As I write this page there lie before me four important Indian books,
and I would that every reader possessed them in his library, for the
very good reason that all of them treat of the Indian of today. Two of
them are strictly historical, and the other two sufficiently accurate to
be included in that category.
These books are: Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Century of Dishonor,” published
in 1886; Seth K. Humphrey’s “The Indian Dispossessed,” published in
1906; Honorable Francis E. Leupp’s “The Indian and His Problem,”
published in 1910; and Honorable James McLaughlin’s “My Friend the
Indian,” 1910.
The authors of these books are all familiar with the Indian problem and
Indian conditions, but approach the subject from somewhat different
points of view.
Honorable F. E. Leupp was for years Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Major McLaughlin has served in the Indian Service forty-two years, and
was on the frontier among the Sioux prior to that time. Helen Hunt
Jackson was a noble woman who became interested, first in the Mission
Indians of California, and afterwards in all Indians of the United
States. She wrote her “Century of Dishonor” and lived to see its
influence spread throughout the English-speaking world. A number of
editions were published. S. K. Humphrey, Esq., a Bostonian, who has long
been a staunch friend of Indians, presents in his book the legal point
of view of the breaking of treaties and agreements, and the despoilation
of the following tribes:—Mission Indians, Poncas, Nez Perces, Umatillas,
etc. Each of these authors treats of the modern Indian, and I desire to
call attention in my plea for him, to the testimony of these competent
witnesses—“Lest we forget.”
Major McLaughlin has been United States Indian Inspector during more
years than any other man in the inspection corps. He visited all the
reservations in the United States, and he understands the Indian.
Beginning with the early days on the Plains, he relates his personal
experiences, and gives sound advice in the handling of Indian affairs.
From all I can gather from reading accounts of, or talking with
frontiersmen, who fought against Indians; officers of our troops in
Indian wars; former Indian Agents; and after study of Government and
Missionary reports, I think McLaughlin is correct when he says
concerning the Indians of forty years ago—
“And they were a very different body of men, physically, from the
Indians of today. They wore an air of sturdy independence. They were
equipped according to their natural requirements. Their minds were
generally attuned to magnificent ideas of time and distance. They
abhorred the limitations that the white man accepts as affecting his
dwelling-place. They were foes to be reckoned with, or they might be
converted into friends worth the having. It is a matter of profound
regret that the Indian of that day could not have been advanced to his
present knowledge of, and capacity for, civilized pursuits without being
subjected to the debasing and degenerating physical and moral conditions
that were inseparable from the process of transmutation.”
Major McLaughlin is perfectly correct in his chapter “Give the Red Man
His Portion” when he states that the enormous sums of money, tribal and
individual, now held by the United States should be divided among them.
Otherwise, the swarm of shyster lawyers, feasting on Indian claims, will
continue to increase. Congress should act immediately and provide for
the division of this money, even though some of the Indians squander it.
So long as fully $48,848,744 remains in the United States Treasury, just
so long will we have this continual fight with “claim attorneys”, and
the Indians will not work pending the distribution of this great wealth.
The Scriptural quotation which was somewhat changed by one of the
speakers at the Lake Mohonk Conference last year, expresses this view
most admirably—“Where the Indian money lies, there will the grafters be
gathered together.”
At the time of this writing Major McLaughlin is still a valued employee
of the United States Indian Service. Undoubtedly he could have written a
great deal stronger than he did. Reading between the lines of his book,
I take it that the Major now realizes that the chief reason for the
almost utter failure of our Indian policy is because of lack of proper
protection of Indian property rights and health, and further, that the
citizenship we handed the Indian, and of which our orators in Congress
and in benevolent organizations had so much to say, has proved a hollow
mockery and a sham.
I am not aware that Mr. Humphrey lays claim to legal training, but his
book presents in a masterly fashion, exactly what has been done to the
Indians who have accepted the pledged word of our civilized country. It
is not a sentimental book, but a carefully prepared narrative drawn from
official documents, and should have had an effect on our Congress and
Interior Department long ago.
