THE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN
We have taken note of the reluctance of the American Indian to develop
an organized community life, though few appreciate his reasons for
preferring a simpler social ideal. As a matter of fact as well as
sentiment, he was well content with his own customs and philosophy.
Nevertheless, after due protest and resistance, he has accepted the
situation; and, having accepted it, he is found to be easily governed by
civilized law and usages. It has been demonstrated more than once that
he is capable of sustaining a high moral and social standard when placed
under wise guidance and at the same time protected from the barbarians
of civilization.
MODEL INDIAN COMMUNITIES
William Duncan, an Englishman, came among a band of Alaskan natives
about the middle of the last century, and they formed a strong mutual
attachment. The friendship of these simple people was not misplaced, and
Mr. Duncan did not misuse it for his own advantage, as is too apt to be
the case with a white man. He adapted himself to their temperament and
sense of natural justice, but gradually led them to prefer civilized
habits and industries, and finally to accept the character of Christ as
their standard. He used the forms of the Church of England, but modified
them as good sense dictated.
They worked together in good faith for a generation; and as a result
there was founded the Christian community of Metlakatla, Alaska, almost
an ideal little republic, so long as no self-seeking Anglo-Saxon
interfered with its workings. The Indians became carpenters,
blacksmiths, farmers, gardeners, as well as better fishermen. They
established a sawmill and a salmon cannery. They built houses and boats,
and finally a steamboat, which was run by one of their number. Mr.
Duncan never allowed strong drink to enter the colony; he was the only
white man among a thousand Indians, and so strong was their faith in him
that he was accepted as their leader both practically and spiritually.
He devoted his whole life to them, and never married. Some of the young
people he sent away to the States to school: among them Edward Marsden,
a many-sided man, who is not only a graduate of a small college in Ohio
and of a theological seminary, but has some knowledge of law and
medicine, is an able seaman, and an efficient machinist.
The Metlakatlans are not technically citizens, though discharging many
civic duties. In 1887 they were compelled to leave their island on
account of difficulties with the local church authorities, who were not
broad enough to admit the simple sufficiency of Mr. Duncan's lay
ministrations. He removed with his people to another island, where they
are now living under the protection of the United States flag. In view
of the lessons of history, they are likely to undergo a severe trial and
considerable demoralization as soon as they mingle freely with the
surrounding whites. They have so far developed and enjoyed much of what
is best in civilization without its evils and temptations; and whenever
one of them does infringe upon their simple but exacting code he is
summarily dealt with.
Here is another illustration: In 1869 those Sioux who had been for three
years confined in a military prison, on account of the outbreak of
1862, were placed upon a small reservation at Santee, Nebraska. My
father was among them. He had thought much, and concluded that
reservation life meant practically life imprisonment and death to
manhood. He also saw that our wild life was almost at an end; therefore
he resolved to grasp the only chance remaining to the red man--namely,
to plunge boldly into the white man's life, and swim or die.
With twenty-five or thirty fellow-tribesmen who were of like mind with
himself, he set out for the Big Sioux River to take up a homestead like
a white man. Far from urging it, Government officials disapproved and
discouraged this brave undertaking. The Indians selected a choice
location, forty miles above what is now the beautiful little city of
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and here they established the first Sioux
citizen community. The post-office was named Flandreau, and formed the
nucleus of a large and flourishing town. Remember, this was six years
before Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse made their last stand on the Little
Big Horn, where they wiped out General Custer's command, the Seventh
Cavalry.
This remarkable Indian colony became known far and wide. The Sioux were
_bona fide_ homesteaders and met all the requirements of the law. They
occupied thirty miles of the finest bottom lands with their timber;
except for these wooded river bottoms, the country is all treeless
prairie. They were all Presbyterians and devout church-goers. Rev. John
P. Williamson was their much-loved missionary; and their church was
served for many years by a native pastor--my brother, Rev. John Eastman.
Nearly all built good homes. Mr. Williamson says, and Moody County
records corroborate the statement, that for twenty years there was not a
single crime or misdemeanor recorded against one of these Indians.
As the Big Sioux valley is noted for its fertility, it was not long
before the rest of the land was taken up by white farmers. These Indians
proved good neighbors. It is told of them that, during the hard years
1873 to 1875, when drought and grasshoppers afflicted the land, they
organized a relief society for the benefit of their poorer white
neighbors, and in many instances furnished them with cordwood as well as
seed-corn and potatoes.
For years the Flandreau Sioux controlled the politics of Moody County,
and although after the district had become more thickly settled they
lost their numerical preponderance, they still wielded much influence in
years when the parties were pretty equally divided. As late as 1898 they
held the balance of power, and were accordingly treated with respectful
consideration.
