THE AGENCY SYSTEM: ITS USES AND ABUSES
The early colonists, accustomed to European usages, undertook to deal
with a native chief as if he were a king, with the power to enforce his
rule over his people. As a matter of fact, he was merely their
spokesman, without authority except as it was given him by the council
of his clan, which was called together in any important event. Each clan
or band was responsible only for its own members, and had nothing to do
with the conduct of any other band. This difference of viewpoint has led
to serious trouble.
TREATIES AND TRUST FUNDS
Most of the early agreements were merely declarations of peace and
friendship, allowing freedom of trade, but having nothing to do with any
cession of land. In New England small tracts of land were purchased by
the settlers of individual Indians who happened to sojourn there for the
time being, and purchased for a nominal price, according to their own
history and records. The natives had no conception of ownership in the
soil, and would barter away a princely estate for a few strings of beads
or a gallon of rum, not realizing that they conveyed the absolute and
exclusive title that they themselves, as individuals, had not pretended
to possess.
The status of the Indians within the United States has been repeatedly
changed since colonial times. When this Government was founded, while
claiming the right of eminent domain over the whole country, it never
denied the "right of occupancy" of the aborigines. In the articles of
confederation Congress was given sole power to deal with them, but by
the constitution this power was transferred in part to the executive
branch. Formal treaties were made which had to be ratified by the
Senate, until in 1871 Congress declared that the Indian tribes might no
longer be recognized as independent nations, and reduced the treaties to
simple "agreements," which, however, must in ethics be considered fully
as binding. Their natural resources had now in many cases been taken
from them, rendering them helpless and dependent, and for this reason
some of the later treaties provided that they should be supported until
they became self-supporting.
In less than a century 370 distinct treaties were made with the various
tribes, some of them merely friendship agreements, but in the main
providing for right of way and the cession of lands, as fast as such
lands were demanded by the westward growth of the country and the
pressure of population. In the first instance, the consideration was
generally not over five or ten cents an acre. While the Indians were
still nomadic in their habits, goods in payment were usually taken by
steamboat to the nearest point and there turned over to the head chiefs,
who distributed them among the people. Later the price increased and
payments were made either in goods or cash; fifty cents to a dollar and
a quarter, and more recently as much as $2.50 per acre for cessions of
surplus lands on reservations after the owners have all been allotted.
Gradually large trust funds have been created for some of the tribes,
the capital being held in the United States Treasury and the interest
paid to the Indians in annual per capita instalments, or expended "for
their benefit." Farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other industrial
teachers; cattle, farming tools, houses, and schools are variously
promised in the later treaties for the "support and civilization" of a
people whose own method of making a living has been rendered forever
impossible. The theory was humane and just, but the working of the
system has proved in a large degree a failure.
WHAT ARE RESERVATIONS?
A natural result of frequent land cessions was the reserving or setting
aside of tracts of land for Indian occupancy, known as "reservations."
Such lands have been set aside not only by treaty but in many cases by
act of Congress, and in others by executive order. The Indians living
upon them may not sell standing timber, or mining rights, or right of
way to railroads, without the consent of the Government.
The policy of removal and concentration of Indians originated early in
the nineteenth century, and was carried partially into effect. Indian
Territory was set apart as a permanent home for the tribes, and the
Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles were removed
thither from the Southeastern States. After a terrible journey, in which
many died of disease and exhaustion, and one boatload sank in the
Mississippi River, those who were left established themselves in the
"Promised Land," a country rich in natural resources. They soon saw the
necessity of a stable government and of domestic and agricultural
pursuits. They copied the form of their government after that of the
States, and the trust funds arising from the sale of their eastern lands
formed the basis of their finances. They founded churches, schools, and
orphan asylums, and upon the whole succeeded remarkably well in their
undertaking, although their policy of admitting intermarried whites and
negroes to citizenship in the tribe led to much political corruption.
Gradually some forty tribes, or tribal remnants, were colonized in the
Territory; but this scheme failed in many instances, as some tribes
(such as the Sioux) refused absolutely to go there, and others who went
suffered severely from the change of climate. In 1890 the western part
was made into a separate territory under the name of Oklahoma and
colonized by whites; and in 1907 the entire territory was admitted to
statehood under that name, the "Five Civilized Nations," so-called,
having been induced to give up their tribal governments.
The Indians of the Southwest came in, in 1848, under the treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, although with some of them other treaties have been
made and their lands added to by executive order. The Navajoes, about
twenty-two thousand in number, now own more than twelve million acres in
Arizona and New Mexico. They are sheep-herders and blanket-weavers, and
are entirely self-supporting. Owing to the character of the land they
occupy, and the absence of sufficient water for irrigation, there is not
enough grass on the reservation to support all the Indian stock.
