A Century of Dishonor / A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes

by Helen Hunt Jackson

There are some settlements of Indians on Government lands not set off as reservations, in some instances not surveyed. These tracts should all be surveyed, their boundaries marked, and the lands withdrawn from market to be permanently set aside for the Indians' use. We use the term "rounding out" in regard to these reservations chiefly on account of the complication which results from their being in some cases within the limit of railroad grants, and made subsequent to those grants. Some are actually within the limits of the Southern Pacific Railroad grant; others will be within the limits of the Texas Pacific grant, should that be confirmed. The odd sections thus belonging to the railroads should be secured to the Indians. There are also a few claims to lands within reservation boundaries, which are legal on account of their having been made before the reservations were set off. These should be extinguished. (See Exhibit O.)

2d. All white settlers now on reservations should be removed. For the last four years stray settlers have been going in upon reservation tracts. This is owing to the lack of boundary definitions and marks as aforesaid, also to the failure of the surveys to locate the reservations so as to take in all the ground actually occupied by Indian villages. Thus, in many instances, the Indians' fields and settlements have been wrested from them, and they in their turn have not known where they could or could not go. There is not a single reservation of any size which is free from white settlers. It would seem that agents in charge of these Indians should have been authoritatively instructed in no case to allow squatters to settle on lands known to be within reservation lines, whether they were occupied by Indians or not. (See Exhibits H, I, O.)

The amount of land set off in Indian reservations in Southern California appears by the record to be very large, but the proportion of it which is really available is very small. San Diego County itself is four-fifths desert and mountain, and it is no exaggeration to say that the proportion of desert and mountain in the reservation is even larger than this. By thus resurveying, rounding out, and freeing from white settlers the present reservations, adding to them all Government lands now actually in occupation by Indians, there will be, according to the best of our judgment, nearly land enough for the accommodation of all the Mission Indians except those whose settlements are on grants.

3d. In regard to this latter class, i.e., those whose villages are now within the boundaries of confirmed grants, the Government has to choose between two courses of action,—either to remove them and make other provision for them, or to uphold and defend their right to remain where they are. In support of the latter course we believe a strong case could be made out, and we have secured from one of the ablest firms in Southern California a written legal opinion on this point. (See Exhibit A.) It seems clear that this contest should be made by the Government itself. It is impossible for these poverty-stricken and ignorant people to undertake on their own account and at their own expense the legal settlement of this matter. It would be foolish to advise it; inhuman to expect it. A test case could be made which would settle the question for all. (See Exhibit B.) In case the decision be favorable to the Indians remaining, the ranch owners should then be called on to mark off the boundaries of the Indians' lands according to the California State law covering such cases. (See Exhibit R.) Whether the lands thus reverting to the Indians could properly be considered as Government lands or not, would be a question to be determined. Probably the surest way of securing them for the Indians' permanent use would be to consider them as such and have them defined as reservations by act of Congress.

4th. And this brings us to our fourth recommendation, which is, that all these Indians' reservations, those already set off by Executive order, and all new ones made for them, whether of Government lands now in their occupation, or of lands which may be hereafter by legal process reclaimed for them from the grant lands on which they are now living, be patented to the several bands occupying them; the United States to hold the patent in trust for the period of twenty-five years; at the expiration of that time the United States to convey the same by patent to said Indians, as has been done for the Omaha Indians. The insecurity of reservations made merely by Executive order is apparent, and is already sadly illustrated in Southern California by the history of the San Pasquale Reservation, that of Aqua Caliente, and others. The insecurity of reservations set apart by act of Congress is only a degree less. The moment it becomes the interest and purpose of white men in any section of the country to have such reservation tracts restored to the public domain, the question of its being done is only a question of influence and time. It is sure to be done. The future of these industrious, peaceable, agricultural communities ought not to be left a single day longer than is necessary, dependent on such chances; chances which are always against and never for Indians' interests in the matter of holding lands. The best way and time of allotting these Indians' lands to them in severalty must be left to the decision of the Government, a provision being incorporated in their patent to provide for such allotments from time to time as may seem desirable, and agents and commissioners being instructed to keep the advantages of this system constantly before the Indians' minds. Some of them are fit for it now, and earnestly desire it, but the majority are not ready for it. The communal system, on which those now living in villages use their lands, satisfies them, and is apparently administered without difficulty. It is precisely the same system as that on which the pueblo lands were cultivated by the early Spanish settlers in Southern California. They agree among themselves to respect each other's right of occupancy; a man's right to a field this year depending on his having cultivated it last year, and so on. It seems not to occur to these Indians that land is a thing to be quarrelled over.

