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.