CHAPTER II—THE U.S. INDIAN OFFICE IN 1913
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was organized in 1824, and was under the War Department. On March 3, 1849, the Interior Department took over the management of the Indians. Since 1832, there have been 31 Commissioners of Indian Affairs. The longest tenure of office was that held by Honorable Wm. A. Jones.
The present Commissioner is Honorable Cato Sells of Texas, who took charge June 4, 1913. Mr. Sells has already inaugurated a new and progressive policy and his work is highly commended by every person having the welfare of the Indians at heart.[[6]] A splendid tribute has been paid him by M. K. Sniffen, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the Indian Rights Association. Honorable Edgar B. Meritt, who has served faithfully for many years, is Assistant Commissioner.
There are in addition to these high officers, Second Assistant Commissioner, Honorable C. F. Hauke; and Honorable E. B. Linnen, Chief of the Inspection Service. I have always considered the Inspection Service the most important of all. It is therefore very satisfactory that we have as Chief of the Division, a man who has had twenty-five years’ experience as Inspector and former Secret Service official. And right here, I wish to state that if the Inspection Service had been efficient in past years, the horrible scandals in Minnesota, Oklahoma and elsewhere never would have occurred.
There are Chiefs of Divisions in education, land and finance; Chief Supervisors of schools, health, industries, irrigation, forestry and construction. There are ten Supervisors and eight Special Agents serving in the various Divisions. The roster of officers for this year contains the names of hundreds of conscientious and competent men and women scattered throughout the entire West and in Washington, whose sole purpose is to make of these Indians good American citizens. No one who has investigated the Indian situation as it presents itself today can do other than accord to all these persons the full meed of praise. They labor under great disadvantages. If they are radical, they call down upon their heads the wrath of those who covet Indian lands; if they are conservative, the officials of various benevolent organizations accuse them of aiding and abetting the grafters in their nefarious work. If a single mistake is made—though unintentional—it is pointed out by some disgruntled person living in the Indian country. The complications, the situation, and the opposition which they are called upon to face might well cause many of their critics to timidly decline to exchange places with them.
I am entirely sincere in the above statement. Because it has been my unpleasant duty to point out needed reforms—not to use a stronger term—a few good people have imagined that I criticised the personnel of the Indian Service. That would be not only unkind, but also unjust, and in all that I have published, written or spoken, I have never thought to criticize any man or woman save those who were engaged in defrauding Indians.
As will be presented in the final chapter of this book, the Indian Office machinery is efficient, and the personnel competent. The only question—and it is a great question—is whether our manufactured product is what it should be. Our machines are perfect, but do we run them properly?
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Mr. Sells, issued a valuable report December 8, 1913. It covers the period from July 1, 1912, to June 30, 1913. In order that we may grasp the full significance of the work being done by the Indian Office, and the magnitude of the problems confronting us, it is necessary to present some statistics, taken from this report.
There are some 6,000 employees in the Indian Service, and 330,639 Indians. Among the Indians are included a great many mixed bloods and persons who have married Indian women. This swells the total, as I have pointed out on Page [21].
The property of these Indians is estimated by the Commissioner to be worth nearly $900,000,000. As competent observers in the State of Oklahoma claim the Indians have property there rising $500,000,000 in value, it is my candid opinion, after considering the Navaho, Crow, Sioux, Yakima, Apache and all other lands, minerals, timber, etc., in the United States, that the sum is probably nearer $1,200,000,000. There is also in the United States Treasury some $48,848,744 in cash.
There has been appropriated since the year 1881, and including the year 1914, this generous sum for the education, allotting, protection of Indians and the maintenance of the thousands of employees in the Indian Service, viz:—$263,623,004.01. This enormous sum properly and wisely expended from the year 1881 to the present time would have solved the Indian problem in the United States. But two great obstacles stood in the way—the politician in the East and the grafter in the West. The Honorable Commissioner cannot state in his report that it is due to these two influences that our Indian history is, beyond question, the darkest page in the general American history, but such a statement is absolutely correct.
Of these 330,000 Indians, 180,000 have received farms, or as the Indian Office calls them, allotments. 34,000,000 acres have been used for this purpose and there remain 39,000,000 acres. The Commissioner states that the timber held by Indians is worth $80,000,000.
Since 1876 the Government has spent $80,000,000 for schools and education, and there are now 223 Indian day schools on or near Indian communities; 76 boarding-schools on reservations and 35 non-reservation schools. There are 65,000 Indian children, and all go to school save 17,500 who are either defectives or unprovided for.
There are 25,000 Indians suffering from tuberculosis; yet there are but 300 beds in all the Indian hospitals. This is a condition that would not be tolerated outside of an Indian community in the United States, for twenty-four hours. Thirty-two per cent of the Indian deaths are due to pulmonary tuberculosis as against 12.02 per cent among the white people of the United States. 60,000 Indians suffer from trachoma. This eye disease was introduced by the lower class of European immigrants and it spread throughout nearly every Indian community.
“I find that the Indians have more than 600,000 acres of irrigable land, approximately 9,000,000 acres of other agricultural lands, more than 50,000,000 acres grazing lands, and that the Government has expended approximately $10,000,000 in connection with Indian irrigation projects.
“Many able-bodied Indians who have valuable lands are wholly or partially without seeds, teams, implements, and other equipment to utilize properly such lands. This is particularly true in several reservations where large sums of public or tribal funds have been used in constructing irrigation systems, and is in part the reason why such large areas of irrigable and other agricultural lands are not under cultivation.
“The valuable grazing lands of the Indians offer unusual opportunities for increasing the meat supply of the country, at the same time furnishing a profitable employment for the Indians as well as utilizing their valuable grazing lands. During the last year the Indians cultivated less than 600,000 acres of their vast area of agricultural lands.
