ iduals and churches,
f\\- t heir o\\ n expense. The a |»propi 1:1 1 ion of pn hlic funds for sect aria n uses is almost

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 63

v

universally condemned ; and, while there has been no radical change in the policy
of4the Government regarding this matter, there, has been a very practical change in
the attitude of the churches."

Since 1 last addressed this conference remarkable progress lias been made in the
divorce proceedings between the churches and the ( Government.

Be it said to its credit, the Baptist Church has never taken any funds from the
national Treasury for sectarian Indian education.

The General ( 'onference of t he Methodist Kpiscopal Church, in May. iSirj. took the
following action :

"Whereas the appropriation of public funds for sectarian purposes by the natimial
Government is not only wrong jn principle, but in violation of both the letter and
spirit of the Constitution of the United States: Therefore,.

•' Itcxolred. That this General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church re-
quests the missionary societies working under iis sanction or control to decline
either to petition for or to receive from the national Government any moneys for
educational work among the Indians."

The Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Kpiscopal Church desires
to repudiate all responsibility for money received from the Indian department for
work in Alaska since the above action was taken.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in May last, took the following
action :

'• Kexolred (1), That in the judgment of this assembly, all public money expended
upon the education of the Indians ought to be expended exclusively by Government
officers upon Government schools.

« " JtcNolr.ed (U), That in the judgment of this assembly, the practice of appropri-
ating public money for the support of sectarian schools among the Indians, as is now
done in the contract schools, ought at once to cease.

•• Unsolved (3), That this assembly heartily approves of all proper efforts to secure
the constitutional prohibition of all appropriations of public money to sectarian
schools, either by the State or by the General Government."

The General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church took similar action.

The Protestant Episcopal Church, by its representatives, in October, 1892, the
house of deputies and the bishops sitting as a board of missions, took the following
action :

•• Itesolved, That, in the judgment of this board, subsidies from the Treasury of
the United States in aid of Indian education ought neither to be sought nor to be
accepted by this church, and that the board of managers be, and hereby are, re-
quested to act from this time forth in accordance with this judgment.

"Resolved, That the effort now making to secure a sixteenth amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, making it unlawful for any State to pledge its
•credit or to appropriate money raised by taxation for the purpose of founding or
maintaining any institution, society, or undertaking which may be wholly or in part
under ecclesiastical control, has the cordial sympathy and approval of this board."

The Triennial National Council of the Congregational Churches and the American
Missionary Association in October took decisive steps in these directions, but the
text of their action has noc reached me.

The Friends have surrendered much of their work to the General Government ; and
their purpose w,e believe is, in harmony with the action of the other churches, to
speedily dissolve their connection with the national Treasury.

The Unitarian, the Lutheran, and the Mennonite churches have never received
large sums from the Government for their work among the Indians; and we are ex-
pecting, from the information in hand, that they will soon join the forces of the now
all but solid ranks of the religious denominations in protest by utterance and exam-
ple against any partnership between the Church and State.

The National League made the same appeal to withdraw from the receipt of national
funds for Indian education to the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions that it made
to thenuissionary boards of the other religious denominations. The only response
received was from Bishop Marty, president of the bureau.

The bishop contended that " the money given to them [the Indians] is not raised by
taxation. It is not public money, but private property of the Indian tribes and
families, belonging to them as payment for ceded lauds."' The records of the Indian
Department prove the bishop to' be entirely in error in this matter. He asserts
that ''the Indian schools are not benefiting the denomination, but the Indians
alone." He argues for the religious training of the youth, with which we all agree,
and closes with the admirable assurance that " the church will endeavor to provide
for her own, no matter what the State may do."

In July, 1891, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs severed the relations previously
existing between the Indian department and the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions
for reasons well known to and approved by the administration and'by the general
public.

64 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Permit me liere to submit the following instructive table:

§

Amount* set apart for carious religious bodies for Indian education for each of the fiscal
years 18S<> to 1893, indusire.

1887.

1888.

1889.

1890.

1891.

1892.

1893.

Tott

ilfor

Roman Catholic
Presbyterian

$118, 343
32, 995
1,6,121
5, 400

$194. 635
37, 910
26, 696
10, 410
4,175

$221, 169 $347, 672
3(>. 5011 41, 825
26, 080 29, 310
7 5(10 '*^

$356. 957
47. 65u
28, 459

$363, 349 $394, ', 56 $369, 535
44.K-.ii 44.310 29,040
27.271 29. 14t> 25.736

.*2,3«i6.41i>
315, 080
208, 819
23. 310
8.350
107, 146
150, 537
25, 840
1,523
33, 750

53, 460

33. 345
6,480

0. :J75

207. 200
160, 320
3, 767, 951

Martinsburg, Pa
Alaska Training School .
Episcopal . .

4, 175

1,890
27, 845
3,340
1,523

3,690
14,460
2, 500

18, 700
23, 383
3. 125

24, 876
23, 383
4,375

29. 910

24. 74:;
4. 375

23,220

24. 743
4. :i7f>

4.860
10. 020
3,750

Friends

1,960

Mennonite

Middletown, Cal '

1,350

5, 400'
1, 350

5,400

4,050
2, 725

5,401)

7.560
9,940

5,400

9,180
6, 700

5.400

16,200
13, 980

5,400
15, 120

Lutheran, 'Wittenberg
\Vis

Methodist

Mrs. L. H. Daggett ... -

6, 480
2,500

33, 4011
*>0 040

Miss Howard

2/5
33, 400
20, 040

600

:;3. 40i •

•'0 (»4(i

1, 000
33, 40ft
20 040

2,000
33, 400

''0 040

Appropriation for Lin
coin Institution
Appropriation for Hamp-
ton Institute

33, 400
20, 040

33, 400
20, 040

33, 400

20. 040

Total

228, 25S»j 363, 214

376, 264

529, 905

562, (5-1 (I

570, 218

611,570

525, 881

* Dropped.

The question is raised, if all the churches but one withdraw, will not the remain-
ing one get all of the money and more of the schools? My response is, first, if that
should prove to be the result, it. affords no reason for the violation by religious bodies
of a sacred principle involving American institutions. Secondly, if only one church
seeks and secures funds for its own sectarian uses from the national Treasury, while
all the other churches withdraw and protest, the question comes to be one of the
definite union of a church and the State ; and this the American people would not
long endure.

Let us no farther make an attempt at the solution of the question of Indian educa-
tion which embarrasses the solution of broader questions. Let us not make him
the prey of denominational bickerings. Give him the American public school, or
its equivalent, and then let religious denominations prove their faith by their works,
and try to Christianize him. When the churches know that they can no longer
depend upon the Government for money to prosecute their mission work among the
Indians, and the work is put upon their consciences, they will take care of it and
push it more successfully than they do now. This will be the inevitable result.

This question forces sectarianism into politics, and makes cowards of law makers.
All over this country at the present time the power of ecclesiasticism is asserting
itself in loyal, State, and national political issues. It is a present and pressing
peril.

Rev. J. A. Stephau, of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, makes a vigorous
and unscrupulous attack, in a pamphlet of 32 pages, upon the Government schools,
for one reason because they have the Protestant Bible and gospel hymns in them.
He also attacks the President of the Republic, the Secretary of the Interior, and
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; and this pamphlet, we understand, is sent to
every Roman Catholic priest in the Republic. This is the essence of partisan politics.

In this Columbian year it becomes us to remember that our civilization is not Latin,
because God did not permit North America to be settled and controlled by that civil-
ization. The Huguenot, the Hollander, and the Puritan created our civilization.
Let us not put a premium by national grants on a rejected civilization in the educa-
tion of a race who were here when Columbus came.

The assumption that Indians can not be taught in the Bible and in the funda-
mentals of the Christian religion without Government aid to the sects is a fallacy.
Let the churches push their work and pay their own bills. Why keep on treating
the Indian differently in religious and educational matters from your treatment of
other races, and then expect the same results f We don't parcel out other races to
the sects.

Why is it that in approaching the Indian question men as a rule assume that new
theories must be practised and angular methods of approach must be resorted to?

If the churches do a Christian work among the Indians that is dependent upon
appropriations from the Government, it is not of a sufficiently vigorous character to

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 65

do much uplifting. The Indians know they are wards and in a sense pensioners:
and if the proposed ehristianization depends upon Government money bounty, the
same as their rations, what effect must it have upon the more thoughtful among
them? Christian benevolence and Christian character are both robbed of their
power.

Let us face the facts.

While some of those sectarian contract schools are doing excellent work in pre-
paring Indian* children for intelligent and loyal citizenship, many are not. I know
the facts, and it is my duty to state that much Roman Catholic teaching among the
Indians does not prepare them for intelligent and loyal citizenship. The solution
of the Indian problem consists in educating them for citizenship, as we educate all
other races.

This conference, if its action is to be effectual, must recognize principle, and not
be controlled by policy.

But the great question involved in this matter of sectarian appropriations by
the National Government for Indian education is the division school fund in the
States and nation on church lines. .

An ecclesiastic of high standing recently said, "We have just as good a right to
our proportion of the public school funds in the several States as we have to our
proportion of the national funds for the education of Indians, and this latter right
is conceded."

That is honest. All but three classes — namely, the egotistic ignorant, the cowardly
compromising, and the time-serving politician, the three worst foes of civil and re-
ligious liberty — will admit that we are living in the midst of critical times, so far as
the integrity and existence of our free public school system and the safe relation of
ecclesiasticism to our civil government are concerned.

All sorts of patent processes have been devised and proposed for the fusion of
sectarian and public schools. None of them have worked well even in the small
model.

The American people have no difficulty in determining the right course to pursue
concerning these public school questions; the politicians are the men who see diffi-
culties and attempt compromises.

Let the churches wash their hands of all responsibility in the matter of the divi-
sion of the national school funds for Indian education on sectarian lines, and the
patriotic citizenship will defend and perfect the public schools in the States.

The subject of contract schools was continued by Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, D. D., of
New York. The following is an abstract of his remarks :

Dr. ELLINWOOD. I have been delighted with the progress which I have seen in
the past few years in Government education. I was thrilled last evening by the
statistics given by Senator Dawes. I think there is every reason for hopefulness,
and 110 reason whatever for a pessimistic view in regard to the Indians. I want to
say also that I have been delighted to trace from year to year the influence of the
Indian Rights Association in manufacturing a proper public sentiment. I believe
it is largely due to that sentiment that we have a class of Indian agents superior to
those of the past. There are some bad ones still ; but I believe that the change in en-
vironment, the difficulty in hiding away rascals on the frontier, the fact that so
many deputations have gone to interview these agents and inspect their work — I
believe that has been a grand gain, and that it is due to the Indian Rights Associa-
tion and to the similar association of women.

With respect to the question between Government schools and contract schools, or
any other form of schools, 1 am ready to say that, if we could be assured that we
would have a man like the present Commissioner always at that post, and could be
sure that Congress would always sustain his plans by adequate appropriations, I
should say, let us hand this work all over to the Government so far as schools are
concerned, and let us apply all the efforts, and all the sympathy, and all the influ-
ence and all the prayers, of the Christian Churches in looking after the other inter-
ests of these Indian missions, and especially the adult population.

But there are some things which cause me misgiving. In the first place, the un-
certainty which attends the Government commissionership, which may be changed
with a change of administration. Then there is uncertainty always in the matter of
appropriations. Then there is the danger that those who represent Government work
in schools may be cramped by a Roman Catholic espionage. A case exactly in point
has occurred on the Lapwai Valley Reservation; and Miss Kate McBeth has written
to me that she is held aloof from the fear of the agent that the Roman Catholics who
are in that valley might object, and that there might be political complications. In
spite of all that the Commissioner or the President can do, sometimes a bad agent
will be appointed. The work of the Presbyterian Church, which I represent, in the
Valley of Lapwai, has been entirely stopped, in all directions pertaining to the
Government school there, by the fact that the agent had stood in the way. The
chapel which we own has actually been closed, and every obstacle has been put in
14499 5

66 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

our way. I received a letter not long ago from another place, saying that the children
connected with a certain institution under Government auspices h;id been for-
bidden any longer to attend the Presbyterian church; 25 of the young people are
members of that church. It turned out that one of the trustees of the institution —
a man full of politics to the chin — had taken the liberty to give the order.

Now, with regard to contract schools, I am free to say that, although the general
assembly has taken the action which has been spoken of, and other ecclesiastical
bodies as well, I do not belieA-e that the Roman Catholic Church is going to give up
its hold on the contract schools without a tremendous struggle. I have this feeling
that, if we withdraw on the Protestant side the result will be that more and more
schools will be put down in the category of Catholic schools, and that the surest way
to the establishment of a relationship of church and state will be right along that
line.

I want to put in a plea this morning for the religious element in education. I have
a fear in regard to what I would call the drift of tilings in education. I have heard
here earnest advocacy of carrying the common-school system right out among the
Indians. In the first place, you can not do that. As Senator Dawes has said, every
reservation differs in its environment and circumstances from all the others. Again,
the people are scattered; the children must be put in boarding-schools. And there
is a difference between the Indian and the American citizen which can not be ignored.
I believe in the free school, for the population in our old States, ;is a necessity; I do
not believe it is the best thing. I would have the Bible always read. 1 would at
least stand on the same ground that our fathers did 50 or 100 years ago; but that I
yield. It is a necessity, but a bad one. That necessity, however, does not exist
with regard to the Indians. There is a differentiation in their environment and
ethical basis. We have destroyed their original ethics; we have not given the basis
of our ethics. They do not look upon the religion which we profess as the religion
of Jesus Christ; they look upon it as " the white man' s religion ;" and that is to
them a mixture of perfidy, and treachery, and injustice. They are in a position,
and have been for a century, which has depraved every institution; and the excep-
tions are such as we see in Miss Robertson and Mrs. Riggs. So I could take you
back to the time of Kirkland and Eliot, when the ancestor of this young Indian
who was here last night requested that he might be removed from Oneida to Clinton,
that he might lie by the side of his missionary father, Samuel Kirkland. It was
with the influence of that noble chieftain, who bceame a Christian, that Kirkland
was able to hold the Oneidas in allegiance to the colonies, as against the British
dominion, to which the Mowhaks went over. I could not help thinking last night,
" There is .a trace, in the very blood of that youth, of that early missionary influ-
ence." Let us by one means or another hold to the religious element.

Suppose you could carry out the common-school system. Suppose it could be
made as perfect as our common-school system now is, taking out all color of religious
sentiment. Suppose you apply that school system up in Alaska, where Miss Mac-
farland started her work. Do you suppose that, if you were to establish a cordon
of day schools about that coast, teaching the children a few hours a day, and letting
them go back to their homes — doing nothing to prevent their fathers from selling
them to miners and adventurers and whisky-dealers — do you suppose that you could
regenerate Alaska? Would there be any comparison with what we now see in the
mission stations of different Christian denominations, which have carried their
work to Bering Straits and beyond? No colorless, religionless system whatever, I
do not care how beautiful it is politically and economically, can ever do for Alaska
what must be done if we would not see the population melt away before the influ-
ences of vice.

I shall not insist upon the keeping up of the contract schools. But I can not help
feeling that, after all, the ideal thing is the kind, loving, motherly feeling that only
comes in connection with missionary work. There are a great many unsolved prob-
lems here. I do not expect that we shall solve them in the first few years. We
must have patience. We must believe and feel that the Indian has certain disad-
vantages with respect to our civilization. He has thousands of years of hunting
and fishing in his bones: you cannot make him a thrifty German or a plodding
Dutchman. Unless you throw around him religious influence, unless you surround
him with the sympathies of Christian influence, he will certainly go to the wall in
the survival of the fittest; and by and by you will find he will disappear.

Whether in contract school or in whatever school, I hope that the churches will
do more and more. We are not able to bestow unlimited funds : we are looking
after other races in the ends of the earth. 1 am more and more in favor, therefore,
of throwing out general education in the higher branches, and limiting our work to
the training up of teachers and preachers, on the principle of a geometrical ratio.
We can not take care of all the children, but let us do what Ave can ; and, if the
Government can put with our thousand dollars another thousand dollars, I do not see
any harm in it. In any event, let us create in these communities a public senti-

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 67

ment. I would have Christian Endeavor Societies surround the Indians, and the
Young Men's Christian Association. And, above all, let us surround them with a
warm and earnest Christian influence, as it was in the begining of the work, a cen-
tury ago. '

President GATES. It is worth our while as students of history and civilization
to understand very clearly that there has never yet been a race made over and up-
lifted Avithoift the power of Christ. India to day is a standing witness of the
powerlessness of purely secular schools to build up such citizenship as England
demands, as India must have, if she is to prosper. This mighty power of Christ
must go into the work of our Indians, or it will fail.

The last speaker of the morning was Mrs. A. S. Quiutou.

Mrs. QUINTOX. The Church does move forward; the Church will come to the
rescue. The Church will look after the religious schools, and the religious culture
in the Government schools. Everything that has been said here gives us the right
to believe that the millennium is dawning, though it comes by little things. The
Christian tide is so strongly set to-day on this Indian question that there is no danger
of its going backward. There are Government schools to-day which are Christian
schools; I have seen them. Among the Moquis, just coming down from their ledges
in Arizona into civilized homes, a Government school is to-day illustrating the fact
that Government schools are Christian schools by the presence of Christian teachers.
Superiutedent and Mrs. Collins are as distinctly Christian teachers as you ever met
with in any denominational school. At the very first exhibition I attended at the
school they came forward and recited the Golden Texts of three months : I do not
know many white Sunday schools where that could be done. Their hymns and
recitations of Scripture were just such as we should wish for our mission schools.
They are patriotic, too; they'had their flags, and recited patriotic selections, and
they meant what they said. We can not but believe that the work thus begun will
go straight on ; for we are a Christian people first of all, and we believe in the
promises of God. There is no retrogression in work that has the Christian spirit in
it.

But what I want most to say is a word about compulsory education. We have
compulsory education for our own race, and we believe in it. Why should not we
have it for the Indian race ? Of course there are methods and methods ; but I do
not think any one need fear cruelty on the part of Gen. Mdrgaii. I do not see
that we need" hesitate in the matter. I wish compulsory education were in force
now, and in no place more than in those nineteen pueblos of the West, where the
saddest facts came to Mr. Garrett. They need Christian help ; they need some au-
thority. The children now, whether they attend mission schools or Government
schools, are there when they like; sometimes there are twenty-five, sometimes there
are three. There ought to be authority and a truant officer.

But we cannot do much for the children until we can get hold of the mothers. It
is of no use to take children away to school and bring them back to the same bar-
barism. The mothers can best be helped by field matrons.

One other thought : what about the money for these lines of work? This pros-
pect is just as bright as the rest. Our Government treasury is full of money, and it
needs only the demand of the Christian citizens of this nation to get it out. We talk
about a poor little five thousand dollars for field matrons this year. It is disgrace-
ful and unnecessary. If the Christian voters of this nation would say in some or-
ganized fashion that this work shall be adequately provided for, it will be provided
for. If all the friends of the Indians who are here would make it a duty, when they
return home, to speak of this to those who lead public opinion, we should have
money enough. General Morgan said his plan, too, could be carried out in four
years. Let the church of God say it shall be done in four years, and it will be done.
Let us ask for whatever is needed, and believe that it can be had; for that which is
necessary can always be had. God provides for the right doing of his commands.

Mr. Garrett, for the business committee, presented a question which the secretary
had received :

"After an allotment is made to an Indian, can he have it changed before he takes
possession or after, and how often can he change it ?"

Miss FLETCHER. After an allotment is made, and the allotment has been entered
on the schedule sheets, and the schedule is submitted to the Indian Oi§ce and passed
on to the Secretary of the Interior for approval, I think it would be impossible to
change it. It would cause great confusion. As long as the allotment remains un-
reported for approval, for good cause it could be changed. How often would de-
pend upon the wisdom of the suggestion and the patience of the agent and the cler-
ical work which the change involved. There is no legal obstacle.

A DELEGATE. Has there ever been a change after the patents were issued?

Miss COOK. I do not think patents are exchanged without the utmost difficulty,
and very rarely, for remarkable reasons, such as evidence of fraud.

Question. How long a time elapses between the application for the allotment and
the sending of the patent from Washington ?

68 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Miss FLETCHER. It could hardly be less than a year in any circumstances.

Senator DAWES. When we were on our way to the Omaha reservation, there came
into our car a judge of the Nebraska courts and a gentleman elected to the legisla-
ture, whose seat was being contested on the ground that the Winnebago Indians
had cast their votes for him when they had not received their patents. So the
legality of the Winnebago vote depended on when the allotment became a fixed fact.
It had been decided that the allotment became a fixed status Avhen it had been ap-
proved by the Secretary of the Interior, whether he had issued the patent or uot. It
is exactly as Miss Fletcher has said.

Gen. WHITTLESEY. And the approval carries with it the order to issue the patent?

Senator DAWES. Yes; but the status of the Indian does not depend 011 the way
that the patent may be afterwards issued. The whole is complete and fixed, so that
it cannot be changed, Avhen the approval is made. The patent is only an evidence
of it.

President GATES. The allottee becomes a citizen on the day when the allotment is
approved at the central office.

Adjourned at 1 p. m.

FOURTH SESSION.

THURSDAY NIGHT, October IS.

The conference was called to order by the president at 8 o'clock. The subject for
the evening was announced to be " Civil Service Reform." It was opened by Prof.
C. C. Painter, of Washington, who read a paper on " Some Dangers which now
threaten the Interests of the Indians."

SOME DANGERS WHICH NOW THREATEN THE INTERESTS OF THE INDIANS.

[By C. C. Painter.]

When quite a small lad I was sent on an errand to an adjoining neighborhood. I
have never lost the impression made on my mind by a morbid old crone, who came
out of her cabin as I passed, and asked, "What's all the bad news up where you
live?"

I have something of the same feeling now as then, when from time to time, here
and elsewhere, I am expected to play the part of a lamenting Jeremiah, and stand
as the exponent of pessimism in the Indian work. It is not a grateful task, though
to some it may seem self-imposed ; but from the position I occupy in the work, and the
duties assigned me, I am naturally occupied with and impressed by the things which
remain to be done and the obstacles to the accomplishment. And I know not how
I can now more profitably use the time assigned me — leaving to others the more
pleasing privilege of rehearsing victories achieved — than in calling attention to some
threatening dangers and obstinate obstacles in the way of our future progress.

In our fifth annual conference, the first one held after the severalty bill had become
a law, I had the honor to open its first session with a paper in which I said: "The
law we have done so much to secure, we must bear in mind, is not the end we seek,
but is only a much needed means to that end. It supplies a necessary condition for
successful work, but the work itself remains to be done. In this case, as in all
others, enlarged opportunity means increased danger. And we who are, to a degree,
responsible for the present condition of affairs, will be held responsible for their
future outcome. We can not hold ourselves innocent in regard to disasters which
may come from these enlarged opportunities, created by this law, unless we do all
we*can to improve and utilize them."

After five years of experiment under its provisions, it seems incumbent that we
ask, " Watchman, what of the night?" and learn, if we can, whether the morning
cometh or whether — as has been claimed recently in a document secretly circulated
in the House of Representatives, in the case of the Omahas — the night grows
darker. A

It was clearly in the minds of those urging the enactment of this law, as it was
also made one of its provisions, that it should be applied only to those who, in the
enlightened judgment of the President, had reached that point in their progress
toward civilization where individual titles to land and citizenship were necessary to
their further development. It was also provided that reasonable time should be
given to the backward and reluctant, even on reservations where the majority were
progressive, to accept the new regime. These wise provisions of the law have been
in a number of cases disregarded. Reservations have been subjected to the opera-
tion of this law which are not " agricultural.'' Allotments have been made, not
ecause the tribes were " so far advanced in civilization " that their progress re-

REPORT Ot THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 69

quired it, but because the neighboring whites, for reasons of their own, have de-
manded it, and. when begun, have been pushed to a rapid conclusion, regardless of
the reluctance of the Indians to accept them. In some cases, agents totally unfit
for the delicate and difficult duties with which they are charged have added unnec-
essary complications to a problem already sufficiently complex and perplexing; and
thus "have beoti engendered irritation, distrust, and bitter opposition, where there
should have been only the reluctance of the ignorant to accept the untried.

There have been in all, either under the law of February 8, 1887, or under special
acts passed since that date, some 18,381 allotments made, mostly during the past two
years. For 11,193 of these, patents have been issued, and 571 more have been ap-
proved; and the remainder, though made in the field, have not been acted upon by
the office. In some cases, where the people were ready for it, the report is that the
results have been most encouraging and satisfactory. From one agent the report
comes that " four-fifths of the families reside on the allotment selected for some
member of the family;" that "almost all the adult males manifest a disposition to
cultivate their lands;" that " one-half of them appreciate their advantages, and
realize their obligations as citizens;" that ''the effect of allotment has been good
and elevating in every way, and that during the past two years four times as much
land has been cultivated as before allotment."

From another, whose allotments were made under treaty provisions, the report is
that "nine-tenths of them live on their allotments, and manifest a disposition to
cultivate their land, and appreciate their privileges in the ownership of the same,
but not their obligation as citizens;" and that " the effect has been most beneficial
in stimulating industry."

Another agent reports that " practically all " of his Indians live 011 their allot-
ments, at least a part of the year, and all seem to wish for a farm; but that " the
ultimate effect of allotment will depend largely upon the class of white neighbors
with whom they must associate in the future."

Another reports that "nearly all live on their allotments with their families, and
that tribal ties are fast becoming extinct; and, though they have not as yet exer-
cised the right of the franchise, there is a manifest, growing pride among them in
anticipation of the privilege of voting this autumn." And the agent believes they
will be as free from bribery as their white neighbors.

Another, whose Indians were far advanced, but because of the great value of their
lauds have been exposed to peculiar corrupting influences from the whites, who are
making desperate efforts to have restrictions removed from the sale of the lands, re-
ports that " allotment is every Avay desirable, but citizenship, removing as it does
the protection of the intercourse laws, has been bad for them."

Reports of this character come from most of the reservations where the Indians
were so far advanced that it seemed wise to bring them under the operation of the
law.

But the execution of the law has been attempted, and in some cases effected,
where the results, so far from being satisfactory, have been unfortunate.

Mention could be made of a reservation on which several hundred allotments were
made, in two or three days' time, of Pine lands, wholly unfit for cultivation — desig-
nated by order of the Executive for this purpose, in violation of provision of the law
that it shall be agricultural land; and this haste and violation of law were solely
for the benefit of lumbermen.

Allotments have been made to blanket Indians, wholly unfit for citizenship, forced
to a rapid conclusion within a few months, and by an agent who gave the valuable
lands on which a few had built homes, and were cultivating crops, to be opened up
for settlement; and who allotted poorer lands, several miles from where they had
built homes, to the Indians.

I could mention a tribe far advanced in civilization, the owners of a small reser-
vation, most of it already under cultivation, the more advanced having more than
their pro rata share under fence. These were of course opposed to a division which
would reduce their holdings, but were voted down by the large majority of the
tribe, who wisely asked for an allotment. Here was a condition of affairs requiring
tact, delicacy, firmness, and infinite good sense on the part of the agent who should
undertake the work. He reached the reservation in a state of intoxication, and, the
Indians assert, was in that condition a number of times during the progress of his
work. A full council of the tribe, including all factions and shades of opinion,
assert, in a petition and protest, that aliens from Canada were allotted lands; that
some members of the tribe had none ; that the same piece of land was allotted to
more than one person; and that laud belonging to the tribe was not allotted to any
one, but left in the possession of whites who had taken possession of it. These
asserted facts, thus authenticated, were duly presented to the Department. For
answer I was formally advised that "the complaints were too vague and indefinite
to be made the basis of official action;" and I am now informed that patents have
issued to the allottees as reported by the allotting agent.

70 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

On another reservation, where the Indians were prepared for it, the work had
been practically finished; but two white men whose wives had rights on the reserve,
but who did not live on it, were dissatisfied with the land given them, and,, having
influence, made a successful demand that the wTork be' done over again. When I
was there two years ago, the whole tribe was in a state of great excitement over it ;
and it would have been difficult to persuade them that complaints from full-blooded
Indians as to the character of their allotments would have so prevailed that a new
allotment would have been ordered.

There are reservations where allotments we're made several years since, but the
work was done in such slovenly or unsatisfactory manner, with such friction to the
Indians or so unsatisfactorily to the whites, that the allotment seems to have been
abandoned. At any rate, it is not included in the report of the office as in any stage
of progress.

At some points disturbances and antagonisms continue because of the manner in
which it is attempted to do this work. In some cases this is due to blundering leg-
islation by Congress, or to the carelessness of commissioners who have made agree-
ments with the Indians, but did not word the agreement as signed so as to carry out
what they admit was the understanding under which the Indians signed. In some
cases the conflicts that arise are due, undoubtedly, to the hostility of the nonpro-
gressive element among the Indians, which is all the greater when the work is pre-
mature or when careless or incompetent agents are appointed to do it.

Reference has been made to a sufficient number of cases to give a fair average of
the work ; and, while the results are sufficiently satisfactory to vindicate the wisdom
of the law, they are also so unsatisfactory in many cases as to justify a decided pro-
test against every violation of the spirit and intent of the law, whether it be its
application to those unfitted for it, the appointment of agents, either because of
political or sentimental reasons who are unfit for the work, or the interference of
Congress in ordering allotments under special laws which do not contain the wise
limitations and restrictions of the general law, or in the rescinding of such restric-
tions in cases where allotments have been already made.

The difficulties of which I have spoken are in no wise chargeable to the law itself;
and its friends may not be justly held responsible for them. There are dangers, how-
ever, which inevitably result from the law itself, which were foreseen as inevitable,
and for which, if possible, provision should be made, the making of which would
constitute the " steps following" the initial one taken when the law was enacted.

I deny as false the statement of which I have spoken, as circulated privately
through the House, that the Omahas raise less grain or are less thrifty than before
allotment. There is scarce a single member of their tribe who has not now a com-
paratively comfortable home on his own land. The effect has been wonderful to
stimulate their home-building and industrial instincts and habits. The alleged
increase of drunkenness, which gives their friends cause for great alarm, is, I fear, a
fact which can not be explained as "more apparent than real," as is asserted by one
of the most intelligent of the tribe, who says that now it is open because fear of
punishment is absent, whereas before it was secret, a wholesome fear making both
the seller and the Indian cautious

The danger every boy must meet who gets down from his mother's lap and goes
out to do his part as a man in the world, the Indian must also meet. The chance to
be a man involves a danger that he may be corrupted; nevertheless a wise mother
will, with many tears and prayers, send her boy forth to meet this possibility. Two
things can be done to lessen the danger: fortify the boy against it by the develop-
ment of his moral nature, and minimize it by all wholesome legal restraints. This
is all that can be done, and just what must be done for the Indian. The doing of
the first must be the work of the missionary, by whatever name called — school-
master, farmer, field matron, doctor, or preacher; and the call is most loud and ur-
gent to the church to undertake it, for it is the work of the church, and not of the
Government.

The proper agent for doing the second duty, that of legal restraint and protection,
is more difficult to reach. The General Government, by giving him a personal
title to his land, defensible in the courts of the State, and endowing him with the
rights and prerogatives of citizenship, has no duty with reference to him as a ward
except to fulfill a contract obligation with reference to his land for thirty-five years.
It has turned him over a citizen to the State in which lie resides, to be dealt with
as it deals with all its citizens, with the one, but very important, exception that it
may not impose a tax upon his property. It has the burden of this protection, but
may not tax the property of him who imposes the burden. To state this fact is to
give a valid and sufficient; reason why the new citizen of the State suffers because
of the neglect of the State. So long as this Indian citizen's misbehavior affects no
one but his Indian neighbor it will go unnoticed, and the sufferer will find no rem-
edy in the law. Here is a fatally weak spot which must in some way be strength-

REPORT OF' THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 71

ened. To withdraw the protection which the severally law extends over the Indian
property would be, in some cases, virtual confiscation of that property. Either the
General Government must bear the tax that this property ought to pay or it must be
paid out of the surplus lands of the Indians.

*

THE FUNDS OF THE INDIANS.

Until recently the land-grabber has been the most persistent and successful assail-
ant against whose assaults the friends of the Indian have been forced to stand guard.
His land has been largely in excess of his needs, and protected only by special treat-
ies made with people too ignorant to negotiate such and too feeble to maintain
th«m. The object of the severalty law was to bridg under the protection of law
only so much land as the Indian needed, and so make it defensible in the courts ;
and the efforts of the land-grabbers are now directed to two points, some new ad-
justment, by removal of the Indian or otherwise, before allotments are made, or a
removal of restrictions from the sale of allotted lands. These are points in regard
to which the friends of the Indian need to be on the alert.

TRUST FUNDS.

But the greatest danger which now threatens the property of the Indian is that
his trust funds shall disappear. We have been willing that his surplus lands, use-
less to him, shall be converted into civilizing instruments. Hitherto trust funds
have been sacredly held, though often unwisely administered.

Two forms of attack, each thus far alarmingly successful, promise speedily to
dissipate these funds.

Congress has been besieged almost from the very beginning by claimants for com-
pensation for damages inflicted by Indians. Such a number of these who had suf-
ficient influence got their cases through as to encourage others to make the attempt ;
but the slowness with which Congress acted made the assault comparatively harm-
less. But, wearied of clamor at its o\vn doors, Congress passed a bill referring such
cases to the Court of Claims.

A number of cases had come lip to Congress favorably reported upon by the De-
partment, extending back as far as to 1812. Upon such there was no limit as to time,
but all other cases occurring prior to July 1, 1865, are barred out. Those approved
by the Department before that date and all claims of later date were referred to the
Court of Claims. If the court allows the claim, it is to be paid: (1) From annui-
ties due the tribe to which the Indian committing the depredation belonged ; (2)
from other funds arising from sale of lands; (3) from any appropriations other than
for their necessary support, subsistence, and education, made for their benefit; (4)
if none of these exist, then from the Treasury of the United States, provided that
such sum shall remain a charge against such tribe to be deducted from any annuity,
fund, or appropriation hereinbefore designated which may hereafter become due
from the United States to such tribe.

The Court of Claims has already passed upon and allowed many of the claims re-
ported by the Department, of course, on such evidence as the Department agents had
seen fit to admit, not necessarily such as a court would admit. This evidence Was,
from the nature of the case, ex parte. The Indians, as defendants, had no notice
served upon them. Claims to the amount of more than $26,000,000 have already
been presented, and judgment already given sufficient to exhaust, and more than ex-
haust, the available funds of some of the tribes. In these cases no funds were avail-
able for the use of the Attorney-General, that he might investigate for himself the
character of the evidence upon which the claim rested. The Secretary of the Inte-
rior, in alarm, has called the attention of Congress to the facts. Congress has made
an appropriation of $20,000 to enable the Attorney-General to meet the expense of
investigations hereafter. The law provides that the Indians may employ counsel,
which, of course, opens a new hole through which other arms may get at these funds ;
but in the cases already adjudicated no notice was served, and no opportunity
afforded them for proper defense.

If all the funds belonging to a tribe are to be made responsible for whatever dam-
age, real or supposititious, can be proved directly or indirectly to have been com-
mitted, intentionally or through carelessness, upon the property of any settler or
passing immigrant, on the whole extent of our Western frontier since the establish-
ment of our Government, by any one who can be accounted constructively or in fact
a member of that tribe, and there is no defense except such as can be set up under
the provisions of this law and the rules adopted by the court, the chances seem
small that any of these various tribes will have money enough left to tempt a law-
yer to undertake their defense.

72 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

CONTRACTS WITH ATTORNEYS.

But it is not simply by the findings of the court under the provisions of this law
that these funds are disappearing.

Attorneys other than such as the Indians may employ to look after their interests
in this court (and already intelligence comes from various tribes that lawyers are
seeking contracts with them for this purpose) have had, and do now have, with the
approval of the Department, opportunities to reduce the revenues of these people
under contracts which secure a maximum of compensation for a minimum of service,
or, as the honorable Secretary said in one case, where no services whatever had been
rendered.

SISiETON-WAHTETOX SCOUTS.

A few cases must suffice to hint at the possibilities in this direction. In a paper
read before this conference and afterward published in Lend a Hand, and issued as a
report by the Indian Rights Association under the title " How we Punish our Allies,"
the story of the wrong suffered at the hands of the Government by the Sisseton-
Wahpeton scouts was told, and what efforts were made for their relief.

In brief; the story was this: When the lower band of Sioux Avent on the warpath
in 1862 in Minnesota, the upper bauds, with a few exceptions, furnished scouts and
aided in quelling the outbreak. Aside from those enlisted as scouts, there were a
number serving in the Federal army in the South. In February, 1863, Congress
passed a bill confiscating their laud in Minnesota and their annuities, amounting to
$73,600 per annum for fifty years, nine payments having been made. The facts of
the case were presented by myself to the honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
and he, convinced of the j ustice of their claims, accepted and adopted my statement
as his own, with its recommendations, and sent it to Congress with the request that
the sum of $478,400 be appropriated to pay what was due them, and that they be
restored to their rights for the remaining years they were entitled to this annuity.

The House committee reported the bill, prepared by myself to accomplish this,
and accompanied it by a special report, which, at the request of the chairman of the
said committee in charge of the bill, I prepared. Owing to the pressure of business,
the bill did not become a law that winter. In the meantime a commission was ap-
pointed to negotiate with the Indians on the Sisseton reservation for the sale of their
surplus land. These consisted largely of the scouts for whose benefit the above-
named bill had been introduced, though there were others on the reservation not
entitled to share in the money it was proposed to give the scouts. Some, in fact,
belonged to the hostile band. The Indians insisted on the payment of their confis-
cated annuities as a condition precedent to a sale of their land, and the Commis-
sioners were compelled to put this into the agreement. They made the mistake of
taking the sum proposed for the scouts and giving it to the Indians on the reserva-
tion. This caused the opposition of some of the principal scouts, because it gave a
part of their money, and an equal share of it, to the hostiles, and gave none of it to the
scouts or soldiers who did not happen to be on the reservation, but this was agreed
to by a large majority of the Indians. After a hard struggle the bill to ratify this
agreement was so amended that an additional sum was appropriated to pay such
scouts and soldiers as were living elsewhere a pro rata share. Thus amended, it
became a law.

When a special agent was sent out to make the payment, a lawyer appeared with
a claim for 10 per cent of the whole amount, claiming contracts with the scouts.
His original contracts were made with 206 Indians, and were dated July 3. 1877, and
ran for twelve years, and were for 33i per cent of such sum as might be paid to the
scouts. These contracts were not approved by the Department for the per cent
stated in the contract, but were approved for 10 per cent. And, thus amended, they
were not signed by the Indians. The attorney claimed that the contracts ran only
from the date of their approval, and had not, therefore, expired in 1891, when the
money was appropriated. This view was accepted by the Secretary of the Interior,
and the special agent sent to pay the money was instructed to pay the attorney 10
per cent. A few of the Indians were willing to pay, and signed receipts for the full
amount, while they received 90 per cent. Others, and the great majority of them,
protested, but were compelled to sign receipts in full, while they received 90 per
cent of the amount. In these cases the 10 per cent was held in the Department to
await a final decision by the Secretary of the Interior. Not only did the Indians
protest, but a vigorous protest was also made in Washington, when the Secretary,
under a provision of law, referred the question to the Court of Claims; and the issue
was made by the attorney on the one hand, and the claim of the Indians on the
other. Testimony was taken, briefs filed, arguments heard, and the court decided
against the claim as presented; and the attorney saw nearly $50,000 slip through his
fingers which, but for this fight on the part of the Indians' friends would, with the
approval of the honorable Secretary, have gone into his pocket.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 73

One of 'the commissioners who made the agreement with the Indians testified that
this attorney in no way influenced the commissioners in making the treaty, and he
knew of no services rendered by him. In my own testimony I stated that during all of
my efforts to secure this money I had no help from this attorney and knew of no
service rendere/l, with the exception of a paper prepared by liiui some eleven years
before. As showing the difference between testimony as presented to the Depart-
ment and as presented in court, one witness, an agent for the attorney, sworo that
the contracts approved in 1882 had been submitted to and had been signed by the
Indians, but had been burned up in the agency building. These contracts were
produced in court, and were without the signature of a single Indian.

Singular testimony as to the value of the work of this conference and of the Indian
Rights Association as promoting the welfare of the Indian was presented in the affi-
davit of this attorney, who stated the fact that the wrongs done these Indians had
been presented to the Mohawk Conference and given a wide publicity by the Indian
Rights Association, all of which was of his procurement, because he had sent Chief
Renville to me to enlist my efforts in behalf of his clients.

*

CONTRACTS WITH CHEYENNES AND ARAPAHOE3.

One more case must be given, briefly as possible, yet with sufficient fullness to
emphasize the danger of which I speak.

Two ex-agents of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes and two attorneys have recently
been paid $67,500, under what is considered by responsible persons a fraudulent
contract. As to this I wait for fuller investigation ; but, however this maybe, it
was for what I know were altogether unnecessary and inadequate services, and paid
under very peculiar circumstances. These Indians were given a reservation on the
Cherokee Outlet in a treaty with them in 1867, in exchange for a large and valuable
reservation in Kansas, which in turn had been given them for a much larger reser-
vation in Nebraska, in 1865. The Indians refused to go upon this last, the Cherokee
Outlet, reservation ; and so in 1869 the President set apart by executive order the
reservation on which they had been living in Oklahoma, in lieu of it. They had
been taught by all official treatment to regard this as their own ; and when, some
years since, a few of them went to live on their treaty reservation on the Cherokee
Outlet, they were removed, by order of the Department, back to their homes on the
executive order reservation. In the spring of 1888 an ex-agent went among them,
and attempted to persuade them that they had an interest in— in fact, were the owners
of— the reservation on the Outlet ; also were entitled to rent paid by cattlemen to the
Cherokees for grazing on it. This he would attempt for a percentage to recover.
The Indians refused to have anything to do with it. Later he came back with
another ex-agent in whom some of the Indians had great confidence. It is claimed
that the Indians made a contract, the matter having been considered in a duly called
council. This is denied by many of the Indians; also by an army officer, who has
made an investigation, and reports that a large majority of the chiefs and of the In-
dians refused to lay any claim to that reservation lest they should weaken the title
to the one on which they are living, and which they claim as their own. Into these
facts I will not go at present, as I have not personally investigated them. This
much is true : The contract was signed only by a small minority of the chiefs, and
had reference alone to such rights as they might have on the reservation on the Out-
let. Meanwhile Congress made provision for a commission to deal with these and
other Indians in Oklahoma, looking to an allotment of land and the sale of their
surplus land. This commission treated with these Indians, who finally consented to
take allotments on the executive brder reservation and to accept $1,500,000 for their
surplus land. In the agreement signed they relinquished, pro forma, all claim and
title to any and all other lands west of the ninety-sixth degree of longitude. Two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, it was agreed/should be paid immediately when
they had signed the agreement, and $250,000 more after 'their lauds were allotted,
and $1,000,000 to be funded for their benefit.

The first payment was made all right. When the second payment was made, it
was $67,500 short of the amount agreed upon. Then for the first time did the In-
dians learn that these ex-agents and lawyers were considered to be entitled to a fee
out of this money — in fact, had been paid some months before. Why this fee did
not come out of the first payment I am not informed, but can easily imagine. The
honorable Secretary, who approved the contract and ordered the payment, says that
$1,250,000 of this money was paid them on account of their interest in the Cherokee
Outlet, and $250,000 only for their interest in the home reservation. The principle
of this division it is difficult to understand. The contract, even if there was one
properly made, was such that no fee could be collected out of money paid for land
on the home reservation in Kansas. The necessities of the contract alone seemed
to have determined 011 which reservation their interest should be located. But now
conies a curious fact. These same commissioners negotiated with the Cherokees for

74 REPORT OF THE BOARD OP INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

a sale of this very same land, recognized them as its rightful owners, agrqed to pay
them $1.41 per acre for it ; and this agreement has the approval of the honorable
Secretary, and a bill is iio\v pending to ratify the contract and pay them for it. The
services for which these men Avere paid was chiefly the labor of making a contract
with the Indians and the preparation of three briefs, all of which — I am 110 lawyer
— I could have prepared in a month's time. In these they simply rehearse and give
their own interpretation to the few historical facts involved in the case. They pre-
sent no facts which an intelligent commission, charged with the duty assigned them,,
would not have found on the very face of this case; and two of the commissioners
have expressed great surprise that any fee was allowed, as no service had been ren-
dered.

These are the most striking cases of this kind of organized robbery, but are by no
means the only ones. They are, in my estimation, cases in which the high officials
charged with the duty of protecting these helpless wards of the Government have
not shown the same vigilance and care which would have been shown, had the
interests of the Government been involved. The decision of the Court of Claims in
the case of the Sisseton-Wahpeton scouts would seem to justify the assertion that
such contracts may receive, and have received, approval when they ought not.
Whether the contract was fraudulent or not, the services rendered bear no relation
to the compensation allowed; and nothing was done by these men which the com-
mission appointed by the Government was not liberally paid to do. They could not
have discharged their duties in the premises without learning all the facts which
the briefs of these lawyers contained.

The one other danger to which I cull attention is one which will, I trust, be dis-
cussed this evening. I mean the danger arising from the fact that the agency system
still belongs to the spoils system. The schools have been, at least partially, redeemed
and correspondingly improved ; but, so far as the agents are concerned, there has
never been a time since I have known any thing of Indian affairs when their selection
has been more manifestly turned over to the local politicians, that they may reward
their supporters under what is called the "home rule," policy, than at the present
time. Other illustrations of the bad effect of this than that of the Nez Perces
Agency could easily be given. We have no sufficient reason for entire satisfaction
with the present situation, no matter how good a Commissioner of Indian Affairs
we may have, no matter how conscientiously he may discharge his duties as such.
The bad system, so long as it exists, threatens all that over which we so rejoice in
the improvement of the service.

President GATES. The animus of this conference is iionpartisan. We recognize
with great delight the progress that has been made in matters collected with Indian
reform under the last two administrations. How there can be a fairer spirit mani-
fested than has been manifested in the utterance of President Cleveland and Presi-
dent Harrison it is difficult to see. It would be altogether graceless of this confer-
ence not to remember that within the last year or two a large proportion of the
employe's in the Indian service have been put under civil-service rules by President
Harrison. A reform often asked by us, though long delayed, notwithstanding many
professions in favor of civil- service reform, has come at last. We want to see the
agents, too, placed above partisan control in appointment or removal.

We are to listen to-night to remarks on civil-service reform from one whose official
duties have kept him very closely in touch with it. But the honorable Commissioner
who is with us to-night has expressed a preference for approaching this .subject "from
the field," and he will begin by giving us the. results of some of his recent observa-
tions among the agencies. I take pleasure in introducing Hon. Theodore Roosevelt,
United States Civil Service Commissioner.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. When any man is identified with a certain cause, he finally gets
to have a dreary feeling when he speaks anywhere, because he knows he will be ex-
pected to speak upon that, and that anything he says will be discounted as rather
professional than sincere. I had hoped that I was not to speak upon my particular
subject to you this evening; for I have just spent five or six weeks among the agen-
cies at the West, and have been more than interested by what I have seen. I have
made quite a particular study of two or three things. For instance, I have met per-
sonally some 200 returned students; and I want to say a word in reference to them.
I also attended the Episcopal Convocation at Cheyenne River, where there were 5,000
Indians gathered — a very interesting and very impressive sight. Let me say one
thing in corroboration of what Mr. Painter has just said in reference to the Omahas.

The last reservation I visited was that of the Omahas. If you think that, after
you have done what you can for the Indian, he is going at once to skip over six
thousand years, and come up to the white level, you are going to be disappointed.
It is three thousand years since our race produced the poems of Homer. The Indian
starts from one to two hundred generations behind in the race ; you can not bring
him up in one generation. We will do well if we bring him up in two or three. In
cases like that on the Omaha reservation, many of the people who have taken most

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 75

interest in the Indians, up to the time that they were turned loose to shift for them-
selves, are going to be most disheartened at the result, but wrongly disheartened.
It is with many of these reservations as it is if you take the school of a saintly school-
teacher, like Arnold at Rugby, only not quite so practical. Let him get iil'ty young-
fellows, and keep them with him until they are twenty-one, keep temptations from
them, keep them clean and pure, then turn these fifty loose, as they have got to be
turned loose, and two years afterward he will tell you there has been a great decay,
that they have gone back, that it is dreadful; aud if he is not very wise, he will say
that he ought to have had them kept under him until they were old men. This is a
perfectly just comparison with the Indians 011 the reservations. You take a good,,
kind, wise agent (there are such, in spite of our system of political appointment),
and he takes charge of the Indians. He can make them be good, — they are natu-
rally more docile than the whites, — and he has got the whip hand of them. He has
them going to school. If any one sells them liquor, he gets the man arrested. He
can keep them perfectly straight in every way. Then they are turned loose. It is
absolutely inevitable that there shall be a period of decay^before the new period of
growth, which is going to be permanent, sets in, and it is inevitable that a consid-
erable proportion of the Indians shall get lost in the progress from barbarism to
civilization.

