Our Indian citizens, their crisis: A letter addressed to the presidential candidates and a supporting statement

OUR INDI

A Letter Addressed to the
Presidential Candidates

and

A Supporting Statement

American Indian Defense Association, Inc.
gy Bliss Building, Washington, D. C.

BRANCHES

THE AMERICAN INDIAN DEFENSE ASSOCIATION
INCORPORATED

31 Bliss Building, Washington, D. C.

October 6th, 1928

This letter is addressed to you in the interest of the Indian subjects of the
United States. We say “subjects” because though in form the rights of citizen-
ship are accorded them, they are living under a despotism such as is unknown
elsewhere in the Western World and such as it is inconceivable that the Ameri-
can people would tolerate if the facts were generally known.

That the record of our national conduct toward the Indians in the early
days and down to the eighties was marked by shameless, cynical disregard of
obligations, and equally shameless and ^ynical brutality under the guise of war-
fare or otherwise, has been known and forgotten since Helen Hunt Jackson
published the “Century of Dishonor” in 1881.

What is not generally known is that the record of the past is being rivalled
at the present day through similar violation of obligations, through the misuse
and misapplication of property held in guardianship, through an arbitrary and
tyrannical denial of the fundamental safeguards to life, liberty and property
which the Constitution guarantees to other citizens of the land: — and finally,
that the governmental Bureau to which we have entrusted our guardianship is,
ignorantly or wilfully, annihilating its 250,000 wards through starvation en-
forced by the waste and misapplication of their income, through the creation of
centers for the spread of disease, and through the denial of the health service
that might serve, in some measure, to counteract the effects of its other activities.

Many, if not all, the facts upon which this arraignment is based have long
been in the files of the Department of the Interior, in the form of reports of its
field workers, in the form of surveys undertaken at its request. The last of these
reports was delivered to the Hon. Hubert Work, then Secretary of the Interior,
in February of this year by the Institute of Government Research as the result
of a survey made at his request.

New York
Milwaukee
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Salt Lake City
Santa Barbara
Pasadena

Dear Sir:

3

With this letter we are transmitting to you a copy of that report, and a
summary, prepared by us, of the situation revealed by it, supplemented by in-
formation derived from other sources, which closes with our suggestion of the
steps required to end the horror.

If you shall be elected to the Presidency of the United States, it will lie
with you, in large measure, to determine whether the existing practices shall
continue until they are terminated by the extinction of the peoples who have
accepted our word of honor and entrusted themselves to our care, or whether
they and the inspiring and spiritual civilization that they represent shall be per-
mitted to survive.

In percentage of the population they are small. The economic effect of
their extinction or survival on the people as a whole will be minimal, though a
favored few will profit, as they are now profiting, by the process that leads to
extinction. But in the conservation of the honor of the American people, and in
relieving them from the imputation of barbarous inhumanity, the effect looms
large.

For this reason we deem it a patriotic duty to call the facts to your atten-
tion and to ask — first, what, if elected, you will do about them; second, whether
you will adopt or favor any or all of the remedial steps which we propose?

Very respectfully yours,

THE AMERICAN INDIAN DEFENSE ASSOCIATION,
By Haven Emerson, M.D., President
120 East 62nd Street, New York

4

STATEMENT OF THE SITUATION OF THE

AMERICAN INDIANS
AS AFFECTED OR DETERMINED BY
GOVERNMENTAL POLICIES
AND
ACTION

WITH SUGGESTIONS OF
REMEDIAL LEGISLATION
AND

ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE

Submitted by

The American Indian Defense Assn., Inc.

5

,

.

STATUS OF THE INDIANS

To an appreciation of the governmental responsibility for conditions, a
realization of the status and of the helplessness of the Indians is essential.

Broadly speaking it may be said that they have no property rights that
Congress is compelled to respect.

Treaty covenants, even when confirmed by act of Congress, convey no
rights which Congress may not infringe. (Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia and
Peters I. Lonewolf vs. Hitchcock 187 U. S. 533 ) .

The reasons assigned by the Court for this conclusion is that the obligations
are political and as such inscrutable by the Courts.

Broadly speaking, the Indians are regarded as wards of the government.
Their property, whether tribal or individual, is subject to guardianship control.

