I made a report on conditions and submitted recommendations to our Chairman, Mr. Vaux, and to the Honorable Secretary of the Interior. This report was criticised in Congress by Honorable Mr. Stephens, Representative from Texas. Apparently Mr. Stephens did not read the report. He stated in his speech of July 27th, during discussion of the Indian appropriation bill:—
“Mr. Moorehead, the Commissioner mentioned by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Graham) a few moments ago, went to Oklahoma last year and by unjust criticism of Indian officials there stirred up more trouble for the Indian Bureau than has ever before occurred in the settlement of the matters of the Five Tribes.”
Mr. Stephens desired to see the Board of Indian Commissioners abolished. Speaking for myself personally, and not for the Board, I desire to say that a few years ago it was stated that the Board was not active. Immediately the Board extended its work and projected a number of important investigations, which were carried to a successful end. In the last Congress the Board was criticised for being too active, especially in Oklahoma. Friends of the Board rallied to its support and the former appropriation of $4,000 was raised to the present amount of $10,000.
The past two years studies of Indian conditions by members of the Board have been carried on in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. This winter the Board intends to investigate conditions on the Pacific Coast, in the Northwest, Oklahoma, Montana and elsewhere.
In reply to Mr. Stephens’ two speeches, I wrote to him and pointed out wherein he was in error. No answer has been received to these letters. Careful reading of my report will convince any unprejudiced person of this fact—that instead of criticising the Indian Office officials in Oklahoma, I commended them. The only criticisms were those aimed at the grafters, and in nearly fifty instances I gave names of guardians or administrators, who had swindled Indians, giving details gleaned from court records. The report urged the Congressional delegation from Oklahoma to take a firm stand in behalf of the Indians.
Much injury is done to the cause for which we are all striving by such speeches as the one cited above. In closing my comments on this unfortunate matter, I desire to state that friendly relations exist between myself and all the Government officials, and that without exception, everyone of them has furnished, or offered, information for this book.
Miss Kate Barnard last winter began a radical campaign on behalf of the Oklahoma Indians. I am sorry space does not permit the recital of Miss Barnard’s dramatic story. It seems that for years she was in charge of the Department of Charities and Corrections, for the State. She found in the orphans’ homes and poorhouses, large numbers of small children, chiefly Indians. Investigation proved that these children were once possessed of valuable property, out of which guardians had swindled them. After the robbery became complete, the guardians avoided personal responsibility by persuading judges to declare the children homeless paupers; and placed them in State institutions, where they were supported at public expense. The number of children declared paupers mounted into the thousands. The thing became a national scandal, and Miss Barnard soon found herself involved in a fight with the politicians and grafters who profited by these wholesale swindles. Miss Barnard’s official reports for the years 1909 to 1913 describe many of these cases in heart-rending detail. The appropriations for her department were wholly inadequate to care for more than a fraction of the State wards, and she was compelled to cooperate with the Federal authorities. This brought her department in line with Mr. Mott, Mr. Kelsey and others who were fighting to bring about similar reforms.
Naturally, she aroused powerful opposition in her own State. The cry of “Eastern sentimentalism” could not be raised against her, she being a State employee. Her campaign seriously affected oil, land and other interests. Hence, the Legislature cut off her appropriation, allowing her salary, but no funds for publication, employment of assistants, travel or other necessary items, whereupon Miss Barnard visited Chicago and raised some thousands of dollars with which to wage a campaign of education. She has organized eleven counties, and although hampered in every way by the grafters, speaks to large gatherings throughout the State. At one meeting 8000 persons assembled to hear her.
She delivered a stirring address at the Lake Mohonk Conference October 21st, this year, and through her efforts the Conference introduced a plank in its platform to the effect that if Oklahoma failed to properly protect her restricted Indians, the Federal Government should resume jurisdiction over them.
Miss Kate Barnard is justly called the “Joan of Arc of Oklahoma”.