Take the Omahas : there is a great deal of drunkenness among them. I can not
say certainly, but I doubt if the amount of cultivation has gone backward much
during the time they have had land in severalty. I know it has gone forward dur-
ing the last two years. It is now coming up. There are things on that reservation
among those Omahas that I should like to see altered now. But out of twenty
farms I saw one which had sixty acres of corn and grain, a big apple orchard with
very good apples, perhaps forty head of cattle, and a lot of chickens; and I regard,
the chickens as a great Indian civilizer. This Indian had a good house on it; not
built for him by the Government, but built by himself. With his own money, made
by selling his crops, he had bought a mowing machine, hay rake, etc. He was an
unusually good farmer, but there were plenty others like him. He and some others
of his neighbors had joined and hired a threshing machine; and it counts for more
to have a dozen Indians like that, farming, supporting themselves, holding their
own in the world when turned loose, than it does to have a hundred behaving well
at school or on an agency under the supervision of an agent.

One word now about the Episcopal Convocation, as I saw it on the Big Missouri.
By the side of the river lay the Cheyenne Agency, with hundreds of white tepees of
the Indians in long, irregular liues/and in one place in regular lines the tents of a
company of United States Cavalry, themselves all Indians excepting the officers
There were between three and four thousand Indians gathered there to the Episco-
pal convocation. Of course a great many of these Indians had come with no partic-
ular religious feeling, as whites would go to a county fair, but a great many of them
had come with warm religious feeling, and it was infinitely better to have the others
come to the Episcopal convocation than it was to have them go off on a ghost dance.
I was greatly impressed with the address of Bishop Hart himself, and for this
reason : Bishop Hart was warning those people against heathendom, warning them
to do stout battle with the forces of heathendom. I think we usually feel when we
are sitting under an eastern clergyman when he talks abont the heathen, that it
is because he does not like to talk of some other foe that is nearer at hand. But
when we listened to Bishop Hart we were back eighteen centuries, we were attack-
ing a live and terrible foe. Those Indians have to contend with foes — with the
people who disbelieve in their religion, who want them to go back to the condition
of our ancestors two thousand years ago. It is a real, live danger to them. I heard
a great many native clergymen and catechists speak to these Indians, and 1 heard
them afterwards in the convocation meeting, where there were about two hundred
Indians, clerical and lay delegates, present. I will give you one example to show
that it was not mere words or mere profession with, those Indians. There was a
women's meeting, at which I was present. The different women delegates from the
various Sioux tribes were there to the number of several hundred. They were mak-
ing subscriptions to the missionary fund. Now, those women contributed $2,300 to-
missionary work while I was there that afternoon. Think what that means.
Think that they were contributing out of their poverty ; that it meant genuine self-
denial with them. Think also of the sincerity of the religious belief that would
make them contribute. And think what it means as to the spread of civilization
with them. It means that there is a very big leaven in that lump.

I want also to say a few words as to the returned scholars from the schools. In
the first place, I have lived a great many years in the cow country, and I had seen a
^good deal of the ragged edge of the Indian character as well as the white character,
and I had also read in not a few books in reference to the poor character of the
returned graduates of Carlisle and other schools, and I went prepared to believe
them. Now, I die) not find it so. On the contrary, after seeing about two hundred

76 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

graduates in the dift'erent reservations. I feel that the advance is very great. I am
not talking in the air. I have got the names of every one I saw, with his record, on
paper. There are a great many failures. I could instance to yon failure after fail-
ure. I perhaps disappoint the extreme friends of the system when I say that in
probably about half the cases the returned students had not come up to the expec-
tations. Some of them go back to be as bad as they originally were. In very rare
cases they may even grow worse. Others become a little better, but the improve-
ment is slight. But in at least half the cases they turn into self-respecting, honest,
sincere, hard-working men and women, trying according to their lights — lights
which, like our own, are sometimes dim— to do good as they see it, and to live
upright, honest lives. I stopped at one time for dinner at the house of a Carlisle
graduate, Luther Standing Bear; found him married to another Carlisle graduate,
four children, as neat and clean a house as you could wish, four or five books on
the table, among them Headley's " Washington and his Generals." Think what it
means to have an Indian capable of reading and liking those books, and choosing
them as those he cares to have on his table. He was teaching a school of thirty or
forty little Indians, his spotless house a centre of civilizing influence to all the
Indians round about. This seems a trivial incident, but it will show you what I
mean. On his table was pne of the albums that you will see in almost any country
farmhouse. Turning it over you see page after page with "reinemberances and
kind wishes from his friend and classmate" So-and-So. Though it seems a trivial
thing, it shows their union and sympathy ; he received moral aid from others that
were striving to rise as he was striving and rising. Take Three Stars, one of our
own teachers there, with his wife and child, with his perfectly clean house, again
teaching, again a small center of civilization. I saw such cases over and over
again. I do feel very strongly that in our education we ought not to strive to edu-
cate a small number, take them young and take them away from the rest leaving
the rest as they are, bub that we ought to lift the Indian mass just as far as we can.
Every Indian child should be sent to a reservation boarding school, Ifi is a great
deal more important to elevate the mass two feet than to elevate a few ten feet.
Yet we ought not to fail to give a chance to the exceptional individuals. We
ought to give it to them, not only for themselves, but for the good they can do the
others by holding up the standard of ambition.

I also saw something of the working of the law which, though it may work im-
perfectly in some instances, marks the greatest advance we have made in legislation
for the Indians — the severalty law. If I may be pardoned a personal allusion, I am
sure that every man who has had any experience in politics would feel that it would
be an ample reward for any career to be able to go out of service leaving a monu-
ment so beneficent and far reaching in its eii'ects as the severalty law of Senator
Dawes.

In coming to the political side of the question I am hampered by two or three
•considerations. In the first place, I have not reported to the Commissioner, at whose
request I made the journey, upon much that I saw there. In the second place, I am
not willing to speak less strongly than I feel, and if I speak as strongly as I feel
what •! said would be turned to serve partisan ends at this moment. Recently a
friend prominently identified with civil service reform wrote me with reference to
my speaking on some other subject, that he hoped I would not do it, because on the
Civil Service Commission my position was one of judge. I wrote him back that I
•was not a judge; I was a prosecuting attorney with a brief against my own party.
That is literally true. The party that is not inpower can not commit the faults, has not
got the capacity at present, but would like to. The other party is in power and does it.
And when you attack the evils of the party in power you are furnishing ammunition
to their foes. Sometimes that must be done — in the case of political assessments,
for instance. I found on many of the reservations a shameless attempt going on,
by many of the local campaign committees of iny own party, to blackmail the em-
ploye's. I reported at once upon that issue. It was an evil which had to be checked
now, during the campaign. But there are continuing evils. There are evils that
g-» on under one administration and under the next, which are more far-reaching,
though they can not be meaner, than political assessments. Upon this I hope to
make some day a full and complete report. I have collected the documents for a
very interesting object-lesson in one agency, where I got entirely in partibus infide-
lium, and found that the simple-hearted gentlemen had obligingly left records of
their misdeeds behind them. But I can not now go at length, as I trust I shall be
able to do at some future time, into the system of political appointments in the In-
dian service. The agents, who offer the chief problem in the matter, can not be put
under the civil service law. They are appointed by the President and confirmed
by the Senate, and they have to be reached in another way. All I shall say about
them to-night is simply this, that it is infinitely worse when you apply the spoils*
system among Indians than it is among whites. When you change a postmaster for
political reasons, you are acting absurdly, and you are doing a limited amount of

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 77

' harm to the service, and you are doing a great deal to debanch political life. But
you can not materially damage the service very much, or materially, as distinguished
from morally, damage the community, because the community will not stand it.
But when you change an Indian agent, when you appoint one for political reasons
only, you do incredible harm. You appoint him over men who can not protect
themselves. The whites of a given community can prevent grave wrongs being
done them : an Jndian can not. We must have, if we are going to have a thoroughly
efficient Indian service, some system by which we shall get continuity of service
among the Indian agents, by which the' Indian agent shall not be changed every
four years, — no, nor every twelve years, if he is doing good work — by which he
shall be appointed wholly without reference to the needs of any politician who
thinks he has not got enough of patronage. And we must have the American
people thoroughly awakened to the fact that the system of appointing and chang-
ing agents with small regard to their fitness, and chiefly with regard to political
expediency, is a " system " of systematic outrage.

After a song by Mrs. Hector Hall, of Troy, Miss Fletcher was asked to continue
the subject ot civil service reform.

Miss FLETCHER. It seems as if there were very little left that could be said.
Only one little thing, perhaps, comes out of this observation, which I have
had in the field and the definite work with the people, living with them,
standing beside them, and facing to the east, from whence come the laws, from
whence comes all that is to help or to hinder. I should like to have a civil
service reform which would sweep away the agent altogether. There are a
great many cases where an advisory friend is helpful, and there are piaces still
where the Indian agent can be useful. But the system — a system grown up of
experiments, a makeshift system, born of ignorance and misapprehension— has
very largely become effete and hurtful. When the Indian citizen is aroused, by
receiving his proportion of his hereditary land, aroused to the activities of inde-
pendent action, it is a discouragement, it is a hurt — a hurt that often maims him for
life — to strike against the agent and the agency system. Yet there is need of a coun-
seling, helpful friend, and 1 think a suggestion that has been made by the Commis-
sioner of Indiali Affairs is practical and helpful in this matter; that in cases where
it would be well to dispense with the agent, the school superintendent should be
endowed with new duties, and that he and the school should become the center of
helpfulness all along the lines of the Indian's new life. It does, perhaps, seem to
you a little chimerical ; but I am not speaking at random. I am speaking in sober
earnest, from the observation of the working of this system. The Indian has not
been instructed in our forms of government heretofore. It has been a one-man rule.
It has not been constituted law ; nor has there been anything to teach him what our
methods of government stand for, and how we aim to govern ourselves through laws
which we have a voice, some of us, in framing, and in choosing the administrators.
Therefore, the Indian finds himself called into citizenship without the means, the
power, the authority, and without a chance to exercise his own functions; for there
stands the agent, and there stand all the old familiar officials, and there is all the
precedent of office, and there is very little change except in the name. I know it to
be hurtful in many instances. I grant you that, if you take away the agent, in cer-
tain places, dangers are going to creep in. But they are the dangers of life. I would
rather have life and some dangers than absolute death. There is a chance with life.
I am not afraid of the things which the new law brings to the Indian, in the long
run. He is going to have a hard trial, and there is no escaping it. It is not best
that he should escape it. We should give him the chance which the change of gov-
ernment environment would give him, which is impossible while you hold the agent
over him. There are a good many problems which arise out of the operation of the
law. There are some of them — very important ones for the Indian — that are slow
in reaching the apprehension of the friends in the East. For, when they reach the
rnind of the East, it will be more possible for the intelligent and earnest men who
are at the head of affairs to put in execution many of the things they would desire
to do, but which can not be done without the support of public opinion.

1 do not approve of the interpretation of the clause that money due to Indians
who are allotted shall be expended for them by the Secretary of the Interior. The
time has gone by for that sort of thing. I do believe in cash payments. I believe
in giving the Indian a chance to learn, and he can not learn until he has the op-
portunity to make some experiments. He can never learn to be judicious in his ex-
penditures until he has something to spend. When, therefore, you have Indians
sufficiently advanced to call them up as citizens of the United States, I do not believe
in money that is due them being expended for them by the Secretary — which means
being spent in purchases of articles which sometimes they want, and more often
they do not. I do believe in giving it in cash payments. There is a great deal of
prejudice against it. Just as there is a notion that an Indian will not work, there
is this same notion that he can not manage money affairs. He can. I want to see

78 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

the allotted Indian given a chance. I want to see less work done for him and more'
done by himself. That is the civil-service reform that I am desirous to see among
the Indians.

Mr. E. H. Clement, the editor of the Boston Transcript, was asked to speak on the
same subject.

Mr. CLEMENT. The Indian agent, it seems to me, is a survival in our age of the
absolute power of the old feudal lord in his inaccessible crag or desert. No man
outs'.de Russia, I suppose, in modern society, holds in his hands to-day the fate* of
so many men, women, and children, without check and without law that is effective.
And yet this man, this person charged with such enormous and such difficult and
delicate work for humanity, is any politician who is out of a job ! It is something
monstrous to think of. It is something so outrageous that it seems to me as if, as
the culminating outrages of the old regime in France hastened on the revolution, this
must hasten on the extinction of that odious system of political spoils. The most
impressive failure of the late administration was the clean sweep in the Indian
agents. And it is a little discouraging to find that the same clean sweep has been
made a second time.

What we have to do with the Indians is to send them our highest types of char-
acter and morals, and then the task is hard enough, A lively thrill went through
our eastern communities the other day when we read of the ''Daltoii Boys, "who
rode into a country town, proceeded to rifle the banks, and make off with the money .
I thought then, if those Dalton boys, who are fair types of a considerable class of
the population in the West, could do this in an organized town, and do it to the pow-
erful class of bankers, what must that same class have been doing to the poor de-
fenceless Indians ? What chance have the Indians not only to learn decency, but
even to save themselves and their children from wrong and wickedness and iniquity,
such as is suggested to such vile and violent characters? It seems to me that the
hideous and hateful wrong, the appointment by government of men a little above
such characters, who rob by methods of law -instead of by open violence, is so hid-
eous and hateful that, as I say, it will hasten on, and in that way contribute vastly
to the triumph of, our much desired civil service reform. As the Bible says, "The
wrath of man shall praise Him. •" «

President GATES. Mr. Roosevelt has asked for a few minutes in which to finish a
p'oint that he had in mind, but did not touch upon fully.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. 1 want to say a word in warm corroboration of what Miss Fletcher
said in reference to making the Indian stand on his own feet. Too many of our very

food people do as much harm to the Indian as his foes do, by persisting in carrying
im. A discouraging feature in visiting the agencies is that the Indians always
want to have a council with you; and in the council they never do anything but
ask, ask, ask. And too many of our people will promise them things, or will say
that the government ought to do this or that for them, and will encourage them to
believe that they are to be helped and will net have to shift for themselves. We
have got to make them citizens. We have got to make them understand that they
have to sink or swim on their own merits. It is all right to dwell upon how ill we
have treated them when we are trying to influence our own people; but with them
it is a mistake.

In reference ;to taking lands from the Indians, it has been by no means the uniform
record of injustice on the part of this country that people make out. Mind you, most
of the land that we have taken has been land not that the Indians owned, but that
they occupied. We have bought land from Russia, France, Spain. I have compared
the sums we paid those great powers for Florida, Louisiana, Alaska, with what we
paid to Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Osage, and Sioux. We have paid ten and fifteen times
as much in proportion to the Indian as to the foreign whites. While I would never
say one word in extenuation of the outrages really committed, we must bear in mind,
too, that, as a people, we have striven, haltingly and blunderingly, to do the best
we could with the Indians. We are often taunted with the fact that we have not
done as well as Canada. Well, Canada had two rebellions of half-breeds in her
territory. We have not had any in ours. It would be foolish to say, therefore, that
we know how to deal with half-breeds better than Canada. We have a difficult
Indian problem; they have not. And there have been no such outrages by govern-
ment with us as have been attributed to the French in Algiers, and, but the other
day, to the Germans in New Guinea. The Indian can largely stand by himself after
he has been shown the way. I have seen this on my own ranch. Moreover, the
Indian has enormous advantages over the Negro in that he does not have to fight
against so inveterate a race prejudice. And, after visiting the agencies, I have be-
come rather a convert to that by no means always attractive specimen of the white
race, the squaw-man. The squaw-man at least opens a chance for rising to Indians
that they would not otherwise have. I have noticed that every returned Carlisle or
other girl student who married a squaw-man has kept up in the world, even if the
man would not be, from our standpoint, a particularly attractive matrimonial ven-

REPORT OF THE HOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 7V)

tare. He is glad to see his wife clean, lie has two or three rooms in his house— a
bedroom separate from the kitchen, which is one of the things that we are striving
most for in making the Indians build new houses. He is glad to see the children
dressed well, and taught as white children would be. He gives her a chance to use
the gifts she has received at school. And this is everything for her. Yon can not
form any idea of the terrible thing it is tor a girl who has been eight or ten years at
a non-reservation school to be thrown back into the life of the tepee — the life of the
wild Indian. It, is something to which they ought never to be exposed.

I have seen many Indians, pure bloods and mixed bloods, who have risen in the
world by their own efforts. One instance comes to my mind of a Chippewa half-
breed who lived near my ranch. Any one who has been in the cow country knows
that the one thing yon can never get on a ranch is milk. This Chippewa borrowed
several cows, and started el little milk-ranch, and made a good deal of money. He
got along admirably for three years, until he discovered a gold mine, when, of course,
he lost everything. Afterwards he came back to his cows, and did very well again.

Now, in closing, let me say one thing. People say we must solve the Indian pro-
blem, and they speak as if you could solve it by some single definite act. It is the
same habit of mind that makes a great many people demand reform, as if it were a
concrete substance that could be handed out. The Indian problem is to be solved by
no one step. We can help forward its solution infinitely, and no body does so much
to help this solution as this which I have the honor of addressing. But it is being-
solved all the time — by a law here, by an administrative act there, and by the exer-
tions of a very great many disinterested men and women serving in many different
positions. There is no one man who will solve the Indian problem. There are a
number, all of whom are doing it. They are men and women who have devoted
thought and time and labor, at the cost of loss and inconvenience to themselves,
striving all they could to benefit the race that originally owned this country.

Lieut. W. W. Wotherspoon was asked to give some account of the Apache pris-
oners at Mount Vernoii, in Alabama. %

Lieut. WOTHERSPOON. I have been asked, in speaking of the Apaches, to go over
some of the same ground that I covered last year, because some may be unfamiliar
Avith it. This band of Apaches kept Arizona and New Mexico literally flowing with
blood for nearly twenty years. Their position under the Government is somewhat
unique. They are prisoners of war, captured red-handed, and turned over to the
military authorities to be kept out of harm's way. They were first sent to St. Au-
gustine ; but they were put into the casemate there, and consumption became very
prevalent. So they were transferred to Mount Veruon, in Alabama.

I had known these people incidentally for nearly twenty years before I was put in
charge of them at Mount Vernon ; and a more intractable band were supposed never
to have lived in this country. Their hand was against every man, — against other
tribes of Apaches as well as the whites. The very name of their chief was enough
to frighten the children. They had very long hair, their heads bound with fillets of
red flannel, their faces painted. They had no shoes. They were living in little
hovels or log huts that they constructed by themselves. They were melancholy and
depressed. It was a very difficult problem to know what to do with them.

My only order, at first, was that hereafter there were to be no more talks, no more
councils. I told them that the business of their lives now must be work, and that
the work must be its reward. I announced, "If you will work, and work for
wages, you shall have those wages, to waste or to spend as you choose." An In-
dian can never be taught to be a citizen until he knows the value of citizenship ;
and the value of labor comes in the fruits of labor. Some of them cut wood, some
cut sawlogs, they worked on the railroads, or at carpentry ; and the only method
pursued in inducing them into civilzatiou was that they must labor for some one —
among themselves under my direction, if they could not find profitable labor out-
side. They were free to go wherever they wanted to, and, though they were pris-
oners, I said, "Whenever you earn enough money to go anywhere or do anything,
you may do it."

I'have had charge of these people for two years and a half, and their present con-
dition is this : Their hair has been cut, they are completely clothed, they wear shoes,
they are like any other people in Alabama, only a little better, and behave better.
They have built a village of a hundred houses. They have gardens, and have raised
tons of vegetables, sold them, and kept the price. They have dug wells. They
cook upon stoves. They dine off tables. They have done all this without instruc-
tion, except in the laying out of their buildings. I never allow them to say they
can not do a thing; I show them how to do it, and they do it. ''The only cent of
money I have received from the United States for the support of these people has
been about five thousand dollars, which was appropriated for nails and timber.
Out of that they have built an entire town. Geronimo, the blood-thirsty .old chief-
tain, I appointed a justice of the peace. Chihuahua is janitor of "the school.
Naiche is head gardener, assisted by the old men who are unable to do manual labor.

80 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Most of the warriors are now United States soldiers. I have a company of seventy-
eight of them ; and better soldiers, more reliable, more faithful, more intelligent, I
have never seen. They all sign their muster rolls, and keep their own accounts.
As a crucial experiment, last year I applied to the War Department to allow me to
march them through the country, and keep them two or three days in the city of
Mobile, to see if they could stand the temptations of civilized life. I told them,
that any who transgressed would be punished by military law. I marched into
Mobile on Saturday night. They had started Avith $277 of pay, besides money
accumulated from their labor : and those seventy-eight Indians were turned loose
in the town. Four of them got drunk, and were put in the guardhouse. The rest
came back to camp periectlyX sober. They spent three days there, bought any
amount of trash which they took home to their wives and children, and then
marched home, as clean and sober a lot of men as I have Vrver seen. I have many a
time marched into a city with white troops, and I never saw any sober ones come
out.

Those men are now their own company cooks. They have regular inspection, and
their quarters are immaculately clean. The only thing that is discouraging is the
prevalence of consumption among them. Whether it is that the Indian can not be
observed until he gets into a permanent habitation, or whether it is the permanent
habitation which produces consumption, I am unable to say. But I have estab-
lished a system by which every house in the village is inspected twice a week, all
clothing has to be washed and hung out, all the houses immaculately clean. All
the Indian dances have been stopped, in order that the children who are going to
school may grow up without the traditional influences of the savage dances. This
is a brief history of my connection with them.

I have been asked to tell about the strike. These Indians have learned, as I have
said, to build their houses. Six or seven of them were engaged in building a house,
with white and negro laborers. The negroes and white men struck, and refused to
work with India* s. The Indians came to me in great distress. I said, "Go and
build the house yourself, and I will superintend the job." They built the house, and
made about $1.75 a day instead of $2, as they had expected at first. Then I said,
"When you have got any dispute of that kind, go and offer to do the work less than
the other man does. When you can meet the white man and the negro in his own
market and compete with him, and give as good service for the money as he can,
then you will have solved the Indian problem."

ProY. PAINTER. Is there a future home for them in Alabama?

' Lieut. WOTHERSPOOX. That I do not know. The land in Alabama is exceedingly
poor, and has to be fertilized constantly to produce anything. The cutting oif of
the timber from the uplands has left the country almost bare. I rather think it
would be in the interest of education that they should stay there rather than to be
put on more fertile lands.- By and by they will find that the profit lies in mechani-
cal labor, and not in farming.

Mr. SMILEY. Ten years ago Gen. Whittlesey and I went down and saw those very
men at the San Carlos Agency. There was a large body of troops surrounding them ;
and yet the whole country round was in terror of their lives, and thought every one
of them ought to be shot, and there was no hope for any Indians at all. General
Whittlesey and I discussed whether there was any hope for those men. We held a
council with them, and talked for an hour or two. They asked for work : they had
nothing to do. Geronimo begged that we would let him have some land where he
could go to work and earn his living; and I felt that that was the solution.

Hon. EDWARD L. PIERCE. Miss Fletcher contends, as I understand her, for the
abolition of the office of Indian agent ; and we all appreciate the force of what she
has said in that direction. But I apprehend that protectors of Indians in some form,
whether as agents, superintendents, or called by some other name, can not soon be
dispensed with for some of the tribes. They serve the purpose which the officers of
the Freedmen's Bureau— that "bridge from slavery to freedom"— did for the eman-
cipated negroes.

The discussion has, however, wandered this evening from the appointed toprc—
civil service reform in the Indian Department ; and it would be well to keep to it
for the time which remains. I desire to call attention to an indictment against the
administration, recently put forth in a political address in Massachusetts, signed by
a large number of gentlemen, many of whom are distinguished as professors in col-
leges, merchants, and lawyers. It is as follows:

CORRUPTION IN THE INDIAN SERVICE.

"In the Indian service the same system was adopted; and the offices, created for
the purpose of securing the proper performance of our country's duty to its unhappy
wards, were given to the senators from the new States as a reward for past or the
price of future political support. This was done against the protest of every friend

REPORT OF, THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 81

of the Indians; and it resulted in tin- general demoralization of the service and the
disgraceful Indian outbreak at Pine Ridge, which cost the country more in money
and honor than years of faithful administration can restore. The public feeling
which this outbreak created compelled the President to place the physicians, school
superintendents, teachers, and matrons of the Indian servici — a small percentage
of the total force — under the civil service rules; but the other places, the most num-
erous and valuable pieces of spoil, are still reserved to be used as political bribes. v

1 give no ccmntenauce to these charges by producing them here; but I think they
should be met by gentlemen present who are advised of the facts, and can deny the
charges authoritatively if they are untrue.

I will say one word further. If I understand the present system as stated here,
it is that a Democratic President appoints only Democratic Indian agents (meaning
to appoint only good men, however], and that a Republican President appoints only
Republican Indian agents (meaning also to appoint only good men). Now, what-
ever may be thought best in other branches of the public service, it seems to me ail-
important that the Indian Department, whether under civil service rules or not,
ought to be absolutely divorced from politics, and that all its officers, agents, and
employees should be appointed to and continued in office without the slightest
reference to their political beliefs or connections. This conference ought in some
way, within two weeks after March 4, 1893, to signify its opinion on this subject in
the plainest and most emphatic terms to the incoming administration, whichever
party shall prevail.

Gen. MOUUAX. I would like to say a word on this subject. First, the outbreak
at Pine Ridge was not due to political appointments. It was brought about largely
by the inefficiency of the agent, who had been' thene for years, who was removed
because he was unfitted for the place, not because of his political principles. The
outbreak was precipitated by a combination of circumstances that could not be
foreseen or prevented, and is" not chargeable to the change that was made in the
agent.

A statement is made that the Pine Ridge outbreak forced upon the administra-
tion the extension of the civil service rules over a part of the Indian service, leaving
a large part still under the spoils system. In the first place, the statement is not
true. In the second place, when we came to discuss the question of this extension
of the civil service rules, I talked it over with the Civil Service Commissioners, hour
by hour and day after day. We said: " The Indian service extends from the Atlan-
tic to the Pacific. These agents are away on the reservations : it is difficult to reach
them, and expensive. Their salaries are small; the deprivations are many. Let us
not break down a reform by loading it with a burden that it can not carry. It is
possible to begin with the superintendents and. teachers, the matrons and physi-
cians." I said, ''Is there any other class of the employees of the Indian service
that it is safe to bring under the rules?" The Commissioners said, "No." When
the matter was laid before the President, with great satisfaction he adopted the
recommendations. If we had asked him to go further lam sure he would have done
so. If the reform has not gone further, I am to blame.

President GATES. That is a clear answer to several of these allegations. But can
we avoid the wish that the President would go one step farther? The civil service
regulations can not be extended to cover the appointment of agents. But in the
appointment of agents, under the cover of what is called uhome rule," have we not
often seen worthless men, without experience, put into office as agents at the demand
of local politicians, displacing agents of experience and capacity whose "term had
expired !" What reason is there why an agent who proves himself capable and use-
ful should be lost to the service under the pretext of an expiring " term" merely
because he is of a different party from 'hat of the administration in power? When-
ever the President of the United States wishes to rise above partisanship and put an
end to this abuse he has full power to do so.

I have profound respect for President Harrison and his attitude toward this re-
form ; so I had for President Cleveland, and his professions of interest in this re-
form. Whichever of these two candidates may this fall be elected, we shall have a
President of right purpose toward Indian affairs. But during Mr. Cleveland's ad-
ministration Indian agents were put out of office, until only three or four who were
in place when that administration began were left in office. The best men were dis-
placed repeatedly, on manifestly partisan grounds. I regretto say, with all nay con-
fidence in President Harrison's good intentions, that the facts are almost the same
now. We have only two or three agents left who were in office at the close of the
administration of Mr. Cleveland. The time has come for this to stop. Good agents
who are in office ought to stay in. It ought to be impossible to put a good man out
to make room for a local politician of the other party, at the demand of local poli-
ticians. The method is essentially evil.

Gen. MORHAX. Any President who undertakes to handle the offices of this coun-
try is met with a condition of things that he is almost powerless to control. Reforms
14409 6

82 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

must come from the people, from public sentiment. They must come from changed
condition in our public life itself. It is impossible for any man to withstand the
tremendous pressure of public opinion that forces upon him a change which is not
forbidden by law.

President GATES. On the contrary, I believe that to withstand civil pressure is
precisely what a good President is for.

Gen. MORGAN. 1 am not here to defend the spoils system. I am not here to plead
for politics in the Indian system. I abominate it. I believe that we ought to strike
at the root of this matter. But the present administration has taken great pains in
sifting the men who are proposed and in getting the best that the system will allow.
And under it the personnel of the Indian service has been improved fifty per cent.
Again, you can not tell who will make a good agent till you have tried him. No
system will secure it. Civil service will not secure it. Nothing will but experience.
And the President, when his appointees have proved incompetent, has in several
instances turned them out.

Finally, taking the Indian agents as a body, and considering the salary, the
temptations, the surroundings, and all the circumstances, I believe they will bear
comparison with the bank presidents or the bank cashiers, with the army officers
or the postmasters, or with any class of men in the country. That is a radical state-
ment, but I believe it will bear the test.

President GATES. Now let us get the law into such form that when agents of this
desirable kind have been appointed, when they have shown their fitness, and when
the principles we labor to express are being Worked out, those men shall stay, and
shall not be put out to make room for the " statesmen out of a job" who are pressed
by local politicians upon the attention of a President who will not say no. For eight
years we have met here, and constantly the testimony has been, " We fail in all our
efforts toward reform, because as soon as a good man gets well at work he is dis-
placed.7' Lieut. Wotherspoou is doing now just what Gen. Milroy was doing eight
years ago. He had the same system well organized seven yeais ago, when he was
displaced on political grounds. This is not an arraignment of any administration.
It is a criticism of a method. It is folly for us to meet here and talk of general prin-
ciples, unless we have enough of the courage of our convictions to denounce partic-
ular wrongs. I think there is a duty to patriotism that is above petty allegiance.
"We should deliver ourselves clearly on this subject, otherwise our meetings are folly.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. I did not intend to touch on this subject, but the article Mr.
Pierce has read is a piece of such foul injustice that I must protest against it. And,
making that protest, I shall also be bound in honor to go on and speak more strongly
in the line of what Mr. Gates has said than I had expected to speak to-night.

In reference to the outbreak at Pine Ridge, the trouble came partly from ghost-
dancing and shortage of food, with which no change of agents could have anything
to do. It is true, however, that there would have been a good chance of averting it
had it not been for the spoils system. But the good agent who was removed was
McGillicuddy, who was removed by Cleveland and Gallagher put in his place. When
he was removed, I am bound to say that a man even worse was put in. But this
was just as the outbreak took place, and when it was too late to stop it. I am not
defending the present administration, but it is entirely untrue to imply, as this arti-
cle does, that the agency service has been debauched under this administration more
than under the last.

You have all doubtless read, in "Alice Through the Looking-Glass," the ballad/of
"The Walrus and the Carpenter." Do you remember Alice said afterward, " I like
the walrus best, because you see he was a little sorry for the poor oysters." "He
ate more than the carpenter, though," said Tweedledee. " You see he held his hand-
kerchief in front, so that the carpenter couldn't see how many he took." "That
was mean," said Alice. " Then I like the carpenter best, if he didn't eat so many as
the walrus." "But he ate as many as he could get," said Tweedledum. "Well,"
said Alice, "they were both very unpleasant characters."

In the matter of the Indian agency service I have not a word to say in defense of
/the present administration, except to demand, in the name of common justice, that
one party be not attacked in contrast with another whose record is just as black.
But as to the remainder of the Indian service, we have gone forward under this
administration, whereas no advance was made under the last. We have included
all the educational branches in the classified service, and every word that Gen. Mor-
gan has said with reference to that is true. We have advanced, but the main ques-
tion— that of appointing and removing agents — we can not touch by the civil service
law. I can not say that I agree with Gen. Morgan in his estimate of the average
civilian agent as he now is. That he does not compare well with the average bank
president is not to be wondered at. If you took as president of a bank the best man
presented out of a tolerably scaly lot (presented, too, out of a lot of men who never
call themselves " the President's appointment," but " Senator A's man," or say, " Yes,
B got me in;" or "I was B's man, and Tompkins was Z's man, and finally they
agreed that I should have the agency and Tompkius should have the chief clerk-

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 83

ship''); if you appointed your bunk president on the recommendation of irrespon-
sible or outside politicians, a, ml then let him understand that no matter how well he
did he would go out at the end of four years, you would lower the level of baiik
presidents pretty rapidly. We might get the best men iuto the service if we could
guarantee continuity of service during good behavior, and, as the Commissioner says,
the civil-service law can not cover that. Let us do away with a system which, when
we do get good men, eliminates them from the service, and as a first step toward
this, let us heartily condemn the removal or nonreappointment of good agents, uo
matter under which administration it occurs, and condemn no less heartily the ap-
pointment of unfit agents or of agents for political reasons.

Senator DAWKS. I claim to have had some experience with the Indian agents —
fifty-eight of them — for fourteen years. There has not been an agent appointed who
has not received the commendation of every member of the Indian committee of the
Senate, the members of which are equally divided among the two parties. I do not
remember a single political division on any question in that committee. They be-
lieved these men were fit men for the places, just as the Presidents believed they
were when they nominated them. And though it is true that the Presidents and
the members of the Indian committee equally have made sad mistakes, still they be-
lieved, from the information they had at the time, that — for the meager compensa-
tion that is given a man to go out from civilized life and make a home among sav-
ages— they had appointed the best they could. The Indian committee and its
chairman for the last fourteen years are just as responsible for those mistakes as any
President has been. When men understand the beginning and the end, the detail
and the ramifications of this affair, they will be more moderate in denouncing uni-
versally and without discrimination the Indian service.

President GATES. No one believes that any committee or any President can avoid
making occasional mistakes; and if any of us denounce occasional errors as crim-
inal, we must be most unreasonable. The point that we raise is this : When it is
perfectly obvious that a good i^au is in office as agent, why should the mere fact that
he has been four years in the service — a fact which increases his value to the service —
be made the pretext for his removal? In the name of justice and decency, let such
a man be reappointed, irrespective of his party relations.

Mr. SMILEY. I think the injury done to the Indian service in the matter of agents
is mainly in changing. An agent is appointed for four years. At the end of the
term he has a large amount of experience. That experience is more important to
the Indian service than in any other branch of service. A postmaster can learn his
business in six months, at longest; but an Indian agent can not learn his without
two or three years of training. It is the most absurd thing possible for an able and
conscientious and experienced man at the end of four years to be displaced because
he is not of the right party. Mr. Eels, near Tacoma, a most excellent man, and Mr.
McLaughliu, up in Dakota, have been kept in, in spite of the protests of party
leaders, by a strong public sentiment which protested against their removal. But
others have been removed who were excellent men, or, if not strictly removed, not
reappointed when their term expired. Such men should be reappointed in every
instance.

Senator DAWKS. That is perfectly true.

Mrs. QUIXTOX. Gen. Morgan lias told us that the President was willing to go as
far in the reform of the Indian service as he was asked. Why may not this confer-
ence ask that the nomination of Indian agents be taken out of politics altogether,
and put into the hands of the Board of Indian Commissioners, they to nominate only
such as are fit for the place, and to keep them in office during good behavior.

Dr. Elliuwood presented the following telegram, and moved that it be sent by
the conference to President Harrison :

"The Mohouk conference, mindful that the home of the Chief Magistrate of the
nation is darkened by the presence of severe and dangerous illness, desires to ex-
press its heartfelt sympathy with President Harrison, and especially with his suf-
fering wife. It is the prayer of the conference that, if possible, recovery, and in
any event abundant grace, may be given."

the telegram was adopted, and ordered sent by a unanimous vote of the members.

President GATES. \Ve are to listen now to a poem which is to be national in its
connection with the celebration at Chicago. We have had the delight of hearing
from Miss Proct r before. We all know that charming scene in "Hiawatha," where
the apostle of all that is good for his people, the bringer-in of higher forms of life,
has the wrestling match with tlie green-clad brave, and after his victory buries his
antagonist, from whose grave the corn springs up, emblem at once of the higher or-
der to be expected on this continent and of the Indian's relation with the new order
of life. Miss Proctor has written a poem, known as the " Corn Song/' and adopted
for the festival to which I have alluded at Chicago ; and she has kindly promised to
recite it to us to-night.

Miss Edna Dean Proctor then recited the "Corn Song," and also her ballad, " The
Banner of Columbus."

84 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

FIFTH SESSION.

FRIDAY MORNING, October 14.

The conference was called to order at 10 a. in. by Mr. Smiley, after prayer by
President J. M. Taylor, D. D., of Yassar College.

Mr. Smiley announced that President Gates had been called away by imperative
duty elsewhere, and nominated Hon. Philip C. Garrett as chairman of the conference
during the remaining sessions. Mr. Garrett was unanimously elected.

Mr. Garrett, on taking the chair, announced the subject of the morning to be
"Law for the Indians."

He wished lirst, however, to make the announcement that Mr. Shipley, of Cincin-
nati, a member of the conference, had been interested by the proposal to establish a
Mohonk fund for the education of bright Indian pupils, and had offered to support
one Indian boy at an Eastern college. This generous offer he thought it proper to
mention, and would refer it to the committee on the fund.

Mr. Ginn, for the committee, said that the list was open, and $1,600 had already
been received; $5,000 could be used to advantage this year.

Gen. MORGAN. I rejoice in the creation of this fund. If the committee wish to
throw it open to competition to the pupils of the various Government and church
schools, the Indian Office will gladly cooperate in securing information so that those
who are selected to be beneficiaries shall be of the highest types thus far produced.

Mr. Garrett then read the report of the law committee, as follows :

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LAW.

A committee was appointed at the last conference to inquire into the expediency
and practicability of securing certain legislation on behalf of the Indians. There
has been no opportunity for any conference of the members of that committee. Mr.
Stimson, who has just arrived, will present his own views. Two other members are
present, and from a fourth we have received a written communication; and this, as
well as suggestions from Prof. Thayer and Dr. Lyman Abbott, will be partly
embodied in the following report. They concur in the opinions previously expressed
that some legislation is needed to provide the reservation Indians with courts of
justice. As regards the measure known as the Thayer bill, it is not the wish of Mr.
Thayer, nor their opinion, that this particular draft of a law should be pressed. It
is true, as is alleged by opponents of this legislation, that the most effectual remedy
for the present lack of law is the entire obliteration of the reservations and the
bringing of all these Indians under the laws of the several States. But we think
the present Commissioner's estimate of the rapidity with which this can be accom-
plished is not likely to be realized. It will probably be ten, and perhaps twenty,
years before all of them are brought into this relation; and in the meantime there
will be considerable bodies of Indians entitled to the benefit of law, and deprived
of it unless some provision is made. A judge of the circuit court of the United
States in Montana in June last, in holding a Flathead Indian not punishable for an
assault with intent to murder committed upon another member of his tribe on the
reservation, had to express his regret that (i an 'adequate and proper code of laws has
not yet been enacted by Congress " for the government of the Indians.* The present
legislation covers very few crimes, and the present courts of Indian offenses are en-
tirely inadequate to the demands of the situation. Even if Congress is not yet
prepared to enact laws for the protection of the Indians, there ought to be some
legislation providing a better system of government for them. The agency system
is too despotic, without important modification, even for their present stage of ad-
vancement toward civilization, and should be replaced by something more demo-
cratic and consistent with free institutions.

A short code should be provided, affixing penalties, among other things, for ghost
dances and other barbarous rites; providing that an Indian who kills another man,
whether white or Indian, shall be punishable for murder; prohibiting wars, either
against the United States or with other tribes ; and providing that those who engage
in them, or incite to them, will be punished individually for engaging in, or inciting
to, riot, murder, or treason.

Whatever legislation can be had of this character ought to be obtained without
undue delay. An interview with the leading Senator and member of the Committee
on Indian Affairs, last January, indicated a probability that any such legislation
would have to be on the lines of the present Indian courts, and that Congress would
not be likely to pass any measure involving a more elaborate or expensive system.
He had been working on such a measure, and had given much thought to it, and we
understood that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs was assisting in drawing up such

* I'liittil States v. liarnaby, 51 Fed. Hep., 20.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 85

a scheme ; but no bill has as yet been introduced into Congress from that source. The
bill which has been prepared by our colleague, Mr. Stimson, has been introduced in
the lower house and committed. Whatever measure, at the same time adequate arid
practicable, shall be put on its passage in Congress, we think the Mohonk confer-
ence should give to it support and aid. Reject every bill yet proposed, if you please,
but let us have something. •

As to the proposition referred to at the last conference for the assumption by the
United States Government of municipal taxes and expenses incurred on allotted In-
dian lands -during the twenty-live years' probationary tenure by them of these lauds,
a bill providing for this assumption was introduced in the Senate during the last
session, but did not reach its passage. A declaration by the conference in favor of
this bill, we think, would be timely and in the direction of thought advocated here.
It is further suggested whether it would not be feasible to provide that Indians
not citizens might in all cases appeal to the federal courts, and might have proceed-
ings against themselves, whether civil or criminal, removed into the federal courts.
With these suggestions to the conference, we leave the subject to your discussion.

A communication was received from Charles R. Lawson, trial justice at Sautee
Agency, Nebr., giving a detailed account of twenty-five cases tried before him, show-
ing the great difficulties incident to administering justice on an Indian reservation
where most of the Indians are in an advanced state of civilization, and are living on
their allotments. It showed the difficulties of educating the Indians up to the
understanding of their duties as witnesses and their obligations under the law, and,
on the other hand, made it clear that unless some means be provided for paying the
Indian's proportion of the expenses of the courts, the courts will not be open to him.

Mr. GARRETT. I will call first upon Mr. F. J. Stimson to address the conference
on the subject of this report and on the special measure drafted by him and intro-
duced into the House.

Mr. STIMSON. I am going to ask the conference, first, to do as to this subject
what we did after the last meeting. As you have just heard from Mr. Garrett, the
Thayer bill seems to have met with criticism, as being too cumbrous. We ceased,
therefore, to concern ourselves with that measure. We then put ourselves in the
position of taking the matter up as if it had. been untouched, and that is what I
should like to do now.

Let us assume, then, that the question has come up for the first time. There is
no Thayer bill; no bills have been suggested. We have every right to take every
principle as a new one. 1 will assume as an axiom, to begin with, that law is a good
thing for a people that we hope to civilize. We all know that our civilization is
based on la\v; our communities differ from those of savages in no other* important
particular.

The next thing to refer to is the question of the reservation system, possibly very
soon to come to an end. We should not attempt any system of legislation for
courts and laws if all the reservations are to come to an end in two or four years, and
if they are really going to be constituent parts of the States and Territories in which
they lie. As to this I ran only state my honest conclusion, that probably it will not
be in four years, or even in ten, and possibly* not in twenty. That is the first .assump-
tion that I feel bound to make, because I freely admit that, if the reservations are
to be thrown open in two or four years, all I have to say further has no bearing.

In the second place, I wish to note that, even should many of the reservations
come to an end more promptly than we think, there is a great deal of doubt in every
practical lawyer's mind as to whether the allotment act and the reservation being
thrown open' is really going to result, soon or even in a number of years, in the
incorporation of the reservation as a part of the State. We doubt whether the
State will throw the protection of its machinery of its law over these reservations.
We hear, 011 the one hand, from Miss Fletcher, that it has been done in South Da-
kota in one instance. On the other hand, I am told by Mr. Painter that it has not
generally been done; and I know from my own observation, in Wisconsin and else-
where, that even twenty or thirty years after a State really became a prosperous
modern commonwealth the Indians on the reservation have really no law as to their
property rights. We all know the expense of carrying on a civilized government —
that sheriffs and sheriffs' officers and court rooms and jails must be paid for. Pro-
bate courts, records, and all that are expensive. ' Even now in the western counties
almost the first thing they have to do is to issue county bonds, perhaps to pay for
these very appliances which we expect the Indians to get. We know also that the
Indian counties that are now reservations could not issue such county bonds, that
they do not, in fact, pay taxes. We are familiar with the local jealousy which
arouses white man against Indian, and with his reluctance to expend any portion of
his own money raised by the taxes in improving their condition. Therefore, it seems
to me, that it is not certain that even the allotment of the reservations in severalty
will at once solve the question. I think, as was shown by Mr. Painter, that we need
most to introduce the protection of the law-making power, not only and not chiefly

86 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

for criminal matters, but to protect them in their beginnings of civilization, in their
acquirement of property and their use of it, in making contracts with each other,
and against the whites on the reservation. Therefore, I think it is clear that it
would be wise, at least, to inquire very carefully whether some system of courts and
laws should not be established, provided it can be done without being on the one
hand too complex, too cumbrous, too expensive, or, on the other hand, without
making what has been termed a new kind of excrescence on our general legal system.
I feel very strongly that there should be nothing in the nature of special legislation
for the Indians.

Starting with these two points, I tried, with the valuable assistance of Senator
Dawes, to sketch out something which would fulfil the two conditions, and which
would be so elastic that it would be entirely tentative — which would enable the execu-
tive power to try the experiment on one reservation, and then drop the whole matter
if it did not work.

There would be no objection, perhaps, to making the federal district judges-
judges also over reservations, giving them jurisdiction, both original in important
matters and by appeal in matters which were not so important- At the time when
the subject of law was first discussed we all remember that there were many Terri-
tories and unorganized sections of the country where there were no federal district
courts. Now, these courts exist in every State, but still there are large geographical
sections which could not be covered by the federal district court system with rea-
sonable convenience to the Indian. Therefore, I think it might become necessary
not to contine ourselves merely to the district courts, but to enable the President to
build on them by creating some judges in such places as he or the Senate might deem
•wise. I have accordingly attempted to draw up a bill on those lines, which I wish to
say again are purely geographical. All the jurisdiction of this bill applies to whites
or Indians, or any one else living on a reservation in the same way that law now ap-
plies to what may happen on an American ship at sea.

AX ACT to supply courts for the Indian reservations, and To supplement the at't of February eight,
eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled "An act to provide for the allotment of lands in sever-
aJty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United
States and the Territories over the Indians, and for other purposes, by providing a linal disposition
for the Indian reservations in the United States."

1. The President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, may appoint,
"from time to time, judges for the Indian reservations in the States and Territories

west of the Mississippi, who shall have jurisdiction of matters and disputes, civil
and criminal, arising itpon such reservations as shall be specified in each appoint-
ment: Provided, That not more than one judge shall be appointed for any reserva-
tion, but as many neighboring reservations as the President deem proper, all situate
in one State or Territory, shall be included iu each district. Said judges shall hold
office during good behavior; they shall be termed reservation judges, and shall have
the usual jurisdiction and powers of district judges of the L4nited States, and also
general civil and criminal jurisdiction of all causes arising upon such reservations,
with appeal to the circuit courts of the CJnited States as in ordinary cases of appeal
from district judges; and, for the purposes of this act, the Territories of New Mexico
and Arizona shall be annexed to, and considered part of, the district of California
and the Territory of Utah to the district of Colorado: Provided, That not more than
ten judges shall be under appointment at any time for all Indian reservations subject
to this act. Each judge shall appoint a clerk, who shall have a salary of $1,000 per
annum, and in addition to the ordinary duties of a clerk of such courts shall have
the power and perform the duties of registrar of deeds and register of probate for
the reservations over which the court has jurisdiction; and b^th judge and clerk
shall be allowed their reasonable travelling expenses.

2. Said courts shall have original jurisdiction of all matters arising on such reser-
vations between and among Indians or whites in which the sum involved exceeds-
$20. and of all criminal offences of which a person convicted is subject to an infa-
mous punishment, and shall have appellate jurisdiction in all cases from the com-
missioners' courts hereinafter provided. They shall sit at least twice a year in each
reservation.

3. The President may appoint one or more Indians, or, if no Indian be competent,
any other persons, on each reservation, to be court commissioners, with the ordinary
powers of a justice of the peace in the State or Territory where the reservation is
situate, or of a Tinted States commissioner, and with power to bind over and com-
mit for hearing by the reservation court; and they shall also have civil jurisdiction
over matters arising on the reservation in which the amount involved does not
exceed $20, and criminal jurisdiction over petty offences not subjecting the person
convicted thereof to infamous punishment. And until such appointment the Indian
or agents' courts of Indian offences, now existing and already established on any
reservation, shall be clothed with the power and authority herein given to such

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 87

commissioners' courts. One or more such commissioners may hold court in impor-
tant cases, when they deem it of advantage so to do; and in such case the decision
of the majority shall be the verdict, rinding, or judgment of the court, subject to
appeal as hereinafter provided.