The ultimate guardian is the Federal legislature.

By legislative acts that guardianship has been delegated to the Department
of the Interior — sometimes with plenary powers; sometimes with limitations on
the powers.

These powers of the Department of the Interior are executed by the Bureau
of Indian Affairs.

Not only are the Indians divested of control of their property but they are
without right to challenge the dispositions made by the guardian or to demand
an accounting. (An apparent exception presents itself when the Department of
the Interior exceeds its authority — and might present itself in a case of gross
abuse of discretion.)

For instance, if Congress chooses to expend $400,000 of Indian tribal funds
on a bridge over a corner of an Indian reservation, desired by private white in-
terests and of no use to the Indians, there is no power to prevent it from making
that disposition.

Equally, the Indians are powerless to draw on their own funds to supple-
ment the inadequate food provided in government boarding schools even though
the inadequacy amounts to starvation.

The extent to which, in theory of law, they are entitled to benefits of due
process of law or other rights pertaining to life and liberty under the Constitu-
tion is still subject to question. In practice the rights which apply in general to
white citizens are systematically denied, and denied under color of law (see
infra) .

The Federal jurisdiction is exclusive. Health and educational or other serv-
ices can be extended to the Indians on the reservations only with the consent of
Congress.

In a word, the Indians are a dependent people at the mercy of the Federal
Government.

THE HISTORICAL RECORD

To say that the record is disgraceful is an understatement. It has been a
disgrace from the beginning. With rare interludes, it has been disgraceful
through all administrations.

The horrors of today may perhaps be paralleled by horrors in the past.

The past is irrevocable. The present and future lie in our hands.

7

The administrative responsibility has centered, and centers, in the Secretary
of the Interior and the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Congress, per-
force, has been and is influenced by the information and advice, whether accurate
and ingenuous or otherwise, received by it from the Department.

In our opinion, it is incredible that if Congress had had the facts, it would
not have taken immediate steps to remedy or, at least, to alleviate the worst
situations and to arrest the worst abuses.

WHAT ARE THE PRESENT FACTS?

I

STARVATION OF INDIAN CHILDREN

Except as otherwise indicated, the facts recited under this and other headings
are taken from the report of the Institute of Government Research.

That report was the result of an investigation made at the request of Secre-
tary Work. (See title page.)

It was submitted to him on February 21, 1928. (See title page.)

It was conducted by a staff of special investigators under the direction of
Mr. Lewis Meriam.

The investigation was begun on November 12, 1926. (See letters of trans-
mittal, page 7.)

Much of what it reported was already in the files of the departments as the
result of a survey made by the Red Cross in 1924 at the request of the bureau.
(Page 262.)

The report bears internal evidence of a disposition to deal as leniently as
possible with the Bureau and to shift responsibility to Congress on the score
of “lack of funds.” (Page 262 and elsewhere.)

The report contains among other things " Recommendations for immediate
action.”

The first of these is:

“To seek from Congress at the earliest possible moment an appropriation
of one million dollars to be immediately available.”

In the recommendation the purposes of the appropriation is stated euphe-
mistically

“To improve the quantity, quality and variety of diet available for Indian
children in boarding schools.”

The text of the report reveals that this euphemism is a substitute for

“To save 27,000 Indian children from starvation.”

That report reached the Secretary on February 21, 1928. It was released
to the public only after Congress had adjourned. It was not called to the atten-
tion of Congress by the Secretary. It could not have been called to its attention
by any one else. No appropriation was sought and thus the continuance of the
condition was ensured for another twelve months.*

* The continuance of these conditions was assured by a provision inserted in the urgent
deficiency bill that “The total of the expenditures during the fiscal year 1928 and 1929
shall not exceed for any boarding school the total of the limitations as specified for such
school for the fiscal years 1928 and 1929 in the Interior Department appropriation act for
such fiscal years. Officials of the Indian Bureau were before the Appropriations Com-
mittee while this provision was being inserted.

8

What are those conditions, baldly stated?

1. There are over 27,000 Indian children in Government boarding schools
operated by the Bureau.

2. They are there under the compulsion of an education statute which is
enforced. (Under this compulsion the children are sent to schools usually far
away from their h'omes, and kept separated from their parents from the 6th to
the 1 8th year.)

