10. He often makes allotment of lands to Indians and determines
values.
11. He is Superintendent of Indian Trade, recommends those
persons who seek Governmental license to trade with Indians at
designated trading-posts, and is expected to regulate the
prices of that trade in accordance with market conditions.
12. Should the Indians have moneys accruing from supervised
activities, such as the leasing or sale of lands, or from
stock-selling, and so on, the Agent first sets his approval on
the leases or sales, and thereafter acts as banker of the
money.
13. As banker again, he makes loans to Indians under the
Government’s reimbursable plan, whereby an Indian may purchase
of the Agent livestock, implements, materials, tools, or seed,
with borrowed money, and repay such loans during a period of
years.
14. In the Navajo country he guarantees the genuineness of the
famous Navajo blanket before it goes to market.
15. He should encourage Indian agriculture, seek to improve
their livestock holdings, and generally strengthen their
industries.
16. Under an Act of the Legislature of Arizona, he issues
marriage licenses as a clerk of the court, and may solemnize
marriage.
17. He is to see that all Indian children between the ages of
six and eighteen years attend school; to provide and equip
properly the schools; and to improve if possible the sanitary
and moral conditions of the Indian communities.
18. In some places, and the Moqui Reservation is one, he should
police and protect Indian ceremonies, such as the Snake Dance.
19. He has authority to make minor regulations in good judgment
for the government of Indian country of his jurisdiction; and
in larger measures, if he is informed and possesses a backbone,
he usually sways the policy of the Service as it affects his
people.
20. The laws of the State do not apply directly to his
territory, but serve as guides in those cases not specifically
covered by Federal law, and through him as Agent.
21. Every war-time activity was carried out by Indian Agents,
from the registration of whites and Indians, the observance of
interned aliens, through the good regulations, to bond-selling
and the application of the Income Tax.
Have you had enough?
If these are not sufficient in number to be convincing, there are a few
others in the two thousand amendments issued since 1904.
A white citizen of no responsibility toward others beyond his obeying
the signals of the traffic officer,—the sort who used to quarrel with
belated street-cars,—and who aims to be humorous, might say, “This is
not the description of a Federal official. This is none other than Pooh
Bah!” Exactly so. But the Indians title him “Nahtahni” among the
Navajo, “Moungwi” among the Hopi, “Ah-hin-ti” among the
Spanish-speaking Pueblos of New Mexico, “Mayoro” among the Mohave,
“Ah-tay-ah-pe” among the Sioux, “Ta-ta” among the Apache; to wit:
Chief, or Head-man, or Father. He is no less. His rule is quite feudal
and absolute.
Seldom is his authority disputed by Indians; but it is challenged and
criticized by everyone else on earth, including his superiors, who,
after having commissioned him with these powers, live in mortal dread
that he will prove the sort of man to make use of them.
The Agent’s financial transactions are subject to audit by designated
Governmental auditors, and his other official acts come under the
occasional survey of inspectors. But neither of these officials has the
power to take charge of affairs, or to give directions within the
jurisdiction, without first having had the commissioned Agent suspended
from his office.
Now here is a job sufficient in scope to occupy anyone, whatever the
quality of mentality brought to bear upon it; and few who find
themselves in the position go looking for a clay deposit that they may
make brick in their spare time.
Naturally too, he who endeavors to meet these duties as they arise, and
is surprised when he makes enemies, is one who will look stupidly for
the millennium. By the very nature of things human he must expect to be
viewed by some of those ruled among the Indians, by those seeking their
favor or trade, by those who wish to play with them, paint them, model
them, live with them, beg from them, steal from them—in short, all
those who wish to use Indians or their lands and resources, as a
Meddlesome Matty.
These were the late Colonel Roosevelt’s words. He took a sincere
interest in Indians and their problems as administered by honest Indian
Agents, and he vigorously supported such officials without considering
them either meddlesome or matties, and he personally respected their
regulations when visiting the reserves.