In the first chapter of “The Indian and His Problem”, Mr. Leupp pays the
Indian a merited tribute and sets forth his independence, his many
virtues and his character. He emphasizes a trait of the oldtime Indian
not generally understood—his honesty.
“Old, experienced traders among the Indians have repeatedly informed me
that they had lost less money on long-standing Indian accounts,
aggregating large sums, than in their comparatively small dealings with
the white people in their neighborhoods. One successful trader among the
Sioux who, in the early nineties, lent some $30,000 to the Indians near
him in anticipation of a payment they were soon to receive, said
afterward: ‘I did not lose more than $150 on the whole transaction, and
that I lost from a half-breed who did not live on the reservation.’ The
same testimony is borne on all sides, and the universal comment is that,
until they were taught how to cheat in a trade, very few of them ever
thought of doing so. I have seen Indians at a Government pay-table,
after receiving their annuities, walk up to the Agent or some employee
with so many dollars held out in their palms, to repay a loan which the
creditor had forgotten all about. These instances, I ought to add, were
observed among Indians of a pretty backward class, who were acting
simply in obedience to their natural impulses.”
Mr. Leupp states frankly in his preface:—
“The Indian problem has now reached a stage where its solution is almost
wholly a matter of administration.”
Because he served in various Indian capacities for almost twenty-five
years with organizations as well as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and
as in that latter office it was his duty and privilege to regard the
subject in its broad aspect, an extended review of his book is entirely
proper.
Under Chapter II, “What Happened to the Indian,” he discusses what we
all know, the end of the “buffalo days”, and the beginning of the ration
system. He maintains that this encouraged idleness. Along with the
ration and reservations systems sprang up the educational plan for the
benefit of Indians. At first there were few government schools, and many
denominational. The Government increased its appropriations to support
these sectarian schools until in 1870 it was $100,000, and later the
amounts were much larger. This brought about an unfortunate and
unnecessary dispute between the denominations, the Protestant and the
Catholic. Hard feelings were engendered, and instead of working together
in amity to Christianize and educate the Indians, all these worthy
people were engaged in a dispute as to who should receive the most money
from the United States Treasury! We may imagine the feelings and
opinions of the brighter Indians as they viewed this unchristian and
uncharitable dispute. The Government had to withdraw support from all
denominational schools and as a result many closed their doors while
others struggled along. Comparing the Government school system and the
denominational, Leupp says:—
[Illustration:
A FULL-BLOOD SIOUX GIRL, 1888
]
“In dimensions, in scholastic scope, and in material equipment, the
Government school system as it stands today is an enormous advance on
the old mission school system; but in real accomplishment as
proportioned to outlay it does not begin to equal the latter, and in
vital energy it must always be lacking. The reason for these differences
is not far to seek. At the base of everything lies the fact that, except
in magnificence, no governmental enterprise can compare with the same
thing in private hands. The Government’s methods are ponderous, as must
always be the movements of so gigantic a machine. Its expenditures are
from money belonging to the public, and therefore demand a more
elaborate arrangement of checks and balances and final accounting than
expenditures made from the funds of voluntary contributors. In spite of
the now universal application of civil service rules, the whole business
is under political control in the sense that the appropriations and the
laws governing their use must be obtained from Congress, and that the
school system is only a branch of one of the executive departments. This
circumstance, while not necessitating the intrusion of partisan
considerations into the settlement of any vexed question, does militate
against the highest efficiency, because it requires that a great deal of
ground shall be traversed two, three or a dozen times on the way to a
clearly visible conclusion, involves harassing delays and temporary
discouragements, calls for tedious consultations over petty details
which one mind could dispose of more satisfactorily, and keeps the
administrative staff always in a state of preparation to repel
gratuitous interference.”
Of the four books, the one that appeals to me most of all is that
written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Bishop Whipple, long a friend of the
Indian, wrote the preface to the edition of 1880. Page 7 is worthy of
preservation.
