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REPORT

Of THE

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

ON THR

PROCEEDINGS

O? TH1

FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE

OF TH8

SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

t?SL& i#

THE UNIVERSITY OF OHIO

COLUMBUS, OHIO

OCTOBER i.M7l 1911

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PRIHTMD BY ORORR OF THE EXEC0T1VI COUNCIL)

■ Washington, o. c.

X«2 \THE UNIVERSITY

OF ILLINOIS
LIBRARY

37CUoe
SO

V.IUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LitiRAf;,
NOV „ 3 1916\

\

THE FIRST CONFERENCE OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS.

SOME OF THE INDIAN MEMBERS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE.

(Photo reproduced by courtesy of the Indian Schoo^ Journal, Chilocco, OTcla.)





i
iREPORT

OF THE

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

ON THE

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE

OF THE

SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

WASHINGTON, D. C.
1912D> I i> b

■'S6r

S/t t

THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE.

PREFACE.

For a century at least the thinking American Indian has
dreamed of organization for the purpose of the protection and
the advancement of his race. There have been many successful
attempts in the annals of the aboriginal American, race to con-
federate certain tribes and nations, and even parts of different
linguistic stocks have united for mutual purposes, but the idea of
uniting the entire race or a considerable portion of it within a
large geographical area heretofore does not seem to have im-
pressed any Indian as strongly as Tecumseh, the famous
Shawnee.

The common ground which every tribe had in Tecumseh's
time was the oppression of the red race by the various divisions
of the white race that had invaded America. Much of this
oppression was due to pure love of conquest and the consequent
destruction of a people possessing inadequate means of defense.
Much of it also was due to the natural misunderstanding that

0	exists between races of radically different environments' and dif-
r ferent stages of ethnic culture. It was also due largely to the

^ conception 011 the part of the white race that it had inherently
^ superior rights and was morally justified in oppressing and
exterminating the original occupant of America. Some of these
^ideas unfortunately exist today.

1	With the possession of the continent secure to the govern-
ments of the various branches of the European nations who have
-^established themselves in America, the original occupants, the
C^red race, have been crowded aside. The Indian is no longer a
^considerable factor, numerically, even though he forms one of
^the five great races of mankind. Divided into innumerable bands,
J"?each speaking a different dialect and still further divided by scores
fjof radically different languages, the Indian hitherto has been

unable to act as a unit.

5117974

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Torn from his original environment and stripped of the greater
portion of his possessions, the Indian finds himself thrust into
new conditions, which, in some instances, he fails to comprehend.
He finds his entire surroundings unnatural and thus he is forced
into a/n anomalous and abnormal position. A reservation does
riot afford a normal condition of human environment, the condi-
tion of wardship is not conducive of independence or of develop-
ment. The paternal system of the Federal Government which
now exercises control over about 300,000 native Americans has
bred many gross evils, and the Indian of today as a result of that
system finds himself unable to assert himself in a natural way.
He is allowed no voice in his destiny, for it is the paternal hand
of "the Great White Father" that assumes the right to guide
him. There are conditions where such authority may be neces-
sary, but rapid steps should be taken to remove such conditions
instead of promoting them. Not only has the Indian been ab-
ruptly torn from his natural environment but he has been thrust
into a false environment inconsistent with the modern conception
of enlightened conditions. He is thus doubly wronged and given
scant opportunity to secure his rights as a man free born. It is
such conditions that have bred the widespread dissatisfaction and
restlessness of the many tribes. Thus he is held in the grip of
false conditions, neither able nor caring to assume his former
condition nor able to adjust himself to the normal conditions of
modern society. He is neither a citizen nor a foreigner. As to
his exact status and just what his real rights are are things,
obscured by conflicting and complex legislation. One great law
makes him a citizen and another denies him the privilege of
exercising the rights of such. Thrust upon a reservation he is
told that he is a nation and that the reservation is his country.
Contracts made with his " nation " are dignified with the title of
" treaty," yet he is unable to exercise the rights of a nation or to
enforce the provisions of the treaty.1 An agent, who is generally
a political appointee, becomes his sovereign and acts as his
supreme court. Education, missionary efforts, the benevolence

3 The treaty system was abandoned in 1871.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

5

of the churches and industrial missions have done much for the
Indian, but as long as his position is what it is, as long as he has
an undetermined status and as long as his environment is incom-
patible with that of the country in which he lives, so long will
good efforts be wasted or be characterized by small results. An
immense amount of energy, time and money will be expended,
with results small in proportion. The thinking Indian, therefore,
asks that he be treated as an American and that a just opportunity
be given whereby the race as a whole may develop and demon-
strate its capacity for enlightenment and progress. Under cer-
tain circumstances history has demonstrated that individual In-
dians are capable of rising to positions of the highest honor and
responsibility. Already the American Indian has proven his
value as a constructive force in the State. The thinking Indian
of today, viewing events and conditions in their true perspective,
asks, therefore, that the entire race may be given the freedom
which will enable it to develop normally as an American people
in America.

It is with tbese and other similar ideas in mind that the modern
Indian who for a long time has been studying the needs of his
race sees the necessity for race organization, and holds it as the
means by which many of his vexing problems may be solved.ORGANIZATION OF THE SOCIETY.