Roosevelt was an exalted Indian Agent. He had no false ideas that the
common people are filled with wisdom, that capitalism oozes virtue,
that labor is sincere, that poverty is an assurance of honesty. But he
did believe that the poor and helpless deserved fair dealing and
protection from predatory interests of whatever kind; and that the mute
required a fearless voice. It was his judgment that Indian country
should be governed very much in line with those suggestions made by
Colonel Kit Carson, who swept rebellion out of the Painted Desert and
the Moqui cañons in 1863. He who follows Carson’s advices in
formulating his policy at an Agency may have trouble with his civil
superiors, with politicians, with critics and tourists, and with a
whole horde of people in office and out; but he will be respected by
the Indians as their Chief, and in a brief time they will give him
their confidence. In the end he will have their affection and loyalty.
In a report dated at Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory, August 1865, Carson
replied to the questions of a Congressional Committee that sought
counsel concerning the future management of the Indian:—
From a long-continued residence among or in the immediate vicinity
of Indians, and from a personal observation of their manners,
customs, and habits, acquired both in private life and the
transaction of official business as an Agent of the Federal
Government, I have been convinced that the only rule to be
successfully applied for their government is one firm, yet just,
consistent and unchangeable.
For the Indian, judging only by the effect of that which appeals to
his senses, as brought directly before his observation, regards
with contempt a weak and indecisive policy as the result of
hesitation, fear, and cowardice, whilst a changeable and capricious
one excites his apprehension and distrust. Both of these courses
should be carefully avoided.
The rule for the government of Indians should be strong enough to
inspire their respect and fear, yet protecting them from both
internal dissension and external aggression.
It is true that Carson thought this power should be vested in the
military, a view that has changed among the elder statesmen without
convincing anyone who knows uneducated and remotely located Indians.
Carson was right. In a brief paragraph he advised against the perfect
picture of a civil Indian Service that for years has worked its
political capriciousness.
It has seldom been firm; it has been most confused and unjust; it has
rarely been consistent; and it is always changing.
More and worse than this—it has at times been cowardly in the face of
political and private buccaneering.
Each new administration, having to pay its pressing political
debts,—those debts that helped boost it into office,—must deliver the
hapless Indian over to a new set of theorizing experimentalists who do
not know a moccasin from a sabot. Men too small for the Cabinet, yet
who have spent anxious years in log-rolling and who must be paid
somehow, offer themselves eagerly to the job of guaranteeing the
destiny of nations of aliens. Problems that puzzle the ethnologist and
sociologist are approached without alarm, with a crude and vicious
confidence, by a politician from Squawk Centre who once crossed an
Indian reservation to shoot ducks.
Finding that methods current in doubtful precincts are of no avail in
this work, and being forced to do something to make a showing, he
proceeds to tear down the work of his predecessor, who had started in
the same way but had learned a little during four years of fumbling;
and when the whole works are fatuously gumbled, it must be done all
over again to reach a point of normalcy, all Indians and their officers
of the field marking time until the new Colonel has learned the
traditions of the old barracks. Imagine John McGraw signing as pitcher
some aspiring village quoit-champion! Conceive of Henry Ford halting
his factories until a needy ward-heeler mastered the mysteries of a
carburetor!
And the Indian, judging only by the effects of vacillation, springs to
the suspicion of chicanery. The many inventions of stupid officials
excite his apprehension and distrust. The Indian comprehends very
little of first or political causes. When he distrusts his superiors he
tends to throw himself on the hungry bosom of sentimentalists. He knows
only the Agent on the ground, and too frequently finds in him a
reflection of that which someone interested wants Washington to
arrange. And no sooner does the Indian find an Agent who will
fearlessly represent him, investigate his complaints, support his
charges, and fight his just battles, and who will have nothing to do
with intrigue, than he expects the removal of that uncompromising and
foolish idealist to other scenes.
To-day the Hopi waits for a reasonably just settlement of his range
problem, and he has been hoping for seventy-five years. He packed the
trail to Santa Fe in 1850 to petition the first Indian Agent of the
Americans, with the same evidence he brings patiently to his present
one. The Navajo who troubles the Hopi in the west of the Empire,
suffers similarly from whites on his eastern lines.
The point is that neither the Indian nor those who best know his actual
condition have any direct voice in matters that affect his very
existence.