“All this while Canada has had no Indian wars. Our Government has
expended for the Indians a hundred dollars to their one. They recognize,
as we do, that the Indian has a possessory right to the soil. They
purchase this right, as we do, by treaty; but their treaties are made
with _the Indian subjects_ of Her Majesty. They set apart a _permanent_
reservation for them; they seldom remove Indians; they select Agents of
high character, who receive their appointments for life; they make fewer
promises, but they fulfil them; they give the Indians Christian
missions, which have the hearty support of Christian people, and all
their efforts are toward self-help and civilization. An incident will
illustrate the two systems. The officer of the United States Army who
was sent to receive Alaska from the Russian Government stopped in
British Columbia. Governor Douglas had heard that an Indian had been
murdered by another Indian. He visited the Indian tribe; he explained to
them that the murdered man was a subject of Her Majesty; he demanded the
culprit. The murderer was surrendered, was tried, was found guilty, and
was hanged. On reaching Alaska the officer happened to enter the Greek
church, and saw on the altar a beautiful copy of the Gospels in a costly
binding studded with jewels. He called upon the Greek bishop, and said,
‘Your Grace, I called to say you had better remove that copy of the
Gospels from the church, for it may be stolen.’ The bishop replied, ‘Why
should I remove it? It was the gift of the mother of the Emperor, and
has lain on the altar seventy years.’ The officer blushed, and said,
‘There is no law in the Indian country, and I was afraid it might be
stolen.’ The bishop said, ‘The book is in God’s house, and it is His
book, and I shall not take it away.’ The book remained. The country
became ours, and the next day the Gospel was stolen.”
Mrs. Jackson takes up in detail the despoiling of the Indians even more
thoroughly than Mr. Humphrey. She treats of the Delawares, Cheyennes,
Nez Perces, Sioux, Poncas, Winnebagoes, Cherokees, California Indians,
etc. She devotes a gruesome chapter to the massacre of Indians by white
people. She devotes an appendix of 171 pages (small type), to a
narration of outrages perpetrated by white people on Indians, broken
treaties, and outrageous treatment of Indians by Whites. The appendix
includes a spirited correspondence with Secretary of the Interior, Hon.
Carl Schurz. There are also several letters to the _Rocky Mountain
News_, a Denver paper, edited by Mr. W. N. Byers. The letters were
written in 1880. Schurz was Secretary, it should be remembered, when the
famous Ponca case occurred. A tribe of Indians had been forcibly taken
from their homes. Through friends in Boston and Philadelphia, who had
their case brought before the courts and were sustained in their
contentions, these Poncas were returned to their reservation. As to the
Byers correspondence, the citizens of Denver had attacked and killed a
large number of Indian men, women and children located in a village on
Sand Creek, some distance from the mining camps. Mrs. Jackson clearly
has the better of both arguments.
It is unfortunate that the present condition of some of the Indian bands
does not arouse the same interest as did the case of the Poncas. The
Chippewas of Minnesota suffered far greater wrongs than fell to the lot
of the Poncas, and yet there has been no outburst of righteous
indignation because of what happened to them.
In 1871, near Camp Grant, Arizona Territory, there were a number of
Apaches encamped under the jurisdiction of the United States authorities
and these Indians did not wish to join Geronimo and others in their
raids in the Southwest and Old Mexico. By the 11th of March, 1871, there
were over 300 Indians assembled near the camp. They had brought in, in a
short time, more than 300,000 pounds of hay which the officer in command
purchased. In view of the hostility of Geronimo and his band, that the
Apaches should desire peace, and be willing to work, seemed
incomprehensible in the Southwest. The frontier element—always hostile
to Indians—resented their presence. The Indians continued to come in and
presently there were 510 in the camp.
The 30th of April, these Indians were attacked by a large force of white
men from Tucson, Arizona. The gentleman who furnished Mrs. Jackson with
the information was C. B. Brierley, Acting Assistant Surgeon, United
States Army. Mrs. Jackson presents Surgeon Brierley’s report in detail.