Therefore 5,000 or more Navajoes are living outside the reservation, on
the public domain; and of these, according to Indian Office statements,
about 1,000 are unallotted, and under the present law can only be
allotted as are white homesteaders, by paying the costs of survey and
fees to the land office.
The Pueblos hold their lands (about 1,000,000 acres) under Spanish
grants, and are in absolute control of them, so that the Government
cannot build schoolhouses among them unless sites are deeded for that
purpose, which they are sometimes unwilling to do. These people are
still self-governing, but their titles are now in danger, owing to a
recent ruling of the local courts that declares them citizens, and as
such liable to taxation. Being for the most part very poor and fearing
to have their land sold for taxes, they have petitioned the United
States to act as trustee to manage their estates.
The natives of California were a peaceable people and made scarcely any
resistance to the invaders, a fact which has resulted in their rapid
decline and extreme poverty. Under the Spanish friars they were gathered
into missions and given a general industrial training, but after the
secularization of the missions the Americans took possession of their
cultivated lands, and many of the Indians were landless and homeless.
The remnants are now living as squatters upon the property of white
settlers, or on small pieces of land allotted them by the Government.
In striking contrast to the poverty-stricken condition of these Pacific
Coast Indians is the wealth of the Osages, a small Siouan tribe
occupying a fertile country in Oklahoma, who are said to be the richest
people, per capita, in the world. Besides an abundance of land, rich in
oil and timber, they have a trust fund of eight million dollars in the
United States Treasury, bringing in a large annual income. They own
comfortable houses, dwell in substantial towns, and are moderately
progressive.
THE TRUTH ABOUT INDIAN AGENCIES
The Indian of the Northwest came into reservation life reluctantly, very
much like a man who has dissipated his large inheritance and is driven
out by foreclosure. One morning he awoke to the fact that he must give
up his freedom and resign his vast possessions to live in a squalid
cabin in the backyard of civilization. For the first time his rovings
were checked by well-defined boundaries, and he could not hunt or visit
neighboring tribes without a passport. He was practically a prisoner, to
be fed and treated as such; and what resources were left him must be
controlled by the Indian Bureau through its resident agent.
Who is this Indian agent, or superintendent, as he is now called? He is
the supreme ruler on the reservation, responsible directly to the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs; and all requests or complaints must pass
through his office. The agency doctor, clerks, farmers, superintendents
of agency schools, and all other local employees report to him and are
subject to his orders. Too often he has been nothing more than a ward
politician of the commonest stamp, whose main purpose is to get all that
is coming to him. His salary is small, but there are endless
opportunities for graft.
If any appeal from the agent's decisions, they are "kickers" and
"insubordinate." If they are Indians, he can easily deprive them of
privileges, or even imprison them on trumped-up charges; if employees,
he will force them to resign or apply for transfers; and even the
missionaries may be compelled, directly or indirectly, to leave the
reservation for protesting too openly against official wrongdoing. The
inspector sent from Washington to investigate finds it easy to "get in
with" the agent and very difficult to see or hear anything that the
agent does not wish him to hear or see. Many Indians now believe
sincerely in Christ's teachings as explained to them by their
missionaries, but they find it impossible to believe that this
Government is Christian, or the average official an honest man.
Any untutored people, however, are apt imitators, and so these
much-exploited natives become politicians in spite of themselves. The
most worthless of the tribe are used as the agent's spies and henchmen;
a state of affairs demoralizing on the face of it. As long as the Indian
Bureau is run in the interests of the politicians, and Indian
civilization is merely an incident, the excellent and humanitarian
policies approved by the American people will not be fully carried into
effect.
It is true that good men and especially good women have gone into the
Indian service with a genuine desire to deal justly and kindly by the
Indian and to serve the Government honorably and efficiently. Such
people often become disgusted with the system and find it impossible to
stay, or else are forced out by methods familiar to the experienced.
When you clear your American cities of grafters, and purify your
politics, then perhaps you will be in a position to redeem the Indian
service, and only then. Alas! the skirts of the Goddess of Liberty have
never yet been quite clean!
The Indian is no fool; on the other hand, he is a keen observer and an
apt student. Although an idealist by nature, many of the race have
proved themselves good business men. But under the reservation system
they have developed traits that are absolutely opposed to the racial
type. They become time-serving, beggarly, and apathetic. Some of their
finest characters, such as Chief Joseph, have really died of a broken
heart. These are men who could not submit to be degraded; the
politicians call them "incorrigible savages."
