Congress has recently appropriated $10,000 more for the purchase of land for these Indians, but this will not be enough to take care of one-half of those remaining. When this appropriation shall have been used, nearly 10,000 of the California Indians will have been given homes. The others should be provided for immediately. It should be understood that all this has been done without the establishment of reservations or agencies and with practically no expense for maintenance. In comparison with the magnitude of the work, the expense has been small and it must be conceded that the debt which the Government owes the California Indians is by no means extinguished.
The present land situation (1914) in California is about as follows:
| On reservations, No. Calif. | 1,944 |
| On reservations, So. Calif. | 3,416 |
| On allotments, No. Calif. (Old) | 2,800 |
| On allotments, So. Calif. (Old) | 250 |
| On allotments, No. Calif. (New) | 400 |
| On allotments, So. Calif. (New) | 238 |
| On National Forests | 3,000 |
| On newly purchased lands | 4,800 |
| Allotments arranged for | 600 |
| On land owned by Indians | 300 |
| On land owned by churches, societies, etc. | 250 |
| Not yet taken care of | 1,841 |
| 19,839 |
The awakening in regard to the California Indians was by no means confined to land. The Indian Association has been working upon public sentiment from the first. After the land purchases were under way, the Association began efforts to secure schools and school privileges and to urge religious and other organizations to take up various phases of Indian work. The Indian Office established some eight day schools and increased the capacity of others. Also an increased number of field matrons were appointed. In 1904 it was estimated that only 1000 Indian children of school age in Northern California were in any kind of a school, out of 2800. By 1914 it is estimated that less than 1000 were not in school. The increase in school attendance is largely in the public schools of the State. Racial prejudice against Indians in California in the earlier days was intense and the idea of allowing an Indian child in school was considered preposterous. As the Indians decreased in numbers all fear of them passed away, and in time a kindlier feeling arose. For many years this racial prejudice prevented the greater number of Indians from getting an adequate amount of work. With increased population and the increased development of California came an increased demand for labor with a diminished prejudice against Indians. The industrial position of the Indians has therefore improved. In some parts of the State the Indians are fairly well employed at fair pay. In others there is little work for anyone and in these portions of the State Indians have to go many miles for a little work. They cut wood, put up hay, cultivate and pick hops, pick grapes and other fruit and do all kinds of odd jobs. As their employment is still largely seasonal, it is not wholly satisfactory. One excellent thing about the more recent revival of interest in the California Indians is that it is largely in California itself.
In 1907 there were five Protestant missions to the Indians of Northern California and two or three Roman Catholic missions. By 1914 the Protestant missions have increased to seventeen, with twenty missionaries. The Catholic work has also been extended. There are now missionaries in the field for about 14,000 of the California Indians and quite a number of local churches have interested themselves in the Indians in their own neighborhoods. The number of converts probably does not exceed 4,000.
In California a considerable number of Indians, some 3,600, were found living within the National Forests, of whom some 600 had allotments made before the forests were established. Further legislation was necessary before the 3,000 could be given their own homes. This was accomplished in 1910. (36 Stat. L. 855)
The California Indian, often termed “Digger”, has been considerably maligned. Statements are not wanting that the California Indians were of deficient mentality, little above the brutes and about the lowest of all human beings. Such statements are entitled to no credence. Kroeber, Barrett, Goddard, Merriam, Powers, Lummis, and all writers having actual acquaintance with the California Indians, place them as equal to any of the other American tribes. Teachers in the California Indian schools say that the California Indian children are as intelligent and capable as any Indians they have ever taught. Nearly one thousand Indian children are in the public schools of California and their scholarship is in no wise inferior to that of the white children of the same age, though it must be admitted that few Indian children attend after adolescence. A few of those in better financial circumstances have graduated from high schools with honors. Employers of Indian labor, without exception, pronounce them honest, reliable and capable. They can be trusted to work alone, which cannot be done with Oriental labor or floating Whites. Conviction of an Indian for theft is almost unheard of. Statistics gathered in 1909 showed twenty-eight Indians in the prisons of California for crimes of violence, mostly committed when under the influence of liquor, and not one Indian for theft or robbery or crimes against property. This is remarkable when we consider the straits under which the Indians are often placed.
Present conditions look favorable for the California Indians. In Southern California the most harassing troubles have been settled, and water is being supplied wherever possible. Southern California is over-schooled. The Government schools have a capacity for about 1200 pupils and there are about 800 Indian children of school age in that district. In Northern California seven-eighths of the Indians have been supplied with minute amounts of land. The California white people seem aroused to the need for other forms of assistance and it seems unlikely that matters will ever revert to former conditions. The new appropriation will take care of a part of the Indians still homeless. More has been accomplished in this “spurt” than all others put together. This may be attributed to the fact that the external influences lasted longer. That is, an outsider from the Indian Association was in charge of the work for some eight years. The last one hundred years tend to show that the Indian Office has not within itself the power to initiate any movement for the relief of Indians. The spirit that compels redress has not resided in the Indian Office. The Indian Office has received at all times sufficient reports from the field and may be presumed to have had knowledge of conditions at all times and yet every movement for relief has come from the outside, from individuals, or more often from associations who have compelled an unwilling bureau to act, or, often an unwilling Congress to act. This is doubtless always the case with bureaucracy. I am inclined to think this results largely from the manner of organization. As it is, the authority to decide questions lies with persons who seldom or never see the field and are without personal knowledge of that they are doing. The men who know the field have no power and the men who have the power do not know the field.
Bureaucracy has one curious result and I am inclined to think more so in the Indian Service than in others. The employees seem to lose all power of initiative and all sense of individuality. They soon learn to resent any but routine work. This is probably why the reports of conditions in California and elsewhere have fallen into deaf pigeonholes.
My Brother’s Keeper.—Charles F. Lummis, 1899. Land of Sunshine. Vol. XI, pp. 139, 207, 263, 333.