4. Both such reservation courts and the commissioners' courts shall apply and be
governed by the la\v and procedure of the State or Territory in which each such
reservation lies, and such laws are hereby extended over each such reservation when
they are not in conflict with any act of the United States now or hereafter passed;
but tiie provisions of such latter shall in all cases control, when so conflicting: Pro-
vided, That the jurisdiction over certain criminal offences given to the United States
district courts by the act of March third, eighteen hundred am! eighty-live, entitled
"Ail act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian
Department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes for the
year ending June thirteeurh, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, and for other pur-
poses,'' is hereby transferred to the reservation court, if any, hereunder created for
the reservation in which the offence occurred.

5. Cases in the commissioners' courts may be tried with a jury, if claimed by either
party, which may consist of six persons, of whom at least three shall be Indians, if
an Indian be a party. Cases in the reservation courts must be tried by an ordinary
jury, if claimed by either party, and at least six of such jury shall be Indians, if an
Indian be a party; and in criminal cases, if the defendant be a citizen of the United
States, such jury shall be composed of such citizens, provided a sufficient number
can be found within the reservation. Original civil actions shall in such reservation
courts be begun by a mere complaint, which may be in the form of a written com-
plaint mailed to the clerk by the party plaintiff, and sworn to by him. The clerk
shall reduce such letter to a formal complaint, if necessary, and thereupon shall
issue .process; and the pleadings and procedure thereafter shall conform, so far as
possible, to the laws of the State or Territory in which the reservation lies. Criminal
prosecution may be commenced in such reservation courts by information of the In-
dian agent for the reservation, or, if he refuse, upon complaint of the person injured
filed with the reservation court clerk; or, if the person accused be a citizen, a grand
jury may be impaneled; or a warrant may issue, without indictment, after, hearing
before the judge. Suits, both civil and criminal, in the commissioners' courts, may
be begun informally, by oral or written complaint; but the commissioner shall con-
form as far as may be to ordinary practice and procedure of justices of the peace.
The Indian agent or his deputies shall perform the ordinary duties of a sheriff' and
constable for such courts; and the agent may act as prosecuting attorney before
either the commissioners of the reservation courts.

6. The jails and court rooms of the neighboring counties in the adjoining State or
Territory may, by agreement, ba used for such courts; an:l proper compensation for
such use may be agreed upon between the county authorities and the reservation
judge, and. shall be paid by the United States, in addition to the salaries herein pro-
vided for, and other necessary expenses, out of the funds b -longing t> the Indians
in the reservations or other moneys that may bo available or appropriated therefor.
In both courts herein create.! Indians shall in all cases be competent as witnesses ;
and the attendance of witnesses may be compelled by either p:irty, and a witness
fee of $t per day of actual attendance may be allowed.

7. When all the Indians living upon a reservation have been allotted lands in .
severalty under the act of February 8, 1887, hereinbefore referred to, and acts
amendatory thereof, the President may, whenever thereafter he may deem it safe and
practicable, having consideration to the state of the Indians on the reservation and
the laws of the State in which the reservation is situated, by proclamation declare
that such reservation shall cease to exis_t ; but such extinguishment of the reservation
shall in no way affect the title to laud therein, and thereupon it shall become part
of such State and be created into such county or counties, or added to such county,
as such State shall by proper legislation provide; and thereupon the functions of
the reservation judge and all officers herein provided for shall cease and determine.
But the President may appoint such judge to any other reservation or reservations
(if there be any) where reservation courts shall not at that time have been estab-
lished, or to any vacancy in reservation courts then existing, without further con-
firmation by the Senate.

S. Indians upon reservations may make and enforce contracts in all cases and of
all kinds, not specially forbidden by laws of the United States, and may sue and be
sued in the courts herein provided in their own name, both before and after they
have received lands in severalty under the act of February 8, 1887, hereinbefore re-
ferred to: Pror'ulcd, That as to such contracts as by law require the approval of the
Interior Department the prosecution and enforcement thereof shall be made with its
approval.

The first section does not enable the President to appoint more than ten judges.
If the salaries were $2,000 or .$3,000 each, and the clerk $1,000, at the outside 'the ex-

88 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

pense of this bill would be $30,000 or $40,000 a year. I think that meets the objection
of expense, for it is not expected under this bill that nearly as many as ten would
be appointed. Probably some one large Territory would be taken, where the In-
dians are in a pretty good state, and yet where the reservations are not yet thrown
open; and one judge would be appointed. Then, if the system worked well, it
might be extended. If it did not, it would be dropped and the functions of that
judge would be at an end. In other words, the system is tentative and elastic; and
in that respect it differs from other bills which have been proposed.

I wish to call attention also to the fact that by this bill no great harm would be
done ifth<i Indian agent happened to be a judge and rendered unfair decisions. A
very few reversals would be enough to make him go straight in the future. I think
it would soon cure itself if there were always an appeal, but I can not claim that
part of th-> bill as an essential feature. What has built up the present courts in that
way was that the only new machinery required is the single reservation judge.

You will notice the provision for a very simple procedure — that is, the beginning
of a complaint — which I borrowed from the county court system in England, where
it has been found to work very well. A man practically writes a letter to the clerk
of courts, stating his complaint, and the case goes on without requiring any other
machinery on the Indian's part.

The last section is a clear statement of how the reservation system is to end, and
would act as a notice to all the people living on it that the State is bound to protect
them. If it does not, then they have recourse, under the Dawes bill, to the Federal
courts.

Senator Platt thought that even this bill was too complex, though I am inclined
to think that nothing more simple can be devised. It seems to me that, if this is too
cumbrous, nothing can be done. I only had the bill introduced into the House, and
referred to the Indian Committee, where its present disposition will depend on the ac-
tion that this conference takes this year. In preparing the bill and introducing it I
was acting in- a sense as a committee man of this conference; and I feel bound to do
what they think best about it in the future. I hope that, whether they recommend
this particular bill or not, they will at least urge again the necessity of providing
these courts for the Indians during the transition period, provided it can be done
in such a way as not to be too complex, and as not to require any special machinery
peculiar to the Indians as a race.

DISCUSSION.

Gen. MOKGAN. I am not a lawyer, :md I approach a delicate and difficult question
like this with very great hesitation. I beg, therefore, that whatever I may say upon
it may be regarded, not as tde opinion of an expert, but simply that of one who is
attempting to enforce the laws that we now have.

I will endeavor, so far as possible, to follow the line marked out by Mr. Stimsou
in his admirably clear-cut statement on the subject. And. first, in reference to the
length of time that will probably be consumed in the distribution of the reserva-
tions, I have said that it is possible, with the present machinery of the Indian Office,
to make all the allotments that ought to be made in three or four years, as will be
seen in my annual report. I am led to the conclusion that the allo'tnent of land to
all of the Indians to whom the application of the severalty law would be an advan-
tage can be made and completed within the next three or four years with the possi-
ble exception of the Sioux Indians, some of whom now desire allotments, while others
strenuously oppose them. But, as I have said before, I do not think it would be
wise to complete the work in that time; and I fear that we are perhaps pushing the
matter more rapidly than circumstances will warrant. It is a question for the ad-
ministration to consider with reference to each particular reservation, and as to
whether it will take four or ten or twenty years is a matter of judgment on the
part of those who may be called upon hereafter to administer the law. I would
like, however, to call attention to this very brief summary of the situation: The
reservations of the seven or eight thousand Indians in Michigan have already been
broken up. IJetween live and six thousand Indians in New York State would not
come under this proposed system of legislation. There are large numbers of Indians
scattered in various States and Territories, notably in Nevada and California, to
whom it would not be applicable. Neither would it apply to the Mission Indians
of Southern California, nor to the 8,000 Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. It must ex-
clude also the 68,000 of the five civilized tribes, so called, in the Indian Territory.
Those who maintain an advanced form of tribal government, then, aggregating
85,000, would probably not be included in this proposed scheme of legislation. Also
those who, by taking allotments in severalty, have become or are becoming citizens
of the United" States — a class aggregating about 81,000 — would, I think, be excluded
from this legislation ; and third, the scattered bauds of Indians, numbering some-
thing over 25,000; and fourth, those who are not sufficiently enlightened to appre-

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 89

lieu d the system, or to be able to use it, like the San Carlos Apaches. Of these I
.suppose there are about 26,000, making in all 218,000 to whom this scheme of legis-
lation would uot bo applicable, leaving about 27,000 for whom we might devise some
such syvstem.

We come, therefore, to a consideration whether it is desirable to have special leg-
islation for these Indians of North and South Dakota and for a very few others.

1 am inclined to the opinion that, as we have set ourselves to open the way to
Indian citizenship, nothing should come in which would check our progress toward
that end or turn us to one side. We can afford to wait ; we can afford to be patient.
The Indians have been in their present status for more than a hundred years, and I
do not think there is any present and urgent necessity for a radical change. Whether
the proposed legislation would interfere with the allotments, whether it would tend
to perpetuate the present agency system, whether it would be regarded practically
as class legislation, and so defeat the beneficent ends of the Government, would de-
pend largely upon the specific nature of the legislation provided. I am inclined
to fear that any scheme of this kind might have a tendency to perpetuate the present
condition of things rather than to hasten its end.

Now, as to the cost of it, which is always a serious matter. Every time I prepare
an Indian bill I am confronted with two conflicting forces. First, there is the con-
viction of what ought to be done lor these people in the way of providing a school
system, competent pay for their agents, policemen, and judges, the building of hos-
pitals, and so on. On the other hand, the present temper of the people of the United
States is against any large expenditure for the Indians, except that which in the
speediest time will render them capable of doing without support. I have pleaded
for hospitals; for the Indians are dying by the score and the hundreds, lying on the
ground without any proper care. We provide one physician to care for tive thousand
of them, scattered over a territory as large as the State of Connecticut; and we dare
not ask for more because of the expense. So we must consider the expense of these

Eroposed courts. Suppose, for instance, we had a judge for Pine Ridge. You would
ave to provide a place for him to live and a place to hold court in. You must give
him a place in which to confine his prisoners, and people Avho will attend to them
while they are undergoing their sentence, as well as a police force to enforce the
decrees of the court. The machinery for carrying into operation this system imme-
diately becomes complex — civilization is always complex and costly — and it becomes
a deterrent force, and will be such in the minds of members of "Congress and tax-
payers. I will not insist upon this, however, because 1 believe that whatever ought
to be done should be done, and that mere matters of cost ought not to weigh against
justice and the civilization of these people. 1 want to ask attention also to this:
To preserve order for the Indians, it is necessary there should be a police force; and
for three years I have used every device known to me to procure adequate pay for
this force. We pay $10 a month to a policeman, and require him to furnish his
own horse. We have found it absolutely impossible to secure a competent force
for any such pitiful sum of money, and yet I have not been able to secure proper
pay. If, therefore, we create a system of courts, requiring extra police to enforce
its decrees, we are met with this increased difficulty.

I am inclined to think that the laws have already been extended more fully than
was recognised by Mr. Stimson. Indians who commit murder, manslaughter, rape,
assault with intent to kill, arson, burglary, or larceny against the person or prop-
erty of another Indian or other person within an Indian reservation are subject to
the same laws and penalties as obtain in other communities. I have suggested to
the Senators that they include in this list forgery and obtaining money under false
pretenses, and one or two other crimes. Would not some simple process, rendering
it possible for the Indians to avail themselves of the courts as they now exist, be
better than an attempt to create a new feature of our laws?

In reference to Indians who have become citizens availing themselves of the exist-
ing courts, I believe the point of expense, which has already been mentioned, is a
vital one. Congress has already made provision for meeting the expenses in many
cases—all the cases under this law — out of the Treasury of the United States. And
a bill is now pending, which has been urged, and Avas indeed largely prepared by
the Indian Omce, to pay the taxes for the Indians upon their allotted lands. Here-
after,.when we are securing from them cessions of their reservations, the terms ot
agreement should provide that the fund thus created shall be in part used for the
payment of taxes upon the lands that are allotted to them. I am inclined to think
that the wisest course lies in the improvement or amendment of the Dawes bill in
this line.

Mr. GAKRETT. Is that the way the municipal expenses are provided for?

Gen. MORGAN. Yes; the Indians are in many cases slow to avail themselves of the
courts. 1 do not, however, regard this as an unmixed evil. I do not feel any in-
clination to urge the Indians into courts; they will come to this quite fast enough,
by natural processes. As they grow in intelligence, when they feel that their rights

90 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

have been trampled upon, they will find a way of relief. I kno \v tha t there are evils con-
nected with this matter, and I am prepared to do whatever can be done in my official
capacity to remedy them; Imt I can not yet believe that the remedy lies in the lines
of what seems to me to be — though Mr. Stirnson repudiates the term — special legis-
lation. I think it lies in the gradual application to this people of the laws under
which we ourselves live. v

Mr. (TARRKTT. Will you be kind enough to tell us how far it is iu the power of the
administration, under existing legislation, to improve these courts ?

Gen. MORGAX. I have given a great deal of thought to the Indian courts. They
sprang up, if I correctly remember, about 1883, under Commissioner Price, that ad-
mirable man, who did so much for the cause. In many cases they have done excel-
lent work; and the judges, although they are paid almost nothing, are often admi-
rable men. The average pay is now $8 a month, and they board themselves;
but Congress has, on my recommendation, increased the sum, and I think we
are prepared to bring it to a point where we can secure the best men. The rules
and regulations for these Indian courts have recently been thoroughly revised. The
revision provides for a districting of the reservations': for allowing individual judges
to refer cases that may be appealed to an appellate court, where three or four judges
sit together; it requires more of the judges; they must be men who speak English,
who wear citizen's dress, and are civilized in their habits. Then, it provides for
the extension of the jurisdiction; that they shall have the right to perform the
marriage ceremony, and that in minor points, involving the distribution of personal
property, they shall have probate jurisdiction.

Miss ROBERTSON. I was much impressed by Mr. Smiley's remark, t^> the effect that,
in the free interchange of views in these conferences from year to year, those who
had seemed to differ hopelessly grew nearer together in belief. When I first came
to these meetings, I think I stood alone in my extreme conservatism. Hardly a
measure that was advocated but I felt, even when I did not say it, "Not yet; ,the
Indians are not ready for that yet." But the rapidly changing conditions among our
people in Indian Territory have caused a corresponding change of opinion with me,
so that now, instead of being the most conservative, I am perhaps the most radical,
in views of any member of the conference.

This morning I want especially to urge upon yon, as the imperative needs of the
five civilized tribes, complete jurisdiction for the United States courts in the Indian
Territory, allotment of lauds, United States citizenship, and as quickly as possible
statehood. I believe that these people have gone as far as they ever will under their
present conditions.

Holding their lands in common as they now do, what should be the equal heritage
of all the people has virtually become the spoils of the few. The more shrewd and
scheming intermarried whites and half-breeds are with marvelous rapidity absorb-
ing in their pastures and plantations the common domain. In one ease, 1 know of
the wire boundary of a great pasture which shuts in the little farms and homes of a
score of poor full-bloods. Individuals have stripped from the forests, which were
the common property of the tribe, valuable timber which they sold for their per-
sonal enrichment. Individuals are struggling to hold for themselves the mineral
resources of the country. Justice and equity would seem to say that, if this land is
a common heritage, it should be divided equally among those to whom it belongs.

It is true that there are very many of these people who are not yet ready for citi-
zenship; but if we wait for all to be ready, I am afraid it will never come. Their
whole system of government, of intercourse with the United States, was based
upon the expectation that these people would ever continue to be foreign nations.
No one, not even the most conservative full-blood, now believes that this will be
possible. Every Indian knows that the extinguishment of Indian title to land as
tribes is simply a question of time. In time past it could be urged in good faith
that every effort should be made to defer this, in order that the helpless and igno-
rant might be taught as to the coining changed conditions. I think my own po*i-
tion in this respect was something like that of the tender-hearted woman who was
going to boil a lobster, but could not bear to make it suffer by plunging it into boil-
ing water, and so placed it gently in cold water over a slow fir*'. Would it not be
wiser and kinder to these people'who "stand shivering on the brink " to crowd them
into the stream f Some will go under ; that is inevitable in the struggle for exist-
ence everywhere. There must always be vicarious sacrifice in the accomplishment
of any great good, but the best interests of the vast majority should be considered
rather than the few. There are to-day more white people than Indians in this Ter-
ritory. These white people belong mostly to the "renter7' class, who work on shares '
for Indian landlords. As a general rule, they are of that unfortunate class known
as the " poor whites" of the South. The Indian schools are not open to them ; and
they are usually too poor or shiftless to make any effort toward educational privi-
leges for their children. It goes without saying that the tendency of this mass of
ignorant, undesirable whites among the Indians is to hold them down rather than
to aid in an upward effort toward intelligent citizenship.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 91

It is ail undeniable fact that the white man is in the Indian Territory, and that
he is there to stay; and this fact should l»e recogni/ed in legislation for Indian
Territory,

I believe the tribal governments are now so corrupted by the bringiuginto them the
worst features of politics, copied from what they have seen in Washington, that they
have ceased practically to indicate the will of the people. Dependent upon the
caprice of the United (States (.ovcrninent for the payment to them of their own funds
which it held in trust for them, having no representation and no vote in Congress,
they have been forced to maintain at enormous expense a standing lobby in Wash-
ington. This lobjby has often found that the only way to obtain for their peo-
ple their own money from Uncle Sam's strong treasury chest was by using the golden
kev of bribery. From appropriations made for these people it is the common thing
to report 25 per cent of the whole amount paid for "lawyers' fees/'' the understand-
ing being that the members of the appropriations committees in House and Senate
would prevent appropriations if not well paid for their services. The temptation to
the Indian authorities to retain a portion of these "lawyers' fees" has been one they
have not always been able to withstand. Again and again have I seen educated
Indians, for whose future I had brightest anticipations, and who went into public
alVairs with "clean hands and pure hearts," with sincere desires for the real good
of their people, unable to resist the fearful temptations. With bitterest disappoint-
ment have 1 seen them degenerate into shrewd, unscrupulous politicians, seeking
personal gain in preference to the welfare of their helpless countrymen.

Yon have all seen telegrams in our public prints in regard to an election war
among the Choctaws, and I believe this war is the result of one of these same 25 per
cent lawyers' fees. A recent appropriation has been made by Congress of several
millions of dollars for a payment of such doubtful equity that the appropriation
would never have been made but for the untiring efforts of those who were inter-
ested in dividing the 25 per cent lawyers' fees involved. What has this to do with
the Choctaw war f Why, simply that, with this great windfall so temptingly in
sight, every politician in the Choctaw Nation wants a finger in the pie. The "outs "
are anxious to be in, and the "ins" anxious to stay in. I believe that in many
instances the Indians have been paid money they would have been far better off
without. I think they have even at times received more money than they were really
entitled to. I see in the countenances before me dissent and disapproval, but I must
speak according to the courage of my convictions. I am sure that in every case of
this kind it has been through the influence of these immense fees.

Wifch allotment of lands, citizenship, and statehood, there would come to these
people representation in Congress; and the Indian delegations would no longer be
placed in the humiliating position of cringing suppliants. The Indian voter would
no longer be a child in his influence, but would take his rightful place, a man among
men.

A very great wrong and injustice that is done this people is in withholding com-
plete jurisdiction from the United States courts in Indian Territory/ As it is now, a
large proportion of offenses must be tried in the courts of Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas.
People are taken from their homes these long distances; they are held as witnesses,
or awaiting trial, far from their homes, strangers among a people Avho feel scorn
and contempt for them, but who, for their own pecuniary gain, insist that their
courts shall still hold jurisdiction. Senator Dawes will remember telling me once,
when I was urging this matter upon his attention, that it was simply "a fight
between right and justice and the saloon-keepers of Paris and Fort Smith." So far
the saloon-keepers triumph. Could there be a much more successful device for the
making of criminals than this of taking witnesses from a strictly prohibition country
and holding them for long periods of timea waiting the action of courts, with their
overcrowded dockets, and thus leaving them to become first the unwary prey and
afterwards the imitator of the liquor-seller and the gambler?

And now again let me urge that you will all do all in your power to secure, for the
five civilized tribes, complete jurisdiction for the courts, allotment of lands, citizen-
ship, and eventual Statehood.

Mr. SMILEY. Are the rest of the Indians in favor of this same policy, of coming in
as a State and abandoning their tribal relations?

Miss ROBERTSON. The mass of the people are moving rapidly in that direction.
Everything tends to it. The poor are beginning to rise up against the landlord
class, and discontent is very deep and general. Only the trouble is that most of the
leading men are working against it, because they do not want to give up their
power and their occupation.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. I quite agree with Commissioner Morgan that we must not put a
heavier burden on Congress than it will bear. You can get them to appropriate
three or four hundred millions to do harm by giving it outright to Indians; it is
very hard to get them to appropriate money which is going to result in real good.
But I think the Commissioner is in error in thinking that the course would apply to

92 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

vso small a number. They would be exceedingly useful to the Indians in the transi-
tion period, like the Santees and the Winnebagoes. The great difficulty of all is
that, though nominally they have the benefit of the white courts, practically they
do not in the least. The provisions which have been quoted are of no use, the white's
will not give them a fair show. Many of them look at it rather from a humorous
Standpoint! they are glad to see an Indian do something that the agent or the mis-
sionaries do not like. All that is provided for in Mr. Stimson's bill; it will be put-
ting the Indians forward on the road to take advantage of the United States courts.
I am glad that the Indian has got to stand by himself; but we must just catch him,
when he first slips, just give him a little help while he is emerging from the blanket
and becoming a citizen. And we must try to see that he has the rights which be-
long to him, that the whites around him will try to see that he does not have, that
they are now preventing the Santees and Winnebagoes from having.

It is true that harm is done by giving the Indians too much money. Do you know
what is the richest community in the United States to-day? The ( )sage Indians.
There is no part of New England where there is so much wealth. It equals $15,000
per capita in that tribe. And they are going down under it. As much injury is done
by sentimental giving as the most brutal white borderer can do by deliberate wrong.

Mr. STIMPSON. I am very glad if there are only 27,000 Indians needing these courts ;
that will further simplify the system an.l the expense. But I can not help thinking
that there must be more. I think theses courts would apply to the Indians in the
Indian Territory.

(2) This bill is distinctly not made to hinder and advance to citizenship, but to
hasten it.

(3) I should like to say to the Commissioner, with the greatest emphasis and
earnestness, that I believe his statement of the gradual application to the reservation
of the law under which we live is a very good definition of this bill.

Mr. Garrett then announced the next subject for the morning the " Mission Indians."
Mr. J. W. Davis presented the report of the Mission Indian Committee.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON MISSION INDIANS.

The committee on legal assistance to the Mission Indians, appointed by the
Mohonk Conference of 1886, and yearly continued, submits first its treasurer's re-
port for the past year, as follows :

Balance in hand September. 1891 $1, 135. 50

Interest acquired on this amount for the year to September 18, 1892 64. 16

1. 199. 66

Paid for typewriter copy of the Mission Indian committee's report 5. 00

Balance in hand October 7, 1892 1. 194. 66

J. "W. DAVIS, Treasurer.
Audited and approved by Philip C. Garrett, Chairman.

The expenditure of the previous year was only $3.45, and this year it is seen to be
only $5; but it will be recollected that after personal visits of the committee to the
field (not however at the expense of the fund) the committee recommended that the
money still in hand should be quietly held, in the assurance that sooner or later it
would be needed for the specific purpose for which the members of the conference
of 1886 had contributed it.

The vigorous defense of the rights of the Mission Indians in the courts and in
the field, which had been provided for several successive years, and the marked vic-
tories which had been secured, had checked several other impending attacks; but
the renewal of such attacks in court, and of less conspicuous aggression on individ-
ual rights at different points, was too probable to allow any call for more immediate in-
terests of the Indians to induce a use of these funds for other than strictly legal work.

This caution is now justified after the lapse of two years by the commencement of
a suit against one of the larger villages and of three smaller groups, for the eject-
ment of about three hundred of the Indians.

At this point the committee requests that the conference listen to a statement of
the case by Mr. Frank B. Lewis, who for a year and a half acted for your committee
with great discretion and success as field agent and attorney, and has since been in
the service of the Government as special agent and special attorney.

The statements from the Department of Justice embodied in Mr. Lewis's address
plainly show how the methods of the Government leave the interests of its wards to
a great degree unprotected and dependent upon private action.

That the funds placed in the hands of your committee have heretofore sufficed, and
that any balance is now in hand, is due to most energetic work by your committee,
and by tried friends in both Houses of Congress, securing from Congress payment for
Mr. Shirley C. Ward and Mr. Lewis for past services.

Mr. Lewis is willing to serve again under the same conditions, to await further

REPORT OF THE BOARD OP INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 93

action of Congress for compensation. Rut you have heard the statement of tin' need
of associate counsel tor the pending suits, and for this additional service of associate
counsel it is stated by officials that the same conditional appointment 'and encourage-
ment of expectation of future payment will not be given.

Your committee lias felt at liberty to pledge the present funds for the payment of
court, witnesses, and other expenses usual in a, struggle so protracted as the plain-
tiffs will undoubtedly seek to make it, in order to weary the Indians and their friends;
but for the provision of associate counsel $2,1)00 or $2,500 additional needs to be se-
snred.

The committee would most heartily recognize the eminently wise caution of our
host as to appeals for subscriptions here; so that the desire of your committee is
simply to report the importance of the case, and move that the conference authorize
its committee- to commend the case in its name to the friends of justice and of human-
ity, and raise the amount named.

Voted, That, in view of the report of the Mission Indian legal committee, that
committee is hereby authorized to appeal in the name of this conference for $2,500
for the further defense of those Indians.

Mr. Frank D. Lewis, of Los Angeles, then addressed the conference on the same
subject.

Mr. LEWIS. The Mission Indian Commission, which rendered its report a year ago,
provided almost entirely for the Mission Indians of California by providing a num-
ber of reservations, which have since been approved and made valid by the action
of the Secretary of the Interior and the President; and at the present time Miss
Kate Foote, as allotting agent, is on the ground, dividing up those reservations in
severalty. But two or three questions as to their landed interests could not be thus
settled. These are the claims of Indians on confirmed and patented Mexican grants.
A number of the Indians who hold such claims have been ejected from their lands,
some of them by legal process and some without; and at the present time these
claims are narrowed down to the Indians living upon three or four separate ranches.
Among these are the Warner Ranch, the Santa Ysabel Ranch, the San Felipe Ranch,
and the San Fernando Ranch, severally comprising from 10,000 to 126,000 acres.
About two months ago an action was commenced by the owners of the Warner Ranch
against the Indians residing in the village of Agua Caliente, comprising about 200
Indians. The village is located about 125 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and 80
miles northwest of San Diego. The Indians living there are actually cultivating,
and have been for years, an amount of land aggregating probably 1,200 acres. They
have an irrigating supply of water, and aside from that a very valuable hot spring.
It is not only of great value to them from its medicinal properties, but also from the
revenue they have derived from establishing boarding-houses and receiving summer
boarders.

About six months ago an action was commenced by the owners of the San Felipe
Ranch ; and about that time I was instructed by the Attorney-General, in conse-
quence of the recommendations of the Mission Indian Commission and the Secretary
of the Interior, to take the necessary steps to protect the Indians on the Santa Ysa-
bel grant in their rights and possession.

In reply to an inquiry concerning my own employment by the Attorney-General,
he replied under date of May 11, 1892:

" I do not consider that the act of January 12, 1891. authorizes me to make the United
States liable for attorneys' fees. I have already recommended to this Congress a
further appropriation in the matter, and I think that there is nothing else that I
can do.

" I should be glad to have you continue the employment if you are willing to take
the chances of Congressional appropriation, and upon the express understanding
that I do not contract for any sort of liability. And to a request for authority to
secure copies of certain documents and court records which were needed as evidence
to establish the ancient character of the claims of the Mission Indians, he also
replied: " I have no fund under my control from which I could authorize such an
expenditure. These difficulties are not of my making; they are the difficulties of
existing law upon the subject. If they are to be remedied, Congress must do it."

The Attorney-General's decisions are certainly in accordance with previous rulings,
and define the position in which the defense of these suits now stands.

Subsequently action was brought against the Warner Ranch Indians ; and I might
as well say here that the owners of the W'arner Ranch hold their claim by recent
Mexican grants and the United States patent. The rights of the Indians depend
upon their occupation and the provision of the Mexican colonization laws, Avhich
have been crystallized by our Supreme Court into one sentence, in the case of the
Saboba Indians, as follows: "That the Indians were entitled to the occupation and
possession of all lands which they held for occupation, cultivation, or pasturage at
the time of the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo, the treaty between the United States
and Mexico which established the claims of the Indians."

94 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Happily, the Mission Indian legal defense committee of your cojif'civnee still holds
funds which can be used for the expenses of these suits, which will l>e heavy. A
great deal of evidence will be taken, witnesses will have to be brought from a con-
siderable distance, and a long time will be consumed in the trial of the case.

The ranch owners li;i\ c employed as attorneys as strong a legal team as could be
gathered together on the Pacific coast, and intend by every means and method which
the ability and experience of these men can devise to win these cases and dispossess
the!-e Indians of the lands on which they depend for a living. They have assured
me that under no circumstances will any compromise be entered into" which will re-
duce the cost of the matter; and they appreciate our situation— dependent upon the
good will of philanthropic people to carry on this litigation.

I have therefore requested Mr. Davis to urge upon this conference the necessity of
employing additional counsel to thoroughly represent the interests of these Indians,
and suggested to him that your committee employ Mr. Shirley C. Ward, who so suc-
cessfully fought through the case of the Indians on the San Jacinto ranch, the
Saboba Indians, when a similar action for ejectment was brought against them, and
he fought the case under the auspices of the Mohonk conference and the Indian
rights association For this new service Mr. Ward demands a fee of $2,000.

The lands embraced in this particular dispute are probably 1,200 acres in Agua Cal-
iente village and 200 acres in the adjoining villages on the same ranch. They have
wa^er for irrigation, and at a very low estimate the value of the land is $50,000. To
deprive the Indians of this means to turn them loose, with no provision, no homes,
and all the horrors which followed the ejectment of the Indians from the Temecula
Valley, the San Pasquale Valley, and numerous other places in California eighteen to
twenty years ago. Some little idea of this most of you have gained from the writ-
ings of Mrs. Jackson, although she was utterly unable to portray the horrors of the
troubles which fell upon the Indians at that time.

There is no doubt in my mind as to the result of this case. If the matter is thor-
oughly and carefully presented to oufr-courts, we can get just the treatment from our
courts which the merits of the case demand. And the fact that the rights of the
Indians to the land they occupy has already been established by our supreme court —
that is, the principle has been established— makes our case one-of simple proof, and
one in which the utmost care must be exercised in gathering and presenting the evi-
dence.

Mr. GARRETT. I am sure that the conference will indorse the desire of the com-
mittee to save the Mission Indians, in whom we are all deeply interested, from this
further endeavor on the part of some of the wealthiest interests in California to take
from them their lands. The conference has previously intrusted this committee with
this duty.

Mr. SMILEY. This AVariier ranch has been a coveted spot from the very first. This
wonderful curative hot spring and beautiful valley lie in the old line across the
desert. It is an old Mexican grant. There is no doubt in my mind, or in the mind
of any man who lives in California, I think, that those Indians have lived there
from time immemorial. If that can be proved, it is their laud. The difficulty is in
getting poor, weak Indians to give any testimony in court that sharp lawyers will
not upset. We tried our best to get the owner to give a release of a portion of the
land, so that he might have a title to the rest. Perhaps he would have done it if he
could have given a clear title to it, but there is another title which is now in court.

Mrs. QUINTON. Our Woman's Indian Association has received from its auxiliaries
funds for the establishment of a mission and a hospital among this people. I saw
them in Council last year, and explained to them this department of our work, and
asked if they would like it, and they said yes ; and the women made speeches, and
said, " Tell her we say yes." Our funds are ready, an accomplished lady physician
is ready to go to the field, and Gen. Morgan's department has granted a field
matron. We have funds for a cottage and a hospital, waiting for the settlement of
this suit.

We have never furnished funds for lawsuits; the Indian Rights Association of
gentlemen is exactly for that purpose. We have eight departments of practical
work, but legal work is not one.

Hon. Joseph B. Moore, of Michigan, then read the following paper:

OUR POLICY TOWARD THE MISSION INDIANS.

[By Hon. Joseph B. Moore.]

Knowing how superficial the knowledge is that a stranger obtains of a strange
people in a few weeks' observation, it is with much hesitancy that I comply with the
request of our worthy host to speak to you on the proper treatment of the Mission In-
dians. I yield to this request more readily, however, believing that I cannot go far

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 95

wrong without calling out suggestions from men whose thoughtfulness and long ex-
perience will give to itheir words great weight, and put me right.

The first suggestion I have to make about these people is that we should be just
to them. It caiuiot he truthfully said they have received j ust treatment heretofore
from the white race.

They have been regarded as legitimate prey. Their number* have greatly de-
creased. Their estate has been taken from them upon one pretext and another.
These Indians live now upon between twenty and thirty reservations scattered
through Southern California, and upon lands they hold through long occupancy.
Some of the reservations are upon the Colorado Desert, where there is little arable
land, a scanty water supply, and no employment for the men.

These Indians, as a rule, live in villages. Each band or village selects one of its
number as a captain, and others as magistrates and constables; but the selection
made by them must be approved by the Indian agent who, for the United States
Government, has supervision of them all.

Several schools are maintained at the expense of the Government, and occasional
supplies are furnished to the Indians.

Altmy of them have comfortable houses, though the homes of most of them are
temporary affairs. Some farming is done, some fruit grown. Many of the men find
employment as shearers of sheep for the farmers, and as ditchers for the irrigating
company. They are skillful workers in both of these lines, and earn good wages
when they work. They have some capacity for self-government, as is shown by the
selection by them, as a rule, of their ablest men as captains and magistrates, and by
the enforcement of -rude justice.

1 cite an instance: A young, vigorous man, a member of the little village under
the San Bernardino mountain, came home, when drunk, and beat his young wife.
It was not his first offense, and the men of the village assembled to discuss his case.
It was decided that justice required that he should be whipped, and the captain was
directed to perform' that pleasant duty. The captain was not a man to shirk re-
sponsibility; he applied the whips so vigorously that the young fellow soon cried
out with pain, and agreed not to repeat his offense. Many people think an applica-
tion of Mission Indian justice to the wife-beater would not be out of place even in
civilized communities.

These people also have a religious side to their nature, as is shown by their attend-
ance upon Protestant worship at the little church near Banning, and their attendance
and contributions to various Catholic missions found at some of the reservations.

More especially is this shown by such fiestas as the eagle fiesta, which was wit-
nessed by Miss Salmon and her mother July 5, 1890, at Rincon. Some months before
the boys of the baud had discovered two eagles' nests away up the sides of the
canyon. The nests had been watched almost constantly. When the young eagles
were nearly ready to fly, men were let down over the cliifs, with ropes about their
bodies, to get the young eagles. The old eagles screamed, but did not fight. When
the young eagle was secured, the crowd cried, " He is caught," and couriers were
sent out to announce that fact. A procession was formed, and the eagle carried in
triumph out to the village, where it was put in a willow pen which had been pre-
pared for it. The eagle was kept there about three months, and anybody who would
could go and talk to the bird and give it messages to be delivered to the dead who
had gone on before.

When the bird had grown strong, so that it. could endure a long journey, the men,
women, and children of the village assembled in the evening, and Avith much cere-
mony started a great fire, upon which new calico and tine baskets were thrown as
propitiations to the Great Spirit, and also as presents to the dead. Before the break
of day the eagle was strangled to death, and wrapped about with new calico. The
fire was made hotter and hotter, the eagle Avas thrown upon the fire, and the people
wailed in a most pathetic Avay. As the god of day made its appearance in the east,
the bird was consumed and the people all danced and rejoiced; for, as they thought,
it carried to their departed friends their gifts and Avords of endearment. Then all
gave money, as they could, to one of their number, who distributed it to the old and
destitute.

Some of these Indians have executive ability of a high order, as is shoAvn by such
examples as John Marongo at the \rillage near Banning, and by Pio Amazo at La
Jola, both of whom, amid most discouraging circumstances, haAre built com-
fortable homes, set out Arineyards and orchards, are educating their children, and in
all Avays seem to be living lives Avhich would in any man be worthy of commendation.

As a rule, too, the Indians are honest, and will 'not steal. They are true to their
friends, and are not A^indictive. Some of them take kindly to education, not so
much for themselves as for their children.

The Government schools, as a rule, are well attended and well taught. I can not
pass mention of the schools Avithout commending the excellent work done by the
teachers — educated, deA'oted Avomen, who are spending their best years among these
people.

REPORT OP THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Without desiring to discriminate, 1 mention especially the work done by Miss Ora
Salmon at Kincon. This lady, with her mother, Jives among these people, teaching
them in the school. Mrs. Salmon came from near Atlanta, and bought from a Mex-
ican a little ranch jnst off the reservation. More valuable even than the school
work are the object-lessons to be found in a well conducted house, a garden of tlow-
ers, and an orchard of fruit, managed with taste, skill, and success. The adults as
weH as the children get valuable lessons here.

Seven miles from Rincou Miss (rolsh, an intelligent young woman is successfully
teaching. The nearest white person is 7 miles away — when we were there she had
not seen a white person for some mouths — and yet this young woman pursues her
work with zeal and without fear. I mention these two because we Lad occasion to
see good results from what they were doing. I have no doubt other teachers are
worthy of commendation.

The pupils take more kindly to drawing and music than to mathematics, some of
the girls attaining great skill with the needle.

If one is to tell the entire truth of these people, he is compelled to say they have
their vices as well as virtues. They have little energy unless their work is directed
by another. Nearly all of them are inveterate gamesters, and will risk almost any-
thing they have on a game of chance, and upon every opportunity will drink to
excess. They are not inclined to continuous labor, and take little " heed for the
morrow."

The reservations upon which they live were created by Executive order, the Presi-
dent issuing his proclamation designating the lands to be embraced in a given res-
ervation. The theory has been that when, in the judgment of tUe President, more
land was occupied by the Indians than was needed, it could be opened to settlement
by an order by the President.

It has been found upon more than one occasion that lands which had beeuoccupied
by these people for many generations and upon which were orchards, and where
their fathers had lived and were buried, had been opened for settlement, the first
knowledge of which was obtained by the Indian occupant from the white man who
came to tell him to vacate his humble home, to leave his orchards and the dust of
his fathers. The reservations had no permanency. No man could tell, if he made
improvements, that they might not be made for some energetic but greedy white
man. Even whil" the laud was occupied as a reservation it was held in common,
the captain usually assigning to the individual the land he was to cultivate and
occupy.

It may surprise you to know that some of these red men have been so observant of
the arts of the small politician as to use their official position for their o\vn personal
advantage, by rewarding their friends and punishing their enemies in the distribu-
tion of the right of occupancy of land.

The only appeal from the decision of the captain was to the Indian ageut. Where
the agent and captain worked together, as they sometimes did. the appeal would
avail little. It sometimes happened that one who hail occupied a plat of land for a
series of years, and had erected a comfortable house and put out an orchard, was
compelled to give it up and see it go into the hands of a much less worthy member
of the community who had been useful to the captain.

The tenure of the holdings was so uncertain as to discourage a more ambitious
man than the resident of a country where a man can sleep out of doors for more than
eight months in the year without the risk of taking cold.

There is on the reservations, as they now exist, enough arable land, and an abund-
ance of water, if properly used, for the reasonable wants of all the Mission Indians
in California. It is a great advantage to these Indians that the reservations are
small and near the whites, for all who desire it can get work.

I am of the opinion that there is not an able-bodied man of this tribe who does
not possess the necessary intelligence, and within whose reach are the opportuni-
ties, to enable him to earn all the necessaries of life for himself and those dependent
upon him.

But there should be no reservations existing at the will of any man, however good
he may be. I am glad to say that to-day the reservations for the first time are per-
manent. Even, the President can not take away any of the lands.

The Indians on the desert should be persuaded, if possible, to come to localities
like Banning, where there is arable land and water for them, where their children
could have the advantages of schools. I would not, however, make this compulsory,
and for the reason that the desert Indians constitute so small a portion of the tribe
that, when they see the other Indians getting on, 1 think they will move of their
own volition. The lands should no longer be held in common. As rapidly as possible
the land should be allotted to individuals, with proper safeguards against its alien-
ation by the Indians either by sale or the incurring of debt. This should continue
for a sufficient length of time to enable the individual Indian to learn how valuable
the ownership of laud is. I think the time fixed by a recent act of Congress, twenty-
five years, is sufficient.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 97

After this time lias expired the hinds should be subject to barter and sale, like any
lands. Since the Mission Indian commission, performed its work ( 'ongress has made
provision for the allotment of the lands, and that work is now going on. Systems of
irrigation must be established, which are essential to successful farming in southern
California. The schools now existing must be strengthened, and new day schools
established where needed. A training school is now building at Ferris, from which
excellent results are anticipated. In these schools should be taught to the pupils
the fact that soon they will cease to be wards of the nation; that their destinies will
be left in their own hands.

Allegiance to the tribes should cease. The tribal relation should be abolished as
soon as possible- That is being done by the action of the Indians themselves, and
I believe will be brought about by them. I can see no reason why the Indian agent
may not go. The property rights of these Indians should be respected and protected.
Since I came here I learn that an attempt is now made to take from them, by pro-
cess of law, a property at Warner's ranch worth not less than $50,000. The wonder
is that the attempt was not made to take the lands by force, as would have been
done a few years ago, and was done at Santa Ysabel.

The Indians should be regarded as citizens, with the right to sue and be sued, to
vote and be -voted for. They should be punished when they violate the law, and
their persons and property be protected when they obey the law. They should
be given to understand that they must work if they would live. Of course all these
tilings can not be brought about in a day. The policy of the Government, as indi-
cated by the act of Congress which created the Mission Indian commission and
defined its duties, of which commission Mr. Albert K. Smiley was chairman, is along
the lines indicated in this paper.

I am not in any sense an Indian enthusiast; but I have no doubt the recent acts
of Congress which are being put in force now will have a beneficial effect upon these
people, and will fully justify the expectation of their friends.

Mr. Frank Wood, of Boston, spoke of the career of Dr. Charles A. Eastman as
illustrating the possibilities of Indian attainments and character.

Miss Sybil Carter, of White Earth, Minn., then spoke upon the subject, " WTork
and Wages for Indian Women.''

Miss CARTER. For twenty years I have been earning my own living. In gratitude
for what has been done for me, I want to do the same thing for Indian women. I
am an independent worker, trying to carry out an idea. That idea, is that these
people need work, and I am going to test whether they are lazy or not.

What do the women do? In the spring, of a sudden, they disappear from the lace-
rooni for about a mouth. They go to make the sugar for the year. After a little
while the berries come, and again my Indian women drop out of the lace-room.
They are gone to pick berries to send down to the markets. A little further on
conies the cranberry season, and off they go ; a little later still the lish season, when
they get in all the iisli for the winter's need; and about the same time the wild rice
must be gathered in. And my work is sandwiched in at the times when they have
nothing to do. They are more industrious than I had any idea of till I lived among
them.

What am I trying to do? Give them work and pay them for it. At present
they are making lace. I have great thoughts in my mind as to what they may do
after awhile. But I can not have -the lace made fast enough for the orders that
come in. I do not expect to establish a permanent lace factory. I am only trying
to settle them down to some permanent work. When I took hold of a few Indian
women they were nothing but bundles of dirty rags! Go now into the little White
Earth lace room and you will find clean women, improving so rapidly that you
would scarcely believe it possible. They have made already more than 2,000 yards
of lace, and some of the patterns wrill amaze you. They do not yet make their own
designs, but perhaps they will after awhile. * They are not stupid in the least ; they
are not lazy in the least. They have only been idle from being put off in a corner.
Now we are aspiring to something different from lace. Not all the women can make
lace, and I have promised myself and those women that anybody who wants work
shall have it. They are very fond of making bead-work, and I have been thinking
that I might make it salable. I have been buying beads in the East, and am going
to show some tapestry at the World's Fair which I think will amaze all the friends
of the Indians.

A word about our hospital work. We are not only trying to made lace makers ;
we are trying to make them happy and comfortable in their homes, and to make them
comfortable and happy by their own exertions. We have a little hospital at White
Earth, with a physician whom the Government sends. One day, not long ago, a
pathetic thing happened. Our Indian deacon came and said to me: "There is such
a pitiful woman out here and we want to put her in the house in the pasture and
let the nurse go down once a day and do Something for her. She is too dirty to put
in the hospital." I said, "Bring her right in, and we will take as good care of her
14490 7

98 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

as we can." Four Indian women brought her in on a blanket. Such a sight! The
woman Lad had ;i stroke of apoplexy and had fallen a week before on the ground, and
had stayed on the ground in a little Indian wigwam in her wet clothes a whole week.
We washed her and put her in a clean little white bed, and sent for her daughter.
Never will I forget what the Indian daughter said. She stood with clasped hands
at the foot of the little bed and said : " Mamma, mamma ! More'n 80 year old ! Never
in bed before— too sick know it ! " We nursed her a week and she passed away.
Are they grateful? Those men and women took the body of the poor woman and
and put it in the ground; but they came back and called for me to come to the
front door. They thanked me with tears rolling over their faces. They said : " Wo
never knew so well before what you were trying to do for us. We will tryaud be
Avhite people at heart and through and through."

Do they want work? Forty-five women came to me at Red Lake to beg me to
give them a teacher. One of them said : "I want to tell you a story. A year ago I got
the Indian woman together, and asked them if they did not want to work and earn
money as the white women did. So the Indian women came together one day every
week for a whole winter. And then, when Ave had made all our prettiest things*
we took them to the store at the agency, thinking they could buy them for us. And
the store man laughed at us, and said they were so dirty and they Avere so ugly !
We did not know they Avere dirty and ugly. We thought they were pretty; but he
would not buy them. We heard that you had a teacher clown at White Earth, and
were teaching the women to do the Avhite Avomen's work. O, lady, can not you send
us a teacher? HOAV we will work!" I said, "When it comes bright, beautiful
weather, if I send a teacher to you, won't you hear the woods calling, and go out to
pick berries andleaATemy teacher all alone?" And they said, "O, Avhite sister, you
are a wise Avoman!" " But/' they said, "we are beginning to find out that these
things do not pay, and AVC are beginning to long for some \vay that AVC can have
regular Avork." Think of it! The Indian woman said just that! "If you Avill giAre
us a teacher they Avill all see the white woman's way 'is best."

And the next day as we were driving away \ve heard a cry and this Indian
Avoman came rushing out and threw doAvn a rush mat, and made a most beautiful and
graceful address, saying, "Your face looked kind yesterday ; but Avhite people so fre-
quently forget that I wanted to bring you a present for you to lay down in your own
room, that you might not forget you said you Avould try to find us a teacher." O, my
friends, I am trying to work out this problem. I need your sympathy and your
help. The best work of all in our mission field is that which helps to make men and
women self-supporting and self-respecting.

Mr. DAVIS. We all regret the absence of Bishop Whipple. Let me tell one fact,
Avhich he Avould 110 doubt have given, from this White Earth Reservation. He met
an Indian and asked about his crops. They were good. "And your son?" "He
lost his crop by hail; but he has got the money; he insured it." Here, surely, is a
noteworthy instance of progress.

Adjourned at 1 p. m.

SIXTH SESSION.

FRIDAY NIGHT, October 14.

The conference was called to order at 8 p. m., Mr. Garrett in the chair.

It Avas Aroted that the committee on the Mission Indians, the law committee, and
the publication committee be continued for one year.

Mission Indian committee. — Hon. Philip C. Garrett, Moses Pierce, J. W. Davis, Elliott
F. Shepard, Hon. Edward L. Pierce.

Law committee. — Hon. Philip C. Garrett, Hon. William Strong, F. J. Stiinson, Austin
Abbott, Hon. Darwin R. James.

Publication committee. — President Merrill E. Gates, H. O. Houghton, Frank Wood.

Mr. Davis made a short statement about the case of the Mission Indians.

Mr. DAA*IS. In reply to seAreral questions, I would like to say, Mr. Ward was ap-
pointed by the Government for the defense of the Indians, on the same condition that
is now prescribed, that he must wrork without assured compensation. At the con-
ference three years since Ave received Avord that led your committee to feel that he
ought to be strengthened Avith associate counsel. They telegraphed that he should
have it as he might choose. His reply was, "I do not wish to divide the honor.''
At that moment the whole bar of California Avas united in the opinion that he would
fail in his effort. Even among our own friends there was doubt whether he could
maintain his case, but his confidence Avas such that he replied as I haA-e said. He
won the case, to the surprise of all. That is the person whom Ave desire to secure as
additional counsel in these new suits.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 99

Mr. H. O. Houghton, for tlie business committee, presented tlie platform of the
conference. After some discussion the platform was adopted as a whole, as follows:

PLATFORM OF THK TEXT IT ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE FRIENDS OF THE INDIANS.