From this little Indian community more than one earnest youth has gone
forth to work for race and country in a wider field. My father brought
me there from wild life in Canada in 1872, and after two years in the
little day school he sent me away to master the secret of the white
man's power. Only a few years earlier he himself was a wild Sioux
warrior, whose ambitions ran wholly along the traditional lines of his
people. Who can say that civilization is beyond the reach of the
untutored primitive man in a single generation? It did not take my
father two thousand years, or ten years, to grasp its essential
features; and although he never went to school a day in his life, he
lived a broad-minded and self-respecting citizen. It took me about
fifteen years to prepare to enter it on the plane of a professional man,
and I have stayed with it ever since.
It is noticeable that when the Flandreaus consented to reenter their
names on the tribal rolls in order to regain their inheritance, they
fell into the claws of the professional politicians, and a degree of
demoralization set in. Yet during the early period of free initiative
and self-development, some of their best youth had gone out and are now
lost in the world at large, in the sense that they are wholly separated
from their former life, and are contributing their mite to the common
good. Those who remain, as well as other bands of citizen Sioux with
whom I am acquainted, are becoming more and more completely identified
with the general farming population of Nebraska and the Dakotas.
LEGAL STATUS OF INDIANS
The door to American citizenship has been open to the Indian in general
only since the passage of the Dawes severalty act, in 1887. Before that
date his status was variously defined as that of a member of an
independent foreign nation, of a "domestic dependent nation," as a ward
of the Government, or, as some one has wittily said, a "perpetual
inhabitant with diminutive rights." The Dawes act conferred upon those
who accepted allotments of land in severalty the protection of the
courts and all the rights of citizenship, including the suffrage. It
also provided that the land thus patented to the individual Indian could
not be alienated nor was it taxable for a period of twenty-five years
from the date of allotment.
Of the 330,000 Indians in the United States, considerably more than half
are now allotted, and 70,000 hold patents in fee. The latest report of
the Indian Bureau gives the total number of Indian citizens at about
75,000. Those still living on communal land are being allotted at the
rate of about 5,000 a year. The question of taxation of allotments has
been a vexed one. Some Indians have hesitated to accept full citizenship
because of fear of taxation; while white men living in the vicinity of
large Indian holdings have naturally objected to shouldering the entire
burden. Yet as the last census shows 73 per cent. of all Indians as
taxed and counted toward the population of their Congressional
districts, it appears that taxed or taxable Indians are not necessarily
citizens; though they must be considered, in the words of Prof. F. A.
McKenzie, who compiled the Indian census, as at least "potential
citizens."
The so-called "Burke bill" (1906) provides that Indians allotted after
that date shall not be declared citizens until after the expiration of
the twenty-five-year trust period. This act has served no particular
purpose except to further confuse the status of the Indian. The "Carter
code bill," now pending in Congress, provides for a commission of
experts to codify existing statutes and define this status clearly, and
has been strongly endorsed by the Society of American Indians and the
Indian Rights Association. It ought to be made law.
There is a special law under which an Indian may apply to be freed from
guardianship by proving his ability to manage his own affairs. If his
application is approved by the Interior Department, he may then rent or
sell his property at will. About five hundred such applications were
approved during the fiscal year 1912-13.
The Pueblos and a few other Indians are or may become citizens under
special treaty stipulations. The 5,000 New York Indians, although among
those longest in contact with civilization, yet because of state
treaties and the claims of the Ogden Land Company, still hold their
lands in common, and are backward morally and socially. It is likely
that the United States will eventually pay the company's claim of
$200,000 to free these people. A few of them are well educated and have
attained citizenship as individuals by separating themselves from their
tribe. Professor McKenzie, who has deeply studied the situation for
years, proposes a scheme of progressive advance toward full citizenship,
each step to be accompanied by decreasing paternal control: as, for
instance: (1) Tribal ward; (2) Allotted ward; (3) Citizen ward; (4) Full
citizen.
INDIANS AS POLITICIANS
In almost every state there are some Indian voters, and in South Dakota
and Oklahoma there are counties officered and controlled by Indian
citizens. It is interesting to note that the citizen Indian is no
ignorant or indifferent voter. If he learns and masters anything at all,
it is the politics of his county and state. It is a matter of long
experience with him, as he has been handled by politicians ever since he
entered the reservation, and there is not a political trick that he
cannot understand. He is a ready student of human nature, and usually a
correct observer. I am sorry to say that the tendency of the new
generation is to be diplomats of a lower type, quick and smart, but not
always sound. At present, like any crude or partially developed people,
politics is their hobby.