The distribution of rations to the Plains Indians was, as I have
explained, originally a peace measure, and apparently a necessity in
place of their buffalo which the white man had exterminated. For many
years Texas beef was issued monthly "on the hoof"; that is, the cattle
were driven out one by one upon the plain, and there surrounded and shot
down by representatives of the groups to which they belonged. Bacon,
flour, sugar, and coffee were doled out to the women, usually as often
as once in two weeks, thus requiring those who lived at a considerable
distance from the agency to spend several days of each month on the
road, neglecting their homes and gardens, if they had any. Once a year
there was a distribution of cheap blankets and shoddy clothing. The
self-respect of the people was almost fatally injured by these methods.
This demoralizing ration-giving has been gradually done away with as the
Indians progressed toward self-support, but is still found necessary in
many cases.
Not all features of reservation life are bad; for while many good things
are shut out and some evils flourish, others are excluded. Liquor
traffic among Indians has been forbidden by law since the colonial
period; and the law is fairly well enforced by a number of special
officers; yet in a few tribes there has been in recent years much
demoralization through liquor. It is generally admitted that there is
less crime and rowdyism on the reservations than in civilized
communities of equal size. In 1878 a force of native police was
authorized to keep order, eject intruders, act as truant officers, and
perform other duties under the direction of the agent. Though paid only
ten or twelve dollars a month, these men have been faithful and
efficient in the performance of duties involving considerable hardship
and sometimes danger. Their loyalty and patriotism are deserving of
special praise. In making arrests and bringing in desperate prisoners,
as in the case of Pretty Elk the Brule Sioux murderer, and of the chief,
Sitting Bull, the faithful police have sometimes lost their lives.
INDIAN CLAIMS
It is commonly admitted that the Indian treaties have been frequently
broken by the United States, both in the letter and the spirit, while,
on the other hand, the Indians have acted in good faith and with a high
regard for their national honor. It is also a fact not very creditable
to the Government that treaties have been materially amended in the
Senate and not again submitted to the tribe, who were not even made
aware at once of their altered provisions. I believe this would be
considered a piece of sharp practice in the case of any people able to
defend itself.
The breach of treaty obligations on the part of this Government has led
to a large number of Indian claims, involving millions of dollars, which
represent the efforts of tribes or bands which feel themselves wronged
or defrauded to obtain justice under the white man's law. The history of
one or two such may be of interest.
Most of the Oneida and Stockbridge tribes exchanged their New York
reservations for a large tract of land in Kansas, and started for their
new home in 1830, but never got any farther than Green Bay, Wisconsin.
There the Menominees invited them to remain and share their reservation,
as they had plenty of good land. The Stockbridges had originally
occupied the beautiful Housatonic valley, where Jonathan Edwards
preached to them and made them good Presbyterians; nevertheless, the
"Christian" colonists robbed them of their homes and drove them
westward. They did not resist the aggression. If anything is proved in
history, it is that those who follow in the footsteps of the meek and
gentle Jesus will be treated unmercifully, as he was, by a hard and
material world.
These Stockbridges went still further with their kind hosts, and
ultimately both tribes accepted the hospitality of the Ojibways. They
made their unfortunate brothers welcome, and made them a free gift of
land. But now observe the white man's sense of honor and justice in
glaring contrast! For _seventy-five years_ the United States Government
failed to recompense these people for their Kansas land, which they
never reached, and which in the meantime was taken up by settlers, and
gradually covered with thriving homes and fertile farms.
The whole case was scrutinized again and again by the Congress of the
United States from 1830 to about 1905, when at last a payment was made!
The fact that the two tribes remained in Wisconsin and settled there
does not invalidate their claim, as those wild Ojibways had no treaty
with the Government at that time and had a perfect right to give away
some of their land. It was a barefaced, open steal from the Indians. Yet
the tribes were obliged to employ white attorneys at a liberal per cent.
of the amount they hoped to recover. They had to pay high for simple
justice. Meanwhile they lived on their own labor for two or three
generations, and contributed to the upbuilding of Wisconsin. To-day some
of them are doing better than their white neighbors.
This is only one illustration of a not uncommon happening; for, while
some of these claims are doubtless unreasonable, I personally know of
many in which the ethics of the case are as clear as in this which I
have cited. It is often the fact that differences among attorneys and
party politics in Congress delay justice for many years or deprive the
Indians of their rights altogether. A bill has recently been introduced,
at the instance of the Society of American Indians, which is framed to
permit Indian tribes to sue in the Court of Claims, without first
obtaining the consent of Congress in each case. This bill ought to be at
once made law, as it would do away within a few years with many
long-drawn-out disputes and much waste and worse than waste of time and
money.