In this conference, in addition to the usual reports from the field, we have had the
additional advantage of suggestions and reports, from personal inspection of the,
Indian country, from Senator Dawes, Gen. Morgan, the Indian Commissioner, Mr.
Roosevelt, the United States Civil Service Commissioner, and others whose previous
knowledge and experience, united with their fresh observations, have given us clearer
and more definite ideas of the difficulties, the present condition, and the future pros-
pects of the Indian question. These reports,-on the Avhole. are full of promise. The
allotment* of land, for instance, with the attendant conditions of citizenship, has
progressed with great rapidity, and perhaps, in some cases, too rapidly. Another
significant fact is the nearly simultaneous expression of most of the leading Christian
denominations that they will no longer be the recipients of Government bounty for
contract schools, throwing the care of secular education where it belongs — upon the
Government.

AVe rejoi<^e in the rapid extension of the facilities for Indian education, in the great
improvement wrought in the Government schools, in the very large increase of at-
tendance, and in the rapid spread among Indians of a desire to educate their chil-
dren. AVe recommend the further extension of the system until provision shall be
made for all Indian children of school age. AVe urge upon the Indians the impor-
tance of allowing their children to avail themselves of the educational advantages
so freely offered them ; and in cases where parents, without good reason, refuse to
educate their children, we believe that the Government is justified, as a last resort,
in using power to compel attendance. AVe do not think it desirable to rear another
generation of savages.

This conference still feels the necessity of the enactment of such laws as will
sufficiently protect the Indian on the reservation, and facilitate his transition from
a state of pupilage to that of full citizenship. AVe consider it all important that a
judicial system of some kind should be promptly established on the reservations
for the protection and instruction of the Indians and other persons during the tran-
sition period, and until the States shall have assumed jurisdiction.

As an expression of the views of this conference, the following platform is adopted :

I. They advise that the allotment of lands be persistently and judiciously con-
tinued until there shall be no further need of Indian agents or reservation agencies .

II. They desire to emphasize the fact that the National Government must assume
the common school education of Indian children, making it compulsory where nec-
essary.

III. That it is the duty of the General Government to enact and enforce such laws
as will fully protect the Indian in his relation to other Indians, as well as in his re-
lations to all other persons ; that as soon as possible he shall become self-respecting
and self-supporting; and that also, until he becomes so, he shall be protected from
robbery, through deceit or extortion, by scheming lawyers or greedy land claimants.

IV. They are convinced that not only the principles of the civil service law
should be applied, so far as practicable, to the Indian service, but that the appoint-
ment of Indian agents, inspectors, and allotting agents should be on account of
fitness only, and that those holding these offices should continue to hold them during
good behavior; and they emphatically condemn the appointment and removal of these
officers for partisan reasons.

Ar. They earnestly appeal to all Christian people everywhere to relax no effort, but
rather to vie with one another in every effort to bring the benign influence of Chris-
tian truth to these people.

In presenting this platform, Mr. Houghton said:

I do not think it is necessary for me to say anything with regard to any of these
propositions. They may seem to you self-evident, or they may seem not to reach the
point at which we are aiming. We have simply intended that they should express,
as far as possible, in a concise form, the views and action of this conference. But I
should be unjust to myself if I did not emphasize the last resolution, which appeals
to the Christian people of this country to take up and carry forward the work of
Christianizing and educating these Indians.

I remember, with almost fearful vividness, the first time I came here, when the
Senator, to whom we have so often looked to carry forward our cause, presented a
dark picture of what was to be the result of the allotment of lands. Every word
that he said was the word of a prophet, and has been and will be realized to a greater
extent than any of us dreamed at that time.

Since I have been last at one of these conferences I have traveled very largely
among highly civilized people, among semicivilized and barbarous people; and
everywhere one idea was borne in upon me: That the nations on the other side of the

100 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

ocean, whether Christian or pagan, we e ruled in religion and everything else by
the power of force. Even Christian England, the drum beat of whose military power
follows the sun in its course round the world, has maintained its institutions from
the time when the barons wrested the power from the King down to the present
House of Commons, by overbearing force. We all know that the great Empire of
.Russia is ruled by an autocrat whose will is maintained by probably the best disci-
plined army in the world. We go into Italy and we see that, although the civil and
political power of the Vatican has apparently vanished, there is still kept up a show
of military force, and the chief spiritual authority in the Roman Church regards
himself a prisoner in the Vatican, because he can no longer wield this political
power. We go into Egypt, and we see that the Mohammedan religion, which was
Ranted by the sword, is still maintained and supported by the sword, and that an
English and a Christian sword. The only dawn of light that we see is, when we
reach those islands discovered by Columbus, where the influence radiating from this
side of the water seems to stimulate these people to a sense of manliness and indi-
viduality, which the Old World never seems to have appreciated. Now. we all know
that the great and radical difference between the Old World and the New consists in
this: That the Puritans and Pilgrims who settled in Massachusetts and the Hugue-
nots who settled the beautiful valleys in this vicinity brought to this country the
idea that power and force rested in the individual, and not in military power; that
the Government was made up by and for the individual and that Christianity was
the foundation of law. I have thought many, many times, during this absence, how
little we realize what we owe to those ideas implanted by the early settlers of this
country. It was a God-fearing country. Its influence has been so great that, not-
withstanding the overflowing into this land of the civilization which still is so prom-
inent on the other side, we still leaven it with the leaven of Christian faith andlove;
and what is good and hopeful in our institutions springs from this fact.

It is logical as well as inevitable that, if we wish to elevate the Indian, it must
be done in the way the Puritan Fathers elevated themselves and their descend;! nts.
It is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands that is to destroy the false
and build up the true. And it is the individual working upon the individual; the
neighbor who teaches by example and precept the neighbor; the man who lifts up
the down-trodden, he who rules by love and by sacrifice, who elevates humanity.
And is not it better to die in such a cause than to die in the panoply of arms, and
with swords in our hands? Is not it better to be beaten in the cause of elevating
humanity than to subdue humanity with heavy battalions? The theory which
underlies and stimulates this conference is that humanity is inspired by Christian-
ity. It is the individual in whom rests the power, and that individuality spreads
by sympathy and by interest through every other individual. This is the lesson
which this conference emphasizes; namely, the more we seek to elevate and lift up
the down-trodden, the more we elevate ourselves. We are only the greatest of all
when we are the servants of all.

The conference then listened to. a song by Mrs. Hector Hall, and Miss Proctor
recited her ballad of "Queen Isabella's Jewels.'''

Hon. EDWARD L. PIERCE. Everyone who has had much to do with legislative
bodies realizes how difficult it is to secure the attention of public men to questions
like that which we have been considering. Take the subject of prison reform, for
instance. Prominent men will tell you that it is impossible to reform a convict, or
that such a question is only for women and ministers. The same is true of civil
service reform; and a man who has been laid in his grave within two months, his
memory covered with the benedictions of millions, was called by a successful poli-
tician a "man-milliner." On the Indian question it is equally difficult to gain the
attention of public men. It is not difficult to get their voices on a question of
economy or of internal improvement; but when you come to an enterprise in which
there is no money and no votes, it is not easy to secure their cooperation. It is
fitting, therefore, that those who appreciate such work as this, and who appreciate
the public men who are willing to turn away from the prizes of public life and
devote themselves to a work such as this, should commemorate it in a body like this.
I offer this memorandum, which I move be entered upon the records of this con-
ference :

This conference deems it wise to refrain ordinarily from the formal commendation
of living persons. But exceptional circumstances seem to justify, in a single in-
stance, a departure from this habit of reserve.

The recent announcement by the Hon. Henry L. Dawes of his purpose to retire
from the United States Senate at the expiration of his present term in March next
is a fitting opportunity to put on record the profound appreciation of his eminent
services in the cause of Indian rights and Indian civilization, which is felt not only
by the members of this conference, but by all the friends of that cause in the country,
whether toilers in the field or striving to enlist the cooperation of Congress and the
sympathy of the American people in its behalf.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OK INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 101

Mr. Dawes lias been chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs from
1879 continuously to the present time. During that period lie has been earnest and
effective in carrying legislation and obtaining appropriations needed to promote the
progress and welfare, of the Indian people. Without enumerating his services on
these points, which, at the end of his term, will cover a period of fourteen years, it
is sufficient to mention the act concerning laud in severalty and citizenship for the
Indians, approved February 8, 1887, which was carried by his ability and tact and
the confidence reposed by his associates in his integrity and wisdom. This act,
bearing his name, was no ordinary statute; it declared a new system and a now
policy; it marks a turning point in the enterprise of lifting a race to American
citizenship and Christian manhood.

Not only as the author of legislation has Mr. Dawes assisted the Indian move-
ment. In visits to the tribes on their reservations, in personal observation of their
needs, in intercourse with their official protectors and with teachers engaged in their
education, in his attendance on these and similar conferences of persons seeking to
protect and elevate the Indian, he has kept his mind open to the changing phases of
the question, and has been a medium of communication between the Government
and associations and individuals working for the same cause. The history of this
race, now rising to civilization and merging itself in the mass of the American peo-
ple, written hereafter when there shall be no Indian question, will place among its
foremost benefactors the name of the Senator from Massachusetts.

Hon. Rutherford B. Hayes seconded the motion of Mr. Pierce, saying:

There is a certain difficulty in saying what one would wish to say in behalf of such
resoultions, with the subject of them facing you. But my friend, Mr. Dawes, has
been in public life long enough, I suspect, not to be greatly disturbed by what may
be said either in his praise oirthe reverse. Public men soon learn, if they are to
sleep well of nights and have steady nerves, to regard praise and blame as equally
unworthy of special consideration by them. The man is happily constituted who is
philosopher enough to listen to that 'which is flattering and that which is disparag-
ing with substantially the same feelings.

My first acquaintance with my friend Senator Dawes was some twenty -five or
thirty years ago, in the House of Representatives. He was then chairman of that
very "interesting committee to members of Congress, the Committee on- Ejections — the
committee whose business it is to furnish to their party friends in the body the rea-
sons for always supporting the claim of the man who belongs to their own party.
The reports that came from the committee may be examined, and they will sustain
fully this statement: that the law, precisely as it was, was given to us by Mr.
Dawes on every question, let it hit where it might. Indeed, a leading partisan
from my own State suggested to me once, "there is but one fault with our Massa-
chusetts friend : he stands up so straight that practically he belongs to the other
side." He passed to the Senate, and there became what is described in the resolu-
tion which I am to second. How well it was said by Mr. Pierce in his opening re-
marks that there are certain classes of duty devolving upon all public officers, and
especially upon Congress, which they cannot fiiul time to consider. The subject of
civil service reform, for instance, which he named; the Mormon question — there is
a world of such questions, of great importance to the people of the United States,
that you can hardly expect the average Congressman to give serious attention to.
Therefore, the interest and the importance of just such assemblages as this, where
those who are versed in tLese affairs shall discuss them freely and shall call them to
the attention of the public. The example of Mr. Dawes upon this question, going
into such an assembly as this, meeting its members regularly, giving them the ad-
vantages of his superior opportunities and experience, is an example well worthy
of imitation. And I am glad to see here to-night, following that example, the Com-
missioner of Civil Service Reform, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and, per-
haps, other public officers. The Government of the United States, as has been well
said to-night, is not a government of force. It is a government of opinion; and
therefore every good citizen should give encouragement to any association, society,
or conference that takes up some particular reform and makes it, year after year,
their business to urge its adoption — not giving up, not failing in heart, but going
on until it is embodied in legislation. This is what Mr. Dawes has been engaged in
doing now for almost forty years. And therefore it is well that people who desire
to encourage independence and good work in public life should regard with ap-
proval every just estimate of the character and services of such a man. It is, there-
fore, with very great pleasure that I second these resolutions.

I should stop here, but during my recent visit to New Vork I met Bishop Whipple,
who said to me how much he regretted that his duties in the Episcopal Convention
prevented his attendance here. " But," said he, " when a man is doing a good thing,
I believe in giving him the credit of it; and I wish you would say, if you have the
opportunity, that I appreciate fully and approve altogether the* conduct and the
work of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs." We who are here are supposed to be

102 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

.anxiously trying to help the downtrodden, oppressed., and feeble part of our popu-
lation. What we succeed in doing will be a joy and a satisfaction to us every (lay of
our lives. But, whether succeding or failing, all who engage in helping up the
brother who is down and oppressed do succeed in helping themselves. They are
the happier and the better for the work. This beloved poet of ours, the mild glow
of whose descending orb is still lingering in all onr air, Mr. Whittier, says:

"We bring no costly holocaust.

We raise no sculptured stone:
He serves Christ best who loveth Itesl
His brothers and our own."

On motion of Mr. Moses Pierce, the resolutions were adopted by a rising vote.

Senator DAWES. I need/ not say to my friends here that I am taken altogether by
surprise. I have spoken frequently in my life and to many audiences and upon
many subjects, but never before have I been placed in so embarrassing a position as
your generous and overappreciative kindness has placed me in.

I do not know that I can say more than to express my profound thanks, and to
add my apprehension that the world will say that I have not deserved what you
have been kind enough to put upon the permanent record of an association which
has its origin and its highest efforts consecrated to a cause so noble as that of ele-
vating human beings from degradation to the highest plane that human life is ca-
pable of reaching. I have felt that the kindness of the State of Massachusetts, in
keeping me in the public service so long as they have, required at my hands that I
should pay back to them that which is described by the woT&f-dtlity; and that hav-
ing earned, if possible, the right to appropriate that single word to the public work
which has fallen to my lot, I should be content. I feel to-night that this unex-
pected tribute is some evidence that in your minds I have earned that word. I
shall take that; and, if my children care to write it over iny grave, I shall be con-
tent.

This work, in which you and I have been engaged together, has been to me a
work of love. I hardly know now how I happened to fall into it, but it has been
growing in intetest and importance upon me from the beginning; and for every
hour I have spent in it I have felt it my duty to spend another. I have been glad
. to cooperate with this association, ami with men in public service, in carrying out
the wise measures which have been devised and stimulated and made possible here.
And, if I have at all aided others in this great work, and have had an opportunity
to push it on where it can be safely left, I feel that I have done my work. There is
nothing connected with it that I have a right to appropriate to myself; there is
nothing that others have not as much share in accomplishing as I have had. The
severalty bill, to which you have been pleased to attach my name, was manufac-
tured, or put in operation, before it passed into this law, in a bill which Miss
Fletcher helped me make, and which I am indebted to her for having made; and it
approved itself before it went into the form of law. I stand in reference to that
very much as Atnericus Vespuccius stands to Columbus.

But what little I could do I have done; and it gratifies me to feel that the work
is to be left in good hands, and that it will not suffer because it is necessary that
older men shall give place to younger men. I shall watch the progress of this work
with an undying interest. I shall rejoice in its success. I hope I may live to see
the last Indian take on a self-supporting Christian citizenship. I think it will be
early, I feel it will be early; but I do not know that it will be in my lifetime. All
the regret I have in leaving the public service is connected with this work. I
should like, if it were wise, to continue in it, and be in at the end. But it is not
wise that I should undertake that. And now that 1 come here, probably for the last
time, and join with you in this pleasant and profitable meeting, all at once I am
overwhelmed with this tribute to the feeble but nevertheless earnest and faithful
work which I have endeavored to do. I have never expected so much compensation
for the time and the labor which I have expended. All that I can say — I wish it
was all I had undertaken to say — is that I thank you from my heart.

Mr. GARRKTT. We wish that we could be sure that Senator Dawes's mantle would
rest upon some one eke in the Senate. I fear we can hardly expect it.

Miss FLKTCHKR. 1 feel that it would not be right to let this question pass without
>me of the words concerning Senator Dawes, that are so full of life

bringing here some of the words concerning
and feeling, from the Indians.

The people know him, and they bless him. The men and the women know him,
and they bless him. And when I was leaving my work among the Nez Perces, as I
drove out of the canon of the Clearwater, I passed a little house where lived a very
old woman — a woman who remembers when the first white man crossed the conti-
nent. She saw Lewis and Clarke. A long, long trail is in her memory, back to
those old days ; and along her life have come many experiences. One of the most
beautiful has been the joy and the glory which has come in a Christian belief, in

REPORT OF THE -BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 103

the enlarging of her heart from the simple nature-worship to the. broad worship and
love of humanity which Christ reveals. She was lying on a little pallet, for she is
almost blind; and as my wagon passed, she asked,' " What was that?" And being
told that I was there, going away, she said, "Stop her.''* And the woman, her
granddaughter, came out and said, "Stop." And we checked the horses, and the
old woman rose and came out to my wagon. She said. " I can hardly see yon, but I
know yon; and you must not go away without my blessing, for what you have
brought to my people — a place in this laud of their birth."

I brought the gift of Senator Dawes.

Rev. Denis Wortman, in a happy speech, presented to the Conference the follow-
ing resolution*

This convention of friends of the Indian, assembled for the tenth time on this
beautiful and uow historic mountain, desires to express in the strongest and yet
most delicate manner, its sense of indebtedness to that thoughtful generosity of Mr.
and Mrs. Smiley, whereby not only congenial spirits become acquaintances and
friends, but active workers in the field, officers of the civil and military departments
of the Government, and the lay friends of Indian, East and West, people of more or
less diversity oFview, are brought into sympathetic touch and wiser and heartier
endeavor for the rescue of this perishing race. We bless God we can feel sure that
these successive gatherings, which have received such governmental and general
countenance, have in turn inspired and awakened new and profitable efforts for the
Christian solution of these perplexing and all-important Indian problems. It is with
a hearty "God bless you" that wre leave Mohouk.

Mr. Roosevelt seconded this resolution, saying:

I doubt if any man not in political life can understand the debt owing to such a
man as Mr. Smiley, to such a convention as is gathered here. We need particularly,
in this country, men who will do nonremunerative work; and nowhere do we need
them more than in politics. Nowhere do we need more to hold up the hands of the
man who, in public life, is striving to live up to a principle, to accomplish work
for which he can expect no reward in political life itself. And that can be done best
by just such meetings as this. I do not think you yourselves know how much heart
you put into the men who are striving to do the things which you are encouraging
them in, when-you show them that you are aware of what they are trying to do,
and that you are trying to help them.

Such a convention as this is purely and characteristically American. Now there
are many things that are purely and characteristically American that we can not
look upon with unadulterated pride, and often he is the best American who most
fearlessly points out American failings; although I must also say that I think the
habit which some of our good friends fall into, of indiscriminate and fretful and in-
terminable criticism, is even more pernicious than indiscriminate and incessant
laudation. But this meeting is something that is purely American. It could not
take place, for such objects, under such conditions, in any other country. And I am
sure that all of us will go to our homes better Americans, more proud of America,
and 'more confident in her future, because of the cordial, generous, and open-hearted
hospitality for which we are your debtors.

The resolution was unanimously adopted.

Mr. SMILEY. I want to thank you for the resolutions which have been passed in
my favor. But I feel that I should thank you for coming to the conference, and for
doing so much for the cause in which we are all interested. It is just thirteen years
since my honored friend, our late President, gave me my commission as a member of
the Board of Indian Commissioners. Since that time I have watched the work, on the
field and at Washington; and these conferences, God willing, are going to continue
until the Indian question is .ill cleared up. I feel that we have done something here
in moulding public opinion, not only by what we do while here, but by becoming
centers of influence after we go away. I hope we may all meet again here next year.

In moving a vote of thanks to the presiding officers, Rev. Joseph Cook said:

My conviction is that -we can not do better, in the matter of Indian reform, than
to go hence and build after " the pattern seen in this mount." I came here with a
large number of unanswered questions in my mind ; and if I now repeat a few of them,
with the answers which I think I fiave obtained, you will understand me to be
drawing the lines of this pattern, and giving the reasons for a vote'of thanks to the
gentleman who has presided over our discussions.

Ought the Protostant religious bodies to refuse financial aid from the National
Government in support of contract schools? Yes, says this convention; mor£ than
that it does not say. Discussions on the floor of this conference, and^ corridor com-
ments— which are sometimes as wise as anything heard in conventions — answered
two other questions that were in my mind on this same topic :

If the Protestant churches refuse* to receive governmental financial aid, are the
Roman Catholic authorities likely to be similarly abstemious ? Will they cease their
efforts to divide the school funds in the States, while we grant them the privilege

104 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

•of dividing it in the nation? My conviction is that this convention believes that, i^
we allow the school fund to be divided in the national field, the effort to divide it
in the different States will be reen forced.

The second question on this topic was: Ought Protestants to abandon all financial
aid from the National Government without insisting that Catholics shall do so?
Corridor comments here, as I interpret them, are to the effect that we are to treat
all our co-religionists with great courtesy, to beware of stirring up bitter feelings.
We believe that most of our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens are very patriotic, but
that there is a clerical party which will bear watching.

The pattern shown in the mount on the school question is of great interest to me;
and I believe that you have drawn firmly in that pattern the line which requires, or
at least recommends, abstention on the part of Protestant schools from governmental
financial aid. For one, I do most cordially thank the convention for taking this
attitude, while the first drops of what may be a great storm are falling upon the laud.

What is the pattern shown in the mount on the topic of civil-service reform? I
am moving a vote of thanks to a presiding officer who has very firm opinions on the
topic of political appointments on Indian reservations. To this system he is unal-
terably opposed, for such appointments are a curse to the whole land. They are a
deeper curse where the population is not wise enough to counteract their malign
tendencies. I think he would have received most cordially the efforts made here so
successfully to incorporate into this pattern shown in the mount a distinct declara-
tion of civil-service reform principles.

Shall we have compulsory education for Indian children? Yes, if necessary.

Shall we entirely secularize the governmental work in schools? Not wholly.
This statement is not made in your resolutions; but discussion here, as I have inter-
preted it, has not been to the effect that we must not paganize our national schools.
I suppose a hymn may be sung and the Lord's Prayer repeated even in a Government
school.

Shall we seek the entire abolition of the reservation system? Yes.

Shall we resist unscrupulous and irresponsible lawyers and- land cormorants?
Yes.

Although you have not expressed an opinion on the subject in your resolutions, I
think you have a conviction as to the possible growth of the Indian under the light
of civilization to a great height of ability and achievement. It has been said that
there are half-brain races and whole-brain races. What is the natural ability of the
Indian? I asked a great expert that question, and he answered, u At least a three-
quarter-brain race." One of the lines that I like best in the pattern shown in the
mount is the line produced by the total absence of the color line.

And, last of all, the supreme emphasis is placed, in these resolutions, on religious
work. The sun must come with its persuasion, before the plow with its coercion,
before the seed of new ideas goes into the fertile soil of a rising race. The sun must
go on with its wdrk while the plow and the seed and the sickle do what they can
toward securing a harvest.

Clearly, this mount is that which burns with divine fire. The Commissioner lias
said it is in his power to do much if law and public sentiment support him. Let us
go hence, and so act that the Government may be compelled to build after the
pattern shown, not in this mount only, but in that mount which burned with divine
fire of old, and was too holy to be touched.

The resolution of thanks was adopted by a unanimous vote.

Mr. PAINTER. In our congratulations one with another, and in our joy in seeing
one another, and in the interest and delight we have all felt in the discussions. I
am sure that we have not forgotten the absence of one whose wisdom has been
counsel to us in the past, and whose enthusiasm is always inspiration, but who has
fallen by the way from his devotion to his work. I feel sure it will be the desire of
all to give expression to the regret we feel in the enforced absence of General Arm-
strong, and the sincere hope we all feel that he may be restored to some degree of
activity again.

Upon the motion of Mr. Garrett. it was voted that this resolution be placed upon
the records of the conference.

Gen. WHITTLESEY. There is one more name j^hich should be mentioned in this
conference — the ftame of Dr. Henry Kendall — whose great work in organizing mis-
sion schools and superintending religious work among the Indians, whose ability
and earnestness and wisdom in past years we all remember with gratitude. I men-
tion his name in this parting hour, believing that all who have known him will be
glad to have some tribute paid to his memory.

After a few closing words from Mr. Garrett the doxology was sung and the con-
ference adjourned.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. , 105
LIST OF MEMBERS.

Adams, Miss Martha D., 58(> Columbus avenue, Boston, Mass.

A very, Miss Myra, 137 Academy street, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

Barstow, Hon. and Mrs. A. C., Providence, R. I.

Bergen, Mr. and Mrs. Tunis G., 127 Pierrepont street. Brooklyn, N. Y.

Bruce. Rev. and Mrs. James M.. Yonkers, N. Y.

Burke. Mrs. William L., Brooklyn, N. Y.

Carter, Mr. and Mrs. Walter. 15- West One hundred and twenty-seventh street,

New York City.

Carter, Miss'Sybil. 22 Bible House, New York City.

Christensen, Gen. and Mrs. C. T., Brooklyn Trust Company, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Claflin, Mrs. William. Mount Vernon street. Boston, Mass.
Clemen's, Mr. and Mrs. E. H., The Boston Transcript, Boston, Mass.
Oleaveland, Miss Abby E., Hudson River State Hospital, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
Cook, Miss Emily S., Indian Bureau. Washington, D. C.
Cook, Rev. and Mrs. Joseph, Boston, Mass.
Crannell, Mrs. W. Winslow, 9 Hall place, Albany, N. Y.
Davis, Joshua W., 460 Center street, Newton, Mass.
Dawes, Hon. and Mrs. Henry L., Pittsfield, Mass.
Dawes, Miss Anna L., Pittstield, Mass.

Dowling, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. George Thomas, Brook line. Mass.
Ecob, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. J. H., Albany, N. Y. (255 State street).
Ellenwood, Rev. F. F., 53 Fifth avenue, New York City.
Eliott, Miss Elizabeth, 607 Lexington avenue, New York City.
Ferris, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. John M., Flatbush, Long Island.
Field, Franklin, 81 Grand street. Troy, N. Y.
Fisher, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. S. J.. Pittsburg, Pa.
Fisk, Mrs. Clinton B.. Seabright. N. J.
Fisk. Mrs. Jarnes C.. 32 Quincy street, Cambridge. Mass.
Fletcher, Miss Alice C., Washington, D. C.
Frye, Mrs. Myra E., Woodford, Me.
Frissell, Rev. H. B., Hampton, Va.
Galpin. Mr. and Mrs. S. A., New Haven, Conn.
Gallup, Mrs. J. C., Clinton, N. Y.
Garrett, Hon. Philip C., Philadelphia, Pa.
Gates, Hon. Merrill E.. Amherst. Mass.
Ginn, Edwin, esq., Tremont Place, Boston, Mass.
Greene, J. Evarts, Worcester, Mass.
Hall, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Hector. Troy, N. Y.
Hon. Rutherford B. Hayes, Fremont. Ohio.
Hayes, Miss Fanny, Fremont, Ohio.
Hamilton, J. Taylor, Bethlehem, Pa.
Hazard. Hon. Rowland, Peacedale. R. I.
Hazard. Miss Caroline, Peacedale. R. I.
Hine, Hon. and Mrs. C. C., Newark. N. J.

Hooper, Mrs. S. E., 570 Warren street, Roxbury. Boston, Mass.
Houghton, H. O., esq., 4 Park street, Boston, Mass.
Howard. Gen. C. H., ''Farm, Field, and Stockman," Chicago.
Jackson. Mr. and Mrs. Job H., Wilmington, Del.
James, Hon. and Mrs. Darwin R., 123 Maiden Lane, New York City.
Jane way, Frank L.. 7 Pine street, New York City.

King. Rev. Dr. and Mrs. James M., 140 Nassau street, New York City.
Johnson, Dr. Anna H., East Orange, N. J.
Lewis, Frank J.. Los Angeks, Cal.
Lewis. Miss. Los Angeles, Cal.

Lukens. Mr. and Mrs. Charles M., East Walnut Lane, Germantown, Pa.
Lyon, Hon and Mrs. William H.. 170 New York avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.
McElroy. Mr. and Mrs. John E., 170 State street. Albany, N. Y, •
Mitchell, Mrs. Arthur, New York City.
Morgan, Gen. and Mrs. Thomas J., Washington, D. C.
Moore. Judge and Mrs. Joseph B., Lapeer, Mich.
Mowry, Mr. and Mrs. William A., Salem. Mass.
Monroe, Hon. and Mrs. Elbert B., Southport. Conn.
Painter, Prof, and Mrs. C. C., Great Barrington, Mass.

Patterson, Mr. and Mrs. Henry C., 640 North Fifteenth street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Pierce. Hon. and Mrs. Edward L.. Milton. Mass.

106 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Pierce, Mr. and Mrs. Moses, Norwich. Conn.

Proctor, Miss Edna Dean, Framing-ham, Mass.

Quinton, Mrs. Amelia S., 1823 Arch street, Philadelphia. Pa. -

Reid. Rev. Dr. and Mrs. James M., 80") Broadway, New York City.

Riggs, Mrs. Alfred L.. Santee Agency, Nebr.

Robertson, Miss Alice M., Muskogee/Ind. T.

Roosevelt, Hon. and Mrs. Thsodore, Washington. D. C.

Ryder, Rev. C. J., Boston, Mass.

Shipley, Mr. and Mrs. Murray, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Skenandoah, Chapman, Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va.

Smiley. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred H., Minnewaska, N. Y.

Smiley, Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Albert K.. Mohonk Lake, N. Y.

Smith, Mrs. E. P., New York City.

Snow, Miss Clara Snow, Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va.

Stimson, F. J., 709 Exchange Building, Boston, Mass.

Spahr, Mr. and Mrs. Charles B.. Christian Union, New York City.

Sturges. Mr. and Mrs. William C., 74 Wall street. New York City.

Tillinghast, Mrs. Isabel N., New Paltz. N. Y.

Taylor, Rev. Dr., and Mrs. James M., Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. William, New Bedford, Mass.

Tribou, Rev. D. H., U. S. Naval Home. Philadelphia, Pa.

Van Slyke, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. J. G., Kingston. N. Y.

Warner, Dr. and Mrs. Lucien C.. 2J42 Fifth avenue, New York City.

Whittlesey, Gen. and Mrs. E.. Washington, D. C.

Wood, Mr. and Mrs. Henry, Mount Kisco, N. Y.

Wood, Mr. and Mrs. Frank, 3)2 Washington street. Boston, Mass.

Wortman. Rev. and Mrs. Denis, Saugertijs, N. Y.

Wotherspoon, Lieut. W. W., Mount Vernon Barracks, Ala.

Zabriskie, Mrs. C. E., Newburg, N. Y.

JOURNAL or THE TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONFFRENCE OF
TtlE UNITED STATES BOARD OF INDIA X COMMISSIONERS
WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF MISSIONARY BOARDS AND IN-
DIAN Rid UTS ASSOCIATIONS.

WASHINGTON, January 12, 1898.

The annual conference of the Boai'd of Indian Commissioners, with secretaries
in charge of missionary and school work among the Indians, of Indian Rights
Associations, and others, convened at 10 a. m., in the parlor of the Riggs House.

Prayer was offered by Rev. M. Mac Vicar, D. D., of New York City.

Hon. Darwin R. James, in calling the meeting to order, said:

This great question is not yet settled; there ar j many important questions
still to come before the conferences of the Indian associations and the friends of
the Indian. It is a matter of congratulation, however, that wonderful progress
has been made during the last few years. But there is more to be done, and the
present is a crucial time in the history of our work. It seems tome very desirable
that now, having present representatives of various societies and organizations
from all parts of the country, that we should express to the public and to the
incoming Administration our convictions upon these subjects, very kindly, but
very plainly, that all may understand that the Indian has friends who are not
afraid to give expression to their feelings upon all matters which concern his
welfare.

Mr. James voic3d the general regret of the members at the enforced absence
of President Gates, and read a latter which had been received from him.

On motion o> Gen. Whittlesey, abusin3ss c )mmittee was appointed, to con-
sist of Rev. W. H. Ward, Hon. "Philip C. Gai-rett, Prof. C. C. Paint 3r, and Dr.
Lucien C. Warner.

Mr. JAMES. Our duty this morning is to listen to the reports of the various
religious organisations that have part in the work among th3 Indians; and first
we will hear from Dr. Mac Vicar, on behalf of the Baptist Home Missionary So-
ciety.

Dr. MacVicar presented the following report from Dr. Morehouse, the secre-
tary of the society:

''The following is a brief statement of the elucational and missionary wo^k
done by the American Baptist Ho .ne Mission Society during the past year among
the Indians.

" The society's work has been chiefly cmfined to the Indian Territory. Five
schools have been conducted in the Territory, as follows: The Indian Univer-
sity, located at Muscogee; the Atoka Academy, at Atoka; th 3 Cherokee Academy,
at Tahlequah: the Seminole Academy, at Sasakwa: and the Wichita Mission
School, at Anadarko. The Indian University is an institution of high grade,
giving to its stud3nts excellent academic and collegiate advantages. All of the
other schools are of a secondary graie. Pupils receive in them industrial train-
ing and instruction in primary subjects and in the elements of a good English
education. The total attendancs in all of the schools during the past year was
413. Of this number the attendance in the University was 114; males 78. females
36. The attendance at all of the other schools was :i9.): males 13 ), females 160.
In conducting the work of these schools the society employed 18 teachers, at a
cost for the year of $9,«)*)5.s.-,.

"The figures just given, if vie.ved from tie standpoint of si nila • schools
among us. fail entirely to givean aiequate notionof what has been accomplished.
'Each teacher employed is an earnest Christian worker, and performs not only
the ordina -y duties of a teacher, but also that, of a consecrated missionary. The
academic and industrial instruction imparted is therefore onlva very small part
of what is done by each teacher in the interests of the pupils. The development of
the moral and spiritual nature of the pupils is chiedy, if not altogether,, the prod-
uct not o! acquired k lo.vledge. but rather of personal intimate associations with
the teachers in their daily life. The labors and influence of these teachers extend
far beyond the schoolroom. They impress themselves upon their pupils and

107

108 REPORT OF THE HOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

through them upon the families to which they belong-. In their outside~mission-
ary efforis they come into intimate relations with these families and thus gradu-
ally effect the uplifting of entire communities with which the schools stand re-
lated. The society is pleased to report gratifying results in these respects.

•'The special missionary work of this s;>ciety among the Indians has covered
a somewhat larger field than its sch >ols. The society employed in this work
during the past year two general missionaries, who had special charge of the
entire field occupied. It employed also 11) assistant missionaries, of whom f> were
Indians. The nature and extent of the work performed by these missionaries
may be inferred from the following facts: Sixty churches and outstations were
occupied. At these centers 842 prayer meetings were conducted, 1.79") sermons
were preached, and 4,780 religious visits made. Tne influence of this work
upon the Indians has been quite marked and can not but result in great per-
manent good. In addition to the foregoing, missionary work was under aken at
Round Valley Reservation, Cal. This, however, was conducted under the most
embarrassing conditions, and had finally to b3 abandoned. The whole of this
missionary work has been conducted at a cost to the society of $5.727.1 1.

"In this connection it may be stated that, in addition to the direct work to
which reference has just been made, a more important and far-reaching work
of the highest permanent good of the Indians has been accomplished yi an in-
direct way by the denomination represented by the society. Until lat.ly the
Baptist denomination stood a'one in persistently refusing all aid from the Gov-
ernment in its work among the Indians. It also stood practically alone in its
unwavering and uncompromising support of the Government in the matter of
establishing a system of public schools for Indians which would be conducted
precisely upon the same principles as other public schools. It is exceedingly
gratifying to note at this time the progress that has been made in this matter
during the past fifteen years, and particularly during the present Administra-
tion, under the wise and efficient management of the present Commissioner,
Gen. Morgan.

" This progress is very evident from the increased appropriations made by
the Government for the establishment and maintenance of these schools. Instead
of the $20,000 granted in 1887. the appropriation for this purpose has now
reached the large sum of $2,250,000. This progress is also evident from the
number, equipment, methods of instruction, discipline, and general efficiency of
the schools. . In equipment and efficiency it is safe to say they are in no respects
behind our best public schools of the same grade. The most gratifying feature,
however, of this progress is the rapid growth of a strong and well-defined public
sentiment in favor of abandoning entirely the system of contract schcols. It is
particularly gratifying to us as a denomination that during the past year the
principal. Protestant denominations, at their annual gatherings, have resolved,
clearly and emphatically, to reject in the future all help from the Government
in their work among the India s. This action can not but have a beneficial ef-
fect in strengthening the Government in carrying out its ncnpartisan policy of
public schools for Indians absolutely free from all denominational influence.

" In this connection it may be stated that the society at its last annual meet-
ing in Philadelphia in May, 1892. reaffirmed its adherence to a cardinal principle
of the denomination by the adoption of a memorial to Congress asking for the
passage of an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting grants in aid by the
General Government, State, or municipality, whether directly or indirectly, for
any enterprise whatever wholly or in part under sectarian or ecclesiastical con-
trol. Such an amendment, in harmony with the spirit of the Constitution, in its
application to education and missions among the Indians, would ba equitable to
all, while leaving each denomination free to prosecute distinctively religious
work according to its inclination and ability.

" It is also our conviction that the cause of Indian civilization would be greatly
advanced by extending the application of the civil-service rules, so far as possi-
ble, to the appointment of agents, teachers, and others in influential positions in
the Indian service.''

In presenting this report Dr. Mac Vicar said: ,

It is well understood that our denomination in the past— and not the near
past, but the far past— has invariably taken strong grounds against all appro-
priations by the Government to religious denominations for the purpose of car-
rying on their work. I can assure you that it affords us great satisfaction and
gratificati6n to see that the sentiment in favor of that position is so rapidly de-
veloping. And may 1 say here that the pittance— I can not characterize it
Otherwise — that has been doled out by the Government to the various Protestant

REPORT OF THE HOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. KM)

denominations, in comparison with what has been given to another larcre de-
nomination, should open the eyes of those who have been receiving this help to
the fact that the Government, up to date, has given almost its entire support to
one organization. I look forward with a "Teat deal of interest in the hope that
the future may develop this sentiment much more strongly than the past. We
can not see any middle course to be taken by Protestant denominations : the
only cou"se left is to cat entirely loose from all Government aid in every enter-
prise with which we as Christians are connected. And we hope that the time
is not only approaching, but is at hand, when this will be done. The Protes-
tant denominations should all be united in their efforts to develop the work that
has been so graidly begun and carried on. particularly during ths present ad-
ministration.

The report of the American Missionary Association was presented by Rev. M.
E. Strieby, D. D., of New York.

Dr. STRIEBY. Our work has been continued very much as it has been in past
years, the main part of it lying among the Sio.ix in Dakota. We have a large
boarding, industrial, and theological institution at Santee Agency, the principal
school under our ca?e among ths Indians, and very efficient in all its depart-
ments of instruction and industrial work. It has been visited during the past
summer by Senator Dawes and Miss Dawes, as well as our friend, the Commis-
sioner, and recommendations of the efficiency of that scho >1 have been very
marked. We havs also a mission and school at Oahe, with outstations on the
Cheyenne, Moreaur and Bad rivers: a mission, a school, and a hospital at Fort
Yates, with five outstations: a mission and school on the Rosebud Reservation,
with two outstations. and a mission and school at Fort Berthold Agency, with three
outstations. A great deal of good work is done at these outstations. In many
cases an educated Indian serves as missionary and teacher. The chang3 in the
relations of the Indians by their occupancy of lands in severalty will perhaps
largely modify the work at these outstations.

We have also a mission at S'kokomish, Wash., which has been conducted for
years by a descendant of the veteran missionary, Dr. Eells, just as our mission
among the Dakotas has been conducted by the descendants of Dr. Riggs, another
honored pioneer missionary. We have also entered into new relations with the
Ramona school at Santa Fe.

The most unique feature of our work is that which we have in Alaska, at Cape
Prince of Wales. As two of the gentlemen are here (E. B. Monroe, esq., a
member of this board, and Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson) who have had mora to do
than any other persons with giving to us that school and carrying it on, I will
leave to them t > say what is to be said about that. I hold in my hand 'a letter
from a gentleman greatly interested in securing additional postal privileges for
Alaska. Might not some action bs taken by this body towards securing- this
end? It does seem as if we ought to be able to hear from these missionaries
more than once a year. They ostracise themsalves from their homes and can
not hear from us as often as do our missionaries in India. If the population and
the business will justify additional postal facilities I think they should be granted.

Hon. Elbert B. Moni-oe, of the Board of Indian Commissioners, was invited to
speak of the work in Alaska.

Mr. MONROE. The Alaska Mission has taken a great step in advance this year.
I think you remember the report made last year about the two young men who
offered to go up there alone. They wers able, after a year, to get the language
into suc<i a form that th j.y could communicate with the natives, and they started
a school which took in almost the whole population, old and young — a school so
large that they were obliged to have session after session for the different
grades, teaching virtually all day. Meeting with some opposition at first, they
came to be on the most friendly terms with the natives. They had the usual
annoyances in the beginning from men who got drunk and beat on their doors,
and sometimes threatened their lives, but that soon broke down. Mr. Thornton
came home last year and spent the winter, principally in medical study. I think
we who met him were all impressed by him as a strong man in every regard.
He also married, and, securing1 the services of another lady as teacher, went
back, taking the two ladies with him. Since then we have news that Mr. Lopp,
the gentleman who had been left all alone, has fallen in love with the teacher
and they have been married. This is one of ths cases of romance in missions.

They have added to their building to make accommodations for these two
families, and have enlarged their schoolroom. We are hoping for excellent
reports of the work with this added force. There has been a suggestion that
Mr. Lopp may bs transferred to a point where Dr. Jackson has established a
reindeer station ; in that case we shall have to secure another man to fill the gap.

110 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

The large advance, as we consider it, is in the fact that these ladies have gone
into a work which we believed could only be done by men. We feel that with
the added influence of the family life there will be a great advance made in mo-
rality and in all that pertains to our best civilization,

Mr. JAMES. Those of us who were here last year remember Mr. Thornton
with a great deal of satisfaction. His aldress was one of the most interesting
which we had. He is evidently a man thoroughly adapted to this work ; not
only is his heart in it. but he had the strength and courage to join the Indians
in hunting and in such ways to gain their confidence.

Mr. MONROE. We owe something to the courtesy of Dr. Jackson and the Pres-
byterian Board in permitting us to use lumber which was left last year at Cape
Prince of Wales. Had it not been for this courtesy we should not have had a
house for these ladies.

The report of the Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society was presented by
Rev. William S. Langford, the secretary.

Mr. LANGFORD. Our work is so divided, much of it being in dioceses which
do not report to the society, that I shall not attempt to present statistics of the
work, but only to glance at it in a general way. We have every reason to speak
with encouragement of the work, so far as we are informed about it, in the vari-
ous parts of the field. The work among the Oneidas in Wisconsin is one which
we look upon with a great deal of satisfaction, and which has been much blessed
and prospered. Rev. Mr. Burleson, who is our missionary there, is a capable
and devoted man, and is making a good impression, and we have evidences of
the good result of his work. Then, if we go out to the work of Bishop Talbot
in Wyoming, among the Shoshones, we find that going on satisfactorily and in-
terestingly. Bishop Kendrick, in New Mexico, has been attempting work
among the Navajoes, with only a small degree of success so far, but it is a be-
ginning, and may grow into strength. Bishop Walker will perhaps speak for
himself of his work in North Dakota.

Oar principal work has been in South Dakota, under Bishop Hare. At Rose-
bud, Cheyenne, and other agencies, a" very remarkable work, as we think, is
going on, and from this time on it is to be done without Government aid. I be-
lieve. Certainly it does not depend upon Government aid to produce spiritual
results. Bishop Hare has a larg'e number of catechists and lay readers and
teachers from among the Indians themselves. During the last year, however.
he has lost one or two of his best workers, the Rev. Charles S. Cook, who was
a most earnest, devoted, and capable man, being one of them.

One of the most interesting works we have among the Indians has been at
White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. The story of our chief missionary
there, Rev. Mr. Gilfillan, is known to you. It is one of the most heroic and
beautiful cases of self-sacrificing devotion that I have ever known. Miss Carter,
who has baen working there more than a year, founding the Bishop Whipple
Hospital, is also teaching the Indian women to work with their fingers at lace-
making. She is doing an admirable work. I do not know of anything that is
more interesting in work among Indian women than what Miss Carter is doing
at White Earth. I received from her as a Christmas gift an elaborate lace
collar, the product of her teaching among the Indians. I have not found a use
for it, but it is very handsome, and I preserve it as one of the evidences of the
advancement which, through Miss Carter's ingenious efforts, have been made
among the Indians in Minnesota.

Our work in Alaska is at three stations, feeble to be sure, but yet a begin-
ning. Dr. Jackson will be able to speak about that in his general report on
Alaska. We feel that our work there is not as strong as it ought to be. We
have found difficulty in getting the right persons to go and establish themselves
in the work. Such is a general outline of our work.

At the first meeting of the Commissioners, at which I was present some years
ago, I took occasion to express my dissatisfaction with the appropriation of Gov-
ernment funds to the support of religious work among Indians. I took occasion
then to applaud the consistency of the Baptists, who have always refused to ac-
cept Government aid.

I thought at that time that my remarks were received with a little coldness
in some quarters, but I never ceased to have that conviction and to have it very
strongly. And when I have been required in my official capacity on one or two
occasions to sign a contract with the Government it has been with a great deal of
hesitation and a personal protest against it. I am very glad to say that the subject
was up for consideration at our board of missions at Baltimore" in October, and
resolutions, which were presented by the Rev. Dr. Huntington. of New York,

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. Ill

were unanimously passed by that great representative body of our church, dis-
countenancing- the receiving of Government aid for the prosecution of religious
work. At a subsequent meeting in New York our board of managers, under the
instruction of the board of missions, decided, in accepting the small aid which
we have for our work in Alaska this year, to inform the Government respect-
fully that, while gratefully sensible of its past cooperation, the board finds itself
unable, consistently with its convictions as to the incompetency of Government
to make appropriations for religious or ecclesiastical purposes, to accept such
aid in the future.

I have been a witness and a very careful observer of the course of the admin-
istration of the Indian Department under Commissioner Morgan during the past
four years, and I have observed with interest how he has moved along the line
of extending the public school. While doing- injustice to no one with regard to
contract schools, he has seen clearly with the eye of a prophet, and with the
courage of, a prophet he has set- forth the importance of directing the Govern-
ment funds entirely to the development of the public-school system, and not to
the patronage of any religious denomination. 1 do not think that we can be too
appreciative of the strength and the courage with which Gen. Morgan, under
singular trials and opposition and hostility, has kept that thing clearly in view.
I hope that the Commissioner will not cease to press that subject upon the at-
tention of the Government until we have an entire separation of church and
state.

Rev. James M. King, D. D., of New York, was invited to speak.
Dr. KING. Nearly three years ago the organization of the patriotic order with
which I am connected (the National League for the Protection of American In-
stitutions) made a personal appeal to every member of the board of managers of
all the missionary societies of all the* churches receiving Government aid for
Indian instruction. In the first place, hundreds of responses came from indi-
viduals, expressing their individual opinions ; finally the churches, in their
highest representative capacity, commenced taking action. Very definite and
specific action has been taken by the Methodist Episcopal, by tha Protestant
Episcopal, by the Presbyterian, and by the Congregational churches. We made
the same appeal to the heads of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, and re-
ceived a response, of a somewhat argumentative character, from President Marty,
of that board. But it is with great gratification that I am now able to say thai?
some of the most conspicuous Roman Catholic scholars in this country have been
in correspondence and in personal interview with me, and have expressed their
decided conviction that the attitude of the Protestant churches is right ; and
they will head a movement to bring their own church into line.

We have, I think, succeeded in convincing people generally that we are not a
partisan or sectarian organization. We have succeeded, thus far, in our rela-
tions to the Government, in keeping out of partisan politics. The action of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, which I was specially called upon to represent, is
this : The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Omaha,
May, 1892, passed the following resolution:

" Whereas the appropriation of public funds lor S3ctarian purposes by the
National Government is not only wrong in principle, but in violation of both the
letter and spirit of the Constitution of the United States : Therefore

'; Resolved, That this General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church
requests the missionary societies working under its sanction or control to de-
cline either to petition for or to receive from the National Government any
moneys for educational work among the Indians."

The only organized body in connection with this church which was receiving
money was the Woman's Home Missionary Society, and in their meeting at
Grand Rapids, Mich., in October, they passed the following resolution :

' ' Resolved, That the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church cordially approves the action of the General Conference, request-
ing all benevolent societies of our church neither to appeal for nor to accept
from the National Government any moneys for Indian schools, not only because
of its loyalty to the highest legislative and judicial body of the church, but be-
cause of its belief in the American principle of the absolute separation of church
and state.''

It is true that the school in Alaska, under the charge of Miss Daggett. has
received money. The contract, as I understand, for this action was made with
her personally, with the distinct understanding with the Department that it was
not a contract with the Methodist Episcopal Church. And the organization
with which she was connected protested against it before it was done, and re-
pudiated it afterward.