Yet there remains a sprinkling of the old Indian type, which is strongly
averse to all unfair or underhanded methods; and there are a few of the
younger men who combine the best in both standards, and refuse to look
upon the new civilization as a great, big grab-bag. It is not strange
that a majority are influenced by the prevailing currents of American
life. Before they understood the deeper underlying principles of
organized society, they had seen what they naturally held to be high
official duties and responsibilities ruthlessly bartered and trafficked
with before their eyes. They did not realize that this was a period of
individual graft and misuse of office for which true civilization was
not responsible.
Among the thinking and advanced class of Indians there is, after all, no
real bitterness or pessimistic feeling. It has long been apparent to us
that absolute distinctions cannot be maintained under the American flag.
Yet we think each race should be allowed to retain its own religion and
racial codes as far as is compatible with the public good, and should
enter the body politic of its own free will, and not under compulsion.
This has not been the case with the native American. Everything he stood
for was labelled "heathen," "savage," and the devil's own; and he was
forced to accept modern civilization _in toto_ against his original
views and wishes. The material in him and the method of his
reconstruction have made him what he is. He has defied all the theories
of the ethnologists. If any one can show me a fair percentage of useful
men and women coming out of the jail or poor-house, I will undertake to
show him a larger percentage of useful citizens graduating from the
pauperizing and demoralizing agency system.
There was no real chance for the average man of my race until the last
thirty-five years; and even during that time he has been under the
unholy rule of the political boss and "little czar" of the Indian
agency, from whose control he is not even yet entirely free. You are
suffering from a civic disease, and we are affected by it. When you are
cured, and not until then, we may hope to be thoroughly well men.
INHERITANCE AND OTHER FRAUDS
Here is another point of attack for the men who continually hover about
the Indian like vultures above a sick or helpless man--the law providing
that the allotments of deceased Indians may be sold for the benefit of
their legal heirs, even though the time limit of twenty-five years
protected title may not have expired. I consider the law a just one, but
the work of determining the heirs is complicated and difficult. It is
only last year that Congress has appropriated $50,000 for this purpose,
although forty thousand inheritance cases are now pending, and much
fraud has already been accomplished.
Representative Burke has shown that the bulk of the minors and
incompetent Indians in Oklahoma have been swindled out of their property
by dishonest administrators and guardians. Hon. Warren K. Moorehead, of
the United States Board of Indian Commissioners, who investigated the
situation in that state, intimates that as many as 21,000 such cases
exist there. He says the handling of estates in Oklahoma costs often
from 30 to 90 per cent., whereas the average rate in thirty states is 3
per cent. "Why do not our laws prevent the robbing of Indians? Because
they are not enforced," declares Mr. Moorehead, who also investigated
White Earth, Minnesota, a few years ago, and uncovered a scandal of
large proportions, relating to the theft of over two hundred thousand
acres of valuable land, as a result of suddenly removing all
restrictions on the mixed bloods at that agency, many of whom were
incompetent to manage their own affairs.
Much of this graft might readily be stopped, and the ignorant Indian
protected, were it not for the fact that the relationship between the
shysters and certain officials is very much like that between the police
of New York City and the keepers of illegal resorts. When complaint is
made, big envelopes with "U. S." printed in the corner pass back and
forth--and that is too often the end of it! The Sioux call the U. S.
Indian inspectors, who are supposed to discover and report abuses, "Big
Cats"; but an old chief once said to me: "They ought rather to be called
prairie owls, who are blind in the daytime and have rattlesnakes for
their bedfellows!"
At the suggestion, I believe, of Dr. George Bird Grinnell and Hamlin
Garland, an attempt was made under President Roosevelt to systematize
the Indian nomenclature. The Indian in his native state bears no
surname; and wife and children figuring under entirely different names
from that of the head of the family, the law has been unnecessarily
embarrassed. I received a special appointment to revise the allotment
rolls of the Sioux nation. It was my duty to group the various members
of one family under a permanent name, selected for its euphony and
appropriateness from among the various cognomens in use among them, of
course suppressing mistranslations and grotesque or coarse nicknames
calculated to embarrass the educated Indian. My instructions were that
the original native name was to be given the preference, if it were
short enough and easily pronounced by Americans. If not, a translation
or abbreviation might be used, while retaining as much as possible of
the distinctive racial flavor. No English surname might be arbitrarily
given, but such as were already well established might be retained if
the owner so desired. Many such had been unwisely given to children by
teachers and missionaries, and in one family I found a George
Washington, a Daniel Webster, and a Patrick Henry! The task was quite
complicated and there were many doubts and suspicions to overcome, as
some feared lest it should be another trick to change the Indian's name
after he had been allotted, and so defraud him safely. During the seven
years spent in this work, I came upon many cases of inheritance frauds.
