“The decisions of the Supreme Court have established the right of Congress to pass all needful laws for the protection of these Indians and to impose necessary supervision of their affairs, and have hereby clearly shown that Congress alone is responsible for the fate of these friendless people. The objective point of assault will be the next Congress. Will it be able to resist the pressure that will be brought to tear down the pitiful remnant of protection that remains to these wards of our country? The attitude of the Supreme Court and the Interior Department has placed the whole Nation under obligation to them, for they have saved us as a people from standing pilloried before mankind as entirely faithless to our fair promises made to a weaker people. If their illustrious example shall awaken the legislative conscience, the Indians who are yet restricted need not view with despair the convening of another Congress. But if the present tendency is not arrested, within five years these Indians will be stripped of every measure of protection against their own incompetency. Our wards who less than ten years ago were in the full enjoyment of all their property rights will have experienced a swift impoverishment without parallel in our history.”
CHAPTER XIV. CAPTAIN GRAYSON’S VIEWS; MISS BARNARD’S WORK; THE MINORS’ ESTATES
Captain G. W. Grayson of Eufaula, who has served many years as official interpreter to the Creeks, and who is frequently employed by the Smithsonian savants in their studies of Indians, read my Oklahoma manuscript and commented as follows:—
“It is proper to state that in the Creek Nation, excluding negroes, some degree of protection and supervision should be extended over two-thirds of the people. Some time since, the inquiry was propounded to Mr. Kelsey as to why the Government officials found it necessary to withhold from the allottee the proceeds of the sale of lands in which he is interested, paying it out in small amounts from time to time to him as his need required. He promptly replied that the experience of the office had very decidedly indicated this to be the humane thing to do. That there were many instances where a full-blood Indian was paid a considerable sum of royalty money accruing from oil wells on his lands, who was taken in charge by bad white men as soon as he left the office, who immediately conducted him to some convenient brothel where drink is one of the allurements, and rob him of every penny of the money paid to him. This happens usually during the night following the payment, when on the morning after the robbery, appears the Indian pleading to be again paid at least sufficient to pay his railroad fare so he can get out of town. To this officer of the Government, it appeared very clear that it was the duty of the Agents of the Department who, in a large sense, had assumed the guardianship of these Indians, to adopt such precautions as would prevent a recurrence of like enormities.
“Another method adopted, and in many cases practiced, is that of allowing the visiting payee only sufficient money to purchase his immediate necessities while in the city, advising him to call at the postoffice in his home town, where the rest of his money due him is sent to him in the form of a check.
“The theory on which such action is based is, that the Indian receiving his money at his home, where he is free from the influence of intoxicants and bad white men, he can wisely advise his wife as to what use to which this money may be appropriated, and in these cool and sober moments, plan and adopt ways of disbursement that will actually benefit the family.”
On May 17th, 1912, the Chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners, Honorable George Vaux, Jr., visited Oklahoma and spent some time traveling through the Cherokee, Creek and Seminole countries. He was accompanied by Dana H. Kelsey, Esq., Superintendent of the Union Indian Agency, having in charge the Five Civilized Tribes. Mr. Vaux’s findings were published in the 43rd Annual Report of the Board, 1912.
Desiring to study the Oklahoma situation in its broader aspects, I visited Oklahoma in March, 1913, in company with J. Weston Allen, Esq., who represented the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee and other organizations. We spent considerable time not only in consultation with various Government officials and private citizens, but also in driving over the Creek, Seminole and Cherokee countries.
Mr. Allen remained after I returned East, and drove many miles through the region inhabited by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, and made a report to me on the situation as he found it.
Both of us took numerous photographs showing the actual conditions under which the Indians are living.