3. The average daily food allowance per child is 11 cents per day (supple-

mented in some instances by produce from the farm — page 327) ; 9 cents in one
case where there was no farm (page 327) ; (35 cents might approximate ade-
quacy; page 320). •

4. The result was a general condition of “malnutrition,” (polite for semi-
starvation). The children were set exhausted that they hadn’t even sufficient
energy to play when allowed outdoors for that purpose. (Page 327.)

II

UNDERNOURISHED CHILDREN EXHAUSTED BY LABOR SUCH
AS WOULD BE FORBIDDEN BY STATE LAWS

“Overactivity resulting from the half day of school and the half day of
labor is found among almost all children in Indian boarding schools except
the very youngest.” (Page 331)

“The idea of adjusting the child’s duty to his physical ability is practically
unknown in the Indian school.”

“The amount of work is almost unlimited and the children must do it.”
(Page 331)

“Generally speaking, the Indian child’s day begins at 6 A.M. and continues
for the smaller children in some schools until 7 P.M., and for the other children
until 9 and 10 P.M. Theoretically, one-fourth of the older child’s time is de-
voted to industrial activities supposedly educational and not connected with the
routine labor of the schools.” (Really detrimental to education; page 332.)

“In practice, much of the industrial work is undertaken for production and
not for education.” (Page 334)

“The term ‘child labor’ is used advisedly. The labor of children, as car-
ried on in Indian boarding schools would, it is believed, constitute a violation of
Child Labor laws in most states.” (Page 576)

“Obstreperous children” are often incarcerated in a ‘jail’ worthy of the
name. (Page 332) Whether those who fall by the wayside in connection with
their enforced labor are regarded as obstreperous the report does not reveal.

Ill

STARVING AND OVERWORKED CHILDREN DEBILITATED BY
UNSANITARY CONDITIONS AND OVERCROWDING WITH
RESULTANT SPREAD OF TUBERCULOSIS AND OTHER
COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

“The Indian children in boarding schools are generally below normal in
health as compared with white children. The boarding schools are generally
crowded beyond their capacity so that the Indian child does not have sufficient
light and air.” (Page 192)

9

“Every available space that will accommodate beds is often pressed into
service. Thus children are frequently quartered on attic floors in closely
placed beds with the same lack of light and air. Not infrequently in these attic
dormitories the fire hazard is serious. In a school recently renovated, for exam-
ple, 70 girls were quartered on the 3rd floor in a building of temporary con-
struction. The only fire escape was located off the stairway at the rear of the
building. The entrance to this escape was securely locked and the matron kept
the key . . . locked fire escapes and nailed windows were sometimes found in
girls’ dormitories.” (Page 316)

“In one case, only two toilets were found in order for 80 girls.” (Page

317 )

“The majority of the classroom buildings are not provided with sanitary
facilities.” (Page 322)

Children with infectious diseases cannot under these conditions be segre-
gated. “Contagious diseases under these conditions have almost free scope.”
(Page 192)

“At one of the leading schools, medical examinations of the children were
seen being put through at the rate of 72 an hour.” (Page 192)

“The prevalence of tuberculosis in the boarding schools is alarming.” (Page
206) '

“Children in advanced stages of tuberculosis are frequently returned from
the boarding schools to their own homes, where no adequate provision is made
for their care or for the protection of other members of the family from con-
tagion.” (Page 206)

IV

INDIAN CHILD LABOR IN DEADLY ENVIRONMENT OUTSIDE
THE BOARDING SCHOOLS

“It has been customary in the past* to recruit a considerable number of
boys each summer to Colorado and Kansas for work in the beet fields.” (Page
5 ^ 4 -)

This is “vacation work.”

“Many of the children sent out for this work were 11 years of age.” (Page
690) No escorts were sent out with these children. (Page 590)

“Children from one school averaged 9 cents a day net for their work. In
another the average^ was less than 12 cents, while in another it rose as high as
45 cents.” (Page 523)

The work is “tedious” and must be done in a “stooping position.”

“Health and social conditions in the camps are far from satisfactory.”
(Page 525)

“The work starts during the school session.” (Page 525)

This from the report.