We need not present particulars, save to say that a large number of the
Indians were surprised and killed while in camp and that the white
people of Tucson, not satisfied with killing the men, mutilated the dead
bodies of women and children.
A Mr. J. H. Lyman of Northampton, Mass., was a pioneer in Arizona in
1810 and 1841. He made a report to the Board of Indian Commissioners in
1871 which explains the hostility in later years of the Apaches toward
the white people, as to how one Johnson agreed with the Governor of
Senora to procure Indian scalps at an ounce of gold each. Johnson killed
large numbers of women and children—and a few warriors. Mrs. Jackson
reprints most of his report.
Mrs. Jackson’s book, as I have previously stated, created a profound
impression in this country and in England. None of the hundreds of facts
and incidents contained in her “Century of Dishonor” were ever
successfully denied. Many of the recommendations offered by her are
sound and could be applied with profit at the present time, although
thirty years have elapsed since she laid down her pen.
Mr. Humphrey may be said to have carried her work down to present times
(1906), although there is much to our discredit since he wrote.
As to the irrigation problems, he says:—
“Whether he were the defenseless beginner of the Northwest, or the
skilful agriculturalist of the Southwest desert with ancient systems of
irrigation, the Indian was never regarded as a man. The forceful settler
dispossessed the irrigating Indian with even less than usual formality
because his highly-cultivated lands were the more valuable,—either by
driving him into the desert and pre-empting his land, or by diverting
his water, thus making his land a desert. Typical of these Indians were
the four thousand Pimas of Arizona. They had practised agriculture by
irrigation along the Gila River for more than three centuries. In the
language of the early records, ‘they are farmers and live wholly by
tilling the soil, and in the earlier days of the American history of the
territory they were the chief support of both the civil and military
elements of this section of the country.’
[Illustration:
SEMINOLE INDIAN HOUSES AND CYCLONE CELLAR. WEWOKA, OKLAHOMA, 1913
]
“In 1886 the Whites began to divert the waters of the Gila River. A suit
in the federal court was talked of to maintain the clear rights of the
Indians, but never pressed. No district attorney who would prosecute
such a case against voting white men could expect to live politically.
Within seven years the Pimas were reduced from independence to the
humiliation of calling for rations, while the white settlers used the
Indians water undisturbed.
“‘Enough has been written about the need of water for the starving
Indians to fill a volume,’ wrote the discouraged Agent, after ten years.
‘It has been urgently presented to your honorable office time and again,
and yet the need of water is just as great and the supply no greater.’
So the years went on. In 1900 came the cry from the desert, ‘This water,
their one resource, their very life, has been taken from them, and they
are, perforce, lapsing into indolence, misery, and vice.’ Thirty
thousand dollars was appropriated for more rations.
“Finally, after eighteen years, the suit to recover the Indians’ rights
received its final quietus. The district attorney reported in 1904:
‘There is no doubt but that the case could be taken up and prosecuted to
a favorable ending, but ... _it would be impossible for the court to
enforce its decree_, and the expense of prosecuting such suit would cost
between twenty and thirty thousand dollars.’
“This Government long ago lost the right to say that it _could not_
enforce a federal law against less than a thousand of its agricultural
citizens. Its officials _would not_ disturb the political balance of
Arizona.”
As to the opposing forces—the uplift, and its antithesis—he writes:—
“But there is another side to this picture. During all these years of
trouble, the Indian was faithfully attended by a great Unselfishness,
always striving to re-establish him, to educate and enlighten him. The
Government met with no opposition in administering this portion of its
trust, and the workers were granted its most generous and intelligent
support; for the high ideals of the people have always been the
Government’s inspiration, even though it be often led to action by a
selfish few.