In the village of Aqua Caliente, one of the most intelligent of the young men was so anxious to show us his fields that we went with him a little distance outside the village limits to see them. He had some eight acres in grain, vine, and fruit trees. Pointing first in one direction, then in another, he indicated the places where his ground joined other men's ground. There was no line of demarcation whatever, except it chanced to be a difference of crops. We said to him, "Alessandro, how do you know which is your land and which is theirs?" He seemed perplexed, and replied, "This was my mother's land. We have always had it." "But," we persisted, "suppose one of these other men should want more land and should take a piece of yours?" "He couldn't," was all the reply we could get from Alessandro, and it was plain that he was greatly puzzled by the suggestion of the possibility of neighbors trespassing on each other's cultivated fields.

5th. We recommend the establishment of more schools. At least two more are immediately needed, one at the Rincon, and one at Santa Ysabel. (See Exhibits G, L.) As the reservations are gradually cleared, defined and assured for the Indians' occupancy, hundreds of Indians who are now roving from place to place, without fixed homes, will undoubtedly settle down in the villages, and more schools will be needed. It is to be hoped, also, that some of the smaller bands will unite with the larger ones, for the sake of the advantages of the school and other advantages of a larger community. The isolated situation of many of the smaller settlements is now an insuperable difficulty in the way of providing education for all the children. These Indians are all keenly alive to the value of education. In every village that we visited we were urged to ask the Government to give them a school. In one they insisted upon ranging the children all in rows, that we might see for ourselves that there were children enough to justify the establishing of a school.

In this connection we would suggest that if a boarding and industrial school, similar to those at Hampton and Carlisle, could be established in Southern California, it would be of inestimable value, and would provide opportunities for many children who, owing to the isolation of their homes, could not be reached in any other way.

We would further suggest that, in our judgment, only women teachers should be employed in these isolated Indian villages. There is a great laxity of morals among these Indians; and in the wild regions where their villages lie, the unwritten law of public sentiment, which in more civilized communities does so much to keep men virtuous, hardly exists. Therefore the post of teacher in these schools is one full of temptations and danger to a man. (See Exhibit M.) Moreover, women have more courage and self-denying missionary spirit, sufficient to undertake such a life, and have an invaluable influence outside their school-rooms. They go familiarly into the homes, and are really educating the parents as well as the children in a way which is not within the power of any man, however earnest and devoted he may be.

We would also suggest that great good might be accomplished among these Indians by some form of itinerary religious and educational labor among them. In the list of assignments of Indian agencies to different religious denominations, as given in the report of the Indian Bureau for 1882, the Mission Agency is assigned to the Evangelical Lutheran; but we could not learn that this denomination had done any work among them. So far as the Mission Indians have any religion at all they are Catholics. In many of the villages are adobe chapels, built in the time of the missions, where are still preserved many relics of the mission days, such as saints' images, holy-water kettles, &c. In these chapels on the occasions of the priest's visits the Indians gather in great numbers, women sometimes walking two days' journey, bringing their babies on their backs to have them baptized. There are also in several of the villages old Indians, formerly trained at the missions, who officiate with Catholic rites at funerals, and on Sundays repeat parts of the Mass. As these Indians are now situated in isolated settlements so far apart, and so remote from civilized centres, the only practicable method of reaching them all would be by some form of itinerary labor. A fervent religious and practical teacher, who should spend his time in going from village to village, remaining in each a few days or weeks, as the case might be, would sow seed which would not cease to grow during the intervals of his absence. If he were a man of sound common-sense and knowledge of laws of life, fitted to instruct the Indians in matters of hygiene, cleanliness, ventilation, &c., and in a few of the simple mechanical arts, as well as in the doctrines of religion and morality, he would do more for the real good of these people at present than can be accomplished by schools.