“I have always believed that unallotted Indians who have large grazing areas on their reservation should be the direct beneficiaries of their own grazing-lands and have continually urged that a reimbursable appropriation be made to stock this reservation. It has also occurred to me that the Indians should be encouraged by the use of large reimbursable appropriations to stock their allotments with tools and livestock and I am glad that the above propositions are being actively pushed as desirable propositions by the present Commissioner of Indian Affairs.”
Correspondent, Lame Deer, Montana
“In my opinion, the reservation was opened seventy-five years too soon. With the exception of a few half-breeds, they were absolutely unprepared for the opening of the reservation. Humanly speaking, they are doomed to utter annihilation. In dealing with them, we forgot that they were savages, and that, as it took centuries to polish our own ancestors who were vastly more intelligent than these redmen, at least one century, or one century and a half, would be required to make these people civilized.”
Correspondent, St. Ignatius, Montana
“When I took charge, nothing had been done for them by the Government. I at once issued agricultural implements, wire, seeds, etc., and organized each band and devoted the first efforts to agriculture on individual tracts, but worked all together as a community. By this means we raised a good crop the first year, in one instance going from almost starvation to plenty in the short space of four months. Since that time not a single ration has been issued, and aside from supervisory work and teaching, which is given by myself and employees, all my Indians are entirely self-supporting. I am unqualifiedly and absolutely opposed to all ration and annuity distribution as it has been carried on in our department. I am insisting upon all my Indians caring for and supporting their old people, and see that it is done. My method of helping Indians is to work both day and night to inaugurate methods and give opportunities to enable them to work out their own salvation.
“I have had an unusual opportunity to work out my own ideas, by reason of beginning in a virgin field. So far I have been remarkably successful. However, there is a strange characteristic apparent among all Indians, that they have apparently no sense of gratitude, and take everything that is done as a matter of course, and do not seem to have the faculty of contrasting their situation from year to year and striking a balance, as it were, to note their material progress.
“I have no suggestions as to reforms, except those directed toward the Indian himself. In this State he is not discriminated against as in others. Here he has nothing except his labor to tempt the cupidity of the Whites. In the past he has been given many opportunities for improvement through the Mormon Church, and he had the chance to become just as well off as the majority of the Mormon immigrants who came here into the desert almost with their bare hands. So the fault, if fault it is, lies entirely with himself. He had the opportunity to observe and profit by the example of the poor Whites who started on desert ground under the same environment and made themselves homes; in addition to this just as soon as the Mormon Church was able, the authorities ‘called’ some of its members, sent them to each band, not as preaching missionaries, but as farmers, and gave them tools and oxen and instructed them how to use them. This was done with every band under my jurisdiction. As these missionaries were sent without any pay, and were poor, they had their own families to support, and gradually returned to the settlements, leaving the Indians to carry on their work themselves. The Indians simply killed the oxen and kept up their nomadic life to a great extent, simply holding campgrounds on the water courses where their water rights have been protected by the church until I took all the responsibilities over.”
Correspondent, Salt Lake City, Utah
THE CHALLENGE. NEZ PERCE WARRIOR
Copyright by L. V. McWhorter, who photographed the Indian, and permits publication.