“It is not within the scope of this book to recount the great good that
has come to the Indian through this branch of the Indian Service, save
to make full acknowledgment here of its greatness. It has done much more
than attend the Indian’s education. Many a tribe, and many individual
Indians have had saved to them tracts of _good land_, upon which they
have worked their way toward civilization. Indeed, had it not been for
the constant presence of these among the Indians who labored for their
good, little good land would have been left to any Indians.
“These are the two great influences which have shaped the Indian’s
destiny; one, steadily hewing away the foundation—his land; the other,
faithfully moulding the superstructure—his education; both generously
supported by a vote-seeking Congress.
“Where the first has failed, the Indian is coming into full citizenship
through agriculture, education, and Christian teaching. Where both have
succeeded in their opposing efforts, we find the Indian figuratively,
and often literally, on the rocks; educated, saved, and
forlorn,—amiable, but aimless, in his arrested development. He has
missed the fundamental lesson of mankind.”
Mr. Humphrey’s conclusions may here be reproduced in part.
“When we hear of dark injustice among the natives of Africa, or in
Russia’s Siberian wastes, we turn in horror from the oppressed to vent
indignation upon the oppressor. But when the tale of our own Poor Lot is
told, we lift our eyes to Heaven—not being so well able to see ourselves
as to see others—and murmur, reverently, ‘’Tis the Survival of the
Fittest!’ Those who think lightly are wont to exclaim impatiently, that
the Indian’s story is a closed book. It is—nearly so; but the book of
history is never closed except by those who think lightly. * * * * *
[Illustration:
INDIANS’ COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT. HASKELL INSTITUTE
]
“Bishop Whipple of Minnesota, who gave the best part of his life to the
Indian cause, declared, after recounting the acts of broken faith which
led up to the great Sioux massacre of 1863, ‘I submit to every man the
question whether the time has not come for a nation to hear the cry of
wrong, if not for the sake of the heathen, for the sake of the memory of
our friends whose bones are bleaching on our prairies.’ This bookful of
wrongs, and volumes more, have been perpetrated since. * * * *
“Col. Richard I. Dodge, after thirty-three years on the Plains as Indian
fighter, displays in his ‘A Living Issue,’ this same confiding hope: ‘It
is too much to expect any one of these (politicians) to risk the loss of
votes and thus jeopardize his future career for a miserable savage.
Politicians will do nothing unless forced to it by the great, brave,
honest, human heart of the American people. To that I appeal! To the
press; to the pulpit; to every voter in the land; to every lover of
mankind. For the honor of our common country; for the sake of suffering
humanity; force your representative to meet this issue’.” * * * * *
“Thirty years ago a Commissioner of Indian Affairs delivered himself of
a fervent opinion which should become classic. The miserable story of
the California Indians had dragged itself through twenty-five years;
every measure of relief had been blocked in Congress by the interested
few—the Vociferous Few in the Indian country. ‘This class of Indians,’
concludes the Commissioner, ‘seems forcibly to illustrate the truth that
no man has a place or a fair chance to exist under the Government of the
United States who has not a part in it.’ A more illuminating commentary
on the Indian’s unhappy status in the land of the Free can hardly be
written in one sentence. The Indian’s story does not argue that the
Indian should have been at any time given the protection of the
franchise; but it _does_ argue that in a loose-jointed republic where
national legislation is at the beck and call of every little coterie of
irresponsible voters, the Indian has been subjected to more devilish
variations of human caprice than if he were at the mercy of an openly
oppressive, but more consistent and centralized style of government.
There is no despotism more whimsically cruel than that of men unused to
power, who suddenly find themselves in absolute control of a people
whose one vital interest—an advantageous foothold on _good land_—is in
continual conflict with their own chief desire—the possession of that
same good land.”
I have reprinted from these books for a definite purpose. All four
authors had practical experience with Indian affairs; all knew their
subjects—not one was visionary. Our historians and public officials have
denied none of the statements contained in these books. Since the abuses
continue, and we have forgotten the lessons of the past, it now remains
for us to change our Indian policy—to do so absolutely. We have been
repeatedly warned, we cannot escape our responsibility.