From other sources we know, and the Interior Department knew, that
seven of the children contracted typhoid. (They had not received the vaccine
because they were thought to be tuberculous.) These cases were not hospitalized.
They were dumped into an Indian Bureau truck and driven 700 miles to the

*The past was extended into the summer of 1928.

IO

boarding schools from which they had been recruited. This was in 1927. In
1928 the children have again been sent out without precautionary vaccination.

V

INDIANS DENIED THE EDUCATION FITTING THEM EITHER
TO LIVE ON THEIR RESERVATIONS AND UTILIZE THEIR
OWN RESOURCES OR TO COMPETE IN THE WHITE WORLD

Undernourishment, exposure to disease, and child labor in the Indian
schools are dealt with supra. The Institute’s report exhibits at great length
that these schools likewise fail to educate: they fail by academic standards, by
vocational standards and by moral standards.

“Agriculture at an Indian school is rarely taught in terms of what an Indian
boy will need when he gets out.” (Page 384)

“The present system of Indian education not only fails to prepare girls for
earning but also tends to disqualify them because it interferes with the develop-
ment of traits of character essential to success.” (Page 644)

“The range of vocational opportunities in the Indian schools is singularly
limited.” (Page 387)

“Students are generally sent out from school with a training inadequate to
enable them to earn a living in competition with white workmen.” (Page 527)

“Vocational guidance is frequently stressed but scarcely anybody in the
Indian Service has any real conception of what guidance means, to say nothing
of real training in this field.” (Page 372)

The per capita expenditure on Indian boarding schools, in terms of the
purchasing power of the dollar, has actually been reduced forty per cent in'
recent years. “To have maintained the standards of some years ago,” the
Institute states, “the boarding school per capita, instead of $225 (the actual
figure) should be over $375.”* (Page 428)

“The whole machinery of the routinized boarding-school and agency life
works against the kind of initiative and independence, the development of which
should be the chief aim of Indian education in and out of school.” (Page 351)

“These things are bad” (overcrowding, lack of privacy, lack of food, lack
of cleanliness in the schools), “but even more serious are the standards of
education and traning represented by the personnel . . . The employees are as
a rule not qualified for work in educational institutions.” (Page 624)

“In almost no case could a reasonably clean bill of health be given to any
one school . . . The generally routinized nature of the institutional life with
its formalism in classrooms, its marching and dress parades, its annihiliation of
initiative, its lack of beauty, its almost complete negation of normal family life,
all of which have disastrous effects upon mental health and the development of
wholesome personality.” (Page 393)

“The Indian Service farmers” (who are supposed to instruct and organize
the adult Indians in agriculture)' “although they are employed theoretically to
teach the Indians farming, usually have no knowledge whatever of teaching, and
but very little of farming.” (Page 540)

* Merely to equalize the diminished purchasing power of the dollar — not to provide
an adequate standard.

II

“The government has in effect destroyed Indian tribal and community life
without substituting anything valuable for it.” (Page 400)

In contrast to the $225 allowed by the Federal Government is the boarding
school for Indians maintained and supported by New York State on the
Cattaraugus Indian Reservation. “The per capita expenditure of this school is
$610,” reports the Institute. (Page 428)

VI

DISEASES, COMMUNICABLE AND OTHER, FOSTERED BY
NEGLECT ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT AND
BY THE EXCLUSION OF OTHER AGENCIES

In dealing with mortuary and health statistics among the Indians it is to
be remembered that the policy of the Bureau has been both to exclude state and
other agencies, and to avoid or limit cooperation even with the available Federal
agencies.

Therefore the responsibility for conditions rests squarely on the Bureau.

What are the conditions?

(1) Death rate

The average death rate of the Indians is 2)4 times that of the general
population (including Indians and Negroes) (Page 200)

(2) Tuberculosis

“The Indian tuberculosis death rate is 6.3 (630 per 100,000) as compared
with 0.87 (87 per 100,000) for the registration area. The Indian death rate
from tuberculosis in Arizona is 15. 1 (1510 per 100,000), or more than 17
times as high as the general death rate for the country as a whole.* With all
the known inadequacy of the reports, the Indian Service statistics show more
than 7 times as many deaths from tuberculosis in each thousand of the estimated
Indian population as reported in each thousand of the general population in the
death registration area.” (Page 201)

These statistics taken from the Institute report relate to the year 1925.
(Page 200)

The year 1925 is one in a series of progressive increases of Indian death
rate, beginning with the year 1921. The figures taken from the Federal census
for the entire registration area show the following progressive increase in the
Indian death rate while the death rate of the country at large remained
virtually stationary, at about 11.8 per thousand

1921 -h- 17.5

1922 19.2

1923 22.5

1924 25.9

1925 28.5 (the last year of census compilation)

or an increase of 62 per cent in a period of five years.

