One who had done real work was Mrs. Elsie E. Newton, one of the most able and conscientious women in the Indian Service. She had visited the sick and the suffering, had made recommendations, had done her part toward remedying intolerable conditions.
How the others could have visited such a place as White Earth and not reported on actual conditions is incomprehensible, unless we accept Mr. Valentine’s address at Lake Mohonk, in October, 1909, in which he stated that too many of his Inspectors were blind and deaf! I talked with one or two men now out of the Service, who used to be Special Agents, and they did not even know the names of all the places on the reservation! I don’t know of one of them who went into the cabins and sat down and talked to the Indians and heard their troubles. Most of them drove from the railroad station at Ogema, over to the Agent’s office and talked with Mr. Michelet, the agent preceding Howard.
I would close this chapter on White Earth with an incident which occurred at Pine Point during the first investigation, March-April, 1909.
The Chief of the Otter Tail Pilligers lives at Pine Point. One of the most dramatic instances which occurred during the investigation happened in the latter part of March before the large party, employed during the summer, had begun their labors. It was cold and we were compelled to hold our examinations indoors. Just opposite the office was a schoolroom in which some sixty Indian children were assembled under the charge of three or four white teachers. The chief had lost a number of children and other relatives, and thus he and his wife were heirs to about eleven allotments. These were easily worth $45,000 or $50,000, being mostly pine timber. With the exception of one or two others, this man had been robbed of more property than anyone else, and it was pathetic to hear him state how certain men in whom he trusted, had taken advantage of his ignorance. When he had finished his long recital of wrongs, I remarked, “You must have lost entire faith in the white people and in the Government at Washington.” “Oh, no,” he replied, “I think that Washington would give me justice if only the men there could hear my story.” Just as he completed this statement, the school session came to an end, and we heard through the thin partition the childish voices singing in unison “My Country, ’Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty”—and this was the first time in my life that the words sounded in my ears like a hollow mockery and a sham.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WHITE EARTH
Omitting ethnological reports and Warren’s book (see page [45]) those who desire to study conditions at White Earth, Leech Lake, Red Lake, and Cass Lake, are referred to the reports of the Secretary of the Interior, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the Board of Indian Commissioners the past twenty years. These contain all administrative details.
The legal aspect of the prosecution will be found in pamphlets issued by the Department of Justice, and the U. S. Court of Claims.
White Earth has been the subject of much investigation on the part of Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives. The most lengthy and exhaustive investigation, covering every phase of the subject, is the report of the Committee on Expenditure in the Interior Department, Honorable James M. Graham of Illinois, Chairman. House Resolution No. 103; July 25, 1911–April, 1912; 2759 pp. Those who care to follow the subject further, will find in this lengthy report an enormous amount of material.
A synopsis entitled “The Lesson of White Earth” will be found in the report of the 30th Conference of Friends of the Indian and Other Dependent Peoples held at Lake Mohonk, N. Y., October, 1912.