“It shall be my purpose to attempt to procure reimbursable appropriations so as to advance to the Indians needed agricultural equipment in order that they may make beneficial use of their resources and become self-supporting and progressive citizens. These reimbursable appropriations, if procured and properly used, will result in ultimately decreasing the gratuity appropriations for Indians.”[[7]]
Commissioner Sells very wisely emphasizes agricultural work, stock-raising and cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. He calls attention to the enormous number of lands leased by the Indians to white men, for agricultural purposes.
One of the most interesting and illuminating sections in the report is, to my mind, the table number 7: “General data for each Indian reservation, under what agency or school, tribes occupying or belonging to it, area not allotted or specially reserved, and authority for its establishment, to Nov. 3, 1913.”
A study of this table indicates that tracts of these lands have been sold under various acts of Congress. The statements appear: “Open to settlement 1,449,268 acres” or, “1,061,500 acres were open to settlement.” All this indicates that enormous tracts have been sold to settlers, or disposed of by the Government after the Indians had been allotted. This policy has been persistently carried on in the State of Oklahoma, although I have repeatedly urged not only the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, but also the Commissioner of the Five Civilized Tribes to conserve some of these lands. I have contended, also, that the Indians are not properly protected in their property rights, and many of them are becoming paupers; that large tracts of land should be reserved by the Government in order that each dispossessed or pauperized Indian should be entitled to a small home at some future time. The policy of disposing of enormous tracts of grazing and agricultural land is extremely short-sighted.
I have been told, when calling attention of Commissioner Wright, or the Indian Office, to the fact that some of these surplus lands should be conserved, that under the law, this cannot be done. The land is tribal property, or by act of Congress on such and such a date the lands were ordered sold. There is always authority for these sales, and no one can question it. But the policy continues, and to me appears very pernicious. Certain Indians on some of our reservations have either disposed of their holdings, or been swindled out of them. If none of the surplus lands are retained, there will be nothing available for these Indians, and they will soon become homeless paupers. We have an illustration of that in California. There we permitted the Indians to lose their property, or to be evicted. In recent years we have spent large sums of money purchasing tracts of irrigated land to provide homes for the very Indians we permitted to lose their homesteads. Certainly this is a very short-sighted and unbusiness-like policy.
The progress of the Indian the past year in arts and industries has been fairly satisfactory. Most of the Superintendents report increased industry on the part of their wards. The Commissioner presents nearly 200 pages of tabulated statistics covering progress and values. The Indians have not worked in the same proportion as have white people for various reasons. I shall set forth these in detail in a subsequent Chapter.
| RESULTS OF INDIAN LABOR | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Indians Exclusive of Five Civilized Tribes | |||
| 1879 | 1880 | 1881 | |
| Number of acres broken by Indians | 24,270 | 27,105 | 29,558 |
| Number of acres cultivated | 157,056 | 168,340 | 205,367 |
| Number of bushels of wheat raised | 328,637 | 408,812 | 451,479 |
| Number of bushels of corn raised | 643,286 | 604,103 | 517,642 |
| Number of bushels of oats and barley raised | 189,054 | 224,899 | 343,444 |
| Number of bushels of vegetables raised | 390,698 | 375,843 | 488,792 |
| Number of tons of hay cut | 48,333 | 75,745 | 76,763 |
| Number of horses owned | 199,732 | 211,981 | 188,402 |
| Number of cattle owned | 68,894 | 78,939 | 80,684 |
| Number of swine owned | 32,537 | 40,381 | 43,913 |
| Number of sheep owned | 863,525 | 864,216 | 977,017 |
| Number of houses occupied | 11,634 | 12,507 | 12,893 |
| Number of Indian houses built during the year | 1,211 | 1,639 | 1,409 |
| Number of Indian apprentices who have been learning trades | 185 | 358 | 436 |
| Five Civilized Tribes | |||
| Number of acres cultivated | 273,000 | 314,396 | 348,000 |
| Number of bushels of wheat raised | 565,400 | 336,424 | 105,000 |
| Number of bushels of corn raised | 2,015,000 | 2,346,042 | 616,000 |
| Number of bushels of oats and barley raised | 200,000 | 124,568 | 74,300 |
| Number of bushels of vegetables raised | 336,700 | 595,000 | 305,000 |
| Number of tons of hay cut | 176,500 | 125,500 | 161,500 |
| Number of bales of cotton raised | 10,530 | 16,800 | |
| Number of horses owned | 45,500 | 51,453 | 64,600 |
| Number of mules owned | 5,500 | 5,138 | 6,150 |
| Number of cattle owned | 272,000 | 297,040 | 370,000 |
| Number of swine owned | 190,000 | 400,282 | 455,000 |
| Number of sheep owned | 32,400 | 34,034 | 33,400 |
At the conclusion of Chapters upon health, education, irrigation, etc., I have presented bibliographies. Readers will obtain a good idea of the progress made along various directions if they will consult some of the writers’ reports, speeches, etc.
The Red Man, published at Carlisle Indian School; the Chilocco School Journal, and papers printed at Haskell, Pine Ridge, and Hampton all contain many practical articles upon arts and industries and kindred topics. For these journals the Indian Service officials frequently write articles, and in them speeches and addresses upon Indian topics by prominent men are often reproduced.
These journals are creditable publications and do much toward enlightening the boys and girls as to progress in other schools—thus acting as an incentive to further effort. It is unfortunate that the public at large is not familiar with them. Were they generally circulated, much ignorance of Indian education would disappear.
MODERN INDIAN HOUSE
Although on the Allegheny reservation, N. Y., this is the common type of house occupied by better-class Indians in many States.