112 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

REPORT OF FRIENDS.

[By Dr. James E. Khoads.l

The Associated Executive Committee of Friends on Indim Affairs respect-
fully reports that notwithstanding1 the winter of 1891 92 was. in the Indian Ter-
ritory, unusual for heavy rainfalls, storms, and floods, and for the prevalence of
epidemic influenza, the attendance upon religious meeting's and upon the schools
has been well maintained, so that the year has been a prosperous one.

Meetings. — All the organized congregations established before the last annual
report have been maintained, and to them have been adde 1 Oak Grove, near
the Iowa Meeting1 ; Tecumseh, near Shawneetown : Miami City, near the Ottawa
meeting: Cayuga. near the Seneca meeting-, and a meeting- at Mount Hussey.
This makes seventeen places where meetings are regularly held. Beside these,
meetings are held as often as practicable at six places within the limits of Shaw-
neetown monthly meeting ; at seven places within Grand River monthly meet-
ing, and at th';ee places within Blue -Jacket monthly meeting, a total of 33
meeting places. The total membership appears to be 72H. a gain of 60 over last
year. Of the members, about 43 S are Indians and 288 whites.

Bible schools have been held at 13 places, and over <5 )() pupils have been en-
rolled in them. Nearly all the schools report that portions of Scripture are
committed to memory, such as the 23d psalm, the Lord's prayer, the ten com-
mandments, and other selections. Some schools wholly, and others partially,
supply themselves with children's papers and other needed aids; while others
are quite dependent upon their friends for supplies of all kinds. Some of the
meetings and Bible schools are learning to contribute to the support of the mis-
sions, and one at least sent a few dollars to the Russian famine fund.

BUILDINGS.

Within a year plain, substantial buildings for meeting and school purposes,
22 by 34 feet"in size, have been built at Tecumseh and Cayuga. Liberal contri-
butions for the erection of both these houses have been made by members and
Bothers living in the vicinity.

With a sum provided by the executive cammittee, an abandoned Government
schoolhouse was purchased, moved to an allotment on the Modoc Reserve, and
remodelled, making a dwelling with seven rooms for the missionary family and
a meeting room that will seat comfortably 100 persons.

The chief of the progressive portion of the Mexican Kickapoos gave his con-
sent to have a mission house built upon their reservation, and pointed out the
quarter section of land he wished Friends to occupy. This plot has been fenced,
and on it there has been been built a frame house with six rooms.

A schoolhouse has also been built adjacent to the mission home, and a num-
ber of children of the Mexican Kickapoos are now in the schools.

A Friend in the Territory has built a neat cottage with four rooms near the
Tecumseh meeting house, and has given it rent free for the use of the mission
there .

A very much needed addition has been made to the Skiatook schoolhouse,
doubling its capacity and greatly increasing its usefulness. These seven build-
ings, counting the Modoc house as two, give a total of nine comfortable dwellings
and eleven good houses for schools and meetings now used under the care of the
executive committee.

Missionaries*. — Ten men are engaged in religious labor amon 4- the above-named
meetings, of whom eight have the very efficient aiio^ their wives: and there are
four other women acting as missionary teachers. All these friends labor in part
for their own support, the men taking an active part in the construction of the
buildings they use. The total average attendance on first- day mornings in the
second montii 1892, despite illness and high waters, was 563.

The day schools have had an attendance of about 175 pupils, and are effective
as uplifting agencies.

• White's Manual Labor Institute, near Wabash. Ind., has continued its good
work. It has had 90 pupils — 40 boys and 50 girls. Education in its best sense
has gone foi-ward, including religious teaching and training. By personal deal-
ing and by the Christian Endeavor Society, an effort has been made to raise the
religious character of the pupils to a higher standard, with some satisfactory

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 113

results. The school work appears never to have been more successful, and an
attempt has been made to tit some of the older pupils to teach, not without en-
couraging results. The permanent effects upon the character of the pupils of the
training given at this institute have not been surpassed, it is believed, in any
other Indian school. It has b3en a help to the Indians and to the Government.

Government service. — Benjamin S. Coppock and his wife continue to act as su-
perintendent and matron of Chilocco Train ng School in the Indian Territory,
near Arkansas City, Kans. The school has had a year of remarkable prosperity
and blessing. Order, neatness, system in school matters, sound home life, and
a reorganization of the great farm of several thousand acres, have been brought
about. The pupils have risen in number to 200 ; they are cheerful and contented,
and a spirit of zeal and industry has been infused into them. Large additions
have been made to the buildings : the products of the farm, dairy, and herd have
been greatly increased, and a Christian tone given to the institution. The favor
and good -will of the parents of the pupils, and of merchants and others in the
vicinity have been won, and the school has been brought up from nearly the
lowest rank in the service to a high one. The officers of the Indian Bureau have
shown great kindness towards and confidence in the superintendent, and we can
rejoics that he has been enabled to do well for the Indians and for the Govern-
ment.

By an unnecessary use of power, the work of Friends of Western Yearly Meet-
ing for the Eastern Cherokees in western North Carolina, was taken out of their
hands by the Indian Bureau, and their beneficial labors at that place have been
brought to a close.

Friends of Kansas still carry on a fruitful work at Douglas Island, Alaska, for
the Indians of that region ; and Charles Edwards, who had been connected with
the mission, laid down his life as a martyr because of his Christian endeavors
to deliver the Indians from the evils of the illicit liquor traffic that ruins the
Indians, and is a hideous blot upon the honor of our nation. The Mission Home,
in which 15 or 20 pupils have lived, has been enlarged, and a school for these
and other Indian children has been conducted. A Bible school and meetings
have been maintained and are attended by minors, as well as by pupils of the
school. Dr. Connett, the resident missionary, has been shamefully treated by
liquor men for his temperate, yet brave, opposition to the illicit drink traffic.

Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting have continued the boarding school
at Tunesassa for the benefit of the Indians of Western New York. The boarding"
school has had 45 pupils, and is a fountain of good for the people it affects.

The expenditures for Indian missions and schools have been $16,900.

A report of the work of Mennonite Church was made by Rev , A. B. Shelley
as follows :

Our work for 1892 was principally the, same as reported for 1891, with the ad-
dition of some more active missionary work among the older Indians, mainly
among the Cheyennes. During the spring of 1891 our board sent out Rev. R.
Fetter and wife to do missionary work among the Cheyennes. They, at their
arrival on their field of labor, immediately began the study of the Cheyenne
language, believing, that by being able to converse with the Indians in their
own tongue, they can more easily gain their confidence and make a more lasting
impression upon them. That in this their belief they were correct the results
have substantially Droven. Brother and sister Petter have made sufficient pro-
gress in the study of the language, so as to have been able, to some extent
during the past year, to converse with the Indians, and to read certain passages
of Scripture to them in their own language. The Indians were not only will-
ing to listen to what was spoken and read to them, but many of them mani-
fested an earnest desire of being told of God and of having the "Book of God"
read to them. Some of them came from a long distance and requested brother
and sister Petter to visit them in their camps and tell them of God, etc.

A change appears to be coming on in regard to the religious state of these In-
dians. They are beginning to see the vanity of their old religious practices.
They are seeking after something better. They are grasping at different things.
But as a rule, they tafce a hold of that which is most in accordance with their
own deluded ideas and which agrees best with their depraved natures. This
to a great extent accounts for their late " Messiah craze," and the religious
dances, as they are now more universally had than before. The Word of God,
the religion of Christ, they have thus far not been willing to accept, because
they do not meet with the approval of their carnal minds and sinful natures.
They still hope to find that which they seek in some way more agreeable to
them, without leaving their sinful, superstitious and ungodly ways and becom-
14499 8

114 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

ing the followers of Christ. But as their newer modes of worship must ultimately
prove as vain and worthless to them as their old religion did, we have reason to
believe that the time is approaching- when many of these Indians will come to see
that it is the Christian religion that exalte th a people, and that will give them
that peace of heart after which they are longing", and that as a consequence they
will accept it as their religion. To convince them of this fact is the object of our
mission among- them. And in the measure that the Christian church succeeds
in christianizing- the Indian, the vexed Indian question, which has for so long
a time occupied the minds of philanthropists, will be successfully solved, in as
much as a truly christianized Indian will also be a civilized Indian, whereas a
civilization without Christianity will never fully accomplish its object.

Our mission schools have been continued during the year the same as before.
Our school at Cantonment was well filled with pupils the year around. At Dar-
lington, on the contrary, the number of pupils was comparatively small, owing
to the fact that the Government schools in the vicinity have been greatly en-
larged and improved, and in consequence a greater number of pupils than for-
merly were drawn to these schools. In consequence of the difficulty experienced
in procuring a sufficient number of pupils for our Darlington school, our board
has had under consideration the plan of converting the school buildings at Dar-
lington into a hospital for the treatment of sick and disabled Indians. This idea
has, however, not yet been fully consummated. A small beginning has, how-
ever, been made by arranging and furnishing a room and appointing a man to
nurse sick Indians.

" The children attending our schools have made good progress in their studies,
and their deportment was in general good. Ths teachers in charge of the dif-
ferent schools repeatedly reported of the good progress and the good conduct of
their pupils.

A number of changes in the personnel at our schools have taken place during
the year. Owing to his impaired health a leave of absence was given to Rev. H.
R. Voth, the superintendent of our mission. He made use of this by making a
journey to Europe and Palestine. After about seven months' absence he returned
with his health greatly improved. During his absence, and until the present,
Rev. J. S. Krehbiel has been filling his plac3 as acting superintendent of mis-
sions. Other changes have also taken place, some of our old workers having
left and others in turn having taken their places. This frequent change of work-
ers our board deplores, but it could not be avoided. The longer one is among
the Indians the better he gets acquainted with their nature and their habits, and
the better he is enabled to properly deal with them.

By the allotment of the land in severalty and the settlement of the Indians
on their lands some material changes have been brought about. One of these
is the necessity of having mission stations established at different places where
larger colonies of Indians are located. One such station has been begun during
the past year in the vicinity of the Red Hills, about midway between Darlington
and Cantonment Here Brother J. H. Krehbiel with his wife are stationed and
are working among the Indians around them. Rev. J. J. Kliewer and wife are
working in a similar manner among the Indians settled along the Washita River.
They are working principally among the Arapahoes, while Brother Fetter is
working among the Cheyennes,

As under the new regime the Government is providing for the intellectual
training of the young Indian ; it is not the object of our board to establish schools
in connection with these new stations, but to devote our work mainly to the
spiritual training of both the young and the old Indians.

The Indian contract school at Halstead, Kans., has, as before, done some effi-
cient work during the year. The school had from 30 to 33 pupils in attendance
during the year, of whom a little more than one-third were girls. Several of the
girls, who had been here for a number of years, were baptized and received as
church members. Brother H. L. Weiss, who for several years was the faith-
ful and successful teacher of this school, is now the principal teacher of the school
at Cantonment. His place at the Halstead school is_ filled by Mr. G. Ruth, a
teacher of prolonged experience, and who has proven himself an efficient teacher
of Indian children.

Besides those attending the contract school, two young Indians have for the
last few years been attending the Halstead Seminary, from which one of them
is expected to finish his course and graduate next summer. Both are earnest
students and are making laudable progress in their studies.

The total expenditures for our Indian'mission work during the year amounted
to $9.901.40. This amount includes the sum of $3.913.09 received from the Gov-

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 115

eminent for the Halstead contract school. Besides the money expended, a
.great amount of clothing-, bedding, etc., were sent to our stations by aid societies,
sewing- circles, etc. Besides thes3 the sum of $844.87 were expended in enlarg-
ing- and improving the buildings for the Halstead school.

In taking a retrospective view of our work for the past year we have reasons to
be encouraged. Although we would desire greater and better visible results of
our labors, yet we believe that our work was not without some beneficent in-
fluence. The Word of God as daily taught in our schools, and as it was in part,
during the past year, read to the old Indians, will ultimately work its way to the
hearts of these people; the manual training which they have received will aid
them greatly in providing for themselves, as they will shortly be obliged to do;
and the intellectual training which the children have been receiving in our
school will help to bring about a more civilized mode of life.

There were also some serious obstacles in the way of our work. One of these
was the fact that the Indians at different times received large sums of money
from thS Government for their lands. The consequence of which was, that as
long as they had money they apparently cared for nothing else. How to en-
joy and to spend their money seemed to be the main questibn with them for
the time. Another obstacle of effectual mission work were a class of ungodly
white people who have rushed in and settled among the Indians. Some of these
dolnot only set a very bad example to the Indians, but even induce and encourage
them in their heathen practices. There is yet a great amount of work to be
done among the Indians of our charge, and it requires much patience and endur-
ance in order to do the work effectually and to lift the poor Indian to a higher
and better state.

In connection with the work among the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in Oklahoma,
our board now contemplates a mission among the Moqui Indians of Arizona.

In presenting this report, Mr. Shelley said:

You will see by this report that our church is one of the organizations which
is still receiving Government aid. This is not because we approve of the plan in
principle: we have had the subject under consideration in the past, and if it had
not been that our church is a weak church, and that we had not the means at our
disposal which we desired to have to carry on our work, we should long ago have
decided not to accept any more contributions from the Government. Personally,
I am strongly in favor of cutting off this support and refusing to receive any
more. But our board reasons in this way: as long as other churches are receiv-
ing support, we are also entitled to receive our share.

I am glad to be able to say this morning that Prof. Painter has been out to
view our work recently; as he knows more of the circumstances and the work in
general, from personal observation, than I do, I should be glad if he would speak
on that subject.

Prof. C. C. PAINTER. The first time I visited the Cheyenne and Arapahoe
Reservation, the Mennonite mission school and mission work at that point
seemed to me to be a hopeful feature, the one bright spot in connection with the
work among those Indians. The Cheyenne school was in very good condition —
not very large, but with good teachers ; but the Arapahoe school was in very
bad condition. The Mennonites, as you know, go down and take upon them-
selves, very largely, the conditions of the people among whom they labor; and
I thought the influence upon the Indians was very helpful".

Three years later, when I was there again, the superintendent of the school
expressed to me confidentially, for he did not wish to seem to be complaining,
his apprehensions. His school had diminished to about one-half. He said the
influence of the Government was all against his work, and his pupils were all
slipping away from him, under the impression that the Government did not al-
together approve of their being in his school. He was not allowed to take any
pupils into his school who had been in the Government school during the past
year ; but the Government schools were not under the same limitations ; so his
pupils were disappearing.

When I was there last November I went to attend their Sabbath morning ex-
ercises, and 1 found rather more employes than pupils. The school was virtually
gone, and the superintendent told me that he was not at liberty to get any pu-
pils into his school until the other* school should be full. The school at the
Arapahoes was full and overflowing : it had -been greatly enlarged, good build-
ings put up, and things were in good shape. The Cheyenne school had also been
greatly enlarged : the new building is one of the best I know of, and the old
building had been renovated and put in splendid condition, with a capacity of

116 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

two hundred, and an attendance of sixty, and the superintendent unable to fill
it up.

, This set me reflecting. I was satisfied that the policy of the Government is
to press its own work. I am not passing- any criticism on that policy, yet I do
feel that it has perhaps been pushed too rapidly to the interferenca with such
mission work as this. This was not a contract school; it is purely a mission
school, but the Government policy is all against it. Now, here are the returned
students, come back from Eastern schools, returning to their people partly edu-
cated, with bright hopes and prospects. They return to the "conditions of the
reservation, conditions changing very rapidly at that point it is true, but still
conditions very unfavorable to the maintenance of the high standards they had
reached. In pressing for appropriations for our work we are compelled to claim
all that can be claimed as to results, and to minimize all that the truth will allow
us to minimize with regard to the loss, but after all is said and done the condi-
tions are very hard, and there is. temporarily at any rat3, a very great loss.
At least, whatever may be true as to that there is certainly a very great strain
on those who return. For instance, there came back some time ago a girl from
one of these Eastern schools, with clean habits, with refined tastes, with such
aspirations as we may suppose had been kindled in her by her contact with her
teachers in the East. She' had been promised in marriage, sold by her father,
to be married when she reached his tepee. She knows it, she is filled with,
horror, she knows of no escape. She comes to the agency, the superintendent
of the school happens to be there, and she tells him something of "it. He says,
"Come with me, I have a room for you:" and he took her to the school, where
she stayed until the matter had been settled, until it was decided that she was
not to marry this man, that she was not to marry at all until she chose, and
marry only the man she chose. ( Still, however, she had to go back to the tepee.

I said to these men at the Mennonite school, "Why should you put yourselves
in competition with the Government in trying to get these children from the
tepees and let go this material that is coming back to you; that is uncared for
and must be largely lost ? Why should you not have here a home, and have it
understood by the Eastern schools that there is such a home, to which returned
students can come ? Let the Government make such addition to the land as may
be necessary, put every foot of it under cultivation, under the guidance of the
superintendent, and make it self-supporting as far as possible. Here returned
students could stay until questions of marriage, for instance, shall be settled ;
until the boy shall have looked around and found out where his allotment is,
shall have built his house and opened up his place, and have a home to go to.
Thus he will not be forced back into the conditions of the tepee, where inevi-
tably temptation comes.

I speak at this time rather to bring this suggestion before you than to empha-
size the character of the work that is done. This is the condition and these are
the tendencies. And in the providence of God these people have been encour-
aged to go there, to put up these buildings at great expense, and to get ready
for a work which has now dropped out of their hands. But here is another
work which ought to be done, and it seems to me it would be well to turn attention
to it. I talked with some of the returned students, and asked them how they
felt in looking foward to their return to the tepee; it was with shuddering and
horror they thought of it. If they could understand that such a home as this
was ready for them until they could look around them, it would make their re-
turn much easier.

Rev. William S. Langford moved that a telegram of sympathy be sent by the
conference to President Gates. A committee was appointed, consisting of Rev.
Mr. Langford, Gen. John Eaton, and Mr. Munroe, to prepare such a message.
They presented the following, which was unanimously adopted, and ordered
sent:

' 'The Indian commissioners, with a large representation from the various bodies
engaged in work among the Indians, are holding a most interesting session, but
deeply regret your absence, and would express the most sincere sympathy with
you in the afflictions which have detained^you from this meeting.''

The report of the Indian work of the Methodist Episcopal Church was pre-
sented by Rev. A. B. Leonard, D.JD., as follows:

That I may be understood by persons who are not familiar with the economy
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, I should preface this report by stating that
our Indian work to a large extent is under the supervision of annual conferences
and is in some instances connected with white work. I report the work under
the States in which it is located.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 117
CALIFORNIA.

Here our work is locatsd in Mendocino County, near Ukiah, where there is a
school supported by the Government, held in a church building1 belonging to
the mission. Services are held every Sabbath. Number of persons connected
with the church 50. A Sunday school is regulary sustained.

At Potters Valley, in the same county, a mission has been established and a
house of worship is to be erected. At Redwood Valley and Upper Lake work
has been commenced with encouraging prospects. At the latter point during"
the past year a small church edifice has baen erected. Here 27 persons have re-
cently united with the church. Thirteen adults and 71 children have been bap-
tized. Six couples have been married. Drunkenness and other vices have
greatly diminished, and the moral tone of the people very considerably elevated.

OREGON.

In this S,tate we have two missions : (1 ) The Siletz Mission on the Pacific coast
130 miles southwest of Portland. Here the Indian population is 56). Church
msmbers 54. A new parsonage has recently been built at a cost of $600, and a
new house of worship is in course of construction. (2) The Kiamath Mission is in
the s Duth western part of the Stats ; the Indian population about 1,000. About
200 have united with the church.

WASHINGTON.

The Nooksack Mission is located in the northern part of the State, near the
British line. Indian population about 500. Most of these people are members
of the church.

MINNESOTA.

A mission has been established recently at Vermilion Lake, where there are
about 125 families. Members of the church. 30. These Indians have erected
a house for the missionary. The house of worship will be erected during the
present year.

NEW YORK.
ONONDAGAS.

Th^ Onondagas are on a reservation near the city of Syracuse. There is an
Indian population of about 400. We have a neat well-kept church and a modest
parsonage. A missionary devotes all his time to these people with some degree
of success. The moral tone of the people is upon the whole low. Drunkenness
is a common vice, while marriage among those who remain pagan is the excep-
tion rather than the rule. The reservation is often invaded by the vilest of
white men for the vilest of purposes. Ths tribal relation is maintained and is
a fatal barrier to the development of Christian life and character.

SENEGAS.

Our work among- the Senecas is upon two reservations, one known as the
Tonawanda and the other as the Cattaraugus. Their moral condition is about
the same as the Onondagas. Upon the Tonawanda Reservation there are about
600 people; we have a small church building and a membership of -0. Upon the
Cattaraugus Reservation there are about 1,500 people. They have a good church
building with a membership of about 100. Preaching and social religious serv-
ices are regularly maintained among these people.

ST. REGIS.

On the St. Regis Reservation we have a church and parsonage with a mem-
bership of 75.

MICHIGAN.

In Isabella County there is an Indian population of about 600, among whom we
have four congregations, the membership of the church numbering about 200.

118 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

They are provided with inferior houses of worship. The Petoskey Mission, lo-
cated near the town of Petoskey. has three congregations with a membership of
about 100.

In the Kewawenon Reservation on Kewana Bay, Lake Superior, the mission
owns 30 acres of land, and has a comfortable church and parsonage, with a mem-
bership of about 100. In this State we have missions to fragments of tribes in
losco, Alcona, Saginaw, Antrim, Lehanaw, Calhoun, Allegan, Ottawa, Alger,
Chippewa, and Menominee Counties. There are in all about .MO members. They
have eight churches but they are of small value. Several of these congregations
are served in connection with white work.

WISCONSIN.

We have a prosperous mission among the Oneidas located lu miles from Ap-
pleton. The Indian population is abaut 1,700. Their lands have been allotted in
severalty. A new church edifice is just about completed at a cost of about $5, 000.
The membership is about 250.

NAVAJO MISSION.

The Navajo Indians are on a reservation lying in northwestern New Mexico
and northeastsrn Arizona. The Indian population is about 18,000. Our mission
was opened about two years ago. A house for the missionary has been erected
at Fort Defiance at a cost of about $2,000. The Department of the Interior has
generously set apart, with the consent of the ehiefsjof the tribe, 640 acres of land
some 15 miles from F'ort Defiance, upon which an industrial school is to be es-
tablished. During the current year one wing of the Building will bs completed
and ready for occupancy.

INDIAN TERRITORY.

In the Indian Territory we have work among the Osage, Cherokee, Choctaw,
Creek, and Chickasaw Nations. The work, however, is very largely blended with
white work and the appropriations of missionary money are for both classes. It
is therefore impracticable to determine what amount is used for Indians exclu-
sively.

The foregoing is merely an outline of the work of the missionary society of
the Methodist Episcopal Church to the Indians. Total amount expended for all
purposes, including the Indian Territory (which is only partly Indian) $23,850.
Amount appropriated for 1893, $2 J,550.

The Presbyterian Board of Home Missions was representsd by Mr. O. E.
Boyd, who spoke as follows:

The remarks which Mr. Painter has just made remind me of a statement
made at the Mohonk Conference two years ago, to the effect that the Govern-
ment was crushing out our work, not intentionally, but as the ultimate effect of
their policy. While we believe thoroughly in the idea of no sectarian or de-
nominational receipts from the Government, yet we could not but foresee from
the first that in the near future our own and all other denominations would
eventually not only receive no aid from the Government, but also that our edu-
cational work would be crowded out. As a board, we may very soon have a
considerable property on our hands for disposal, with no purchasers. From
the nature of the case, the Government agents must carry out the wishes of
those who employ them, and, though perhaps unintentionally, they work
against the denominational schools.^

It was my privilege to visit Alask'a last year, and I will make a brief state-
ment on that subject. We have several very important schools in that Terri-
tory, especially the one at Sitka. If I could but half express the feeling of the
passengers on "the steamer, as they returned after seeing the work done there,
the recital would thrill your hearts. Oft'ers of money toward its support from
members of our own and other churches gave substantial evidences of their ap-
proval.

I wish to speak of but one or two items in connection with this mission. First,
of the shoemaking. We found the shoemaker not only supplying all the school
with shoes, but he actually had a balance of about $1,100 in cash from work done
for the villagers at Sitka. This shows that practical work is done, and that it
is appreciated by the people of the town. Again, our carpenter, with the assist-

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 119

ance of the boys, bailt nearly all the houses of the mission, and a number of
other buildings have been put up that would be a credit to any workman. Be-
sides the school at Sitka we have one at Fort Wrang '1, one at Juneau, and one at
Hydah. the last two being- horn 3 schools for boys and girls. Our Fort Wrangel
school has not of late years b^en prosperous, but we have stationed a new mis-
sionary there, and expect better results in the future. Among the Hoonah we
have a large day school. At Chilkat we lately established a missionary, who is
reaching the people, and reports good work. The spiritual aspect, esptcially at
Sitka, is most encouraging ; the prayer meeting which we attended was delight-
ful. I doubt if many of us ar », privileged to altend such m etings oft n.

Leaving Alaska, let us consider the new State of Washington, where we have
work among the Umatillas. the Puyallups, and a few other tribes, and are now
employing two missionaries, the second having been added during the past year.
In Southern California we have been strongly urged to take up work, but we
have not. as yet, seen our way clear to do so. "in Arizona the work continues as
during the past years. At Tucson is one of the most useful, successful, and ef-
fective of ovy schools. Both Gen. Morgan and Dr. Dorchester have visited it,
and certified to the excellent character of the work done. Our Indian work in
New Mexico, which is now confined to four of the pueblos, consists of day schools.
These are inefficient, and not what we would like to see them : but. considering
the difficulties of the situation, they are probably all that we could expect.

In the Indian Territory our work is exceedingly larga — among the Cherokees,
the Creeks, tha Seminoles. the Choctaws, 1he Chicasaws, and one school among
the Kiowas ; they are too many for me to attempt to enumerata or ta describe.
Miss Robertson, who is here, can tell about them more particularly. In general,
the work is large, interesting, encouraging. At Sisseton, among the Dakotas,
we have an exceedingly interesting school. For several reasons it has not been
altogether successful during the past year ; but we now have one of the most
efficient superintendents that we have ever had, and the school is filling up and
coming int ) a more hopaful state in every direction. There are also several
native ministers preaching to a large number of Christian Indians.

You will remember that, a year or more ago, I spoke of the new work in
northern Minnesota, among the Chippewas. Two ladies went up there alone to
open a school in the wilds of the Northern lake reaion. amid the ice and the cold.
It was an heroic act which few men would be willing to undertake. A house
has been erected for them, and a comfortable place provided for their school,
and thus far it is as successful as we could expect in so short a time. We have
just learned that one of the ladies has captivated not only the Indians but also
a gentleman whom she is to marry soon — another romance of the missions.

At the Sac and Fox Reservation in Iowa there is a little mission, where we
have erected a building, and a h :peful work is being carried on in the way of
teaching simple housekeeping and dressmaking. The Government is cooperat-
ing with us wisely anil well, and we doubt not good work will soon be done,
right in the heart of Iowa, among that most heathenish people.

We have expended, during the year ending January 1, 18^)3, in connection
with what has been, received from the Government, $200,399.2*, of which we
have received $34,803.32 from the Unitad States Government.

With the prospect of being crowded out of our school work, with the pros-
pect of having these buildings left upon our hands, I have only to give warning
that, in my judgment, the probability is that we shall decrease rather than in-
crease our work among tha Indians. And, for my part. I think it will be largely
due to that policy which the Government has pursued, which all believe to be
right, and which, in general, I believe to be right, but which nevertheless is
leading, practically, to this result. Our board, as was reported at the Mohonk
conferenca a year ago, was one of the first to take action in the matter of agree-
ing to withdraw from Government aid. In February, 1891, we passed a resolu-
tion in the board to that effect. We presented this to our constituency, particu-
larly to those noble women who mainly support this work. This feeling was1
expressed in many quarters : " We do not feel like undertaking to raise the sum
which has heretofore come from the Government, for the reason that what we
give up will only go into the hands of th 3 Romanists." For this reason we have
been unable to raise the amount we had hoped to make up. and which would
have rendered us independent of Government aid. The practical result of this
policy is that, as we are compelled to do less work, the Indians will receive less
Christian instruction than bafore.

The Rev. William C. Roberts, D. D.. LL. D., senior secretary of the Presbyterian
Board of Home Missions, was then introduced, and spoke as follows:

1*20 REPORT 'OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Mr. Chairman: Returning- to the secretaryship after an interregnum of nearly
six years, I have noticed some* important changes of which I would be glad to
say a few things.

First and foremost, the work of our board among the Indians is being done
more systematically and efficiently than formerly. This, of course, is to be ex-
pected. Ten years a ro it was new, and consequently we did not understand it
in all its relations. Experience is the b^st teacher in most things, and it has
proved so in this case. We have studied the mental and moral as well as the
physical condition of the Indians, and have striven to adapt our teachers,
studies, and school appliances to their present condition. At first we made mis-
takes, for which the Government very properly found some fault with us. We
are satlsSed that at present, however, we are doing better work and giving, as
fa: as we can learn, greater satisfaction to the officers of Uie Government.

Secondly, the conviction grows upon me, not because I am a clergyman, but
because, the history of our efforts to elevate the Indians has taught it, that we
can not civilize and lift them properly to citizenship wLhout some religious in-
sti-uction. The great problems of dirty, obligation.' right, etc., are based upon
the ethical code of Scripture. The ignorant and vicious of other nations have
had some of these principles infused into their minds with their early instruc-
tion. But the Indians have to learn them from their very origin. You leave
out of youi- work the foundation of loyalty, obedience to law, and patriotism
when you shut out religious teaching. My frequent visits to different Indian
tribes have convinced me that the Government schools will be radically defect-
ive, if they are compelled to be absolutely neutral in regard to the fundamentals
of Christianity.

Thirdly, I have n> objection to the Government undertaking the instruction
of its wards, the Indians. Still, I do not see how it can introduce into the cur-
ricula of its schools the necessary amount of religious teaching. I am a firm be-
liever in Gen. Grant's plan, with a slight modification, perhaps, to meet the new
and changed condition of things. At present, many of the Government teachers
are Christian men and women who, without violating their trust, impart by ex-
ample, if not by formal instruction, Christian principles ; but how will it be when
the teachers are not selected by Christian Indian Commissioners, but appointed
upon their pro"ciency after a competitive examination? We must face this im-
portant change and consider the poss.ble effect it may have on the schools of the
future.

Fourthly. I find that here and there the Government has taken from us a
school just as it was brought by us into a good working condition. We have at
times felt grieved at the interference. Mr. Boyd has referred to this, hence^I
need not enlarge. I have my fears that Christian people will lose some of their
interest in the Indians if the Government undertakes to carry on all the schools
among them. I do not mean that the churches will cease to send missionaries
to labor among them, but I do fear that the lack of a Christian basis in their
education will produce a wrong impression upon the country in regard to their
capability of becoming useful citizens of the United States. The defect may be
in the education and not in the nature of the red man. All this calls for serious
thought and wise planning.

Mr. JAMES. If we had always a Commissioner like Gen. Morgan I do not think
there would be any need for' anxiety on the part of the missionary bodies,
have had the pleasure of visiting many of the Government schools in the past
year or two. and it is an interested and important fact that the religious part
of their work is by no means neglected. I have usually found in these Govern-
ment schools earnest and inteiested Christian teachers and superintendents.
I do not remember any exceptions to this rule. But we do not know what is
before us : we never do know what is coming under a republican form of govern-
ment. I do not, however, take exactly the view of Mr. Boyd in this matter.
I happen to b3 intimately associated with a part of the school work of the
Presbyterian Church, amTl feel a deep interest in it: and while we may have
some of o:;r school property left on our hands, I think the present outlook is
bright and calls us to push forward in our work.

The work of the Presbyterian Foreign Board was presented by Rev. Dr. F. F.
Ellinwood.

Our Indian work has mostly passed into the hands of the Home Board. We
have still a little work at Yankton Agency. We also still have charge of the
Nez Perces Mission, in which we employ two lady missionaries and seven or eight
native preachers, who have b:en educated by them, and most of whom are pas-
tors of native churches by act of Presbytery.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 121

Miss Sue MacBeth, whose remarkable histo.y is well kn jwn, is still carrying1
on her work of instruction with good results at Mount Idaho. Some live or six
young- Indians are under her instruction for becoming pastors and elders. Miss
Kate MacBeth is located at Lapwai, and is engaged in the instruction of women
who come to her house. She is also active in the Sabbath-school work.

Seneca Mission, by which we mean all the stations and departments of the
various New York tribes, has suffered seriously from a scandal which occurred,
in the Thomas Orphan Asylum about a year ago. Our church at Cattaraugus
Reservation has not recovered from the evil effects of this misfortune.

On the other hand we have been greatly encouraged by the fact that the De-
partment of the Interior has during the year consented to admit the youth of
New York tribes to the same privileges as other Indian tribes in connection with
the Government schools at Carlisle. Hampton, and Philadelphia. I think that
nearly sixty young Indians from the New York reservations are now in these
schools, mostly in Carlisle and Philadelphia. There has, in spite of difficulties,
been a good degree of religious interest in some of the New York reservations.

We will npw hear from the Unitarian Association by Rev. Francis Tiffany.

Mr. TIFFANY. I have the honor to report that the Montana industrial school
for Crow Indians is in a thoroughly satisfactory condition. The average num-
ber of pupils in constant attendance has been from 50 to 55, about half of them
boys and half girls. In his recent communication to Gen. Thomas J. Morgan,
Dr. Daniel Dorchester, superintendent of Indian schools, gives the highest praise
to the zeal and efficiency with which our Montana school is conducted in all
its departments. His report agrees in every point with the conclusions I myself
came to after a thorough inspection on the spot last October. Alike, the char-
acter of the instruction in the schoolrooms, the industrial training of the boys
in farm work, carpentering, etc., and of the girls in sewing, cooking, washing,
and general housewor-k, together with the effort to promote good manners, neat-
ness, and moral conduct are all commended in the highest terms by Dr. Dor-
chester.

Apart from the help rendered by the United States Government, the amount
raised by ourselves in 1892 was nearly $7,50(J'; of this over $1,000 was spent on
improvements of buildings, stock, farming utensils, etc. The boys raised last
year more than 300 bushels of potatoes, tons of root crops, and several very
large stacks of hay and alfalfa, besides doing, under superintendence, all the
carpenter work on improvements of the buildings.

Mr. JAMES. The reports which we have heard conclude the list of church or-
ganizations so far as they are represented here. Shall we hear from Mrs. Quin-
ton on the part of the Women's Indian Association ?

Mrs. A. S. QUINTON. I am glad to speak a word of testimony in regard to the
Government schools. Last year I took a trip quite around the United States,
and saw many of the teachers, and I can bear testimony to the Christian char-
acter of their work. It seems clear to me that not many women would volunteer
for work among wild Indian tribes save from Christian motives, and if a Chris-
tian woman goes into such work her atmosphere goes with her. If Christianity
is the central principle of her life, she can not do her work in any other than a
Christian spirit. Because of what I have seen I have no feeling of fear about
the future of Government education among the Indians, and I am somewhat sur-
prised at Mr. Boyd's rather despairing view. With such a body of Christians
as the Presbyterians of this country, with no end of means, with great faith,
and nq end of achievement, it does not seem to me that there will be danger to
their schools from the changes.

The work of the Government has advanced to such a point in educational mat-
ters that it can not recede. I do not see how the general Christian public in this
country can fail to demand in future just what is now in existence in regard to
the Christian tone of Government schools, and with the chairman of this meet-
ing I believe that the remedy, if one is needed, is in the hands of the Christians
in this nation.

If there are fifteen millions of Christians here— and there are by all reports —
they have only to speak to the churches and control things. Nothing has been
so strongly borne in upon me in these fourteen years of Indian work as the con-
viction that all that is wanting for the redemption of the Indian race is that
Christians should speak out and ask for what is needed, for the right sort of ed-
ucation, for adequate support of good Christian teachers, and for the appli-
cation of civil-service reform to all Indian officials. We must have an expert in
educational matters to lead the work, a man of moral courage and Christian

122 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

character, a man of ability to speak, and with the Christian public behind such
a man it seems to me that we need have no fear.

Prof. C. C. Painter was invited to speak as a representative of the Indian
Rights Association.

Mr. PAINTER. I have recently returned from a visit to the Cheyenne and
Arapahoe and Kiowa and Comanche and Wichita reservations in Oklahoma, and
some conditions which I have observed, which are not strictly confined to these
localities, may be the most valuable to dwell upon. There are certain dangers
threatening the Indian service just now to which attention should be called and
in regard to which the friends of the Indians should be fully awake. The sev-
eralty law widely provided that allotments of land should be made only to In-
dians who were living on agricultural lands and so far advanced in civilization
that it was wise to make such allotments. I favor allotting lands, even to blanket
Indians if it is the only way to save their lands, if they are to be removed and
the lands to be lost ; but otherwise allotments should be made only as the law
contemplated — to those who are so far advanced that when the intercourse laws
are removed by which they have been guarded they will still be safe. Then,
again, the law contemplated that allotments, when begun among a people who
were prepared for it. should be continued through at least four years, the In-
dian having time to adjust himself to the idea, having time to make wi^e changes,
to learn not to be guided by the old Indian ideas as to wood and water, with no
reference to lands: but these wise restrictions and limitations have been stead-
ily disregarded in many caves. Take these Cheyennes and Arapahoes among
whom I have been. The idea of allotting land to over thirty-three hundred
blanket Indians, 1(10 acres to each individual, within ninety days, as would have
been done but that the funds were exhausted and they had to wait for more money.

Mistakes are continually coming up, to the irritation of the Indian, and prom-
ising, in the future, difficulties, collisions, conflicts between the whites and the
Indians. Then the character of the allotting agents has sometimes been bad, as
was the case with some at this agency. At other points the appointment of these
agents has been made with no reference to their fitness, but on other reasons.
Take the case of the Mission Indians in California. We got things into such
shape among these Indians that we thought a wise allotting a>ent could settle
all their troubles, except those which involved titles to old grants, which must
be set' led in court. A member of Congress says that he went to the Secre'ary
and reminded him that he had failed to make an appointment of a man in his
district which had been promised. The Secretary remembered that the allot-
ting agent to the Mission Indians had resigned: he at once made out a commis-
sion for this man and he is to be sent out to do a work which-should be done by
one of great wisdom, large experience of affairs, and who has special knowledge
of the peculiar conditions of these Indians, none of which this man has. for the
appointment was made with no reference whatever to these facts.

We rejoice, and rightly rejoice, in many great advances; but when we go out
to various reservations and come in actual contact with the facts we see that,
after all, the millennium is not yet. I think it is time that this body should in-
sist that a long step be taken in advance of any that has yet been taken in regard
to the emancipation of Indian civilization from low political control. If those
in power please to put the material interests of the country in the hands of poli-
ticians for political ends, let them do it. though that is bad enough: but when
the civilization of a people is to be trodden under foot simply to subserve the in-
terest of politicians it is time that we should, with emphasis and directness and
with specification, call attention to it.

Then, there is another matter. From our point of observation, while we see
great advances, we see many thiugs which have not advanced one inch, and that
where advance is vital. Some stop must be put to this undue haste in allotting
lands. It is the final deal with these Indians; it is bringing them out from un-
der the protection of the intercourse laws and leaving them at the mercy of the
whisky-seller and the lowest class of settlers, which rush in to make profit from
the Indians. I understand that the opinion has been expressed by somebody
high in authority that we can, to some extent, intervene yet for the protection
of a citizen : that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has something- to do yet with a
citizen of the United States. I do not believe it. I think a citizen is a citizen
and we must not make citizens prematurely.

Another danger that we have seen is the danger that the funds of the Indians
shall disappear under the operation of this law which refers depredations to the
Court of Claims. This matter will be up for discussion, I think, before we are
done with this meeting. The Indian Rights Association has been calling at-
tention to this, and I think we should awake to the danger.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Commissioner Morgan then spoke, as follows:

Commissioner MORGAN. Before passing- from the reports of the churches on
the distinctively religious work among- the Indians, I would like to offer two or
three suggestions. I have been studying- the work among- the Indians during
the past four years from the point of view of an administrator. I have been pro-
foundly interested in the work of the churches, and I think I am not behind
anyone present of my appreciation of distinctively religious effort. I would
not minimize it, but would emphasize it. I have observed very carefully, so
far as my opportunities have allowed, the work done by the missionaries. I
visited the White Earth Agency last September and with Mr. Giltillan traveled
over, the reservation and met some of the men he has trained, and I have a pro-
found appreciation of his work there, particularly of the admirable influence
which has emanated from our venerated brother, Bishop Whipple. I have
also observed the work done under the immediate direction of Bishop Hare ;
Mr. Charles S. Cook, whose memory is revered and will be, I knew person-
ally ; and Mr. Walker, another of' the trained missionaries there, I knew.
The work done by those men has been worthy of all praise. I have reason to
think, also, that the work done through North Dakota under Bishop Walker,
of which I have had official, if not personal, knowledg-e, is worthy of commenda-
tion. All that Dr. Strieby has said in reference to that admirable school at
Santee I can repeat. Among the most delightful experiences which I had in
September was a visit there. The Christian spirit, the efficiency of the indus-
trial training, and the missionary spirit that goes out from that institution into
all that region are simply admirable.

I also visited the Pimas and met Mr. Cook, who has been there nearly twenty
years : his work among the Pimas has permeated the entire body. It has not been
as rapid as he himself desired, but probably as rapid as circumstances would per-
mit. The work done by Mr. Pullman in that excellent school at Tucson I
appreciate.

In reference to all this Christian work there are two things to be noticed :

First, there is a necessity not only for the same kind and quantity of Christian
work among the Indians that there has ever been, but that the circumstances
of the present day, their taking their land in allotments, their becoming citi-
zens, the education of their children in Government schools, their coming into
closer contact with the white people who are settling about them, call upon
the churches for an increased amount of religious work rather than a diminu-
tion of it. I think we should all feel that it would be a great calamity, not
simply for the Indian but for the churches themselves, if they should at this time
falter. It would be a reflection upon the Christian church. Churches like indi-
viduals are tested by crises: this crisis has come and will test the churches. I
do not think they will flinch or fail.

Second, I believe that the work done by the Protestant churches is especially
good in this respect. They believe in the Indian ; they believe in his manhood ;
they believe that it is possible to raisa up among the Indians men who shall be
competent for leadership.

This impressed me profoundly in the work done by Bishop Hare, and I think
it is true of the Episcopal work generally. They seek out and make prominent
men like Walker and Cook, and others whose names I need not call; they throw
upon them responsibility and leadership, and develop them in the line of a
masterful guidance of their own people. Such work Rev. John Eastman is do-
ing among the Flandreaus. I have found in many workers among the Indians
a lack of faith in the Indian. There was a pamphlet published last year, in ref-
erence to Indian education, arraigning the Indian Bureau very severely and
laying down the principle that it is well enough to give the Indian a very low
order of education, but that he is not competent to become a skilled mechanic,
that it is not expected of him that he shall reach any high plane, and that he
should be taught to perform the ordinary forms of low industrial labor. I do
not think that we 'shall ever reach them so long as we proceed upon the as-
sumption that they can not be reached. The one work to ba done by the Chris-
tian people of this country now is to appeal, not to the ambition in the ordinary
acceptation of the term, but to the self- respect, the manly pride, and the desire
to do work among their own people. Thus we may raise up a class of men and
women who shall ba compatent to become leaders, men who shall teach, preach,
practice medicine, and be able to organize business enterprises and carry them
on.

I am inclined to the opinion that the Christian churches will do more for the
cause of Indian advancement if they turn their forces towards the raising up of

124 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

a comparatively few leaders rather than in the direction of the education of the
masses of the boys and girls in the rudiments of an English education.

Of course it is always difficult to apply a principle; but I said to Rev. Mr.
Cook, at Pima, two years ago, and to Mr. Pullman, at Tucson, that if instead of
attempting- to educate a hundred and' fifty boys and girls in the rudiments of
English, they would turn that institution into a training school for a compara-
tively few young men and women and train them for leadership I believed that
the church would profit more and that the Indians would profit more than by
the present method.

One word farther. I think Tarn safe in saying that the work of Indian educa-
tion, civilization, Christianization, is making progress nowhere more rapidly
than among the five '-civilized tribes:" and yet not a dollar from the public
treasury goes into that work, which is distinctively a Christian and a mission
work. Dr. Mac Vicar has told you of the admirable work done by the university
and its tributary academies under the Baptists. Mr. Boyd has spoken of the
excellent Presbyterian work among the five civilized tribes: and Miss Robert-
son has frequently told us of it. I believe I am safe in saying that in the entire
Indian country there is no place that is better in its results and in its outlook
than the work there, which is absolutely dissociated from any Government aid.

In reference to the attitude of the Government toward mission work, words
sometimes convey more meaning than they are intended to convey; but in this
discussion we have heard the word ''crush'' used several times.

I have found this to be trua, as a matter of practical administration, that when
the office attempts to carry on a work of education among the Indians it must
either emphasi/e its own work or it must emphasize the work of the churches.
I say ''must;" it is a matter of fact that during the four years of the last ad-
ministration the work of the churches, particularly in one direction, was em-
phasized by the Governmsnt, to the neglect of the Government schools, and
there was a noticeable retrogression in the Government work, while the church
work, especially in one direction, was abnormally pressed forward. When I
took the helm I began to develop the Government work, not with a view of
crushing a-ny other, but with a view of emphazing that which had been neg-
lected, strengthening that which was weak. There has grown out of that a
system of " crushing." Prof. Painter has very well put it. The Arapahoschool
was enlarged and more fully equipped and became attractive: the Cheyenne
school, which was a disgrace, has been remodelled, and is an admirable and at-
tractive school. Because those two schools have been attractive, the little
Mennonite school, which was an admirable school, has lost its pupils. There
has not been any " crushing,'5 in the sense of an attempt on the part of the Gov-
ernment, but it has arisen from the legitimate methods of the public schools.
The same thing is true in other places. One of the objections that I have had
to the who e system of giving church institutions public aid has been, first, the
jealously that it created among different denominations which were striving to
do their work by the aid of public money, a condition of things which could not
be known to anybody so fully as it was known in the Indian Office; and secondly,
the jealousy and antagonism that has arisen between the church schools as such
and the Government schools as such.

There has been a very strong rivalry, and in many cases a bitter antagonism.
You will find in my annual report, on pages 150 and following, a very careful
statement of this bitter antagonism. The Government schools have been fought
at every step. The office has been obliged, simply in self-defense, to take an atti-
tude of aggression in some cases which otherwise it would not have taken. I
think, in my place, Dr. Roberts and Mr. Boyd would have done very nearly what
I have done, except they would have done it a little better. They are aggres-
sive, and when they believe they are right they are not the men to stop at trifles
or difficulties.

As to what Mr. Boyd has said in reference to having the school property on
hand, with no purchasers, Mr. Gilfillan said to me personally that he had been
building a schoolhouse at Wild Rice River and another at Pine Point, and that
he felt that his schools had seriously interfered with his mission work : he be-
lieved that, if he could be free from the care and responsibility of running^schools
and could give his time entirely to the spiritual interests of the Indians, he
could do much more good. I said to him. •• I will buy the property you have."
He said, i; I shall be glad to sell at less than it cost me." So we bought the
schoolhouse at Wild Rice River and that at Pine Point. Bishop Hare oame in
the other day to say to me, " Will you buy of me the two schools we have among
the Dakotas?" I said, " I will recommend to the Secretary that he pay you

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 125

what those buildings are worth, and that the Government take them and run
them as Government schools." If the Presbyterians are willing- to sell that
school at Tucson (we need more school facilities in Arizona), I think the Gov-
ernment will be prepared to take it at a fair valuation and to carry it on as a
Government school. I do not think the Presbyterians need lose a dollar of the
money they have invested in school plants.

I want to emphasize the point Prof. Painter has made, that if these mission
schools will turn their attention to the returned students— the young men and
women who have been educated in Eastern boarding schools and are in a tran-
sition state of uncertainty, if they will establish a home for them, give
them, kindly help and admonition, they can render to them, and therefore
to their paople, an invaluable service. For instance, that the school at Tucson
might be carried on as a home of that kind, as well as a training school for
preachers and teachers, and be of vast benefit to that whole section of country.

As to Christian work in Government schools, bear in mind that the entire
school service is now under the control of the laws governing the civil service.
There can be no religious test applied, and no political test. Those schools are
open now to any and all persons who are willing to qualify themselves, and to
pass the requisite civil-service examinations. The practical point which I
would like to make now is this: I wish every person who applies for appoint-
ment as a teacher among the Indians, particularly if they are persons of eminent
religious character and good sense, might be told by these secretaries, u There
is a way for you to have valuable and permanent employment in the Government
service": prepare yourself, take the civil-service examination; and when you go,
take your religion with you."