A continuance of these conditions spells the extinction of the race — since
the birth rate is only 25.1.

* In Wisconsin it is 402/3 that of the tuberculosis death rate of the State. (Table
4, page 200)

What are the causes that produce these results?

There are three —

1. The poverty to which the Bureau has reduced the Indians, resulting in
increased exposure, increase in malnutrition, and thus in increased susceptibility
to disease and its neglect. (For details see Infra page 15)

2. The spread of communicable diseases from the boarding schools. (See
Supra p#ge 8)

3. The lack of medical attention. In dealing with this subject it is to
be remembered that the only medical attention that reaches the Indian is that
which the Bureau permits him to receive. State or other Federal agencies are
excluded or limited.

Now for the Institute report:

“For some years,” states Dr. Edwards (he refers to the years since 1923)
“it has been customary to speak of the Indian medical service as being organized
for public health. Yet the fundamentals of sound public health are still lacking.”
(Page 190)

And now comes the Institute’s report. Horrifying conditions were revealed
by the Red Cross study of 1924 — revealed to the Interior Department and then
hidden. Now Dr. Edwards reports that he finds identical conditions — (page
262) — and he multiplies the exhibits of horror. A very few quotations are
given.

“No sanitarium in the Indian service meets the minimum requirements of
the American Sanitarium Association. Not a single institution maintains a
complete case record of its patients.” (Page 287)

“At the present time no hospital has an X-ray unit. In some few cases
one may find a microscope, but ordinarily their appearance indicates infrequent
use. This observation is further substantiated by the universal lack of records
of such work on the meager clinical sheets.” (Page 282)

“On one reservation, and one only, was it claimed by the Bureau officials
that complete case records, family or individual, were maintained. But ‘the
physician who had maintained such records had been transferred to another
field, and these records were not available for examination.’ ” (Page 233)

“The drug supplies on the shelves of practically all reservation dispensaries
and hospitals are of a doubtful character and are far in excess of the present
needs. Much of the stock is of a perishable nature, long since deteriorated,
and of uncommon drugs seldom if ever used. At Zuni, for example, ten pints
of fluid extract of argot were found, enough to supply the entire Indian service.”
(Page 251)

“On all reservations visited (Dr. Edwards visited fifty-five reservations)
the Indians were observed coming to the doctor’s office and asking for medicine
either for themselves or for friends or members of their families. The Indian,
almost without exception, is given the particular drug he requests or a substitute
of some sort without being asked more details about the malady present. Physical
examinations are almost never made in these cases.” (Page 234)

13

VII

INDIAN POVERTY AND ITS CAUSES

Contrary to the impressions industriously inculcated by speeches of Bureau
officials the Indians are miserably poor.

“An overwhelming majority of the Indians are poor, even extremely poor.”
(Page 5)

“The standard of living is almost unbelievably low. Almost nothing is
spent for shelter and firewood and very little for clothing and (.food ; many houses
were visited where there was almost no food on hand.” (Page 448)

Once they were rich in lands, timber and natural resources. These
resources administered by an ordinarily prudent guardian would have insured
to most of them a very substantial income.

Their resources have been and now are constantly being wasted.

But competent administration of what remains would, with respect to most
of the tribes, insure a decent standard of living. (Note)

NOTE: The Indian property handled by the Bureau, subject of course to ultimate

Congressional authority but without accountability to the Indians or adequate account-
ability to anyone else, is stated by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to be $1,693,-
000,000. Nearly $1,000,000,000 of this total consists of “estimated oil and mineral
values.”

