The Commissioner, although he may prepare a method of procedure for the Judges handling Indian cases in the Probate Court (as Mr. Sells has done), is really powerless, if Congress decides to remove the few remaining safeguards in Oklahoma, or to divide up any other reservation. All Commissioners have said practically the same thing: that they stood back of the Indian, protected his rights, were in favor of progress and education, etc., etc. Statements embodying this sentiment are found in every public address of the various Commissioners during thirty years.

The Commissioner may spend years in upbuilding industry among a certain band of Indians. The moment the reservation is thrown open to settlement, most of the Indians are speedily dispossessed. If he desires to protect the water rights of the Pimas and the white people living along the Gila River wash the water, all the Inspector’s reports, and all the Commissioner’s speeches, and all the Agent’s protests, are in vain. The Congressmen from any of the affected districts must agree with their constituents, else they will be defeated at the next election. There are many exceptions, such as Honorable W. N. Murray of Oklahoma, Honorable Charles H. Burke of South Dakota, Honorable James M. Graham and others, who have, in spite of popular clamor, stood for the rights of the Indians.

The lack of true publicity in Indian Affairs, is also a factor working powerfully against the Indian. Between 1900 and 1909 we were given the impression that the Indian generally in the United States was in splendid condition. This had a very evil effect, in that there was no public agitation outside of the Indian Rights and the California Indian Associations for protection. The very best thing that ever happened to the Indian was the making public of dreadful conditions in California, Minnesota, Arizona, and Oklahoma.

This aroused both the officials and Congress. Victor Locke, Chief of the Choctaws, said regarding the Oklahoma exposé:—“The very day after Commissioner Moorehead’s report was made public, I saw one of the county judges in the Choctaw country going from a printing-office with 750 printed notices to guardians with respect to settlement with their Indian wards.”

If we had such publicity applied to every reservation, while it would be unpleasant, the taxpayers of the United States would soon realize that, unless our policy is radically changed, they will be called upon to support a vast number of homeless paupers. Beyond question, either the nation, or the respective States, will soon assume this burden. I desire to go on record as making this prophecy.

As a concrete illustration of how those high in authority have misled the public, I desire to state that Honorable James S. Sherman, Vice-President of the United States, and for some years Chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs, in a public address before the Lake Mohonk Conference in October, 1911, stated that the United States Government had kept all its treaties and obligations with the Indians. Respect for the high office he occupied, prevented anyone replying to this amazing and preposterous utterance. The audience was composed of 400 or more persons of prominence, and Mr. Sherman’s address was reported in many newspapers, with the result that the average reader naturally concluded that those who were seeking to better the condition of the Indians were sentimentalists, and that the Government had done its full duty. If the Committee of which he was chairman took that view, we have the explanation of many of the evils of the past fifteen years. For every agreement or promise, faithfully kept by the Government, I can cite a score which the authorities either ignored or made no effort to fulfill.

“The treaties with the Indians have been gathered and published in a single volume. It may be said with confidence, that leaving out the merely formal ratifications of existing friendly relations, there is not one treaty that was negotiated in good faith by the United States.”

As the final proofs of this chapter were struck, the announcement came from Washington to the effect that the Honorable Secretary of the Interior intended to grant the Indians more freedom. In Mr. Lane’s report, just issued, he takes the position that as many of our Indians are intelligent, the Government should hasten the day of removal of restrictions, or withdrawal of supervision over individual Indians.

CHIEF PEO-PEO-TOLEKT. NEZ PERCE WARRIOR. CHIEF JOSEPH’S WAR, 1877
Photographed and copyrighted by L. V. McWhorter, 1911