The work done among the Indians is largely a work of example. One ear-
nest Christian woman in an Indian school, who lives her Christianity day by day,
is worth more to them than any amount of perfunctory religious teaching. The
example of a Christian life among them goes a great way. The Government
provides, and has for a long time provided, a Sunday school in every Government
school and that there shall be a decent regard for religion . And I have reason to
think that in many schools the distinctively religious work will bear comparison
with the mission work done anywhere. None of us would hesitate to say that
the distinctively religious work carried on at Carlisle among the 2,300 pupils
is hardly surpassed even at Santee itself. I believe that the same may be said of
the religious teaching at Chilocco, under Mr. Coppuck, who is a Friend ;' when
we entered that school we felt at once that we were in a religious school. Bear
in mind that the Catholics take part in this ; the Government schools at Stand-
ing Rock are Catholic schools, and those teachers have been commended as hav-
ing a distinctly uplifting influence.

It is not in any narrow way that I am urging religious instruction. I believe
it is possible for the Christian people of this country to meet on this high
plane, and I am free to say I believe the time is coming when Methodists and
Presbyterians and Baptists and Congregationalists and Episcoplians and
Roman Catholics can stand together in this matter of uplifting the Indian, and
respect each other and each other's methods.

I believe the time is near at hand when the position taken by the citizens of
this country in pronouncing in favor of the separation of church and state, and
pronouncing in favor of the doing of distinctively missionary work as missionary
work, will have the support of the Catholics as strongly as it has to-day the sup-
port of the Baptists. I think so because I believe that the separation of church
and state is a fundamental question in the United States. A free church in a
free state, that is what it means. It is an advance in human civilization that
marks our century. It is not any narrow principle; it is not any question of
mere temporary significance: it is a question that is as deep as the foundations
of our Republic; that reaches as high as heaven itself, and that will go with us
to the end of our history. We can not afford to-day, as members of this great
Republic, as men who believe in the freedom of conscience, as men who know
the history of the past, we can not afford for the sake of a few pennies to higgle
or hesitate to plant ourselves firmly and squarely upon this great principle, if
we are satisfied that that principle is true.

One word in closing : I am about ending my work ; I pass out of my office in a few
days. I have endeavored in the administration of the office to do two things, to
emphasize and hold up that principle which is so far-reaching, and* at the same
time to administer the office in such a way that it could not possibly be said that
I was aiming at any particular body of people. So, while the Roman Catholics
received during the last administration $881, 000, they have received at my hands

126 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

during the present administration $1,400,000. While I have emphasized the
principle, and while I believe in that principle with all my heart, and while I
believe the time is coming- when we shall all see eye to eye on this point, I have
been willing to lay myself open to the charge of inconsistency in order that meri
might say, k' That is principle, and not a stroke of partisanship or sectarianism."

In closing, then, I think that we ought from this time forward, as the repre-
sentatives of those who are interested in the uplifting of the Indian, regardless
of creed, regardless of party, regardless of anything excepting the thought of
doing good, stand together and work together, with hope, with good cheer, not
with despair, not with criticism, but with joy fulness, in the belief that there is
work needing to be done, and that we are called upon to do it.

Dr. STRIEBY. We are manifestly at the parting of the ways. The school
work, if carried on. as we hope it will be, more thoroughly and completely by
the Government, will gradually absorb that part of the whole work. But the
Christian church must do its part ; and I rise to ask that Commissioner Morgan,
who is both a Christian and a public officer, with whose administration I am most
heartily in accord, and to whom I give the utmost praise in this matter, and who,
I believe, sympathizes with us as Christians as much as he does with the school
work that has bean under his hand — I would be glad if Commissioner Morgan
would say to us how best we can work alongside of the Government schools for
the promotion of the Christian work intrusted to us.

Commissioner MORGAN. It is a difficult question to answer in a word. I should
say first that the work done among the five civilized tribes, such as has been
spoken of, should go on with no change. Wherever a Christian school has been
established and is under full headway, as that at Santee, if the churches will
come to its support and carry it on as it is now, I should be very slow to make
any radical change. Where any change was to be made, I should make it on the
line that I suggested at Mohonk, turning that school into a training school for
missionaries, teachers, and preachers. In the next place, I should recommend
the establishment, wherever it can be done, of missions alongside the Govern-
ment schools, to cooperate with the Government, so that when the pupils have
been educated they can be further helped and directed by Christian men amT
women. For instance, I was asked by Mr. Hicks, who is a Baptist, about a
schoolhouse which the Baptists had just built for the Wichita Indians. I said:

" I think you are making a mistake in undertaking to build up a school here.
It will be an expensive matter and a slow work. The Government school at
Wichita takes care of almost all the Indian boys and girls of school age. Go to
that school; make the acquaintance of every boy and girl there. When they
come back from the school meet them with a warm shake of the hand; invite
them to your Sunday school, to your prayer meeting, and thus keep your eye on
them. As soon as they leave school let them feel that they have helpful friends
in you and your wife. In that way the same amount of energy that would be
expended on a small school would reach the Wichitas much more fully and much
more effectually."

I do not know that I have answered Dr. Strieby's question, but I should not
like to commit myself to a general principle and undertake to apply it in any
particular case without having all the facts of that particular case before me.'
I have reason to believe that these secretaries, who know all the facts, are better
able than I to apply these general principles.

Mr. BOYD. The position of the Board of Home Missions in this matter of public
funds is this : The Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church was one
of the first which took action to sever its connection with the Government, just
as soon as it was practicable. We made the effort to raise the money ; we have
had difficulty in doing so. Now, if we were to shut off immediately the money
from the Government we should have to reduce our work.

When I used the word "crush " I meant that by the very nature of the rela-
tion between our schools and the Government schools we of course must suffer,
not to absolute crushing, but to proportionate crushing, if you will, until finally
I think we must give up our school Work.

Adjourned at 1 p. m.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 127

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The conference was called to order at 2:30 p. m. by Mr. James, who introduced
Rev. Daniel Dorchester, D. D., superintendent of Indian schools, to speak upon
the religious side of education and the relation between the Government schools
and the contract schools.

ADDRESS OF DR. DORCHESTER.

It is very pleasant to stand in this presence and to find myself in contact with
so many warm friends of the Indian. I have been living the greater part of
the time in the last four years where friendship for the Indian is very limited
and very unreliable, and where the Indians are regarded rather as tools for the
accomplishment of certain secular ends.

I would like to say first of all, as briefly as I can, that I am greatly impressed
with the progress which has been made, from almost every point of view, in the
work of Indian education and civilization. I visited a great many schools imme-
diately upon my appointment, and I frequently find myself now contrasting the
superintendents, teachers, and other employes of the Indian schools at the pres-
ent time with those whom I found at that time occupying those positions ; and
the advance has been incalculable, not only in personal and moral qualities, but
also in religious and intellectual qualities. The harmony of the schools and the
Indian agencies has also incalculably increased. I expected to have a quarrel
to settle in every place I went to, when I first started. I attribute this improve-
ment in harmony to the improved character of the employes in the schools and
on the reservations, and in part also to the system of rules and regulations
which have been adopted by the Indian Bureau and carried into operation in
the schools. A second edition of the rules and regulations has been issued, and
is a great improvement on the first; but the first was a great help in defining
the position and duties of the various employes, a thing very much needed.

And "there has been a great improvement in the scholarship of the schools. I
went into many schools at first where the pupils after three or four years were
wrestling with the fundamental rules of arithmetic and had very little knowl-
edge of grammar. But I must not now dwell upon that phase.

There has been a great improvement in the buildings. 1 found myself almost
constantly under the necessity of criticising the absence of sitting rooms for
boys and girls, in all my earlier reports, and the absence also of assembly rooms.
These have been largely supplied, and others are in course of being prepared.
The moral and social environment of the schools is incalculably improved with
the improvement in the harmony of the reservations and the agencies.

The religious question has been in my thoughts all the time, and the preju-
dice that Government schools can not teach religion I have met everywhere
when I have returned from the reservations; and when I have been upon the
reservations I have found agents very anxious about the introduction of relig-
ious matters into the Government school. They have felt that if any door were
thrown open for Protestant ministers the Roman Catholic priests in the neigh-
borhood would want to come in and have a share in the exercises. I found one
such case recently, and I said: "I do not see any difficulty. Say to the priest
that if he wants to come in in the same way that a Protestant minister does, sim-
ply to make the boys and girls better, to lift them up in their ideas, he may come
in. Of course you do not admit a Protestant minister to teach sectarianism, to
take his denominational catechism and teach it to the pupils. If the priest
wants to come in, not simply to make Roman Catholics, but to encourage them to
be better, why, he can come in." But there is the difficulty; they do not want to
come in that way. If they come, they come simply to make Roman Catholics.
The Presbyterian missionary, as I havefound in a number of cases, simply teaches
abroad, generous, unsectarian Christianity; so the Episcopal missionary, and so
the Methodist missionary. And when the Roman Catholic can do the same let
him come in. This seems to solve the question for some of the agents who had
really been anxious to do the right thing.

I can take you to some Government training schools that rank as high relig-
iously as any of the denominational schools: and I have very cordial relations
with the denominational schools. I was particularly impressed with the Sun-
day school in the Albuquerque Government school. You could not go through
that school and see the teachers conduct their classes and enjoy the opening and
closing exercises without realizing that there is a positive work of religious in-

128 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

fluence there. I have had particular occasion to search that school, because
there have been some scandals about it; I think the scandals are false and ma-
licious, and that the school ranks very high in its religious influence. I might
take you to the Keams Canyon school, where I found the same thing.

A teacher said to me that in her class of forty-five every pupil could repeat
every Golden Text in the year 1891 and 1892 up to that date, which was the 1st
of July: and I saw it tested. We sent out some Testaments, enough for each
pupil in that school, and when they arrived the pupils were delighted with
them, and it was said that you would see them, in their odd moments, sitting
down upon a rock somewhere near by. studying their Testaments, all around in
that deep canon. The sama condition we find in many other schools. The re-
ligious atmosphere at San tee is of a very high order, as are all the exercises of
that school.

Reference was made to the Roman Catholic schools on the Standing Rock
Reservation. It was my fortune to b3 for ten days right in the family of those
Benedictine Sisters who had charge of one of the Government schools, and I had
an interior view of the school. It was one of those peculiar schools where the
Government furnishes the buildings and pays all the running expenses and the
salaries of the teachers and superintendents, and yet the Roman Catholics put
in the teachers. This is one of those reservations which, under the Grant
policy, was given to the Catholics: they have had a Catholic agent there for a
long1 time, a very fine man,* broad and fair-minded, and he has insisted in his
dealings with that school that the Government rules and regulations should be
carried out. and the course of study very strictly observed. I said to myself,
uNow I shall expect to find considerable of the distinctively Roman Catholic
element in this school; " but I did not find it as I had expected.

I found the catechism was not taught in the school buildings at all, either in
or out of school hours. The Sister Superior said : "The priest takes care of
that. There is the chapel, and he attends to that. We are in a Government
school." I did find that when they came around the table they asked the usual
blessing as the Roman Catholics do, preceding it by the usual signs. But I did
not care very much about that; it was what I should call a good orthodox invo-
cation of the divine blessing. And I found that in op ming the school exercises
they repeated the Lord's Prayer, or that part of it which the Catholic Church
recognizes, and they repeated the Ten Commandments, and they repeated quite
a number of their little collects. Among others there was a most interesting
collect, recognizing the two great commandments: ''I love thee, O God. with
all my heart, my mind, and strength, and my neighbor as myself for love of
thee. I pray to be forgiven as I forgive others."' I wish that all of our Prot-
estant people could adopt that language, as sincerely and heartily as I believe
it was repeated there. At a meeting of school superintendents at Lawrence, in
a paper on moral training, I brought in that beautiful collect, which any of us
here would adopt, at the close; and everybody thought it was "a very fine
thing ; they hardly kn^w where it came from."

The statement has been made and repeated a number of times by Senator
Vest that the Jesuits — by which he means the Roman Catholics— have done the
most efficient work in advancing the Indians toward civilization, and especially
in inculcating industries among Indian pupils. This remark has been circu-
lated very widely, as you are aware.

I am not here to attack the Jesuits: I am not here to attack any denomination ;
I try to be as broad and liberal and generous as I can be. and to allow great lat-
itude to individuals who differ with me. But it is fitting, having been in the
field as I have, and having witnessed the condition of things everywhere in the
contract schools as well as the Government schools, that I should make a proper
statement of the case. And especially is it fitting in view of the very harmo-
nious relations I have had with those people. I have done my work in an un-
sectarian and unpartisan way, and have contended from the beginning that, as
an officer of the Government. I had nothing to do with denominations as such.
I found things considerably at fault sometimes, and felt myself under the neces-
sity of criticising a good deal. I remember saying to a Sister Superior: "We do
not raise any question about your being Roman Catholics ; we do not raise any
question as to whether you shall be on this reservation ; we do not raise any
question as to whether you shall do what you think to bs your duty religiously
for the Indians. That is not a question. But this being a Government institu-
tion, owned by the Government, supported by the Government, and all your sal-
aries paid by the Government, I submit to you whether you should take an hour
or purely denominational exercises in your school two or three times a week ?''

KEPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 129

Of course no reply could be made to that. Just so I have treated these peop!e
everywhere.

Now, I am to speak in regard to what they do in the line of industries.

I want to say in the first place that Mr. Vest might just as well have made
that remark sitting in his law office in St. Louis without going out anywhere,
as to have made it after having gone upon a single reservation.

He visited one particular reservation, the Flathead Reservation and its school in
Montana, and he specifically refers to that. I have been there; I know about it.
And I have been in other Indian schools that are run by the Roman Catholics.
And, as I said, I am not here to antagonize them : but I am here to vindicate the
Government schools at a point where they have been assailed. I will put what
I have to say in as brief and concise a form as possible. I want to say that in
most of their schools there is nothing done in the line of industries, aside Irom
the chores which the boys do. A few cows are milked and some wood has to be
cut and brought in, some fires attended to, and that is all we find inmost of their
schools. But if you will go to Bishop Ireland's great school atClontarf, in Min-
nesota, you will find three or four thousand acres of land owned by the school,
and about as extensive farming operations as you will find in connection with any
school. They have three great barns, and everything else is on the same scale.
It is really an exceptionally fine farming plant, but nothing was done on other
lines of industry. I was glad to recognize what they do, and commended them for
that work.

But the Government training schools have more and better shops, more land
under cultivation, and are better manned with instructors in farming and in the
trades. This point stands out very plainly wherever you go ; you can not fail to
see it. And there are no training schools in the country that can compare for a
moment in this respect with Carlisle and Haskell and Chilocco and Albuquerque
and Genoa, none of any denomination, though San tee ranks very high.

The St. Ignatius school, to which Senator Vest referred, is a very fine plant,
one of the best in the whole Indian school service, irrespective of any denomi-
national division. They have a fine set of buildings, and excellent opportuni-
ties for teaching trades as well as farming. They have a very large herd of
cattle and furnish their own beef; they have very good harness and shoe shops
and carpenter shops. But let me put one single fact in connection with this: I
received only a few days ago from the Father Superior of that schcol a letter in
which he said that there were 335 pupils ; and in answer to my question, " How
many boys of 15 years and upwards':" he reported " fourteen." Only fourteen
boys to get the benefit of this great industrial plant and all this industrial train-
ing ! There are perhaps twenty mora there about 1 A years of age; but they
complained to me when I was there that they could not keep boys much after
they were 13 years old. They keep the girls till they are about 20. This is per-
fectly characteristic of all their other schools. How can their industrial work
compare with that of the Government training schools ?

Then there is another point. The numter of pupils in the Government train-
ing schools is about three times as many as in all the Roman Catholic schools —
9,634 in all the Government training and boarding schools, and 3,395 in the
Roman Catholic public schools of every class.

You see that there can be but a small part of the amount of industrial work
performed by the Catholics that is performed and can be performed in the Gov-
ernment schools, because they have a very much smaller numler of pupils.
Then the St. Ignatius school has been in existence twenty-eight years ; they be-
gan in 1864. The Carlisle school has been in existence thirteen years. The St.
Ignatius school, down to June 30, 1891, had had a total enrollment. of 718 pupils ;
Carlisle, during its thirteen years has had 2,323. You see how much greater
opportunity, therefore, for industrial instruction there has been at Carlisle than
at this famous and frequently cited school to which Senator Vest refers.

The most important period for receiving industrial training is, for boys, from
from 14 years upwards. But the pupils of 14 years and upwards are as follows :
Out of 3,395 pupils in all the Roman Catholic schools, of the total enrollment
. of boys only 8 per cent are 16 years old and upwards. But in the Government
schools — of course our schools are more numerous, but I take just about the
same number of pupils— of the total enrollment of boys, 46 per cent are 16 years
of age^and upwards. Take individual comparisons of schools, just about the
same size, so far as the total pupils in each are concerned. Take St. Ignatius
and Chilocco and Genoa and Salem and Albuquerque schools; they vary com-
paratively little in the number of their pupils. But the percentage of boys of
14 years of age and upwards in St. Ignatius is 20, in Chilocco 31, in Genoa 38,
14499 9

130 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

in Salem 39, and in Albuquerque 4o. You see what are the opportunities, there"
fore, for industrial instruction ; how they greatly exceed in the Government
schools those of the very best Roman Catholic schools. And the Albuquerque
school has taken prizes year after year in the Territorial fair for wood-carving,
for bureau and bookcase-making', for harness and shoe making, and other trades.

Consider in this connection the Carlisle outing system. That is the most dis-
tinctive feature of the Carlisle school, which brings pupils into contact with
life in various situations and grades outside and away from the school and in con-
nection with the English-speaking population. Last year, out of 800 pupils. 404
boys and 347 girls were put out to service, and the total earings for those pupils
were over $21,000. Think what an instruction, what a means of broadening and
elevation and development! There is no school in the country which can com-
pare with that in this regard.

It is characteristic of the Roman Catholic schools that they have a much larger
list of employes, both male and female, than the Government schools, and a great
part of the farming is performed by the employes. This is a necessity, on ac-
count of the very limited number of pupils over the age of 14. Then, again, I
have frequently heard the declaration from persons connected with the various
Roman Catholic schools, " We do not think that these boys and girls need to be
taught beyond a certain point. They do not need the higher branches." That
sentiment was reported to-day in the Indian Office by a supervisor of education
from one of the schools.

I know the delicacy of my speaking upon this subject in this presence. But I
have been requested'to say something upon it, and I put a fewi'acts together for
that purpose. I feel that it is my duty to vindicate the reputation of the work of
the Government schools, and I know there is no getting back of the statements
that I have made. I have had frequently to stir them up to increase the number
and improve the character of their industries in the schools, but the work has
gone along very slowly.

Mr. James then announced the next subject as '-Compulsory education," and
introduced Gen. John Eaton, late Commissioner of Education, to speak upon that
topic.

Gen. EATON. In 1890 Congress enacted that kl hereafter the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, subject to the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, is hereby
authorized and directed to make and enforce by proper means such rules and
regulations as will secure the attendance of Indian children of suitable age and
health at schools established and maintained by the Government for their ben-
efit." We older ones remember the picture in the old spelling-book, where the
boys could not be called down by the gentle throwing of grass, and were forced
down by the throwing of stones. It is my misfortune to be called upon to speak
of that portion of the calling down from the tree of enjoyment which is accom-
plished by the throwing of stones. But I am glad that we have before us so
much more of the gentle influences that are used, and used with great earnest-
ness, to secure this result. My regret is that we have not had more time to
have them brought out. Our excellent superintendent of Indian schools has
done very much in that direction ; we have got hints of how the administration
is aiming to make good schools, to create an atmosphere of education, morality,
and honesty around the schools, and to combine all the gentle influences that
may be supposed to exist to induce the Indian children to attend school, as well
as to induce their parents to give them up.

We exalt the family. This is one of the great fundamental principles of this
group of people. You are always urging attention to the Indian family : you
would not neglect anything with regard to the family; you propose to give it
its fullest force and effect. You will find regard for the family running through
the literature of the Indian Office everywhere. And yet the family is one of the
things in the way of the application of this law. Before the rules and regula-
tions were issued, if I remember correctly, there appeared at a school in one of
the Territories a writ from a court taking a child away from the school. Where
did the writ come from ? Who knows ? Somebody claimed to be near enough
to the child to call for it. But, if I mistake not, careful investigation showed
that there was an ulterior purpose behind the writ, and that the use of the
family was only a subterfuge to get that child and control it for a bad purpose.
Some of you will recollect an instance which occurred in Alaska, where a girl
had been taken out of unfortunate circumstances and put in school ; the same
idea of the right of the family over the child was made use of, the girl was taken
out of school, and in a very short time was lost sight of in the debauchery into
which she was led. Now, my friends, in our exaltation of the family, do we

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 131

propose to make it an obstruction to the benefit of the child ? Is it a part of our
theory that the family, that the -parental right, shall be used to the ruin of the
child ? Is that the idea of the Christian family V

But various other ideas are used to obstruct this idea of the education of the
child. A child is wanted for speculative purposes, wanted for a dozen things
which might be named. And behind all. among savage Indians, is the medi-
cine man, who sees the moment the child is started toward the school a loosen-
ing- of his power over that child, and he is ready to use every subterfuge to pre-
vent his attendance. I regret to say that it may be found that there are white
persons, persons who profess themselves interested in the welfare of the Indian,
who sometimes, for one motive or another, obstruct this idea of the education of
the child.

Now here is the law, and the law has been followed by the regulations, and the
regulations are intended to enforce the attendance of the child upon school. If
I mistake not, one of the judges who issued one of these writs to which I have
referred, claimed that the law did not apply, because there had been no regula-
tions issued under the law: and the regulations soon came from the hands of our
efficient Commissioner. Now how do we come by this idea of the use of the law
for this purpose? The moment we ask this question we begin to go back to
the foundations of things. If we look back on the history of education we find
that the steps taken toward it were fundamental, were of the most serious char-
acter, and were fought with the uttermost bitterness. Look at the revival of
education in this country; how it was resisted when the movement was led by
Horace Mann and that group of reformers. But they were not the first in this
country to enforce the idea of using the law to insure the attendance of children
upon school. If we go to the early acts of the colony of Massachusetts, we shall
find that in their very first steps in law were those enactments which began to
consider the child. They enacted compulsory laws, as we call them; I prefer the
word obligatory.

These Massachusetts fathers enacted that the select men of the towns should
provide schools for the teaching of letters, "that they might be able to read
the scriptures and to resist the temptations of the devil.'' Every community
of so many children was required to have these schools and the children were
required to attend them, and the officers were required to see that the children
attended. This was the way they built up the community.

But the idea of compulsory education was applied by these fathers not merely
at this point. They required that every town having so many children should
have a grammar school, where they should be fitted for college ; and the college
was already established. Here was a complete gradation of education, from the
first elementary steps to the highest, and compulsory in its elementary and
secondary work. And they actually fined the towns which did not establish
these grammar schools, and they enforced attendance on the elementary schools.
Out of this New England experience, and the reasoning and experience of great
educators like Horace Mann and others, the country has come to accept this
idea, and it exists in the laws of nearly every State. An incident came out here
this morning wheie this necessity was seen in another direction; the case of the
young girl sold by h;er father in marriage, where the power of the law, in the
wisdom of tHe superintendent, was able to arrest this evil. Here was the appli-
cation of the law in another form, suggesting that obligatory education is but a
single item; but it is one of the serious items in the application of law to the
Indian.

A few years ago he could not appear in court; he was a sort of nondescript in-
dependent, and yet we were all struggling to do something for him, to take
care of him, and only after a great deal of struggle we learned that he was a
man. It is a delight to find that the theory is beginning to be accepted that
there is something in the Indian, and that out of this savagery we are to carve
men and women of character.

Now, we believe that the savagery of the Indian should be penetrated until
every Indian family, and every individual Indian feels the presence of law as
every citizen of the United States may. In doing that there is going to be re-
sistance. Savagery is not going to give way without objection: it is going to
devise every process in its power to resist this movement. And it is going to
resist this particular point to its uttermost ; because the Indian father and the
Indian medicine man, and all who love savagery, see that in this power of edu-
cation lies the secret of the change, and that, if it is carried on successfully,
savagery disappears.

Shall, then, the force of the United States Government be used to enforce this

132 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

particular feature of the law y Shall the Army that stands as the great police
force under the command of the General Government, that subdues him in other
respects, shrink from the responsibility of saying that his children shall attend
school V And when the demand of the father, or the demand of the Indian med-
ice man, or any other instrumentality, is thrust in the way, shall the Army with-
draw its support of law at this point V I believe you say no.

You see the difference between New York and Boston. I do not want to dis-
parage one city and commend another unwisely; but I recall the fact that in
New York City it has been reported that there were six to nine thousand ap-
plications of children for seats in their public schools that could not be accommo-
dated. Of course it indicates that here is a great body of children who are not
infused with American ideas, are not digested, are not Americanized: and how
much this means you have only to look into those schools to see. Boston has
not only law for enforcement of attendance ; it provides sittings for those who
attend, and Mr. Philbrick was able to report that he could not find one in a
hundred of the children of school age on the street.

The parental instinct is subject to perversion, though it is one which we de-
pend upon so much. I have seen little children disfigured by father or mother
for the purpose of begging and trained to that business. Is more to be expected
with regard to savage life than of life in our cities'? And when we move in this
question of educating the Indian shall we be stopped by facts that we do nob
allow to stop us in our own communities?

Macaulay sums it all up when he says, " The right to hang includes the right
to educate." The right to punish crime includes the right to prevent it. There
is where we come to the bed rock of obligatory education.

Mrs. A. M. Dorchester was then asked to speak of the work done by women
among the Indians.

Mrs. DORCHESTER. You have brought the Indian men up so that now they
stand ten, fifteen, and in many cases twenty years ahead of the women. Now,
will you not send women into this work? Send twice as many as you have eent
men, because we are so far behind. We want the homes lifted, and no one can
do it but women. If you will concentrate two-thirds of your energy upon get-
ting women into the service, and if all the churches, through individual enter-
Srise or in any other way, would concentrate on efforts for Indian women, this
ndian question will be lifted very much higher than it is now.

When we first began this woi k we found In one place some Indian men who
had reached that grade of civilization where they knew that they were ahead
of the women, and that the women needed lifting; and they asked us to find a
woman who would come and work for their women. For a long time it seemed
as if there were no women interested in the matter; but a woman has now been
in that field nearly two years, and has done a grand work. One of the sugges-
tions Dr. Dorchester gave Mrs. Miller was. " Do not ask the Indians forward for
prayers the first night." Too many of our Indian workers go in with this ex-
pectation of finding results " the first day;" they are disappointed, they are dis-
gusted, and then they leave: and that is the history of their work among the
Indians. Mrs. Miller worked in a different way. The Indians furnished her a
house and she made a home of it. She carried with her a good many little
knickknacks. things that the Indian women could secure for themselves if they
pleased. She put all her ingenuity at work to make a pleasant home out of her
two rooms, and those who have seen it tell me she succeeded. Then she sat
down in her home for a little while and let the people come and see her. She
met them at church and was introduced by the missionary pastor, and as she
became acquainted with them at church, she invited them to her home.

The Indian men came readily, and they went to their homes and told their
wives what a pretty home Mrs. Miller had, and asked them to go and see it,
but the wives would notat first. Mrs. Miller worked many weeks before she suc-
ceeded in getting any Indian woman into her house. She went forth on the
reservation and saw the Indians where they lived. She worked three months
before she succeeded in calling upon any woman who would not go out at the back
door (if they had one), before she could get in at the front. Such work is what will
have to be done on any reservation. The approaches to the confidence of the In-
dian woman are slow and must be studied. Now there is not a door on the reser-
vation shut against Mrs. Miller. She is sent for in cases of sickness ; she is sent
for to help in the burial of the dead ; she has even been applied to to marry
their young people, but I believe she draws the line there. She has won the
hearts of all the people, and is doing grand work. Not long ago she had an in-
vitation from the wildest chief, asking her to come and talk to his people ; and,

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 133

out of courtesy to her he invited the agent to come with her. It was the first
time the agent had ever been asked to go into that unfriendly camp. Mrs.
Miller has become a host, socially, morally, religiously, and industrially.

Mr. JAMES. She has dona a very interesting work there ; her heart and soul
are in it, and she is succeeding wonderfully. At the time I was there she had
a regular Methodist camp meeting, to tide the p3Ople over the Fourth of July,
and keep them out of mischief and away from whisky.

Di\ DORCHESTER. She is a very remarkable woman, with a great heart, a
great variety of resources, and much tact. She can go into the pulpit, if neces-
sary, and has dons so frequently, though she makes no claim to being a minis-
ter'. She has an M. D. in her own right, and has served the reservation for
some months in the absence of a physician. Before she was sent there one of
the principal Indians said to me, "If you will get a good woman here I will
furnish a house for her to live in, and I will furnish the ponies for her to drive
around with, and she may keep them in my barn/' And so she went. She has

fone upon the plan of making haste slowly and gaining the confidence of the In-
ians. She has served as field matron.

Mr. JAMES. She was so serving when we were there.

Prof. PAINTER. That is the " sweet compelling influence" I think we need on
these reservations. Where we have a lady like this among the Indians I do
not think there will be any need to call on the Army or the police. And to the
extent that you are under the necessity of calling upon the Army or police do
you create antagonism on the part of the Indians. I believe that it is the duty
of the State to see to it that all its citizens are educated. I believe in compul-
sory education when you can not accomplish it in any other way. But let us
minimize the counteracting influences. Let us not send out a wor-d to a super-
intendent of schools, ''We are trying to negotiate an agreement with those In-
dians; we do not want you to alienate them by school discipline," and so sus-
pend the school work for a year or two pending these negotiations. Let? us not
irritate the Indians in this way or that, and then say : "We will cut off your
beef, or we will withhold the money that is due you, ir you do not put your chil-
dren in school." There should be some limitation to this compulsion. I think
the solution is just where these ladies suggest.

Mr. JAMES. Gen. Morgan has had large experience in this matter. I have
talked with him upon the subject, and I would like very much to have him state
his views briefly.

Gen. MORGAN. In the annual report of the Commissioner you will find this
whole matter set forth in the appendix very fully. In brief, I may say that the
Mohonk Conference, the center of so many good thoughts about Indian matters,
resolved some years ago in favor of compulsory education. The United States
Senate has several times passed a law, introduced by Senator Vest, of Missouri,
in favor of compulsory education. In 1890, Congress passed a law which I for-
mulated, and which is now upon the statute books, authorizing and directing the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs to enforce attendance. That is the sentiment of
the Mohonk Conference and of Congress, and the law as it stands to-day.

Practically, I believe in the sweet compulsion of love which has been described,
and we have u^ed it everywhere where it was practicable. I believe that we
ought to make these schools so attractive that they will oc necessity draw to
them, by their inherent excellence, the Indian children and the Indian parents.
I think that if we could take time enough we should need no other compulsion.
I find, however, as a matter of practical administration, that there are many
Indians who resist our appeals, and all the influences that are brought to bear,
-and simply say. " No; we will not send our children to school."

There are to-day on the Rosebud Reservation not less than five hundred chil-
dren of school age who are not in school. The schools are attractive: they ape
near the reservation, though not immediately upon it, and those children, from
every consideration, ought to be in school. But the parents decline to send them,
for a great variety of reasons. Among others they say, -'The Government al-
lows us a poand and a half of beef for each child. A child does not eat that much
beef. If the child is in school we do not get it, and so we will not let the child go."

On the Fort Hall Reservation, in Idaho, we have one of the best school plants
anywhere to be found. It is right in the heart of the reservation, and we have
spent a great deal of money on it; the school is a good school as far as money can
make it so. The children would be glad to enter it, but the parents are unwill-
ing. They make a great variety of excuses about it, many of which are mere
excuses. When the agent went out after them they refused to let him have the
children, and he had literally to fight for his life. He ordered his policemen to

134 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

bring in the children, and they declined to obey, and resigned rather than en"
force the order. That school is capable of accommodating- two hundred, every
child on the reservation. Those Indians are very degraded, and they will con-
tinue degraded for fifty years to come unless their children are put "in school.
The school is at their very doors: we have there as good people as are to be
found in the service; they furnish everything that Christian love can suggest:
* but the Indians say, " Our children shall not goto that school." Those children
are dirty, they are filthy, they are growing up as .savages; their parents take
them oft' on the hunt, and I will not describe how they live : I have seen it with
my own eyes.

Now, if a lieutenant with ten men should camp near the agency headquartars
and the agent should send to these Indians and say. "We want your children
in school," forty-eight hours would fill the school. There would not be a
sword drawn nor a hand lifted; it simply needs that little show of forc2. Shall
it be made? I say yes, in the name of all that is good and holy ; we owe it to
those children.

Take the case of the Navajos. There are 18,000 Navajo Indians, with a school
population numbering 4,000 or more. Not 200 of their children are in school.
Those children are growing up like their parents, uncivilized. About three
months ago Agent Shipley assembled the parents in a certain district and asked
them to put their children into the school at the agency on the reservation.
There were objections offered, some of them possibly well founded, but many
which were merely excuses. He secured the consent of the parents, however,
to put about thirty children in school. Took his wagons and two or three police-
men, and an interpreter whom I know personally, and went out after them. He
was met by Black Horse and a party of thirty men who resisted him. They said
'* We do not want your education. We do not want anything to do with the
white men. We want none of the white man's ways. We ask nothing of the
Goverrfment but to be let alone, and you shall not take those children.'' They
shut him up over night, they beat some of his men. and they forcsd him. under
the threat of death, to promise that he wo aid ask for no more pupils on that
reservation.

If the Army had simply sent a small detachment o! troops to support him the
school would "have been tilled, and that little incipient rebellion would have been
brought to an end. As it stands now the agent is powerless, the Government is
degraded, the lawless element is triumphant, the children are suffering from hun-
ger and cold and growing up in ignorance, and places for at least 50 child :'en stand
empty in the Navajo school. Is that wise '? Is it dignified ? Am I asking any-
thing unreasonable when I say that that agent should be supported in his au-
thority as the representative of the Government, and that the law of the land
should be enforced for the benefit of those children V Am I asking anything
that is unchristian, am I asking anything that is wanting in wisdom or in states-
manship, when I ask that that agent should be supported by the Army if neces-
sary in order that parents who desire to put their children in school may have
an opportunity to do so ?

Take the case of the Southern Utes. Possibly some of you have heard of
them; if nobody else has Senator Dawes has. Those people have no school on
the reservation ; but there have been turned over to the Indian Office the mili-
tary barracks at Fort Lewis, and at considerable expense they have been con-
verted into a suitable industrial school, capable of caring for every child of the
Southern Utes. Those children are running wild as so many patridges. with-
out any education whatever, growing up absolutely in ignorance. The parents
were asked to put their children in school. The people of Durango, who are
anxious to have the Southern Utes removed from Colorado ov^r into Utah, said
to them : "You must not put your children into that school; it is a trick of the
Government to defeat the ratification of the Southern Utes for their removal."
They listened to them. I instructed the agent to use compulsion.

Dr. Childs, of this city, who was anxious to secure the removal of those Utes—
sending them out of their present reservation into the wilderness to remain
savages for a hundred years to come— writes out to them, '• The Commissioner
has exceeded his authority; you must resist his efforts." So they refuse to put
the children in school. I have been told that I must do this work by the In-
dian police. Ignacio, the chief of the Indian police among the Southern Utes,
is the power upon whom I most relied. I sent him word to put those children in
school. The people of Durango said to him: " You must not do this; it is not
the wish of the Government." And the agent writes back that Ignacio will not
obey his orders. I told the agent to dismiss him, and to put in a policeman who

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 135

would obey. Then all Darango gets up in arms and telegraphs that if Ignacio
is removed there will be war. Senator Wolcott comes to my office to say, " If
that is carried out there will be trouble." I said to him, " In deference to
your views and your wishes, I will countermand the order." I did it with hu-
miliation and with great reluctance ; but I did it. "Other complications have
come in since, but the objection to putting- their children into that school was
simply that the people of Durango, who wanted their land and who wanted to get
rid of them, were determined that the office should not exercise its authority.

What shall be done y There is only one thing- that common sense dictates
should be done : the agent should have been instructed to obey the orders of the
Indian Office and put those children in school. And if he could not do it, I
would have removed him and put an army officer there, with sufficient force to
carry out his orders. I do not believe in playing- at this thing-. We have set
ourselves to work to rescue these 30,000 children from savagery, to educate and
train them so that they may be self-supporting and self-respecting1. And when
we have exhausted all other means— when we have plead and begged and be-
sought, and they simply say, "You shall not ''—especially in cases where they
are influenced by men who are intent on getting1 their land, then T say the time
has come, if there is a Government, for it to show that it has a little backbone.
I think we have reached a point where the Indian Office is dishonored and the
Government is humiliated, and where this whole work is thrown back, simply
for the lack of the assertion of a little of that spirit which in 1861 put down a
rebellion, and made the Government of the United States a dignified nation
among the nations of the earth.

I will give you another illustration. Up at Chemawa, in Oregon, we have a
school that has been in existence for many years. It is a good school, capable
of caring- for a larg-3 number of boys and girls. We have a Government school
among- the Lummi Indians, taught by a Roman Catholic teacher. It is well
taught, but it is a day school, doing merely rudimentary work.

At the end of the school year I ssnt the agent and a supervisor to say to those
parents, "If you will let your children go to Chemawa they can have their board
and clothing, and they can learn trades ani can be put much farther along than
in this day school.'' The parents were delighted, the children were delighted,
and a list was made out of som3 fiftsen boys and girls that it was thought suita-
ble to take to Chemawa. Then the priest steps in and says to those Indians.
"You must not send those children to the Government school, or they will go to
perdition." So the children will not go. Mark you, I am asking for an occa-
sional use of compulsion ; I am met by the charge that it is not right to compel ;
and in order that I may not compel they bring to bear upon the consciences of
these people a compulsion compared to" which bayonets are nothing-. Talk of
compulsion! There is no compulsion like that which cripples th3 conscience of
an ignorant and debased and superstitious man. And then he writes to the New
York newspapers to hold me up as a monster : why '? Because I wanted to take
out of one Government schDol some boys and girls who wanted to go, and whose
parents wanted them to go, to another Government school where their educa-
tion could be carried to a higher state. I am resisted here ; shall I use any force ?

If you say so. what next V Shall we give it all up V Shall we say to the sav-
ages at Fort Hall, "If you do not want to send your children to school all right ;
you need not." Shall we say to Black Horse and his murderous associates, ;'If
you do not want to allow your neighbors to sand their children to school, you
ma.v prevent it ?

The people at Keam's Canon for a hundred years have made no progress.
They have one of the best schools in the service. They brought their children
and put them into school, and afterwards, when they were allowed to take them
home under the promise that they woald bring them baek, they refused, and re-
sisted by force. Shall we simply say to them, '• Very well : we will wait ten years
more, or twenty years more?" I believe in sending women into the field, but I
think it will take a long time for a woman to reach that case.

The Government has been building up, from 186ft to the present time, under
the magnificent leadership of Senator Dawes. a great public school system ; they
give now two and a quarter million dollars a year for the education of these
children. A system of schools has been established, which I think can not be
paralleled on the face of the earth for the efficiency with which they do the work
they are set to do. We have increased the attendance from 16,000 to 20,000 in
four years by persistence and effort. We are allotting lands to them : they are
becoming citizens of the United States. The Indian vote decided the election
in South Dakota the last time. We have come to these people and we have said

136 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

to them, "We do not understand these qu-jstio.is of finance. We do not quite
know whether protection is the thing- or free trade. We do not quit} know
whether free silver is just the thing1, or whether we ought to ha7e an inter-
national agreement. We come to you, citizen Indians, with your bla ikets, and we
ask you to decide. If you say protection is the thing- we will all go for projection.
If you believe in Grpver Cleveland we will elect him. If you believe in Har-
rison we will elect him. As foi' your children, they have not baen educated :
they have resisted our efforts ; but we will not say anything about that. If you
will simply decide these questions that have baffled our utmost wisdom, we will
call it quits." As a practical man, I think, if we ar3 going to leave the ques-
tions of free trade and protection and silver, and all the other economic ques-
tions that pertain to the Government to these Indians to decide, and in many
cases they will be the controlling forces— there are 20,000 in South Dakota, and
there are enough in many States to decide an election— if we are going to leave
all this to them, it does look as if we owed something to ourselves. It does look
as if we ought to take the children, at least, and put them into the schools that
have bean provided for them. And if they resist under the bad advica of land-
grabbers and others, then, apter we have exhausted all the sweet persuasive in-
fluences, and all the holy influence of women, and all else, then, if I could not
pub their children into school in any other way, I would send a blue-coat after
every child who could be found, and take him to school and wash him and clothe
hirn and teach him, t'll-he was at least on the road to intelligent American citi-
zenship.

Dr. KING. I want to call attention in this connection, to a very remarkable
pamphlet which has been published during this past year, coming- from a source
which, it seems to me, begins a new era of thinking with a large class of people
in this country. It is a pamphlet written by Prof. Bouquillon, of the Roman
Catholic University of this city, upon the subject of the right and the duty of
the state to educate. Its closing argument is that compulsory education is a
necessary consequsncs or sequej oc the state's right to educate, and he goes on
to argue that there are circumstances in which it is not only the right, but the
duty, of the state to take children out of the hands of parents and give them the
kind of education that will make them fit for citizenship in the Government
under which they livs. I have had a correspondence with this eminent man,
and ths privilege of an interview. The assaults that have been made upon him
in respons3 to his wonderful argument have been male by the Jesuit Fathers,
and he has given his response in a final pamphlet which he has recently pub-
lished. I believe it to mark a new era in the thinking of the very people who,
on the Indian reservations, seek to obstruct the enforcement of compulsory edu-
cation by the Government, but who themselves use a worse kind of compulsion
to secure attendance upon their own schools.

Miss ALICE A. ROBERTSON. Are you going- to send a file of soldiers in time
of peace on an Indian ressrvation as a Christianizing and uplifting influence?
Do any of you know what sort of man the private soldier in time of peace is ? I
remember what a military post near us meant. I look back over many ruined
lives ; I look back and I sea many graves ; I look back upon a record of intem-
perance and crime and vice that came wit a thosa private soldiers upon our res-
ervation, and that am ing those who have been called this morning ''the best
Indians in the country.'' It will take how many soldiers to one teacher to put
these children into school? Who is going to look after their morals and their
character ?

Send your sweet refining influences of womanhood among the Indians. They
are slow, they want to weigh everything well; but if it commends itsslf to
them, and if in time they feel that it is really a good and a right thing, they
wi 1 come to it. Perhaps the Iniians feel about the schools sometimes as the
boys in Dotheboys Hall did about the brimstone and treacle. They had to take
it: it was fo:' their good, no doubt; but I do not think they loved it. When
they feel that education is really good they will come to it.

Compulsory education seems so st -ange to me, because the only compulsion
about our school has bsen to compsl pupils to stay away. They would come,
and W3 have never had room, and I have had to go and beg monsy fo:1 our over-
flowing school.

The thing about ths Indians is to think of thsm as human beings, as a people
by whose poverty we are rich, as a people to be reached by the gospel rather
than by the law, by love rather than force, and through ths home rather than
through the military. It seems very strange to think that we are getting back
to the point where we are going to turn the Indian department over to the mili-
tary to educate the children.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 137

Mr. MONROE. As glistened to Commissioner Morgan, this case came to my
mind. Suppose a company of hoodlums should stand in front of a public school
in New York and prevent the children from going- thsre. I think they would
go into a station-house, if it took the whole police force of New York to put
them there. If I understand, the parents of these children were prevented from
sending their children to school by Black Horse and his renegades.

Dr. JACKSON. I feel, as Miss Robertson does, that I should regret to see a
company of troops come to compel att3ndance; and yet in Alaska we have not a
quarter of the children in schools for whom the Government is providing the
means of education, simply because of the indifference of the parents. When
we first start a school everybody wants to come; but aftsr a little the novelty
wears off, the father has to go off to his fishing, and all th3 children are taken
out of school. We need a law that will compel attendanc3, and then to have
homes provided so that when the parents leava there is a place for the child to
remain. It is the only hope for the rising generation, and the perpetuation of
those people not in their present half-barbarous condition, butas reputable citi-
zens. The law does not apply to Alaska. We have applied to Congress several
times, but no action has been taken.

Prof. PAINTER. May I tell the expdrience of Mr. Kinney, of the St. John's
School at Cheyenne River y That school had been running for some years when
the superintendent left, and he came in to take charge of it. The time came
for opening the school and no scholars come. Three days elapsed and no
pupils. He sent word to the agent that he was ready to teach, but had no pupils.
In a couple of days more he heard a great outcry, and looking out saw the agency
wagon coming, loaded with children, surrounded by police, and followed by the
fathers and mothers, who were making this outcry, aided by the children.

He came out and a^ked what it meant. The chief of police said the agent had
sent him out to fill up the school. He sent ths police away at once, though they
protected that there would be trouble. So soon as they were gone the men
sat down and began to smoke, the women hushed their outcry. Mrs. Kinney
prepared a dinner and invited the mothers ii. Shs showed ths rooms, and told
them what they proposed to do with their children. About sunset the forces
withdrew, leaving the children in school. There were one or two who ran
a vay. but in course of time they came back.

I was there a few years after that, and when the time came for school to open
the chief went up through the camps and notified them, and the children came ;
and now he has just the experience of Miss Robertson — all he wants is more
room.

Th? Commissioner has spoken of the case at the Ute Agency, but he has not
given all the count sracting influences. Has not the agent and other employes
b3en kept there by forces outside the Indian Department, contrary to the wish
of the Bureau y Have they not bsen kept thsre bscause thsy were opposed to
the school and to the Indians staying thsre ? And did not the agent tell me him-
self that he came the /e, not for his salary, but to be on the ground when that
reservation was opened up to get the bsst of the land ? These other influences
oughr in the first p!ace to be moved. Remedy some other things, and these will
adjust thems3lves. And then put the teachers unler some arrangement so that
they will not be shunned oJ and sent away before they have acquired any influ-
ence and another lot be put in. Put such women as these who have been spoken
of into the schools and keep them there and you will minimize the necessity of
using the police. I am in favor of putting every Indian child in school, and in
favor of compulsory education, but I would exhaust thes-3 other influences, and
I would correct other things which antagonize the Indian bsfore I resorted either
to military fore 3 or the unlawful expedient of withholding annuities due under
a treaty.

Mrs. QuiNTON. it sesms to me that there is an apparent disagreement here
which is not a real one. As I understand it, the military compulsion would
be extremely rare. I saw an illustration in the case of the Moqui Indians, who
have for teachers Sapsrintendent and Mrs. Collins. At first there, was great
opposition to the school, but aftsrwards they became extremely fond of it, and
were proud to have their children there. Indian fathers and mothers came
every day, and sat in the corners to watch things going on, and were as proud
of thsir children as other parents are of their—boarding-school children. One
village, however, had some hostile elements. The msdicine man— it was jeal-
ous savagery bshind the trouble —forbade the return of those children, though
the parents insisted that the children should go bac'k. The '• sweet compelling
influences'' were a1! there : the lovely women teachsrs were there— I never saw

138 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

a more gifted teacher than Mrs. Collins, and the Indian women believed in her —
but the lawless element for the moment got theprecedenca and triumphed. To
make the story short, on one occasion a posse of soldiers was called for. The
Indians said, "Send your soldiers: we will kill them all,'' and when a respecta-
ble posse appeared they still kept up their bravado. But in the early morning
the cannon, which had baen placed during the night, spoke, and a cloud of
smoke rolled up. The Indians looked on with amazement, then got together,
had a hasty conference, and came down and capitulated in a body.

It seems to me that the question of the military is-more an alarm in imagina-
tion than in reality. Troops would not ba needed once in a hundred cases, and
there would certainly be no naed for a military reservation near. It would only
be the question of a temporary show of force: then prejudice would be overcome,
the children woald be in school, and the parents would sae what education
means. I was afraid of compulsory education until I went on my long trip and
found out that it would ba very rarely needed, and that when it was neaded it
would be just a momentary matter and to remedy difficulty from a few obstreper-
ous spirits. I think we should all agree if we could see how few would be the
cases.

Commissioner MORGAN. Lololomi , the chief of those p aople, came to Washing-
ton and talked the matter over, and he went back with his mind and heart full of
the idea of educating the children. I was at Keane's Canon when he brought
•his child to school, allowed him to have his hair cut and to wear civilized dress,
and said he was anxious to have all his children coma.'- When he went home
they threatened to kill him, and treated him with great indignity: but the chil-
dren came. They stayed till the Christmas vacation, when they were allowed
to go home, with the promise that they would come back. They came, every
one of them, the day befoi-e the school was to open. Tney stayed until the end
of the year, and then'were allowed to go home. After that vacation they did
not come. The progressive party are anxious to have them come; but the Bour-
bons among them say they shall not go, and they will tight to the death to keep
them from going. Superintendent Collins begged for some show of force to
support his authority, and yesterday I was told that he proposes to resign because
he can not be supported.