The income of individual Indians which is handled yearly by the Indian Bureau
without accounting, is not less than $42,714,408. The tribal income, handled by the
Bureau but subject to appropriation by Congress, is not less than $26,932,680.. (These
sums, of course, do not reach the Indians, directly or even indirectly, save in greatly
diminished part). An average of $2,000,000 additional is appropriated yearly by
Congress for public improvements; to be subsequently deducted from the trust-admin-
istered income. And the Congressional appropriation against the tax-budget (gratuity,
and fulfillment of treaties) is around $11,000,000. Thus, the Indian Bureau handles
more than $82,000,000 a year. (These figures, from Report of the Institute for Govern-
ment Research, p. 106, p. 449 et seq.)

VIII

SPOLIATION OF THE INDIANS AND WASTE
OF THEIR PROPERTY*

In theory of law. the Federal Government is the guardian of the funds and
property of the Indians.

By virtue of statutes enacted upon that theory their fynds and property
are held in trust and are administered in the main by the Bureau as the agency
to which the trusteeship is entrusted.

From time to time, however, Congress itself, either by permissive or by
mandatory statutes, influences or controls the conduct of the trusteeship. Usually,
however, when Congress acts directly, it acts either at the instance of, or with
the advice of, the Bureau.

It is unnecessary to stress the point that consideration of good faith and
respect for the national honor require that the trusteeship be exercised in the

*(This subject is not discussed by the Institute’s report)

14

interest of the wards — that their property be conserved, in the same manner as
the property of a private individual would be required to be conveyed by a
private trustee, that it be not given away or employed for purposes foreign to
the interests and welfare of the Indians.

It would seem elementary also that the Indians as wards should have with
respect to their guardian the same advisory and supervisory rights and privileges
as are accorded to private wards with respect to private guardians, i.e.,

A right to hold the guardian accountable for the administration of their
funds.

A right to periodic accountings (annually at least).

Access to the Courts to enforce accountability.

The right of representation before the Courts by counsel of their own
choosing — or if their fitness to choose their own counsel is questioned, to counsel
selected by them and approved by the Courts.

The correlative right to the payment of such counsel out of their own funds,
with Court control of the payments.

A practice which would accord them similarly the privilege of a hearing
and the selection of their own spokesman before Congress and the Department
on all matters affecting the disposition of their own funds, and within limits a
veto on uses of those funds to which they disapprove.

All these rights and privileges are denied them today, with insignificant
exceptions in the case of New York State and Oklahoma Indians.

Even their right to dispose of property by will is subject to the whim or
caprice of the Bureau.

To detail the abuses which have arisen under these conditions, would unduly
expand this statement, since each-of the many instances would require elaborate
recitals and explanations.

For present purposes, it may suffice to state the salient facts of a few instances
from the standpoint of the Indians, since such a statement, will we think, make
manifest the necessity of a change of system such as will assure them at least
a day in Court.

1. Bridges useless to the Indians, though desired by the white tourist or
others, at cost respectively $100,000 and $400,000, and charged to Indian funds,
described by Senator Bratton of New Mexico as “unjust and iniquitous” and by
Senator Cameron of Arizona as “highway robbery.”

2. Legislation sanctioned by the Bureau to deprive the Pueblos of New
Mexico of the lands necessary to maintain their continued existence and to
transfer it without compensation to white settlers.* (Bursum and Lenroot
bills).

3. Leases of Indian farm and grazing lands, and sale of timber rights,
without competition, and against the protests of the Bureau’s own inspectors on

* The bills were narrowly defeated through the action of friends of the Indians.
Subsequent legislation allowing compensation was put through.

15

the spot. The details are in the Bureau’s files. The public attitude of the
Bureau is revealed in its opposition to bills requiring such leases to be accorded
only after appraisal, through competitive bidding with public record and with
Court review in the instances where Indians are put off their lands in order to
lease it to whites.

4. The exercise of such control of the property of the Indians that even
where they have means to supplement the starvation diet of the boarding schools,
they are helpless to apply it for that purpose.

5. Not to mention such scandals as are revealed in the decision of Barnett
vs. The Equitable Trust Co. where a missionary society was compelled to'
restore $550,000 of a “gift” to it made with the personal sanction of the present
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, by an aged illiterate Indian' reported by the
Bureau’s own agents as a half wit, as part of a scheme to divide his fortune
between the missionary society and a white woman who was alleged to have
married him after she had made him drunk. (See opinion of Judge Knox U. S.
District Court, S.D.N.Y. August 9, 1927)

IX

UNDER THE POLICE POWERS EXERCISED BY THE BUREAU
THE INDIAN IS SUBJECTED TO AN ABSOLUTE DESPOTISM

Under charge of any of eight major offenses the Indian is entitled to trial
before the Federal Courts.

