Annual Report

For some time there have, now and then, come to my attention gross misstatements of fact and conditions as justification for the release of all Indians from Government supervision. It was so apparent that these efforts, whether so intended or not, might mislead the unadvised or give excuse for wrongdoing to the illy disposed that I decided to depart from my usual practice and wrote the letter of March 31, 1920, to the Women's Civic Center, of San Diego, Calif., which is here reproduced.

From the numerous expressions of approval of this letter, received from widely different sources, I feel that its purpose was timely and effective.

Mrs. F. W. HAMAN,

President, San Diego Women's Civic Center,

San Diego, Calif.

MY DEAR MRS. HAMAN: I have received a copy of the resolutions adopted On January 9, 1920, by the Women's Civic Center of San Diego, Calif., relative to the status of the American Indian, and, from inaccurate statements therein, I can not feel that your organization gave the matter careful consideration. Confusion as to the legal status of the Indian rests largely with those who have not studied the subject. The general allotment act of 1887, providing for the allotment of lands in severalty, with the amending provisions of the Burke Act of 1906, made the issuance of a fee-simple patent the primary legal requirement for citizenship of Indians, but also provided for the citizenship of any Indian by his voluntary separation from tribal relations and the adoption of the habits of civilized life. The later act of June 25, 1910, also provides for the allotment of lands to Indians from the public domain with the issuance of a fee patent as provided for in the case of reservation allotments.

Under my administration the Indian Bureau has made special effort to extend citizenship to the Indians and prepare them for its duties and responsibilities, In the declaration of policy issued April 17, 1917, I announced that every Indian

as soon as found to be competent to transact his own business affairs would be given full control of his property and have all his land and moneys turned over to him, after which he would no longer be a ward of the Government. In furtherance of this movement, on March 7, 1919, I instructed the superintendents of the various reservations as follows:

You are requested to submit to this office, at the earliest practicable date, a list of all Indians of one-half or less Indian blood, who are able-bodied and mentally competent, 21 years of age or over, together with a description of the land allotted to said Indians, and the number of the allotment. It is intended to issue patents in fee simple to such Indians.

Under this broadened policy Indians, both mixed and full-bloods, are being released from Government supervision as rapidly as their condition warrants. Whenever an Indian is found to be as competent as the average white man to transact the usual vocations of life, he is given a patent in fee, full control of his lands and moneys, and made a citizen of the United States. About 225,000 allotments of land have been made to Indians, and during the last three years 10,956 fee-simple patents have been issued, or 1,062 more than in the 10 years preceding.

I have, however, gone further and taken the position that the citizenship of Indians should not be based upon their ownership of lands, tribal or in severalty, in trust or in fee, but upon the fact that they are real Americans, and favorable report has been made on a bill introduced in Congress having for its purpose the conferring of citizenship on all Indians, but retaining control of the estates of incompetents.

I am fully convinced of the wisdom of this restriction and that competency must precede the control of property, otherwise great injustice would follow to thousands of Indians.

In this connection I said in my last annual report:

Of the large number of Indians still under the supervision of this bureau, it should be understood that more than 75,000 are situated practically the same as the reservation Navajo, Hualapai, Hopi, and Apache, whose property can not now, nor for many years to come, be wisely allotted. There are thousands of full-bloods and near full-bloods whose landed interests and whose personal possessions and prospects are suggestive of a capacity for independent self-support, but who are not qualified to withstand the competitive tests that would follow a withdrawal of Federal guidance. To abandon these at the point in their progress where elementary requirements are shaping into self-reliance and a comprehension of practical methods, would be to leave them a prey to every kind of unscrupulous trickery that masks itself in the conventions of civilization.

I shall not be outdone by anyone who would hasten Indian progress by the extension of release and obligation to those who are ready for this status, nor shall I be swerved from what I believe to be a course of just aid and protection to the less fortunate and less progressive Indian.

It is not necessary in establishing the patriotic and heroic part of the Indians in the World War to make such unwarrantable statements as that they purchased over $60,000,000 worth of Liberty bonds. I feel that their actual investment of $25,000,000 in this way is a magnificent showing. No one questions the war-time evidence of the Indian's Americanism or that it carries great weight in the plea for his citizenship, and you are advised that a bill approved by this bureau, which became a law in October, 1919, provides that Indians who served in the Military or Naval Establishments of the United States during the war

against Germany, and who have been honorably discharged, may be granted full citizenship by courts of competent jurisdiction.

Few things have been more obstructive to Indian welfare than the professional agitator who claims the abolishment of governmental supervision as the salvation of the Indian. There would be no wisdom in the withdrawal of Federal supervision over all Indians at this time. The result would be that a large number of old or incompetent Indians would soon be fleeced of their property and thrown upon the States as paupers and mendicants, and public protest against neglected conditions would surely and shortly follow. Such procedure would be unwise, unjust, and indefensible.

The Indian Service has been aided by sincere and sane criticism, for which it is grateful, but its work is too often seriously impeded through misrepresentations to the public by speakers and writers of superficial knowledge or excessive zeal, and, what is more unfortunate, by selfish adventurers of both the white and Indian races who are chiefly concerned for personal gain and who seek a condition that would enable them to profit at the expense of those who, if unprotected, would be duped by their clever rapacity. They should meet with a conservative reception. The public should be led by no one to draw conclusions from less than careful and impartial inquiry.

The Indian is moving forward. He is progressing numerically. His population is greater than at any time in the last half century. He is improving in health and knowledge of how to keep well. He is accepting hospital facilities that have been more than doubled in the last seven years, as shown by an increase of 10,000 patients treated annually. His medicine men are retiring from practice. Fifty thousand Indian families live in permanent homes and take an interest in sanitation. The women are becoming better housekeepers; their babies are better cared for, and infant mortality is decreasing.

The Indians are growing in knowledge and general intelligence. Three-fourths of their children eligible for attendance are enrolled in some school, Federal, State, or mission. Nearly two-thirds of their entire population speak English and about one-half read and write English. Their gain in the use of civilized speech has been remarkable in the last seven years.

Too much has been said about Indian school graduates going back to the blanket. Any assumption that more than a negligible percentage of such students are nonprogressive is unwarranted. In some instances where pupils not long in school have returned to backward home conditions the results have been disappointing, but by no means an entire loss. If these boys and girls carry no more than a speaking use of English into homes still under the thrall of barbaric ignorance, they have started a lifting force and planted imperishable seeds of civilization. Considering the effect of previous environment, habits, and prejudice, the school-trained Indian compares favorably with the average white student whose home surroundings as a rule are generally to his advantage.

The Indian's progress is too frequently measured by his garb. We want the Indian to cut his hair and wear citizens clothes. We urge him to live in a white man's house, but if he does not entirely and promptly respond in all of these respects it is not proven that he is not a progressive man. Sometimes young men returning from our schools to the reservations resume certain outward forms of tribal fashion as a matter of expediency or social deference to their elders, but their activities show what they are; their farming, their stock raising, the homes they build and the way they furnish them, and their desire to have their children go to school, are the best evidences of their progress.

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