Mr. James introduced the subject of mission schools by calling upon Miss
Anna L. Dawes.

Miss DAWES. On the subject of the mission schools I am just now very ur-
gent for I am a new convert. I have believed for a long time that the Govern-
ment schools were the placas to educate Indians and that missionary work
should be confined to churches and other agencies. Therefore it is that when I
came to change about and balieve that mission schools should be kept up I be-
came, perhaps, overvigorous.

Two questions confront us at tha beginning. Without the money that the
Government has given us hereto 'ore how can we carry on these schools in their
present condition? You have heard a great difference of opinion on this sub-
ject, and I'confessto you that I am somewhat discouraged and think it rather
doubtful. Another question is whether we can get the scholars if we can get
the money, and you have haard a great deal of discussion upon that point this
morning. I do not think there is opan antagonism toward the mission schools
on the part of the Government, but anyone who has obsarved the matter knows
quite well that where there are large Government schools and while there is
talk of compelling the scholars to enter these schools there will inevitably re-
sult a draining process through which all the children will-eventually go there.
If we are to keep the mission schools soms method must be devised to keep
them full.

If, however, we are to have this double exertion upon us, exertion to raise
the money for the schools and exertion to gat the children to exercise the
schools upon, it becomes us to stop and inquire why we should have the schools
at all. Why should we not leave the education of the Indian to the Govern-
ment'?

It seems to me there are several reasons. To begin with, most of the Govern-
ment schools are very large. They will contain from one hundred to seven or
eight hundred pupils. I think there is not much desire to have them smaller than
one hundi-ed. These have all the advantages of large schools and in them the
Indian is taught traies as he can not be taught in small schools— of that there
is no doubt. He is taught to go out among his fellows and earn his living in a
civilized community, somewhat better than it is possible that he should be in a
small school. TheGovernmentscho3lmakeshim, therefore, an excellent citizen :

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 13i)

and so long as he remains in a community, all of whose desires are on the right-
side, he falls in excellently with their ways. If we could put him. when he
leaves the school, in the midst of a model community there would be no trouble.
How much it does to build up that strength of character which will resist ad-
verse conditions is another question.

The mission schools, on the other hand, are small almost of necessity, and for
that reason and because of the general idea of the mission school the teaching-
is more individual. Therefore the Indian's character is more developed, he is
better able to go back among his own people and stand out against the mass of
people who are against him. He is taught more things, it seems to me, that
serve him when he goes back to the reservation than he is in a larger school.

In the Government schools, as you know, religious teaching is an incident. I
have been in some Government schools which were admirable religious schools —
for example, the school at Chilocco— but I have baen in others where the atmos-
phere was decidedly the contrary. A religious woman or r/eligious man going
into a Government school remains a religious man or woman, but it does not
follow that thereby the school becomes a religious school anj/ more than the
presence of these clergymen makes Washington a religious city. There is a.
difference between a company of religious men and women in a community and
an organized religious institution. In a Government school, necessarily the re-
ligious influence is an incident.

The quality of the teachers in the mission schools is very remarkable. While
it may be true that the teacher in a Government school is all that could be de-
sired in the way of character and refinement, it is certainly true in a mission
school. The teacher in a Government school is selected by a civil-service board,,
on civil-service ground, which does not include those qualities which you will
find resulting from missionary zeal — the zeal and that love^'' which constraineth,"
compelling men and women to give up their lives to the service of their fellows.
And it is not true, I think, that there is just as much sacrifice in going to a.
Government school as to a mission school, bacause the Government teachers are
paid nearly twice as much.

I have received quite recently a letter from a girl who has lately left a lead-
ing mission school. It was sent me by the principal. The girl had gone to one
of the best of the Government schools. She complains bitterly, in this letter,
of the entire want of any Christian atmosphere to help her to keep her Christian
charaeter; and she tells how hard it is for her to preserve the, presumably
somewhat weak, Christianity she had already gained without these helps. I
think we all need tonics a little in that direction.

The whole atmosphere of the mission schools, so far as I know them, tends to
the building up of the characer of the individual scholar, and to building it up
by Christian processes. It is impossible for us who are hsre to do very much
that is outwardly wrong.

It is impossible for the Indian, going back to his home, to do very much that
is outwardly right. An Indian needs outside supernatural assistance even more
than we do, if I may so speak. He must have it to preserve him in the awful (
struggle that is before him. It is a pagan condition that he comes back to, and
even those that go out into the world go with everything against them.

It seems to me that a great deal of the difficulty rises out of the fact that we do
not realize that we are confronted with mixed conditions. In foreign missionary
work it has been found necessary for the missionary to have not only churches, but
also schools. In home missionary work, on ths contrary, ithas been thought better
to leave the schools to be supplied in other ways and to devote the strength of the
missionary to purely religious teaching. But the Indian is still of a pagan religion,
speaking a barbarous tongue, and with the habits of savagery; in so far he is a
foreign missionary field. He is situated in the midst of civilized conditions, and
so far he is a home missionary field. Now, so long as he remains a foreign mis-
sionary field, we should continue the foreign missionary method, and, as rapidly
as possible, put him into a condition where we may leave off the foreign mission-
ary method and adopt the home missionary msthoi.

From a philosophical standpoint, therefore, as well as from the practical, it
seems our duty to preserve the mission school for the present. Until the Indian
shall, to a great degree at least, speak the English language, until he shall, to
some extent, have left off his barbarous habits, until he shall have begun to
give up h-is pagan religion, he naeds Christian schools for the same r ason that
all heathen from all time have needed thsm. But so soon as he shall beinacon-
dition to enter a civilized community as one among it, so soon, it may be, we
shall find that we can afford to leave 'the duty of teaching him to other people

140 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

and devote ourselves exclusively to missionary effort. It seems to me absolutely
important, for the present, that tha schools should ba kept up. This answers,
for me, the question, Shall we alter the character of the schools? Not at present
except to a slight degree, in so far as we can put him in with the rest of the
-community and, so to speak, lump him with his neighbors. For the present he
is a different element and must be treated so. Above all things he must have
Christianity: and it is strange to me that it should be necessary in a body of this
kind to emphasize that fact.

Dr. STRIEBY. The Christian idea of a church is a place where a convert shall
be trained and cared for through life. But the Government school, bait ever
so good, when the boy or girl graduates, has no more to do with him. There is
nobody then to take him and make a life-work of caring for him and providing
for him. This is where the Christian church comes in: it is an organized body
to take the pupils from the schools and care for them for the rest of their lives,
and make permanent, useful Christian citizens of them. I agree with Miss
Dawes that the mission school can not be abandoned, because it is the instru-
ment leading up to the Christian churches. The American Missionary Associa-
tion, representing the Congregational body, is endeavoring to secure the money
to carry on its work more fully than ever before.

The following paper was presented by Hon. William T. Harris, Commissioner
of Education:

The sundry civil bill of the House for 1893 94 proposes to cut down the appro-
priation for education in Alaska from $40,000 to $30,000.

The appropriation for 1892-93 cut the same appropria ion down from $50,000
to $±0,000. The appropriation had baen $50,000 since the yaa- 1888-8^.

The consecLuenc3 of the cut for last year was the suspension of three Govern-
ment schools (Klawack. Kake, and Karluk), the cutting down of teachers' sal-
aries at Sitka, and the reduction of tha amount paid to contract schools.

Besides this new schools needed at five places iKotzebue Sound. Nuklukayet, St.
Lawrence Island, Kenai, and Nutchek),600 children with no school accommoda-
tions, were postponed.

The average tuition of pupils in the seventeen day schools supported entirely
by the Government (745 pupils, at $23,639) is $27.75. "

The fourteen contract schools with 1,102 pupils received from the United States
$30,500 in 1891, and expended in addition themselves $13,434, making a total of
$103,934. The cost of the education of each pupil was nearly $100, of which the
United States paid less than $30.

The education of th 3 Alaskan Indians is under the Bureau of Education while
the education of the other Indians within the States and Territories is in charge
of the Indian Bureau. The missionary associations of Alaska are subsidized to
the extent of less than $30 per pupil, while tha Indians educated in the missionary
€Stablishmants in the States receive $167 and $175. Over one-half million of
dollars is expended to subsidize missionary establishments for educating Indians
in the States.

( The support of missionary educational establishmants in Alaska is far more
expensive than in the States.

At the same time tha education by missionary establishments is far more im-
portant in Alaska than in the States. In northwestern Alaska there are so few
white people that the Bureau of Education finds it impracticable to establish
Government day schools. Mission schools are the only safe means of education.
Whereas the Indian missions in the States could be replaced by Government
schools much more easily.

In order to provide for the schools the present year (1892-93) without build-
ing the naeded school buildings or reopening the suspended schools the cost will
be $45, 771, or $5,771 more than the amount appropriated for the present year.
The Bureau has asked of Congress to supply a deficiency of $10,000 to make pos-
sible the continuance of the schools to the end of the year and reopen tha sus-
pended schools.

In order to carry on the schools the coming year (1893-94) with their present
rate of efficiency and provide for the natural increas3 of the schools (new build-
ings at Kotzebue Sound, Nuklukayet, St. Lawrence Island, Kenai, Nutchek) the
amount required will be $63,871.

It isearnestly.hopad that Congress will provide this amount for the coming
year. »

As above shown, tha circumstances of Alaska are different from those in the
other Territories and States. In the settlemants of northwest Alaska there are
f aw or no permanent white inhabitants that remain through the year, but the

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 141

settlements are visited by the sailors of vessels who come into the northern seas
during the summer. The conditions are not favorable to the formation of day
schools under the Government. Only missionary establishments can provide
suitable educational means to civilize the people.

Mr. James then asked Prof. Painter to open the subject of civil-service re-
form.

Mr. PAINTER. The fact that the school work has been taken out from under
the old regime and has been put under the civil-service reform rules and regu-
lations, requires that teachers shall hereafter be appointed not by members of
Congress nor by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, but according to the civil-r
service rules, and the matrons are thus to be selected also. I apprehend, from
what I have seen, that we shall find ourselves more or less disappointed as to
the results. We shall not get. I fear, first-class teachers. Those who are able
to pass civil-service examinations and who have the other qualifications which
go to make a successful teacher, are for the most part already engaged, and
they will not turn aside to attend an examination of this kind and put them-
selves on a list and wait for an appointment.

I think we sftall get our teachers mainly from thosa who, while they are able
to passan examination, have not the qualifications which have secured toothers
their positions. These can afford to go and attend examinations because they
have no positions. I think also that women who having brought up families of
children, have been left to take care of themselves, and are under the necessity
of earning something, are too far away from the time when they passed exami-
nations and will be frightened by the 'idea of doing so. I think we are likely to
get our matrons largely from a class who have had no matronly experience. As
between the old method, of allowing the member of Congress to say that he wants
such and such a person put into these positions, and the present method, I think
we have made a very great gain ; but •' it is the letter that kiil-eth and the spirit
that maketh alive," and I think we need rather the spirit than the letter.

There are certain positions in the service, which, as I understand, can not be
brought under the civil-service rules, all the appointments that are made by the
President, such as agents and inspectors. And yet the agent is the important
factor in the Indian problem as we have formulated it, and as we are attempting
to solve it. and it is necessary that those appointed should be men of the high-
est character and qualifications for their positions. And then we come to the
allotting agents: there is nothing more important, I think, in the present stage
of the Indian problem, than the selection of these officers. It is the last deal
with the Indian with reference to land; it is the selection of the land upon which
he is to build his home and make his living as soon as we withdraw — as I hope
may be done very soon — the support of the Government.

Morgan has had nothing to do with their selection. They have not been selected,
we may as well say it, because of their known fitness for the discharge of the
duties with which they are intrusted. What are we going to do about it? I do
not know, unless we raise up a voice of protest against what has been the custom
in the past and is the custom to-day, and shout until we are heard, and not con-
tinue to deal with generalities and vague exhortations to be good.

As to the allotting agents, I wish simply to call attention to a few examples,
as showing what I mean. 1 alluded very briefly to the matter this morning, in
speaking of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation and the allotments which
had been made there. The allotting of lands at all to those Indians in the pres-
ent stage of their development is entirely antagonistic to the spirit of the Dawes
bill, and the way in which those allotments were made was also in violation
both of the spirit and of the letter of that act Yo.uwill remember that Miss
Fletcher said at the Mohonk Conference that time was a very important factor
in this matter. She has told how, in the allotting of the Omahas, they wanted
first to select the land on the bluffs because there was timber and water, and it
took her years before she could educate them up to the idea of settling on the
good lands of that reservation. Suppose she had been under instructions to al-
lot those lands within ninety days, you can see that those Indians would have
been absolutely ruined; there would have been no future for them on the lands
which they would have selected.

One of the principal allotting agents who was selected to allot in the Cheyenne
and Arapaho Reservation was a saloon-keeper, so I was told, who had furnished
the whisky to give stimulus to the patriots in the preceding election. He had

142 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

interests in the town sites, and he wanted to keep the Indians as far back from
these as he could. At any rate he was selected with no reference to the duties
of his position. Here were a number of Indians who had, years before, settled
their land by a fine spring in a beautiful location. They told the allotting agent
that these were their lands. I am told that one of them was offered a thousand
dollars to induce the others to go and settle somewhere else : but they asked for,
and this land was allotted to them, but when the allotments were sent on to the
Land Office to have the papers perfected, the land assigned them was 6 miles
from that they had selected, and the land the Indians selected was thrown open
for settlement, while they were located 6 miles away in another township on
barren lands. When I was out there the agent had instructions to learn what
improvements the Indians had made on it : also what had been made by the
whites, as though it were simply a question of improvements ! It was a question
of solemn right under the treaty. Those Indians have that land under a treaty,
and not under the general land laws. Their rights may not be affected by mis-
takes and clerical errors.

I could go on to tell the case of another allotting agent who reached the res-
ervation drunk ; who allotted lands to Indians not entitled to lands on that res-
ervation; while some members of the tribe had none, the same piece of land was
allotted to more than one person; and land belonging to the tribe was not allotted
to any one, but left in the possession of whites. The pro test of those Indians was
disregarded, the allotments approved, the patents made out, and the whole case
settled so it can not now be altered, because, to do so would make more trouble
than the wrong does as it now stands. All the difficulties grew out of the fact
that a man was appointed who never should have been appointed to do the work.
The future of these Indians has been put in jeopardy, that a man unfitted for his
work might have a job.

It is time we should raise a protest against this kind of allotment. This am-
bition to be able to say in stump speeches that so many millions of acres of the
public domain have been opened up to settlement is putting the future of these
people in danger.

Let us have civil-service reform wherever the law can be applied ; and let us
insist that the spirit of it shall control in the entire service, and that the Indian
shall be taken out from under the feet of the politician, and be dealt with as a
man. Let us insist that these appointments shall be made with reference to the
good of the Indian, and not with reference to the exigencies of politicians in
their efforts to promote their political fortunes.

Miss Alice C. Fletcher was asked to speak.

Miss FLETCHER. With the appointment of agents I am not very familiar, but
of those who have been appointed and of the work to be done it has been my
f or tune to see considerable.

If I may be allowed to say in a word what seems to me one of the most im-
portant things to consider in reference to the selection of Indian officers it is
this: That the man or the woman who is given a task to do with the Indians should
be left as free as possible to do that which is right and necessary to be done. It
is often difficult to do the right thing- under even the best circumstances, but it
often becomes a very difficult thing when a man is hampered by his neighbor-
hood relations to do some very simple things. While the official taken from the
State or Territory in which the tribe resides over which he is called to act as
agent may be a man whose business relations and previous life have been such
as to leave him quite independent, he is, I am sure, an exception to the general
rule.

The administration of an Indian reservation is a very delicate and difficult
task, and often an agent is obliged, in order to do the right thing in his office,
to offend his neighbors. He is there for a term of four years, provided he serves
his term out— it is safe to take it for granted that it is for four years only— and
having offended the people among whom he has always lived by doing his square
duty to the Indian as an officer, he is then forced to go back and live among
those whom he has made uncomfortable, or who perhaps have incurred losses
on his account. This fact handicaps a man in the performance of his duties at
the very start. While I know excellent men taken from the vicinity who have
served well, I have also seen most lamentable failures. I think the chances are
very much against good service performed by men who have been drawn from
the immediate neighborhood of an Indian reservation.

The duties of an agent are peculiar ; and his position one which is not and
can not be permanent; it is impossible that the office shall exist for many years
longer in this country,, generally speaking; there are places where I sincerely
hope it exists this yea*r and under this appropriation bill for the last time— place's

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 143

where it is important for the manhood of the Indian that he should be allowed to
struggle and meet the future unhampered by an agent's control.

I am not so much afraid of the Indians' sult'ering and distress, and of their be-
ing- plowed under, as I am of the injury to the manhood of the Indian by tco per-
sistent protection . I have been very much interested in listening- to the talk here
to-day, because you are at the parting- of the ways: you are at the parting- be-
tween the old manner of looking- at the Indian problem and the present deal-
ings with the Indian as a man and a citizen. The absurdity has been well set be-
fore you of a method which would place a g-uardian over those who may rule
us. The absurdity of this condition has been clearly brought before n:e for a
number of years, in the field. Education is vital. It is obligatory for the In-
dian, it is obligatory for us, that he should be educated.

The work of an allotting agent is a very difficult task. It can not be done in a
hurry ; that is impossible, for it is a process of education. It is the closing up of
an estate ; it is an" administrative duty. It is the giving of a chance, the dividing
of a heritage in such a way that it can be of use : and it is a great deal more than
that. I hoped that some of you, in using that word " pagan, "thought of what
you were saying, because it is just that primitive, country condition which the
Indian is in, and which keeps him without the wants which go to make up our
civilization. In the camp life of the Indian— I have lived it and I know — it is
very hard to have sufficient wants to be civilized. It is very hard to apply your
education, to be an example, under those conditions. Now, severalty breaks up
this paganism; it gives a chance, by dividing vastotracts of land into little
pieces that can be dealt with by individuals. And it opens the way for civiliza-
tion to come in, for Christianity to come in. The dividing up of the land is the
breaking of the millstone which has been so long- about the Indian's neck,
legislation concerning the Indian's land that has been filling our statute books :
and the making of money out of the land, to the neglect of the man. that has been
occupying us too much. There are magnificent exceptions, of which this meeting
to-day and similar meetings are the outcome.

Use your influence that the allotting agent shall have plenty of time. For
my own part, I like to say that I have never been asked to do this work in a
given length of time: I have been allowed all the time that was necessary. I
have worked as fast as I could four seasons among the Nez Perces, and I think
I do not exaggerate in saying that from five to eight hundred of these allot-
ments have been changed more than once by the growth of the people during
the process of the work in understanding what the allotting meant. When a
man would take better land, when he would allow me to put his children in a
better place, even if he would not budge, I never hesitated to take the Govern-
ment time to do it, for it was carrying out what I was sure was the spirit of the
law. It is the chance for a home and it is the dividing up of an estate — it is let-
ting the Indian go free. A gieat truth that we have learned in the progress of
our own civilization is that a man should not be tied to the land. We know what
it has done in the development of our society, and it is going to do a similar work
for the Indian.

Civil-service reform is all well enough as far as it goes, but. like all other re-
forms, it is behind rather than before. It is a recognized something, which it is
well to recognize in its intent, but it will not by any means, as has been wit-
tily said, bring the second advent. We must depend very largely on the per-
sonal qualities of the men and women who are to administer the law.

One word more to emphasize what Mrs. Dorchester said. You need more
women officially in the field ; and you need them in independent positions where
they can carry "out directly their own common-sense views. They will do the
work if you will give them the chance. You can hardly expect that they will
do the work of the soldier. God made no mistake when he made men and wo-
men ; they have each their respective work to do in his or her way ; a man can
not afford to imitate a woman's way ; a woman can not afford to imitate a man's
way. Give woman a chance to do official work in her way : heretofore she has
not had it. The Indian woman is twenty, fifty, one hundred, five hundred years
behind the man. No student of ethnology knows this better than I do. She is
conservative, intensely conservative, and it is a very difficult task to reach her.
For this task time is a very important element : it takes time for the Indian to
think ; it takes time for her to adjust herself. In the appointing of agents, then,
let them be free from the trammels of neighbor hoodism, if I may coin a word.
They can not serve the country or the Indian unless they are thus free.

It is asking too much of any man or woman to offend all the nighbors whom he
has left behind and to whom he must return, in order to do his duty as a Gov-
ernment officer.

The conference adiourned at 5:30.

144 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

EVENING SESSION.

The conference was called to order at 7:30 by Mr. James, who introduced Gen
L. W. Colby, Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, to speak on the
subject of "Indian depredation claims."

Gen. COLBY. The reports of the Attorney-General and of the Secretary of the
Interior contain much valuable information upon the subject of Indian depre-
dations, and what I shall say can only te regarded as supplemental thereto and
test confined to matters arising- from my official duties.

The act of March 3, 1891, provides that citizens having claims for property
taken or destroyed by members of any tribe, band, or nation of Indians in amity
with the United States may bring suits before the Court of Claims, and on es-
tablishing the jurisdictional facts and the loss of their property, recover judg-
ments therefor against the United States and the tribe of Indians by the mem-
bers of which the depredations were committed. This act also requires that
such judgments shall be paid in the first instance, if the Indians have a fund
from which they can properly be taken, from their fund: otherwise they shall
be paid from the Treasury of the United States and charged up against any
future fund that may come to such Indian tribe, band, or nation. Under this
act 8,858 actions had "been brought up to the 1st of January, 1892, and the depre-
dation claims represented thereby aggregate $34,728,383.04.

The claims which are authorized to ba prosecuted under the act mentioned
extend tack to the early times of this country. I believe the earliest cause of
action for which suit has been broi ghtisone which arose in 1812 for alleged dep-
redations of the Pottawatomie Indians. There are a number of suits for property
destroyed during the time of the Creek war in 1837 ; others follow in order up
to the time of the ghost dances and so-called Indian uprisings in 1890-191 of the
Sioux tribes in Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The property alleged to have
been taken ov destroyed is as varied as the times and localities in which the dep-
redations occurred. Recovery is asked for slaves taken, for mining machinery,
gold coin, Eank of England notes, stock of all kinds, dwelling houses, fences, and
•in one case a luxuriant head of hair valued at several thousand dollars by the
fair claimant who was despoiled thereof, but fortunately received no further
personal injury.

The law provides that the service of process by which these actions are com-
menced shall be upon the Attorney-General, upon whom also is placed the duty
of defending the Government and Indians. There is no provision for service
upon the Indians or their representatives. The act, however, provides that any
Indian or Indians interested in the litigation may appear by an attorney em-
ployed by them on the approval of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Thus
we apparently have a law by which the Court of Claims can render judgment
against the United States and the different tribes of Indiansfor upwards of $34,-
000,000 without service of process upon one of the judgment debtors, and the
judgment is to be paid in the first instance from the funds of such debtor.

During the past year 413 of these actions have been disposed of oc adjusted.
Of this number 291 judgments were rendered against defendant Indians and the
Government, and 1-2 in favor of the Government and Indians. The aggregate
amount claimed in the actions so adjudicated is $1,723. 132. 7l\ The aggregate
amount of judgments rendered in favor of claimants up to the 1st of January is
$570,897.18. The difference between the amount claimed and the judgments
rendered in the cases that have been adjudicated is $1.152, 235. 58. Thus the dis-
posal of this $], 723, 132. 7(5 in amount of claims by actual adjudication has resulted
in judgments for only $570, 897. 18 against the Government and Indians. The dif-
ference was disposed of or thrown out in some cases upon technical grounds and
in others upon the merits.

Mr. MONROE. Are these claims the very old ones or the recent ones ?

Gen. COLBY. They are the claims mainly that have been examined, approved,
and allowed by the Secretary of the Interior, or under his direction, pursuant
to the act of March 3, 1885, or subsequent Indian appropriation acts. Some are
as late as 1884, others as early as 1853. I do not now recollect of any which have
gone to judgment which orignated back earlier than 1853. Still there maybe
some. Judgments have been rendered in claims originating in the Rogue River
war in Oregon, which occurred in 1853. None of the adjudicated cases date
back to the Creek war.

Mr. MONROE. Do the rest of the 8,OCO claims still remain to be adjudicated ?

Gen. COLBY. They do. In the past year the court has adjudicated only 413

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 145

of these cases,, resulting1, as I have said, in $570,000 in judgments and in clear-
ing up $1,700,000 of claims in round numbers. In many instances claims have
been passed upon by several succeeding Secretaries of the Interior. For ex-
ample, one Secretary would investigate and allow a claim for $9,000, then a new
act of Congress would be passad, and under it the claim be reinvestigated and
perhaps disallowed ; then again it would be investigated by another Secretary
of the Interior and perhaps allowed for $10,000, sometimes for an amount more
than that originally claimed. Thus there have bean this series of allowances
made under several acts of Congress, but in very few of which has Congress
made any provision for payment. In some cases the claimant has brought suit
for the largest amount and an investigation in the Department of Justice has re-
duced it to that for which judgment was finally accepted. Sometimes it has
been shown that the claim was entirely spurious. Occasional suits have been
brought by persons who were not citizens of the United States and not entitled
to relief under the act. In some instances actions have been brought by those
who claim to be the heirs of deceased persons, and thereafter it has been dis-
covered that they were the heirs of some other persons than those originally
depredated.

Mr. PAINTER. Was there any evidence before the court of the depredations
in the claims on which the court acted?

Gen. COLBY. Yes, sir. In each instance in which a judgment has been ren-
dered some evidence has been on file in the case, although the court has gener-
ally taken the judgment of the Assistant Attorney-General as to the merits of
the case, and it has been my duty to have each case carefully examined. The
court has not as yet rendered judgment in a single case that has not had my ap-
proval, and it has not rendered judgment in favor of claimants in any case in
which a full and final defense to the whole claim has been put in. There are,
however, a number of important cases in the hands of the court now undecided,
but in no case which has been tried upon the merits and a defense interposed
has the decision been against the Government and Indians.

In regard to the law of giving the court power to render a personal judgment
against the tribe, band, or nation of Indians without service of process I think
there can be but one opinion among lawyers. As I have stated, there is no pro-
vision in the law giving the Court of Claims jurisdiction in this class of cases
for any service upon the tribe or any member of the tribe, although the court is
authorized to enter judgment upon the claim and to make the same a lien upon
any fund which the tribe of Indians may have or afterwards acquire. Objection
was offered and the point made in the Court of Claims, and the court was asked
to require service of process upon the Indians or their representatives. The ob-
jection, however, was overruled and the court has gone on entering judgments.

The effect of such judgments upon the tribal fund has not yet legally been de-
cided. In my opinion this defect of the law will make very little difference with
the present adjudications, provided the Government has the proper defense and
Congress provides for the payment of all judgments out of the Treasury of the
United States. But when it comes to the final result, taking money that actually
belongs to any tribe of Indians or to any member thereof or hereafter charging
it up to the Indian fund without service of process, it seems to me that such ac-
tion must be regarded as null and void as against those interested who have
never had their day in court, and that any moneys so paid and charged up can
be recovered back by the Indians some time in the future, when this unfortunate
people become so civilized that. they can obtain their rights and ordinary justice
in our courts. It seems to me that the Constitution of the United States, which
guarantees to everyone certain rights and provides that " the property of no
person shall be taken from him without due process of law," must be held to ap-
ply to Indians as well as to white people. The only decision I know of that
touches squarely upon this point and affirms this doctrine is that made by Judge
Elmer S. Dundy in tae Federal court in the district of Nebraska, in the cass of
The United States, ex rel. Standing Bear, vs. George Crook, a brigadier-general
of the Army of the United States (5 Dillon, C. C. Rpts., p. 453).

It was decided in that case that the word " person " in the Constitution means
human being, and that the Indian is a person; that the solemn guaranty of the
Constitution of the United States is a guaranty to the Indian as well as to every
other human being under the Government of the United States. I believe this
pioneer decision of this able judge is grounded in the fundamental principles of
justice; that it properly presents the legal doctrine which should govern on this
subject. A judgment without service of process is coram non judice and void ,
whether it ba against white persons or Indians.
14499 K)

146 REPORT OF THE BOAKT) OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

As to the matter of what should be done by Congress or how the law should
be changed, my idea would b» this

Gen. MORGAN. I would like to ask whether thj Davves bill of 1887, giving- to
Indians full rights of citizenship, would not come in to strengthen the position
of Judge Bundy? Can not the Cheyenne or Arajiahoe who has become a citizen
under the Dawes bill take action to st jp th.3 taking of any fund in which he has
a personal interest ?

Gen. COLBY. I think so. At least it would strengthen the argument and pub-
lic sentiment, but I do not think it is necessary to have that bill to strengthen
the Constitution. The language of the Constitution is " No person shall be de-
prived of life, liberty, or prop arty without due process of law.'' The word "per-
son"— not white man, or alien, or citizen — is used. The words are broad and
fundamental and no Congressional act can add to or take from such constitu-
tional guaranty.

I was going to say that while this law in its present shape can result in no
serious injury now, as the Government is the custodian of the Indian funds and
is responsible, yet undoubtedly some time there must be a settlement with the
Indians, and in the future this can and will be righted. However, it is advisa-
ble, as it seems to me. to have the law changed so that instead of the judgments
being paid out of the funds of the Indians in the first instance they should be
first paid from the Treasury of the United States, and then charged up against
the funds of the tribes of Indians upon the recommendation or approval of the
Secretary of the Interior or Commissioner of Indian Affairs, only in cases where
there are valid treaties expressly authorizing such action . These officers are the
Government so far as their guardianship of the Indian funds is concerned. In
no case should the judgments be charged up to the Indians unless authorized by
treaty stipulations and approved by such officers of the Government. It seems
proper that the money should be left for the support and education of the Indians
rather than, as the law has it now, be usadfor the payment of depredation claims.
] think this change would tend to remedy the evil, "so that no immediate bad re-
sults would follow, and the law for the adjudication of these claims could remain
generally unchanged. The Government would then keep faith with its citizens,
and pay for those losses and depredations of Indians and thus fulfill the promise
of an eventual indemnification to all citizens who should not seek private satis-
faction or revenge for their losses, and at the same time violats no treaty stipu-
lations with the Indian tribes.

The Congress of the United States in the first act passed upon this subject in
1796. guarantees such indemnity to all citizens or inhabitants, and the same is
carried through nearly all the subsequent Congressional legislation. The main
object doubtless was to prevent a general Indian war arising from individual
acts of depredation and retaliation, and to preserve good will and peace with
the Indian tribes. While the object was not specially to guarantee indemnity
to the citizen or inhabitant who should suffer the injury, yet he had a right to
look to and rely upon that part, and he has now a legal right to claim it as a
legitimate and promised reward from the Government for restraining his nat-
ural impulse of self-defense, retaliation, or revenge. I think the Government
should carry out its agreement and promise in good faith, and pay those losses
that are legitimate and just, but the Indians should only in certain instances be
required to reimburse the Government from tribal funds, and those exceptions
can only be where they have willingly and by express treaty agreed to make
such restitution and payment.

Mr. MONROE. Do the Indians understand they are liable for damages, and
does that act as a restraining fores upon them ?

Gen. COLBY. Some fully understand this, but others do not. I am aware of
no depredations that have bean committed since the passage of the act of March
3,1891. Many of these depredations were committed by the ancestors of the
present generation of Indians, and it seems peculiarly hard to them that they
should be compelled to pay the debts or for the misdoings of their forefathers.
In some cases I do not think they should be required to pay, but in others, where
they are enjoying the funds of their ancestors acquired under treaties providing
for such payment, it is proper. In some of the late treaties where the tribes
have parted with their lands for a stipulated price, and there has been no pro-
vision or reservation in the treaty for money to be taken out for losses from dep-
redations, it seems to me that it should not be done. The money should not be
so paid out for them on the part of the Government and their funds thus reduced
without their full knowledge and consent. The Government should bejust and
do exactly as it agrees, and thus avoid the charge of being unfair or dishonest,

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 147

which too often can be properly made against it. I regret to say that I think
the records of this Government^ fr.nn its establishment down to the present time,v
show not a single instance of a treaty kept in good faith on the part of the Gov-
ernment with the Indian tribes, but show in every instance that the Indian has
baon the last one to break his faith and solemn treaty obligations.

There is another legal matter I might speak of that has occurred to me as be-
ing of value to suggest to this assembly, as I understand some of its objects are
to influence Congressional legislation; this is the subject of inheritance or the
law of descent among Indians. As I recollect, there is no general statute and
no settled law on this subject. The rule of inheritance is as varied as the cus-
toms and characters of the different tribes. We have in one tribe an inheri-
tance from the mother's side, in another from the father's side, and in cases of
plural marriages, which are frequent, the questions become very complex and
difficult of solution. In some States where they have become citizens, they in-
herit in one way and their kin living across the border line in another way.
When the Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, or other tribes intermarry, as is fre-
quently the case, many different Indian laws or customs are brought in to deter-
mine ths rule ft>r the descent or inheritance of property. In the present condi-
tion of the Indian tribes these difficulties and complications can be remedied
only by Congressional action, and this assembly seems a proper one to consider
the matter. By passing a uniform law of descent for Indians I believe that much
good would immediately follow and more benefits result in the near future. It
seems to me that this could be best and most satisfactorily brought about by
having an Indian convention, composed of representatives from all the different
tribes, and by mutual consultation and agreement they could decide upon what
should be the general law of inheritance to govern the Indians of the United
States. Then, through the recommendation of the Commissioner of Indian Af-
fairs, a bill embodying the result of such deliberation could be prepared, sub-
mitted for the consideration of Congress, ani if properly understood, passed
without difficulty.

There are many cases involving the question of inheritance coming up in the
litigation of Indian depredation claims. There are Indian citizens of the United
States whose grandfathers were blanket Indians, who have cases against the
United States and Indian tribes for depredations. A white citizen marries an In-
dian wife and dies, his heirs have brought suit for depredations; and many
other more complicated cases, seemingly without precedent, which the Court of
Claims is called upon to adjudicate. I do not know whether they are entitled
to relief or ought to recover under the law of March 3, 1891, or not, nor do I
know of anyone who does know. A general law upon the subject, even though
not retroactive, would be of some benefit to this class of cases, and would assist
much in the present adjudication.

Mr. PAINTER. In what way is evidence taken?

Gen. CDLBY. In every instance by depositions and a personal appearance and
examination on the part of the Government; not by ex parte affidavits, as under
the former practice in the Interior Department. Insome cases the Indians have
employed special counsel to represent them. The depositions have been taken
in the different States and Territories where the witnesses live, in accordance
with the provisions of the law.

Mr. PAINTER. The Government meets the expenses of counsel ?

Gen. COLBY. Yes, the expenses of traveling and subsistence, not the salaries.
The attorneys so employed by the Indians have appeared in the cases in which
the tribes employing them were interested and also in other cases of a like char-
acter having a bearing upon or liable to affect the same interests. Where they
have gone into the field to take depositions the Department of Justice has paid
the expenses of counsel employed by the Indians and they have acted under the
general direction of the Attorney-General.

In closing I shall depart again from the subject assigned me and on the sub-
ject of discussion which preceded this add that in my judgment Miss Fletcher
in her interesting remarks hint3d at the true plan for the civilization and edu-
cation of the Indians — the ownership of property. It seems to me that much of
our difficulty in the education of the children might be remove :1 by educating
the adult Indians. The primary way to educate a man is to get him used to
property, to know its value and his in dividual rights therein. If I were to form
a theory for the education of the Indians it should be .oae to .take away this
guardianship or wardship of the Government over the Indians, and let them
stand up as freemen, not children or wards, but as full American citizens, own-
ing and controlling their own persons and property and having the full benefit

148 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

of our laws just as the white man has. Make them men, give them all the rights
and responsibilities — this is the true plan for their civilization and education.
For my part. I do not deem it a discouraging1 sign that the Indian drives away
any man with a blue coat or without a. blue coat who attempts to take away his
children for educational or other purposes. Set a lot of soldiers in this com-
munity or any other civilized district to take the children aged from 1 to 15
years off 50 or 100 miles from their homes for educational purposes, and white
hostilities would at once begin, and there would be a war worse than any Indian
war we have ever had. Let the schools be brought to the Indians, establish
them near their homes, in their districts, the same as ours are, and in time, with
good teachers, there will be no trouble with the attendance.

The true theory of dealing with the Indians is to give them the same treat-
ment that is demanded by white people. Act in good faith and according to the
principles of humanity and justice. I believe they are just as amenable to these

Erinciples as we are. My personal experience is that those savage tribes which
ave not advanced much in civilization under the guardianship of the Govern-
ment are superior to the whites with the same grade of education. The Sioux
tribes are more intelligent and have principles of honesty and morality equal,
if not superior, to those of many of the ordinary white people who can not read
or write. Certainly their habits are no worse than those of some civilized Cau-
casians to be found in North Carolina, Georgia, East Tennessee, and some parts
of enlightened Missouri and Nebraska. I think that citizenship, the control
and ownership of property, and the abolition of Government guardianship is
the true foundation of Indian civilization. They do not need, they do not want
to be taken care of. Let them take care of themselves and learn wisdom from
the experiences of life the same as we do and 1 believe they will quickly respond
to such treatment. They want, not the bayonet, but the due administration of
the ordinary principles of justice, and I believe that if we give them their
homes and let them own them, give them their funds, not in gewgaws, per-
fumes, sleigh bells, or in beef, but in money, and let them buy what they please
and go where they please, we shall start out with the true idea for the proper
education of the old Indian and therefrom will easily come the education and
civilization of the children of those aboriginal races, whom I regard as having
many noble characteristics and as well worthy of preservation as a part of our
body politic.

Mr. GARRETT. How are the claims of Indians, which I am told amount to
about ten times as much as the claims of whites, adjudicated ?

Gen. COLBY. There is a variance in this regard among the different tribes of
Indians, resulting from special statutes and treaties. There is, however, a pro-
vision for set-off in the act of March 3, 1891, so that in case the Indians have suf-
fered injuries fiom the white men who have claims and who have brought suit,
counter claims can be set up to that effect on the part of the Indians, and this
has been done in some cases.

Mr. JAMES. In the valuable report of the Indian Commissioner some space is
given to this very subject. I commend it to you for your perusal. We are
greatly indebted to Gen. Colby for his clear presentation of this matter. I think
the knowledge of the facts puts us in better heart.

We are now to hear from Senator Dawes upon the topic, " The opportunity
which is before the incoming Administration."

Senator DAWES. I get a great deal of good by coming to the meetings of
this Commission. I have known them now for twenty years. I helped make
them ; I helped to put the provision into the first bill. They are the only officers
of the United States that I know of who work without pay : and tome it is worth
a good deal to see such a body of men devoting their time, without compensa-
tion or hope of reward, to the effort, in which some of us are trying to cooper-
ate, to make something out of the Indian. At the end of twenty years no one,
looking back over what they have accomplished, can feel otherwise than greatly
encouraged. So much of accomplishment could hardly be expected, and they
can hardly be justified in spending much time in complaining of what has been
in their way or of what may still be in their way. It seems to me that they and
those who co5perate with them should gird up their loins and take hold of this
work with new courage and with a confidence that they are nearing its comple-
tion. I have myself spent a great deal of time finding fault ; things have not
gone just as [ have wished they would. And so these Commissioners have found
a great deal in their way; and looking back upon some of the measures that have
been adopted, we can see very plainly now that some other method would have
been wiser. But what I want to say to you to-night is this : That even a defec-

REPORT OF THE HOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS, 140

tive and imperfect- policy well administered is batter than an ideal one poorly
administered. I am confident from my experience that the bane of the Indian
policy is the constant effort to change it.

And now, as we are entering up.m a new administration, when, from the ne-
cessity of the casj, this work is to fall into new hands, the danger is imminent
that we shall depart from the plan and the policy which has been crowned with
such signal 8UCC389 thus far— some of us widely considering- perhaps that we could
devise a better plan, and some of us, it may ba, because we are sick of this plan,
and some others because they want to try a plan of their own. I have seen
this policy change so many times that I dread the entering of a new administra-
tion on this work. Not that I want to intimate a lack of confidence in the pur-
pose or the honesty of this incoming administration — I have seen the policy
changed radically three times in a single administration — but it has been the good
fortune and the principal element of success in the last fourteen or fifteen years
to have a continuity in this work. Each successive administration has taken it
up where the other left it and, without any material or radical change, has car-
ried it on— with different success perhaps— with a difference in the amount of
zeal or effort, «but no one of them has sought to reverse it. And now, if this
board, and those who encourage this board in their work, can do anything to keep
the incoming administration on this track, at the same time push ing it on as fast
as they can, I feel as if we might reasonably expect, even the oldest of us, to see
this work done, and the last Indian become a self-supporting citizen of the United
States.

But if you go to devising new ways— though I do not mean to say that you could
not devise a better way— if you let go what you have gained, you are like the
poor dog crossing the river with the bone in his mouth. He dropped it to catch
something he saw below, and lost it all.

This point upon which Gen. Colby has been speaking is a threatening danger
to the whole work. There are sixteen or eighteen millions of trust funds in
the Treasury of the United States, b3longing' to these different Indian tribes.
The attempt has been made in this law to appropriate these trust funds to the
purpose of paying these depredation claims. If any considerable part of the
claims now in the Court of Claims shall ripen into judgments, they will wipe out
these trust funds which belong to the Indians. They have been put there under
«acred treaty stipulations, to be devoted to particular purposes, and in my
opinion the United States has no power or right, whatever to appropriate those
funds to any other purpose. And yet a million dollars is entered up in judg-
ments against the funds of the Sioux Indians, to be paid out of the three mil-
lions that we pledged ourselves^to put in the Treasury, and devote to their
education. It is very easy, when you make a contract with the Indians, to put
in it a provision you will tind at the end of all of them since this law was passed,
that no part of this money shall be appropriated to the payment of judgments of
the Court of Claims on depredation claims : it is the way to end that question
.at once, so far as the future is concerned.

I think our friend has overlooked the provision of the several ty law that pro-
vides that every man who becomes a citizen under the provision of that law re-
ceives property which descends precisely as the white man's does in the State
•or Territory where he resides.

His marriage is fixed in that statute, the legitimacy of children is fixed in
that statute, the relation of husband and wife and what shall constitute mar-
riage and what shall be the evidence of marriage are fixed in that statute ; and
30,000 already have by the methods so fixed become citizens of the United States.
And every one of these Indians who has become able to take care of himself , who
-adopts the habits of civilized life, whether he takes land in several ty or not, is
a citizen : and if he has a dollar of property, it has the protection of every law,
of descent or otherwise, that any other citizen of the United States can appeal
to for the protection of his rights. The blanket Indian, the tribal Indian, with
very few exceptions, does not own any property in several ty : it is common prop-
erty. That does not descend to any particular Indian heirs. When he dies he
has no heirs in that respect. I think there is less need of legislation upon that
point than has been suggested.

The work before you, it saems to me. is a delicate and more important one
than has eve-r devolved upon this board. Miss Fletcher has said thtt we are at
the parting of the ways ; take good care that the ways do not part. Ther 3 should
be no parting of the ways in this work. I regret any change of policy, however-
wise it might have been in the beginning ; and that is why I shrink from the
effort that is being made by the Protestant churches to withdraw fromcoopera-

150 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

tion with the Government in the maintenancs of their schools. It will be a sad
day for the Indian if it results either in imparing the usefulness of the mission
schools for lack of funds, or if, on the other hand, the United States concludes-
that the churches propose to carry on this work themselves, and thereupon re-
duces the year's appropriation by "that amount of money.

If this happens you do an irreparable wrong to the Indian, at a time and at a
point in this work where, instead of weakening your hold or slackening your ef-
forts, they ought to be renewed and redoubled. For this trouble aboat "getting
children into the schools is a radical trouble : every Indian who is allotted is
emancipated, he and his children, from all control by the Government, and he
needs especially the influences which are peculiar' to the work of the church.
At the very moment when he needs most the beneficent and healing and en-
couraging influences of religious teaching's, at that very moment you let go of
him. You should take hold with more earnest effort than ever. It does not
make any difference whether the effort comes in cooperation with the Govern-"
ment or independent of it, if the effort comes : but I am very much afraid that
one of the two alternatives I have suggested is likely to follow. Either you will
fail to supply the place of this money, or the Government will fold its hands and
say, "The churches propose to do this without our help, and we have saved so
much.' That will be heard when the Indian bill comes up this winter. If it is
not, and if there is as much money devoted to contract schools by the Govern-
ment as heretofore, and the Protestant churches have withdrawn from it, where
does it go? We had better go along with an imperfect system than in attempt-
ing to change it, lose our hold. Let us go on working, and pray and work, and
then pray again, and look neither to the right nor to the left until the work is
accomplished.

After it is all over, we can say how much better it would have been for us to
start in a different way, or how much better it would be lor us, after we had got
half way over the river, to turn round and go back. There will be time enough
for us to talk, and enough to speculate over, when the work is done. You have
no time now to stop and retrace your steps. You have this work to carry on.
I beg you to see to" it that the field you have held by co;iperation with the Gov-
ernment, you now hold in your own strength: and see that the Government of
the United States do not omit to appropriate just as much money as you have
proposed to take off their hands.

I want to say to you that I retire from this work with a great deal of regret.
My personal relations to all of you. my coworkers, have been such as to encour-
age me in every endeavor. And I shall, in whatever position I hold hereafter,
hope to cooperate, and aid you to the utmost of my ability in all the ways that
you shall determine. I do not propose to give directions or to find fault. But
whatever method is adopted, I want to see it taken hold of in earnest and carried
through to the end. I hope to live long enough to see the last tepee disappear
from the plains, and the last blanket Indian give over his war paint and his
paraphernalia of savage barbarism, and take upon him the habits and the ap-
parel of a self-sustaining citizen of the United States. Then I think 250.000
savages, who have suffered at our hands for two hundred and fifty years, are
"getting some recompense for the wrongs that have been heaped upon them.

Mr. JAMES. God rules. There is confidence in that thought. But for that
we should feel somewhat disheartened at the thought of future meetings with-
out these words of wisdom from our father in the cause, at the thought of the
future of the cause of the Indian without Senator Dawes in his place in the Sen-
ate. But God still rules : our confidence is there.

We want to hear from Dr. Sheldon Jackson before we proceed to the business
of the evening.

Dr. JACKSON. The Commissioner of Education wished me to express to this
meeting his very great regret that official business called him out of the cit}',
so that he was not able to be present with you to-day. He had fully expected
and had looked forward to the privilege of baing here to listen to the discus-
sions that you have had.

I would also like to say, with regard to a point called up by Dr. Strieby this
morning — the increase of mail facilities for Alaska — that the facilities needed
are north of the Aleutian Islands. The particular mail route which we wanted
was one down from the Arctic mission stations, from one station to another, to
the Pacific coast of Alaska, which is open all the year round, and from which
there could be a monthly mail communication with San Francisco. But the
trouble is to get transportation between the posts. During the last few years
the American whaling fleet, instead of passing up to the northern edge of the-

REIMWT or Tin: BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 151

continent, among1 the ice, in the summer, and returning1 in the fall, have tak-;in
to wintering- near the mouth o: th • Mackenzie in tha Arctic, in order that fch«y
maybe within reach of ths whale later in the fall and earlier in the spring-.
Last year they tried to send letters down by Indian runners to tiie owners of
the vessels at San Fraacisco. It took ten m mths for the letters, by an Indian
runner, to get down where they could be shipped and finally raach San Fran-
cisco. The proposal is now mad 2 to the American Missionary Association, and
perhaps to other missionary societies, to start a dog-sled route.

A few years ago, we are told, the British Hudson Bay Fur Company and the
Church of England missions received their mail from Winnipeg-, just north of
Minnesota, and it took, after a dog-sled train was started from Winnipeg-, six
months to reach the stations up on the edg-e of Alaska. So there is no possibility,
there is no practicability of starting new routes in the north of Alaska until we
get reindeer transportation, of which I may as well speak at once.

The persistent hunting of the whale has either destroyed or driven away the
whales from the coast of Alaska, so that the native population, which, say fifty
years ag-o, had an abundance oi' food mostly consisting of whale and walrus meat,
are now on the yerge of starvation. And the greed of the white man that has
robbed the waters of their natural food product is also robbing the land. For-
merly in the Arctic region of Alaska, as well as in the Arctic region of Canada,
there were large numbsrs of moose and of the caribou, which is the wild rein-
deer. In former years, when they were only hunted by trapping or by the bow
and arrow, these animals had a chance to reproduce their kind with sufficient
rapidity to keep up a permanent supply. But with the introduction of breech-
loading firearms, the fur-bearing animals, and with them the food-producing an-
imals were killed o!T. For two or three years past a society in London has been
raising a famine fund for the Eskimo along- the Arctic regions of Canada. There
is not an absolute famine, like that in Russia last year, by which entire com-
munities ware swept out o! existence; but it is in an increasing famine.