Over all other offenses the Superintendent, a Bureau official, or his designee
has exclusive jurisdiction.

For such offenses he can imprison without warrant before trial. Upon
trial of such offenses, he sits as prosecutor, judge and jury. At the termination
of the trial his judgment is final. From it there is no appeal save to the
Secretary of the Interior. The punishments that he may mete out extends to
incarceration for indefinite periods (as he may prosecute, judge and re-convict
at will) at hard labor. In practice the punishment is often confined to forced
labor — thereby the trouble and expense of housing the prisoner is saved.

These “judicial” and punitive powers the Superintendent may delegate and
in practice often does delegate, often to subservient Indians, who receive an
emolument of $10 a month for their judicial services.

But even this does not complete the picture of despotic power.

The offenses for which punishment may be meted out are embodied not in
statutes of the United States but in a departmental code of regulations which if
published at all is published only fragmentarily.

Nowhere in the Western World, we believe, is such tyranny tolerated.

For several years attempts have been made to curb these powers and to
accord the Indians the rights to due process of law. Bills to that effect have been
introduced. Up to the present the Bureau, jealous of its autocracy, has succeeded
in defeating them.

16

X

WHAT THEjSITUATION DEMANDS

1. The abolition of all arbitrary powers of the Indian Bureau over
Indian property and person.

2. The extension to the Indians of the safeguards to life, liberty and
property accorded under the Constitution to all citizens of the United States.

3. The continuation and fulfillment of the obligations of United States
guardianship, with a full acceptance of the responsibility.

4. The establishment of machinery to enforce that responsibility by accord-
ing to the Indians:

(a) The right to be consulted as to the disposition of their property
with the right to veto any use of which they disapprove.

(b) The right to an accounting by the Bureau or other agency represent-
ing the guardianship.

(c) A right under general statutes to apply to the Courts to restrain
or require reimbursement for violation of their rights.

(d) The right to be represented in all proceedings by counsel of their
own selection (subject, if it be deemed necessary, to the courts’
approval of such counsel) ; to require the Bureau to pay or advance
to such counsel, from the Indian funds, such counsel fee and
expenses as the court may direct.

5. The abolition of the criminal jurisdiction of the Bureau, the enactment
of a statuary code of minor offenses, and the erection of tribunals with a review-
able procedure involving all the requirements of due process of law.

6. Amendment of the Allotment Statutes: To bring to an end the forced
sale of Indian heirship lands, to regulate the sale and lease of allotted lands, to
bring the question of the competency of allotted Indians within the purview of
the courts, and to insure to Indians the right to make valid wills and testaments.

7. The introduction of humane and enlightened methods in the treatment
of health and educational problems, including:

(a) The immediate provision of sufficient food for the school children,

(b) The rehabilitation or reconstruction of the school buildings that
they may be adequate in space and in sanitary provisions,

(c) The abolition of industrial labor by the children,

(d) The abandonment of the practice of separating the children from
the parents over long periods,

(e) The provision of adequate medical and nursing service in the schools,

(f) Provisions for a curriculum adapted to the needs of the Indian
children with a competent instructing staff,

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(g) The extension of the educational system to accord the Indians a
higher education whether through scholarships in state schools and
universities, or otherwise,

(h) The creation of day schools in adequate number to supplement the
boarding schools,

(i) The extension of an efficient health service among adults as well

as children.

8. The extension of agricultural and other suitable instruction to the adults
to enable them, or to assist them, in becoming self supporting.

9. The provision — at least, and immediately, so far as their own income
will permit — of the capital or credit necessary to enable the Indians to render
their lands productive.

10. The repeal of those reimbursable debt charges against Indians which
have not been incurred for Indian benefit.

11. In general, coordination of all appropriate Federal agencies to those
ends, and cooperation with the State authorities or relegation of administration
to the States, in so far as that course shall appear to be feasible and advantageous
to the Indians in all matters affecting health, education, agricultural aid, and
humanitarian relief.

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.if / V-