In the face of what appear to be iron-clad rules and endless red tape,
it is a problem how these things can happen without the knowledge of
responsible officials!
THE INDIAN AS HIS OWN ATTORNEY
Some years since an interesting case came up at Standing Rock Agency,
N.D., which illustrates the ability of the modern Indian to manage his
own affairs when he is permitted to do so. It was proposed to lease
nearly the whole reservation, the occupied as well as the unoccupied
portion, to two cattle companies, but in order to be legal, the consent
of the Indians was necessary. An effort was made to secure their
signatures, and interested parties had nearly the requisite two thirds
of them fooled, when a mixed blood by the name of Louis Primeau learned
of the game, and brought it to the attention of the people.
They made a strong and intelligent resistance, asked for a hearing in
Washington and sent on a delegation to present their case. Immediately
the agent got up a rival delegation of "good Indians," fed and clothed
for the occasion, to contradict the first and declare that the people
were willing to sign, all save the "kickers and trouble-makers."
My brother, the Rev. John Eastman, and I were in Washington at the time.
The Indian delegation who protested against the leases was given no show
at all before the Department, because it appeared that influential
Western Senators were upholding the interests of the cattle companies.
Primeau came to my brother for help; and we finally secured a hearing
before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
It happened to be a Democratic Senate, although a Republican President
was in office; and the head of that committee was Senator Stewart of
Nevada. Before him the braves fought their unequal battle to a finish.
They had their credentials and the minutes of the meeting at which they
had been elected, and they stated clearly their people's reasons for
opposing the leases--reasons which were sound on the face of them. They
also declared that the Indian Commissioner had sent a telegram to their
agent saying that if they would not sign they would be ignored by the
Department, and the leases approved without their consent, although such
consent was required both by treaty and statute.
It was immediately denied by the other side that any such telegram had
been sent, upon which the wily Sioux played their trump card: they
produced a certified copy of the dispatch which they had obtained from
the operator, and publicly handed this piece of evidence to Senator
Stewart.
The Indians also consulted Judge Springer of Illinois, who, after
reviewing their case, said that they could serve an injunction on both
the Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner, in the District of
Columbia. This they did. The officials asked for thirty days; and the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs personally hastened to Standing Rock,
where he gave the red men a good scolding for their audacity, at the
same time telling them that no lease had been made, or would be made.
President Roosevelt then sent Dr. Grinnell, a well-known friend of the
Indian, to make an independent investigation. Dr. Grinnell reported
that the Walker lease was entirely opposed to the Indians' interests,
and that it would not only be unwise, but wrong, to approve it. The
Lemmon lease of the unoccupied portion of the reservation was afterward
executed with the Indians' consent.
There are innumerable such instances, but this one is worthy of mention
because of the spirit and success with which the Indians conducted their
own case. Very often their property is dissipated in spite of the fact
that there are men among them who fully grasp the situation. These men
protest, but it is of no use. They are denounced as "insubordinate,"
"disturbers of the peace," and worthless prevaricators. Here is where
national honor and the rights of a dependent people are sacrificed to
the politicians. When we consider that the Indian still owns more than
70,000,000 acres of land, and trust funds stated at $48,000,000, the
proceeds of ceded territory, it may be seen that this immense estate
largely in the hands of "wards" and illiterate persons presents a very
serious problem.
It has come to be more and more the case that the Indian, so long and so
oppressively paternalized, is allowed to take a hand in his own
development. This is as it should be. Many theories have been advanced
concerning him; but I think we all agree that he has outgrown the
present method, which now seems to retard his progress. Yet the old
machinery continues to exist in cumbersome and more or less inefficient
form. It is a question whether it really does much more good than harm;
but it seems clear that some of the tribes still need intelligent and
honest guardianship. To my mind, this machinery might be adjusted more
nearly to the requirements of the present-day Indian.
Professor Moorehead has suggested the plan of putting the Indian Bureau
under a commission of several men, to be appointed for long terms or for
life, free of political considerations. I can scarcely conceive of
wholly non-partisan appointments in this age, but length of service
would be a great advantage, and it does seem to me this experiment would
be worth trying. Such a commission should have full authority to deal
with all Indian matters without reference to any other department. I
would add that one half of its members might well be of Indian blood.