“The newspapers and the court files of the eastern half of Oklahoma for several years have been filled with the stories of the Indians’ undoing which explains the swift impoverishment of the mixed-blood Indian. If the mixed-bloods could not stand up against this condition, what chance, would the full-bloods have?
“When the hardy pioneer ventured within the domain of the aboriginal proprietors of this country he found himself among what are often described as “hostile” people. It is a strange caprice of fortune that with the coming of the white man’s civilizing influence, the description “hostile” should be shifted from the Indian to the white man, and the submissive red man, remaining upon his own land, should discover himself surrounded by the perils of hostile white people. Perils less bloody but more insidious and relentless; the thirst for blood supplanted by the thirst for the Indian’s property; the Indian’s ambush exchanged for the white man’s ambush of intrigue and deception; conquest of the stout of heart and arm routed by the conquest of the pen and deceit and of the brain befuddled by the devastating alcohol.
“The Indian is groping his way through the dusk of his day upon earth and soon he will pass from our sight and the sound of his footsteps will cease. As he proceeds falteringly, this shred of a great race is comforted by no expressions of good will. The road is rough and the guideposts are far between and hard to read. The only light that would reveal his path to him shines distantly but faithfully. From this light, from the voices and counsels of a few distant friends unselfishly striving for him, comes the only promise of amelioration.”
Miss Barnard’s assistant, Mr. Huston, at Lake Mohonk, dictated to me the following two paragraphs as indicative of the essential things for which the Department of Charities and Corrections is fighting. It must be understood that the second paragraph from the end is not aimed at the Indian Office personnel. It is merely a statement of fact, that the new attorneys labor under disadvantage.
1st. To elect a Legislature pledged to appropriate sufficient funds to make effective the Department of Charities and Corrections,—the only arm of Government, Federal or State, which is clothed with legal authority to intervene in the probate courts of Oklahoma on behalf of Indian minor heirs.
2nd. To enact a law embodying adequate probate procedure. The probate procedure recently agreed to between the probate judges of Oklahoma and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is substantially the same procedure which was prepared by M. L. Mott and put into effect in five out of the eight counties of the Creek Nation several years previous to the present administration. Mr. Mott had this procedure embodied in a bill which passed the lower house of the Oklahoma Legislature two years ago, but which was defeated through the influence of grafters in the Senate. Mott knew that the probate procedure, depending for its force and effect merely upon the personal agreement of county judges elected by a constituency hostile to the Indians, would be ineffective to protect Indian minors, unless the same had the force of law, and provided adequate penalties for violation of same.
Finally, all good citizens in the United States must rally to the support of those who are making a fight for simple justice and decency in Oklahoma. If the better element in that State is defeated by a combination of oil, coal, gas, timber, land, and asphalt interests, the taxpayers of this country will be called upon to support 100,000 homeless paupers. Nowhere else in the United States are 100,000 citizens to be dispossessed, and if this calamity is permitted to occur, the blackest page in all American history shall have been written. A helpless, a trusting, and a dependent people look to us to keep the final one of all our promises.
PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ON OKLAHOMA
Lengthy discussion of Indian Affairs. Both branches of Congress. Congressional Record for 1914. Jan., 22; Feb., 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 28; March, 10, 11, 12, 21, 26, 27, 28, 31; Apr., 24, 28, 29; May 4; also Dec., 20, 1913.
Detailed reviews of satisfactory conditions of Five Civilized Tribes; statistics of some; need of protection; legislation recommended. Board of Indian Commissioners reports to President and Secretary of Interior. 1869–1890