Every year food is becoming scarcer, and ev3ry year more people are dying
for the want of sufficient food. Food conditions are constantly changing. As
far as Kotsebue Sound there aie salmon in the principal streams; north of Kot-
sebue Sound whitefish are found until you come to Point Barrow, where there
are practically no fish and the people are dependent on whale and walrus, with
the wild fowl that breed there in summer. Again, in some years there are
plenty of walrus at a particular point, the next practically none. I spoke last
year of Kings Island, where, in September of 1891, the captain of the revenue
cutter found the people entirely without provision. They had had a poor season
and there was nothing whatever on the island to eat. If the ship had not pro-
vided them with provision to tide them over till the seal appeared, some months
later, that entire population would have starved to death. There would not
have been a man, woman, or child alive on that island when we reached them
in June. In the winter of 1-SW-'91 Cape Prince of Wales had an abundance of
food, but the winter of 1891-'92 was a famine, and if the teacher there had not
had an unusual supply of flour, which had been taken to trade with the Sibarians
for reindeer, some of the people would have died last winter for want of food.
At Point Hope, where in the winter of 1890--91 they had abundance of food, last
winter they were out of food and some of thsm had to go 300 miles in the depth
of winter to get enough to keep them alive until the whale and walrus and seal
came in the spring. That is the usual condition along that coast. A village
may hav ; enough to eat this year, next year they may die.

Several years ago, on St. Lawrence Island, three entire villages actually starved
to death in one winter, and in the summer the revenue cutter found no people.
The officers went from house to house and found only corpses, on the beds, on
the floors, in the doorways, 0:1 in the paths leading to the shore, wherever they
had crawled out and died. There was not a man, woman, or child alive out of
the three villages to tell the tale of the disaster. That is liable to happen at any
time. And more than this, it does not concern the natives simply ; we have now
forty families of missionaries of different churches in that region. It has not
'happened, in the few years since they have been placed there, that food has not
been able to reach them ; but such a thing is quite possible. In the year 1891
the revenue cutter was unable to reach Point Barrow. We had the twelve
months' mail and the twelve months' supply of provisions. We could not reach
them by 70 miles, for the great polar ice field never left the coast. We had to
land the provisions, and they were dragged up by dog sleds. It sometimes hap-
pens that the ice field extends two or three hundred miles. Three ye'ars ago
two parties sent out to determine the boundary between Canada and Alaska were

152 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

with the utmost difficulty kept from starvation. There was a project before
Congress for several years to establish a military post in the Yukon Valley.
Suppose they had two companies there ; there is nothing1 to prevent a time com-
ing when by the failure of navigation on the Yukon River the food supply might
fail to reach the post and a couple of companies would starve to death ". They
could not get out of there in midwinter, they could not get food in, and there is
no food there. It becomes, then, a wise provision, both for safety and for hu-
manity's sake, that we introduce a food supply into that country.

We can not stock the ocean with whale and walrus as we could stock a stream
with salmon; and if we could we should simply continue the civilization of those
people on the same lines as in the past. But what we can not do by stocking the
waters we can do by giving them another and a better food supply, which will
not keep them in the old lines of barbarism, but will be an uplift toward civiliza-
tion: and that is by the introduction of the domesticated reindeer of Siberia.
Three thousand people in Lapland are sustained by the reindeer. In Russia
there are even more; and so far as we can glean by the revenue cutter, we think
there are a great many more reindeer and people sustained by them in Siberia,
than in Lapland — in fact, the entire population of the nomadic tribes.

This question of feeding the Indians came up three years ago. It would have
been easy to go to Congress and secure a grant of a hundred thousand dollars to
feed those people. But we feed them this year, and we pauperize them to that
extent that they would not hunt: and every year we fed them it would be worse
and worse, until finally they would die of pauperization instead of starvation.
But we see a better way. It is to bring over reindeer, to teach the people to
manage and take care of them, to make them herders instead of hunters, to
let them have these flocks as private property which they can take care of. and
then they will have an abundance to eat. Starvation is unknown on the Sibe-
rian coast, except among the few people who are dependent entirely upon the
fisheries. They starve as the Alaskans starve when the fish fail to run in the
neighborhood of their villages; but in times of famine they go back from the
coast and attach themselves to the camps of the deer men, to be fed through the
winter.

We have met with a great deal of difficulty. We have applied to Congress
two years, and the Senate readily responds, and a bill has twice passed, grant-
ing $15,000 for the purpose, but we failed in the House : whereas if we had asked
$100,000 to pauperize the people I think we could have got it through, the first
season. Again, a great deal was said in scientific circles to the effect that it was
impossible to buy reindeer ; that the superstitions of the Siberians were such
that they would not sell a reindeer alive. This was asserted so strongly that we
began to think it was true, so that the season of 1891 was passed in getting more
information and experimenting. We coasted a long distance, met many of their
men, found they were ready to sell, and actually bought sixteen reindeer ; not
that we had anything to do with them but to show that we.couid buy them.
We brought them down a long distance, and placed them on an island, where
we found them in the summer, all alive, with two little ones, though it had been
an unusually severe season. This season we started in on the basis of a herd,
and in five trips to Siberia brought over a hundred and S3venty-five, which were
landed at the first harbor on the American side, Port Clarence, about 45 miles
from the Congregational Mission station.

Two white men were placed in charge, a superintendent from Nebraska and an
assistant from California. We brought over four native Siberians who had been
brought up among the herds and they serve as herders. With them we have
associated four young men from the Alaskan Eskimo. It is the intention to in-
crease these four to fifty or a hundred if we can find suitable men. so that they
shall be trained in the care, management, and propagation of the reindeer, of
which, in successive trips, 'we hope to bring over many more : and as these Alas-
kans become trained to the care of the animals they can be started out with sepa-
rate herds as private property. It is a slow process, but if Congress would re-
spond and the Government take hold of it, as the interest of the country demands',
we could Dush it more rapidly. When we get our reindeer established through-
out northern Alaska we shall have reclaimed 400,000 square miles from utter des-
olation. Here is an empire as large as all Europe ; it is now an utter howling-
waste, with only perhaps ten or fifteen thousand souls. We can reclaim that
from desolation and make it support a hundred thousand people with 2,000,000
head of reindeer. That country is the only country I know of where the white
man won't steal from the Indian ; the climate is too severe for a white man to
go up and live there, and if that country has any population it will be the popu-

REPORT OF THE HOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 153

lation that God placed there. Let us incveas3 tha^ population; and it will in-
crease just as rapidly as we can increase a permanent food supply : and let us
lift them from barbarians to herders.

Then there is a commercial side to the question. You will find smoked rein-
deer ham and tongue in every grocer's shop in Norway and Sweden to-day. The
pelts of the reindeer of Lapland are found all over Europe. The handsome
book-bindings that come from Germany are made from reindeer leather. In the
great fairs of Siberia reindeer hams ana tongue and reindeer pelts are impor-
tant staples, and 20,000 head of reindeer are sent to the Siberian markets every
year for food. Now, give us 2,000,0,30 head of reindeer in northern Alaska and
they will be of great commercial value. There will be a new industry which
will add to the wealth of the American people. This matter has its humane
side in saving the population from extinction, and it has a commercial side as
well.

The schools are coming on much as in former years. We have some fourteen
contract schools in the hands of different denominations. The Congregational,
the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Protestant Episcopal, the Roman Catholic,
tin1 Moravian, and tb.3 Swedish Evangelical all have contracts for the present
year, though the Protestant Episcopal and the Methodist churches have given
notice that they will take no further contracts after this year. If the Christian
denominations" will keep up their schools and missions I will not find any fault,
but i:' they are going to decline the Government aid and then give up the work,
it will be^a positive injury: and one of the large denominations — one which,
we think, has abundant wealth — has already advised us that a most promising
school in western Alaska must be abandoned because the church has concluded
not to take any Government money and the Woman's Home Missionary Society
say they can not, without the help of the Government, raise the funds.

That church has built up a boarding school of 25 girls, some of them having
come 1,000 miles. Two of them were picked up by captains, found without
homes, almost without clothes, eating fish for food when they could, and eating
•carrion along the shore when they could not get anything better. Of these 25,
I suppose not more than 5 have homes. That Christian church, through the
waiin hearts of i;s women, has taken these girls out of those conditions, has
plajed them in a Christian home, has kept them there three years, and when
the steamer goes up next spring the word will go, " You must disband.'' Where
can those girls go if the church that has brought them out of the old conditions
simply drops them V If the denominations will go on with their work. I do not
care whether they take Government funds or not. but I do not want the work
stopped.

In Southeastern Alaska we have had a struggle, as we always have, with in-
temperance. There is no other section where the law is so utterly powerless; a
jury will not convict. One of the high officials of the Government said in my
hearing that they had sent an officer around through the entire white popula-
tion to try to find twelve good and true men to go on the jury: they can not find
a man who does not either drink or sell or who is not in some way interested in
liquor selling. We know that the courts are utterly -powerless, and there are
more saloons to the population in Southeastern Alaska than in any place I
know of.

Th3 result is constant conflict. During the last year, one of the Government
teachers was murdered for trying to save his own life and the lives of his
pupils: not a thing has been done about it, and the United States is utterly power-
Less to do anything. He was a hundred miles from the nearest white men, or
any protection of law. One evening a little sloop drops in, loaded with liquor to
sell to that village. The teacher knew about it, and he calls the people together
In the scbcolhouse and they hold a conference. He tells them, what they know:
"This load of liquor is to make you all drunk. If you allow that liquor to land,
your people will all drink, and whei they get drunk they will kill one another."
They recognized that; they did not want the liquor, but they had not the force
to resist it if it came within reach. They conferred over it, and they said to
the teacher, ''If you will come with us we will capture that sloop and take those
men to the fort at Wrangel and give them over to the marshal, as bringing over
liquor illicitly." Taking the best men of the village, the teacher went over;
not one of them had firearms. There were only two white men on board, but
they were desperate men and heavily armed. One of the natives went on board
and asked for whisky: they gave him some. He gave a signal, the others sprang
on board, overpowered the men, bound them, and then the teacher said, "We
do not need all these," and he dismissed all but two. The teacher and the two

154 REPORT OF THE ABOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

natives were to take the boat and deliver it over to the marshal. But one o" the-
men got an arm loose, got his revol ver and shot the teacher. As he aimed at them
the natives jumped overboard, but the two men got loose and shot the natives,
and then went on their way.

What was done with those men? A coroner's jury came and examined the
case, took their testimony, and dismissed them. That was all that was done at
that time. The news came to the United States, and sach an outcry was maie
by the papers that they thought they had better do something- more. So the
men were rearrested and put under bonds to appear at the next court, nor for
murder, but for selling- liquor to Indians! They are free to-day, and the United
States court says that it can not get a jury to convict them. The man who \vas
killed belonged to the Society of Friends, and the missionary of the Friends at
Doug-las Island, one of the mining- stations, wrote some pretty, earnest lettsrs
down to the newspapers. When thosa letters cam 3 bajk it is 'said that a mob,
incited by a United States officer, went to the magi's hou^s, called him out by
some story of a man being- injured at the mine, aid tarred and feathered him.
And nothing- was done about that. The court will not touch it: a court will not
do anything- in that country; we are in a lawless condition throughout all south-
eastern Alaska. We have the paraphernalia of government, but that is all: the
government is an utter nullity. Every teacher in that land is in danger of
Jpeing- murdered by the liquor power, for the teachers are the only element in
that region to stand up against intemperance. They feel more keenly than,
others how it is undoing the work they are trying to* do.

Notwithstanding all that, God is prospering the churches. There is news of
a wondrous revival going on at the present time at Port Sampson — a revival
which has reached every native in that village, and every white man as welU
Notwithstanding all the difficulties and all the hindrances, God's spirit is
moving with power along that coast.

In regard to the Arctic regions, at Point Barrow I found that every child in
that village last winter was at school. The same was true at Point Hope, the
Episcopal station, where they have one man quite alone. There are three other
English-speaking men in that region, a camp of whalers same miles away, but
he does not see them much. Though all the children live 2 miles from the
schoolhouse, yet the average attendance was very large, and usually the stormier
the day the larger the attendanc3. They could not go off hunting for food on
very stormy days, and so they went to school. At the Congregational mission,
I found a man holding the fort alone. Lonesome V That word doss not express-
how he felt. He told me that towards spring he got so desperate that when one
day he heard that a native has been down to a British post and had brought
back a dog that had been brought up by an American, he used to go down every
day and visit that dog — something which had heard the English language. Yet
he carried on that school for nine consecutive months. And those people con-
tinue their deep interest in the gospel, as it is imperfectly told, for he has only
an imperfect mastery of that tongue, and yet they hang- on the little light that
he can give them, of the wondrous story of the cross.

Our reindeer station is 40 miles away, and I have been in correspondence with
the American Missionary Society with a view to having Mr. Lapp take charge
of it. I want a lady at the reindeer station, as well as at the mission stations :
we need the civilizing influence of woman in that region. We ought to have
them at every station ; I am trying to get one at Point Barrow, which is 23' of
latitude farther north than the North Cape, where tourists go to see the mid-
night sun.

At St. Michael I met all the teachers, or a large part of them, from the
stations on the Yukon River, for 2,000 miles. I must say that when I mat those
people I felt exceedinglv humble, as if I had done nothing whatever for Christ.
There is a woman up there who not only stayed with her husband, but. when he
wanted to go on a preaching tour in January, with the thermometer 50° and KO
below zero, followed him on snow shoss 300 miles, that they might carry the
gospel from the Mackenzie Valley over the mountains into the valley of Yukon.
There is heroism there that the world and even the church do not know any-
thing about. There they are, year after year, raising their families, showing'
Christian households, the leavening power of which is mighty among those peo-
ple to lead them to Christ.

The work in Mr. Duncan's settlement is going on in the ordinary wav, grow-
ing naturally year by year. There is nothing striking to tell, and yet it is the
gradual, progressive development of a population into Christian civilization.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 155

Mrs. M. E. GRIFFITH, of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, was the next speaker. She said:

I feel that I can not let the words pass which have b3en spoken witho.it a lit-
tle explanation. It is by no means because we can not raise the money that wo
have thought it possibly necessary to drop the work. We have raised $10. <)<>;)
for the work in Alaska, but there is some misunderstanding pertaining to the-
location of our mission there. So far as I know, no representative of our church
had ever visited Alaska, and some of us had been deceived in regard to the loca-
tion of our mission there. When a committee of our ladies visited the mission-
ary board of our church a few weeks ago, and asked them to cooperate with us
in the work in Ala-ka, they replied in this resolution:

" Your committee on new work beg to report that, after an interview with the
representatives of the Woman's Home Missionary Society concerning the estab-
lishment of a mission station in Alaska, we gave the matter careful considera-
tion, and while we fully appreciate the good purpose of the society in seeking
to establish a work in the Aleutian Islands, yet, although without our assistance
they can not go forward with this work, we can not se3 our way clear at this
time to establish a mission there, especially in view of the smallness of the pop-
ulation in said islands and the occupancy of the mainland of Alaska by other
evangelical denominations."

We had sent the secretary of our bureau for Alaska to visit that station. She
had just returned, and had reported that it would be almost impossible for us-
to carry on the work there without the authority of the church back of us. We
have not wholly given up the work; on the contrary, these are the latest utter-
ances on the subject:

"Supplies sufficient to maintain the school inaugurated in Alaska until next
July were gent late last summer. Hence the work for the present will not suffer.
We are advised that the Government will probably provide a school building in
the spring, and in that case Rev. Mr. Tuck, the present superintendent of the
school and mission, has signified his intention to remain in charge of the Gov-
ernment school. This will continue the work under the same favorable auspices
for the Aleutian Islands, and while our disappointment is great in not being
able to carry on the work as we had planned, we shall be obliged to be content
with this arrangement. The committee, however, is in conference with the
authorities at Washington and of the church in the hope that a practicable plan
will be found for continuing the work in Alaska. The amount of the special
fund which remains unexpended will be held by the treasurer until the next
meeting of the board of management, which alone has the authority to appro-
priate moneys. It is possible the way may open, with the approval of the church,
to renew the work in Alaska in a form that will be satisfactory to all."

I deeply regret that there has been any hindrance to the carrying on of this
work, but I wish to say that as a society we heartily approve of the action of the
church in refusing to accept any Government aid. What will be done in the
future I am not prepared to say, but I hope no one will believe that we propose
to allow our twenty girls to go'back to heathenism.

Dr. Ward, for the business committee, then presented the following plat'orm
of the conference, which was received and adopted :

The absence of our usual presiding officer, President Merrill E. Gates, caused
by sickness and death in his family, calls forth our hearty sympathy as well as
our regret at the loss of his guidance and counsel.

We are glad to have with us Senator Dawes, whose name has been longer and
more intimately connected with the welfare of the Indians than that of any
other man. We congratulate him on his distinguished service, and in his re-
tirement to private life we follow him with affection and honor.

The progress made during the past four years in the education of the Indians
into citizenship makes the present Administration memorable in Indian history.
During these years a definite policy, intelligently pursued, has already resulted
in carrying nearly twenty thousand Indians out of tribal relations into those
of the responsible citizen. The burden of this work, with the development of a
school system for Indian youth, has rested on the intelligence and tireless per-
sistence of Commissioner Morgan and his adherence to civil-service principles.
To him we are glad to give the fullest credit, supported, as he has been, by the
good will of the President.

The following subjects now give the friends of the Indian special concern and
call for our faithful attention, and we commend them earnestly to the incoming
Administration:

(1) If it be impossible to extend civil-service rules to Presidential appoint-
ments in the Indian service, yet the selection and retention of agents and in-

If) 6 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

specters, and also of special Indian agents and allotting agents, ought to be left
free from partisan dictation, and only those persons appointed who are credit-
able examples of white civilization, and whose character is itself a pledge that
they will use their office to promote the welfare of the Indians among whom they
labor. .

(2) The Government is now committed to the education of all Indian youth,
and this education should be obligatory. It is humiliating that ignorant or bad
men should be allowed to thwart the purpose of the Government. While per-
suasion will usually be sufficient to fill the schools, an exercise of force should
not be withheld whenever it may become necessary, in order to prevent inter-
ference with the execution of the law on the subject of obligatory education.

(3) In the transition incident to the development of a public-school system by
the Government, religious and benevolent societies, so far from withdrawing
their interest in the Indians, should increase their efforts, remembering that it
is their special function to develop character, as well as intelligence: to give
higher education and moral fiber to these who snail be the leaders of these
people, and by intimate contact in the home and the church to mold the chil-
dren who come out of the schools into Christian citizens.

(4) Indians should be brought to self-support as rapidly as possible, and to
that end, not only should the issue of rations soon be discontinued, but mean-
time, where practicable, funds due Indians should be paid them in cash, rather
than in supplies.

(5) The full success of the Indian service requires greater unity of manage-
men tand concentration of responsibilities. The appointment or nomination
of all employes, from the agent to the lowest official should be committed to the
Bureau which is responsible lor the administration.

(()) The adjudication of an enormous amount of depredation claims brought
against the Indians before a court in which they have no standing, and where
they can not be heard, is unjust to the Indians, and should not be made a lien
on trust funds in the hands of the United States Government, created and held
for the benefit of the Indians.

Resolved^ That a committee be appointed by the chair to convey to the Pres-
ident-elect a copy of this action, and to present to him personally an expression
of our earnest desire that he will appoint such Commissioner of Indian Affairs
.as will carry on the Indian Office in the spirit and along the lines herein sug-
gested, so that even greater progress be made during his term of office.

The following committee was appointed to wait upon President-elect Cleve-
land, and confer with him: Rev. M. MacVicar, D.D., of New York; Rev. A.
B. Leonard, D.D.; Rev, Wm. C. Roberts, p.D., of New York: Rev. Wm. S.Lang-
Jord, D.D., of New York: Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., of New York : Mr. Henry
Wood, of Mount Kisco, N. Y.; Rev. James M. King, D.D., of New York: Rev. A.
B. Shelly, of Milford Square, Pa.; Rev. J. Taylor Hamilton, of Bethlehem, Pa.:
Rev. Francis Tiffany, of Boston, Mass.: Mrs. A. S. Quinton, of Philadelphia,
Pa.; Mrs. Edward Eliot, of New York; Mrs. Jerome Palmer, of Brooklyn, N. Y.;
Rev. W. H. Ward, D.D., of New York: Rev. Lyman Abbot, D.D., of New York.

The Conference then adjourned, at 10 p. m.

The expenditures by religious societies during the last year for Indian missions
and education (not including special gifts to Carlisle. Hampton, and other schools)
.are as follows :

American Missionary Association (Congregational) $39, 290. 30

Baptist Home Mission Society 17.707.55

Baptist Mission Society, Southern

Bureau of Catholic Missions

Friends, Baltimore, Yearly Meeting

Friends (Orthodox) 16,900.00

Mennonite Mission Board... 10.650.00

Methoaist Episcopal Missionary Society 23,850.00

.Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society, South

Moravian Missions : - 9,223.37

Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board 18,216.28

Presbyterian Home Mission Board 165,295.96

Presbyterian Southern Mission Board ._

Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society 27,794. 13

Unitarian Mission Board... - - 7,500.00

Women's National Indian Association... --

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSION KKs. 157

[PUBLIC— No. 48.]

Au act to provide for the allotm »ut of Ian Is in severally to Indians on the various reserva-
tions, and to exteiil the proie.-tion of the laws of the United States anl the Territories over
theindians, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted, by the Scnutc and House of 7ft/m>rm<///'v-x of the United Xt<it<-x of
America in Conyret* iiwnthled. That in all cases where any tribe or band of In-
dians has been, or shall hereafter be, located upon any reservation created for
their use, either by treaty stipulation or by virtue of an act of Congress or ex-
ecutive order setting- apart the same for their use, the President of the United
States be, and he hereby is. authorized, whenever in his opinion any reserva-
tion or any part thereof of such Indians is advantageous for agricultural and
grazing purposes, to cause said reservation, or any part thereof, to be surveyed,
or resurveyed if necessary, and to allot the lands in said resarvation in severally
to any Indian located thereon in quantities as follows :

To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section ;

To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section :

To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section ; and

To each other single person under eighteen years now living, or who may be1
born prior to the date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the
lands embraced in any reservation, one-sixteenth of a section : Provided, That in
case there is not sufficient land in any of said reservations to allot lands to each
individual of the classes above named in quantities as above provided, the lands
embraced in such reservation or reservations shall be allot 'ed to each individual
of each of said classes pro rata in accordance with the provisions of this act:
And provided further. That where the treaty or act of Congress setting apart
such reservation provides for the allotment of lands in severally in quantities
in excess of those herein provided; the President, in making allotments upon
such reservation, shall allot the lands to each individual Indian belonging thereon
in quantity as specified in such treaty or act: And provided further, That when
the lands allotted are only valuable for grazing purposes, an additional allot-
ment of such grazing lands, in quantities as above provided, shall be made to
each individual.

SEC. 2. That all allotments set apart under the provisions of this act shall be
selected by the Indians, heads of families selecting for their minor children, and
the agents shall select for each orphan child, and in such manner as to embrace
the improvements of the Indians making the selection. Where the improve-
ments of two or more Indians have been made on the same legal subdivision of
land, unless they shall otherwise agree, a provisional line may be run dividing
said lands between them, and the amount to which each is entitled shall be
equalized in the assignment of the remainder of the land to which they are en-
titled under this act: Provided, That if any one entitled to an allotment shall
fail to make a selection within four years after the President shall direct that allot-
ments may be made on a particular reservation, ths Secretary of the Interior
may direct the agent of such tribe or band, if such there be, and if there be no
agent, then a special agent appointed for that purpose, to make a selection for
such Indian, which selection shall bs allotted as in cases where selections are
made by the Indians, and patents shall issue^in like manner.

SEC. 3. That the allotments provided for in this act shall be made by special
agents appointed by the President for such purpose, and the agents in charge
of the respective reservations on which the allotments are directed to be made,
under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may from
time to time prescribe, and shall be certified by such agents to the Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs, in duplicate, one copy to be retained in the Indian
Office and the other to be transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior for his
action, and to be deposited in the General Land Office.

SEC. 4. That where any Indian not residing upon a reservation, or for whose
tribe no reservation has been provided by treaty, act of Congress, or executive
order, shall make settlement upon any surveyed or unsurveyed lands of the
United States not otherwise appropriated, he or she shall be entitled, upon ap-
plication to the local land-office for the district in which the lands are located,
to have the same allotted to him or her, arid to his or her children, in quantities
and manner as provided in this act for Indians residing upon reservations : and
when such settlement is made upon unsurveyed lands, the grant to such Indians
shall be adjusted upon the survey of the lands so as to conform thereto; and
patents shall be issued to them for such lands in the manner and with the re-

158 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

strictions a- herein provided. And the fees to which the officers of such local
land-office would have been entitled h id such lands been entered under the gen-
eral laws for th.3 disposition of the public lands shall be paid to them, from any
•moneys in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, upon
a statement of an account in their bahaH for such f 3es by the Commissioner of
the General Land Office, and a certification of such account to the Secretary of
"the Treasury by the Secretary of the Interior.

SEC. 5. That upon thd approval of the allotments provided for in this act by
the Secretary of the Intarior, he shall cause patents to issue therefor in the name
of the aliottaes, which patents shall ba of legal effect, and declare that the
United States does and will hold the land thus allotted, for the period of
twenty-five years, in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom such
allotment shall have been made, or, in case of his decease of his heirs,accord-
ing to the laws of the Stats or Territory where such land is located, and that at
the expiration of said period the United States will convey the same by patent
to said Indian, or his heirs as aforesaid, in fee, discharged of said trust and free
of all charge or imcumbrance whatsoever: Provided, That the President of the
United States may in any case in his discretion extend the period. And if any
•conveyance shall be made of the lands set apart and allotted as herein pro-
vided, or any contract made touching the same, before the expiration of the
time above mentioned, such conveyance or contract shall be absolutely null and
void: Provided, That the law of dascent and partition in force in the Stats or
Territory where such lands are situate shall apply thereto after patents there-
for have been executed and delivered, excspt as herein otherwise provided ; and
~the laws of the State of Kansas regulating the descent and partition of real es-
tate shall, so far as practicable, apply to all lands in the Indian Territory which
'may be allotted in severalty under the provisions of this act: And provided fur-
ther, That at any time after lands have been allotted to all the Inlians of any
tribe as herein provided, or sooner if in the opinion of the President it shall be
for the best interests of said tribe, it shall be lawful for the Secretary of the In-
terior tonegotiata with such Indian tribe for the purchase and re leas 3 by said
'tribe, in conformity with the treaty or statute under which such reservation is
held, of such portions of its reservation not allotted as such tribe shall, from time
to time, consent to sell, on such terms and conditions as shall be considered just
and equitable batween the United States and said triba of Indians, which pur-
•chase shall not be complete until ratified by Congress, and the form and manner
of executing such release shall also bs prescribed by Congress : Provided how-
ever, That all lands adapted to agriculture, with or without irrigation so sold
••or released to the United States by any Indian tribe shall be held by the
United States for the sole purpose of sscuring homss to actual sattlers and shall
be disposed of by the United States to actual and bona fide settlers only in
tracts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to any one person, on such
"terms as Congress shall prescribe, subject to grants which Congress mavr make
in aid of education : And provided further, That no patents shall issue therefor
except to the person so taking the same as and for a homestead, or his h^irs,
•and after the expiration of five years occupancy thereof as such homestead ; and
any conveyance of said lands so taken as a homestaad, or any contract touching
the same, or Han thereon, created prior to the data of such patent, shall be null
and void. And the sums agreed to ba paid by the United States as purchase
money for any portion of any such reservation shall ba held in the Treasury of
the United States for the s lie use of the triba or tribas of Indians ; to whom such
reservations belonged ; and the same, with interest thereon at three per cent per
annum, shall be at all times subject to appropriation by Congress for the educa-
tion and civilization of such tribe or tribas of Indians or the members thereof.
Thepatants aforesaid shall be recorded in the General L.andOffic3, and afterward
delivered, free of charge, to the allottee entitled thereto. And if any religious
society or other organization is now occupying any of the public lands to which
this act is applicable, for religious or educational work among the Indians, the
Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to confirm such occupation to such
society or organization, in quantity not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in
any one tract, so long as the same shall ba so occupied, on such terms as he shall
deem just ; but nothing herein contained shall change or alter any claim of such
society for religious or educational purposes heretofore granted by law. And here-
after in the employment of Indian police, or any other employes in the public
• service among any of the Indian tribes or bands affected by this act, and where
Indians can perform the duties required, those Indians who have availed them-
selves of the provisions of this act and become citizens of the United States shall
be preferred.

TCEPORT OF THE HOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

SEC. fi. That upon the completion of said allotments and the patenting- of the
lands to said allottees, each and every member of the respective bands or tribes
of Indians to whom allotments have baen made shall have the benefit of and be
subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which
they may reside : and no Territory shall pass or enforce any law denying any
•such Indian within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. And every
Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom allot-
ments shall have been made under the provisions of this act. or under any law
or treaty, and every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United
States who has voluntarily taken up, within said limits, his residence separate
and apart from any tribe of Indians therein, and has adopted the habits of civil-
ized life, is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled
to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens, whether said In-
dian has been or not, by birth or other wise, a member of any tribe of Indians
within the territorial limits of the United States without in any manner impair-
ing or otherwise affecting the right of any such Indian to tribal or other property.

SEC. 7. That in cases where the use of water for irrigation is necessary to
render the lands within any Indian reservation available for agricultural pur-
poses, the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to prescribe
such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to secure a just and equal
distribution thereof among the Indians residing upon any such reservations ;
and no other appropriation or grant of water by any riparian proprietor shall
be authorized or permitted to the damage of any other riparian proprietor.

SEC. 8. That the provision of this act shall not extend to the territory occu-
pied by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminples, and Osage,
Miamies and Peorias, and Sacs and Foxes, in the Indian Territory, nor to any
of the reservations of the Seneca Nation of New York Indians in the State of
New York, nor to that strip of territory in the State of Nebraska adjoining the
Sioux Nation on the south added by executive order.

SEC. 9. That for the purpose of making the surveys and resurveys mentioned
in section two of this act, there be, and hereby is, appropriated, out of any
moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one hundred
thousand dollars, to be repaid proportionately out of the proceeds of the sales
of such land as may be acquired from the Indians under the provisions of this
act.

SEC. 10. That nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to affect
the right and power of Congress to grant the right of way through any lands
granted to an Indian, or a tribe of Indians, for railroads or other highways, or
telegraph lines, for the public use, or to condemn such lands to public uses, upon
making just compensation.

SEC. 11. That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent the re-
moval of the Southern Ute Indians from their present reservation in Southwest-
ern Colorado to a new reservation by and with the consent of a majority of the
adult male "members of said tribe.

Approved February 8, 1887.

[PUBLIC— NO. 105.]

An act to amend and further extend the benefits of the act approved February eighth, eigh-
teen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled "An act to provide for the allotment of land in sev-
eralty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the
United States over the Indians, and for other purposes."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, That section one of the act entitled "An act to
provide for the' allotment of lands in several ty to Indians on the various reser-
vations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the
Territories over the Indians, and for other purposes,'' approved February
eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, be, and the same is hereby, amended
so as to read as follows :

"SEC. 1. That in all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been, or
shall hereafter be, located upon any reservation created for their use. either by
treaty stipulation or by virtue of an act of Congress or Executive order setting
apart the same for their use, the President of the United States be, and he
hereby is, authorized, whenever in his opinion any reservation, or any part
thereof, of such Indians is advantageous for agricultural or grazing pur-

160 REPORT OF THE JJOARJD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

poses, to cause sail reservation, or any part thereof, to be surveyed, or resur-
.veyed, if n3cessary, and to allot to each Indian Io3ated thereon one-eighth
of a section of land: Provided, Tnat ii case there is not sufficient land in
'any of said reservations to allot lauds to each individual in quantity as ab >ve
provided the land in such reservation or reservations shall be allotted to each
individual pro rata, as near as maybe, according- to legal subdivisions: Proridad
further, That where the treaty or act of Congress setting apart such reservation
provides for the allotment of lands in several ty to certain classes in quantity in
excess of that herein provided the President, in making allotments upon such
reservation, shall allot the land to each individual Indian of said classes belong-
ing thereon in quantity as specified in such treaty or act, and to .other Indians
belonging thereon in quantity as herein provided: Provided further. That where
existing agreements or laws provide for allotments in accordance with the pro-
visions of said act of February eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, or in
quantities substantially as therein provided, allotments maybe made in quantity
as specified in this act", with the consent of the Indians, expressed in such man-
ner as the President, in his discretion, may require: And provided further, That
when the lands allotted, or any legal subdivision thereof, are only valuable for?
grazing purposes, such lands shall be allotted in double quantities."

SEC. '1. That where allotments have been made in whole or in part upon any
reservation under the provisions of said act of February eighth, eighteen hun-
dred and eighty-seven, and the quantity of land in such reservation is sufficient
to give each member of the tribe eighty acres, such allotments shall be revised
and equalized under the provisions of this act: Provided, That no allotment
heretofore approved by the Secretary of the Interior shall be reduced in quan-
tity.

SEC. 3. That whenever it shall be made to appear to the agent in charge of
any reservation Indians that, by reason of age or other disability, any allottee
under the provisions of said act or any other act or treaty can not personally
and with benefit to himself occupy or improve his allotment or any part thereof
the same may be leased upon such terms, regulations and conditions as shall be
prescribed by such Secretary for a term not exceeding three years for farming
or grazing or ten years for mining purposes : Provided. That where lands are
occupied by Indians who have bought and paid for the same, and which lands
are not needed for farming and agricultural purposes, are not desired for indi-
vidual allotments, the same may be leased by authority of the council speaking
for such Indians for a period not to exceed five years for grazing or ten years
for mining purposes in such quantities and upon such terms and conditions as
the agent in charge of such reservation may recommend, subject to the approval
of the Secretary of the Interior.

SEC. 4. That where any Indian entitled to allotment under existing laws shall
make settlement upon any surveyed or unsurveyed lands of the United States
not otherwise appropriated, he or she shall be entitled, upon application to the
local land office for the district in which the lands are located, to have the same
allotted to him or her and to his or her children, in quantities and manner as
provided in the foregoing section of this amending act for Indians residing upon
reservations : and when such settlement is made upon unsurveyed lands the
grant to such Indians shall be adjusted upon the survey of the lands so as to con-
form thereto ; and patents shall be issued to them for such lands in the manner
and with the restrictions provided in the act to which this is an amendment.
And the fees to which the officers of such local land office would have been
entitled had such lands been entered under the general laws for the disposition
of the public lands shall be paid to them from any moneys in the Treasury of the
United States not otherwise appropriated, upon a statement of an account in
their behalf for such fees by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and
a certification o! such account to the Secretary of the Treasury by the Secretary
of the Interior.

SEC. 5. That for the purpose of determining the descent of land to the heirs of
any deceased Indian under the provisions of the fifth section of said act, when-
ever any male and female Indian shall have cohabited together as husband and
wife according to the custom and manner of Indian life the issue of such cohab-
itation shall be, for the purpose aforesaid, taken and deemed to be the legiti-
mate issue of the Indians so living together, and every Indian child, otherwise
illegitimate, shall for such purpose be taken and deemed to be the legitimate
issue of the father of such child: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall
not be held or construed as to apply to the lands commonly called and known as
the ''Cherokee Outlet": And provided further, That no allotment of land shall

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 1G1

be made or annuities of money paid to any of the Sac and Fox of the Missouri
Indians who were not enrolled as members of said tribe on January first, eight-
een hundred and ninety; but this shall not be held to impair or otherwise affect,
the rights or equities of any person whose claim to membership in said tribe is.
now pending and being investigated.
Approved, February 28, 1891.

LIST OF OFFICERS CONNECTED WITH THE UNITED STATES
INDIAN HER VICE, INCLUDING AGENTS, INSPECTORS, SPECIAL,
AGENTS, AND INDIAN SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, ALSO AD-
DRESSES OF MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COM MIS-
ERS.

[Corrected to January 16, 1893.]

T. J. MORGAN, Commissioner 1102 Thirteenth street, NW.

R. V. BELT, Assistant Commissioner 1314 Tenth street, NW-

CHIEFS OF DIVISIONS.

Finance— EDMUND S. WOOG 400 Maple avenue, Le Droit Park.

Accounts— SAMUEL M. YEATMAN 511 Third street, NW.

Land— CHAS. P. LARRABEE 1528 Corcoran street, NW.

Education— WALTER O. CARTWRIGHT 1006 North Carolina avenue, SE.

Files— GEORGE H. HOLTZMAN 905 Tenth street, NW.

Depredations— WILLIAM C.SHELLEY 247 Elm street, Le Droit Park.

Miscellaneous — M. S. COOK, Stenographer, in
charge 920 Rhode Island avenue, N W.

SPECIAL AGENTS.

GEORGE P. LITCHFIELD of Salem, Oregon,

JAMES A. COOPER of Winfield, Kans.

ELISHA B. REYNOLDS of Hagerstown, IncL

JAS. A. LEONARD of Youngtown, Ohio.

CHARLES H. THOMPSON of Chicago, 111.

INSPECTORS.

WILLIAM W. JUNKIN .of Fairfield, Iowa.

JAMES H. CISNEY of Warsaw, Ind.

ARTHUR M. TINKER of North Adams, Mass.

BENJAMIN H. MILLER of Sandy Spring, Md.

ROBERTS. GARDNER of Clarksburg, W. Va.

SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOLS.

DR. DANIEL DORCHESTER . of Boston, Mass.

SUPERVISORS OF INDIAN EDUCATION.

CHARLES W. GOODMAN, of Antrim, Kans *District No. 1.

OSMER H. PARKER, of Harvey, 111 District No. 2.

WILLIAM T. LEEKE, of North Ontario, Cal District No. 3.

JOHN W. RICHARDSON, of Cherry Vale, Kans District No. 4.

DAVIDS. KECK, of New York City, N. Y District No. 5.

District No. 6.

*The country is divided with reference to Indian schools into supervisors' districts as fol-
lows: (1) Michigan, Wisconsin. Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota" (except Standing Rock)r
Sissetoii in South Dakota, and Montana: (2) South Dakota (except Sisseton), Standing Rock
in North Dakota. Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming: (3) Idaho, Washington. Oregon. Nevada,
and Northern California: i it Kansas, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma: (5) Colorado, Utah, New
Mexico, and Arizona (except Fort Mqjave and Colorado River); (6) Colorado River and Forfc
Mojave in Arizona, and Southern California.

14499 11

162 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDFAN COMMISSIONERS.

hie

and

ubi

Oc«
II

office

fe -

I525

SEl

O OOc«

—• £ QJ ~

I |q .2 | | 2

I I'l ail l =

l 11 IP I I

w 2>- s-5|3 $ o

1 1

^ S o

S *£ls

« -"V

-tj fc »-;

«

ill !

r- ~ ^ >>,
S ^ S Sc

via
ath

N.
age

°& . §£

ill &gj sil g 13

« MTlSrf-s .5P - ^ 5.5-

'CtJ

tf£M
JS S

n.
re
o.
C

-f /: "" '->

§ ^s

ili|e

,aj Q '~ • vvi ^^.CO^C'^WHH^^!^ d?CS"^^ Cw-r-t "^•*-'rljlJHt> '3^ CS ^F

Ig||pl6Slls=lll i|l tlslggsia? i II?

^:O -<OP3 W PM PHC« O!<J3^ J OS < ^ D

. O., Chotea

n, Okla
uma Co.. Ar
ane, Wash

n
ont.
rling
ker,
t Sp

v
h.
r

h .
v
Y
o,
as
eb

as

Ne
.

N
a
.W
, N

s fes:-2i6

^

i

cs O)K - o;^ «3

O fc £'>:_: -

>>

OJ

? ^§

' a"

cu ^jv * prf K'T". gi

sc .^^ g ;rj ^-^^ S

S §®3 -S f^S Sid '

® ^=10^ d . • o ®"§ -^

o oow <; §£ PH^^ j

an .
libri
rph

Wym
H. Wa

Rona
Lilli
Mu

C. R. A. Scobey
Edward F. La

La
lsey

i .! tT- !

02 ^ S S
II I I

^^ ,

o3$Q 5

W«Q ts

^a a. §

S|S ^ o .H-S

g«s p s si

• S ^ .S

S'1"2 .2

^ _*T ^ j

& S'/l

O S

I II! 11 if

-a DQO 5 5^

o> '

' 23 W

^ O >5^

S Si

2 2

S "5
S s
G '^

REPORT OF THE liOAKD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 163

i «fac

2 - ?t

» wr

•3 S

utaiKiii

, Ariz .
Agency
lle, Neb
.........

s

»

in
Dak.

ency,
Okla.

Dak.

on.
, Wyo

ti si iff 1141 1:1

r-r. ft^T!

gon
Wash

f!

>J!

gto

it-

u s

J§

s«*s

5 Hflj I

I ^i !

i rr "V -r- i— >

Si.:/?

itS'.a

cato
Pine Ri

Co.. S.
Ponca,

a :or

* ,u

tJ|

5|S

°^^ >S
S4 §

0525 5

-2§3S ^

a£2 8

go

2.«

a

,^H 3} *"

a I3

l°!ll

O0...'e0 .99

Is « I

?^ ce 9

M
W

W
W

« :

O'

J £^<§ ^ 2 :fe >> vr

/- ^Jr/^ ^ £ ' 2 r

1 *^ M^ O

^ Sgc.S ^ M«^ &

e 33I2 f

--

OQ

•

C 5

o a o

o

S S o -S

Q £i *j -c

a 1 6

II gasssM

:-k ^ a, CM^O*

KM w M

2 be

5 5 -S

3 -•' ~S

43 ; wv) B si cO ea w

c §a S -4a « fe a , i I

c g n «- ^ -g S5 ta o5 | | £ •§ ^
s^; oofl- «^g-gsi5cce^S

2 S S 8].-£ ^ o

CO ^) CO COC/3 CO CO

p pp

164 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 165

0 JH

1 *

3 | S §

Q 31 3 J

= »«

Fort Shaw.
River, Mo
Postal T<>le:
Cherokee, N
Whittier, N

Id

: o

I » s 31

!l I ! !l

3S j2 o o o
fc o fe feo

;~

^ r° ° °

53 n

166 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

Members of the Board of Indian Commissioners, with their post-office addresses.

MERRILL E. GATES, chairman, Amherst. Mass.

E. WHITTLESEY, secretary, 1429 New York avenue. Washington, D. C.

ALBERT K. SMILEY, Mohonk Lake, N. Y.

WM. McMiCHAEL, 15 Broad strest, New York City.

WM. EL LYON, 170 New York avenue, Brooklyn. N. Y.

JOSEPH T. JACOBS, Ann Arbor, Mich.

WILLIAM D. WALKER, Fargo, N. Dak.

PHILIP C. GARRETT, Philadelphia, Pa.

DARWIN R. JAMES, 226 Gates avenue, Brooklyn. N. Y.

ELBERT B. MONROE, Tarrytown, N. Y.

Secretaries of missionary societies engaged in educational tvork among Indians.

Baptist Home Missionary Society: Rev.H. L. Morehouse, D. D., Temple Court.
Beekman street, New York.

Baptist (Southern): Rev. I. T. Tichenor. D. p., Nashville. Tenn.

Catholic (Roman), Bureau of Indian Missions: Rev. Jos. A. Stephan. 1315 F
street NW., Washington, D. C.

Congregational, American Missionary Association: Rev. M. E. Strieby, D. D.,
Bible House, New York.

Episcopal Church Mission: Rev. W. G. Langford. D. D., Bible House. New
York.

Friends Yearly Meeting: Lsvi K. Brown, Goshen, Lancaster County, Pa.

Friends, Orthodox: Dr. James E. Rhoads, Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Methodist Missionary Society: Rev. C. C. McCabe, 150 Fifth avenue, New
York.

Methodist (Southern): Rev. I. G. John, Nashville. Tenn.

Mennonite Missions: Rev. A. B. Shelly. Milford Square, Pa.

Moravian: J. Taylor Hamilton, Bethlehem. Pa.

Presbyterian Foreign Missionary Society: Rev. F. F. EllinwoDd, D. D., 53 Fifth
avenue, New York.

Presbyterian Home Mission Society: Rev. W. C. Roberts, D. D., 53 Fifth avenue,
New York.

Presbyterian (Southern) Home Mission Board: Rev. J. N. Craig, D. D., At-
anta, Ga.

Unitarian Association: Rev. Francis Tiffany. 25 Beacon street, Boston. Mass.

INDEX.

A.

, Page.

Allotting land - 41

Allotment act . .*. 157

Amended allotment act 159

American Missionary Association, report of 109

Attorneys, contracts with 72

B.

Baptist Home Missionary Society, report of 107

Board of Indian Commissioners, report of 3

Boyd, O. E., address of , 118

C.

Carter, Miss Sybil, address of 79

Cheyenne and Arapahoes, contract with

Compulsory education 57

Contract schools and missions 9-62

Conference with missionary boards 107

Cook, Joseph, address of 103

Cook, Miss Emily S., address of 60

Corruption in the Indian service 80

D.

Dangers 68

Davis, J. W., address and report of. 49-92

Dawes, Senator, speeches of 345-102-148

Dawes, Miss Anna L., address of 138

Dorchester, Daniel, address of. 127

Dorchester, Mrs. A. JVf ., address of 132

E.

Eaton, John, address of 130

Education 3-5

Ellinwood, F. F., report by 65-120

Episcopal Missionary Society, report of 110

F.

Field matrons 60

Fletcher, Miss Alice C., address of. 41-77-142

Friends Society, report of 112

Garrett, Philip C . , report and address of 12-53-48

Gates^Merrill E., address of 31

Griffith, Mrs. M. E., address of 155

167

168 INDEX.

H.

Patfp.

Harris, William T., paper by ................................................ 140'

Harrison Institute, Chemawa, Oregon ....................................... 22

Hayes, Rutherford B., address of ............................................ 101

Houghton, H. O., address of ................................................ 91*

1.

Indian service .............................................................. 9-80

Inspection and purchase of supplies ....... v. ................................

Inspection of agencies and schools ...........................................

J.

Jackson, Sheldon, address of ................................... . ............. 150

James, Darwin R., report and address of .................................... 21- 4T

K.
King, James M., address of .................................................. 62-111

L.

Langford, William G., address of ............................................ 110

Law, report on .............................................................

Legislation needed ..........................................................

Leonard, A. B., address of .................................................. 116

Lewis, Frank D., address of .................................................

List of officers in Indian service ........................................... - - 161

Lyon, William H., report and address of ..................................... 29-48

M.

MacVicar, Rev. Dr., address of .............................................. 107

Mennonite Church, report of ................................................

Methodist Missionary Society, report of .....................................

Mission Indians, report on .................................................. 92-9

Mohonk Conference .........................................................

Monroe, Elbert B., address of ...............................................

Moore, Joseph B., address of ................................................

Morgan, Commissioner, speeches of ................................... 36-57-8

N.
Nez Perce" Agency ....................................................... - - - - 2$

P.

Painter, C. C., paper by and address of . . ..................... - ...... 68-115-122-141

Piace and Progress ... ...................................................... QA_inA

Peerce, Edward L., address of ............................................... ou

Platform of Mohonk Conference ........ ..................................... ^

Platform of Washington Conference .........................................

Presbyterian Home Mission Board, report of .................................

Presbyterian Foreign Board, report of .......................................

Purchasing committee, report of ............................................ ^jj*

Puyallup Agency ............................... - ........................... ^

Qr

Quinton, Mrs. A. S., address of .............................................. 67-121

R.

Returned students

Rhoads, James E., report of .................................................

Riggs, Mrs. A. L., address of ................................................

Roberts, WTilliam C., address of ............................................. }g

Robertson, Miss Alice, address of .......................................... *; ^ .

Roosevelt, Theodore, address of ........................................... <

INDEX. 169

Page.

Scenandoah, Oneida, address of 51

Sectarian contract schools 62

Shelby, A. B., address of 113

Siletz Agency 28

Sisseton scouts 72

Snow, Miss Clara, address of 50

Stimsou, F. J., address of 85

Strieby, M. E., address of 109-126

T.

Teller Institute 21

Trust funds 71

Tulalip Agency .' 24

» W.

Ward, William Hayes, report of 155

Whittlesey, E., address of 35

Wotherspoon, Lieut., address of 79

Y.

Yakinia Agency 26

14499 12

O