After a correspondence covering a period of more than two
years between Professor F. A. McKenzie, of the Ohio State
University, Columbus, Ohio, and a number of representative
American Indians, six Indians, Dr. Charles A. Eastman, Dr. Carlos
Montezuma, Thomas L. Sloan, Hon. Ctoas. E. Dagenett, Miss Laura
M. Cornelius and Henry Standing Bear, met at Ohio State Uni-
versity on April 3-4, 1911 and started a movement for the organ-
ization of a society whose aim should be the highest interests of
the race. The movement was given the temporary name of the
American Indian Association. During the April meeting the
following platform of purposes and policies was adopted as the
objects of the new organization:

1st. To promote the good citizenship of the Indians of this
country, and to help in all progressive movements of the North
Anlerican Indians.

2nd. To promote all efforts looking to the advancement of the
Indian in enlightenment which makes him free, as a man, to
develop according to the natural laws of social evolution.

3d. To exercise the right to oppose any movement which ap-
pears detrimental to the race.

4th. In all conferences and meeting of this Association, there
shall be broad, free discussion of all subjects bearing upon the
welfare of the race.

5th. This Association will direct its energies exclusively to
general principles and universal interests, and will not allow
itself to be used for any personal or private interests. The honor
of the race and the good of the country will always be
paramount.

78

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

6th. It is the sense of the Committee that every member of the
Association should exert his influence in every legitimate way to
bring before each member of the race the necessity of promoting
good citizenship.

For the purpose of broader and more effective work the Tem-
porary Executive Committee was enlarged as follows: Charles
E. Dagenett, Peoria, Chairman, Miss Laura M. Cornelius, Oneida,
Secretary, Mrs. Rosa B. La Flesche, Chippezva, Corresponding Sec-
retary and Treasurer, Dr. Charles A. Eastman, Sioux, William Haz-
lett, Blackfoot, Arthur C. Parker, Seneca, Harry Kohpay, Osage,
Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Apache, Thomas L. Sloan, Omaha, John M.
Oskinson, Cherokee, Hon. Charles D. Carter, Choctaw, Miss Emma
Johnson, Pottawatomie, Henry Standing-Bear, Sioux, Howard E.
Gansworth, Tus car or a, Henry Roe-Cloud, Winnebago, Mrs. Marie
L. Baldwin, Chippezva, Robert De Poe, Klamath, Charles Doxon,
Onondaga, Benjamin Caswell, Chippewa. Prof. F. A. McKenzie
was appointed local representative at Columbus, Ohio.

During the April committee meeting the following communica-
tion was received:

Columbus, Ohio, April 4, 1911.
To the Native Americans of the United States, Greeting:

Word has come to our ears that you are planning to meet in
national assembly for the first time in history to discuss the prob-
lems which devolve upon the Indian race, and we, therefore, hasten
to invite you to light the camp-fire first in the city named for the first
white man who visited these shores. Let us, if we may, forget any
animosities of the past, and jointly work for those conditions and
those policies which in the future will justify peace because based
upon the principles of equity, intelligence and progress. The high
position which your leaders are reaching make us eager to welcome
the representatives of all the tribes in .the name of the State Uni-CHARLES E. DAGENETT
(Peoria)SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

9

varsity, the city of Columbus, and the civic and religious bodies of
our city.

(Signed) W. O. THOMPSON,

President, Ohio State University,

GEORGE S. MARSHALL,

Mayor of Columbus,

CHAS. J. PRETZMAN,

President, Chamber of Commerce,

JOSEPH TAYLOR BRITAN,

President, Ministerial Association,
H. M. BLAIR,

Secretary, Y. M. C. A.,

E. O. RANDALL,

Secretary, State Historical & Archaeological
Society,

J. M. HENDERSON,

President, Columbus Federation of Labor.

The invitation was accepted and Columbus named as the place
for the first annual conference, the date being set as October 12-17.

In calling this convention the committee set forth the following
reasons why such a conference should be held:

Reasons for a National Indian Conference.

1.	The highest ethical forces of America have for a generation
been endeavoring on a large scale and in a systematic way to bring
the native American into the modern life. It is well to see whether
these efforts have brought results.

2.	The time has come when the Indian should be encouraged to
develop self-help. This can be achieved only with the attainment
of a race consciousness and a race leadership. We cannot predict
the race leader, but a gathering of the educated, progressive mem-
bers of all the tribes is a prerequisite to his discovery.10

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

3.	The Indian has certain contribution's of value to offer to our
government and our people. These contributions will be made
more efficiently if made in an authorized and collective way. They
will, at least they may, sa>ve us immense losses from mistaken
policies which we otherwise might follow.

4.	The white man is somewhat uncomfortable under a convic-
tion that a " century of dishonor " has not been redeemed. If in
any degree he can convince himself and his red brother that he is
willing to do what he can for the race whose lands he has occupied,
a new step toward social justice will have been taken. The city
of Columbus can well afford to lead the nation in such a noble
movement.

MINUTES OF THE SECOND COMMITTEE MEETING.

Tuesday, June 20, 1911.

The temporary Executive Committee of the Society held its
second meeting at the home of Miss Laura M. Cornelius, Seymour,
Wisconsin, June 20th and 21st.

Those present of this Committee are as follows:

Charles E. Dagenett, Chairman, Denver, Colorado.

Prof. F. A. McKenzie, Local Representative, Columbus, Ohio.

Miss Laura M. Cornelius, Secretary, Seymour, Wisconsin.

Miss Emma D. Johnson, Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Mrs. Rosa B. La Flesche, Columbus, Ohio, Corresponding Secre-
tary and Treasurer.

The Committee had the advantage of the advice and suggestions
of Messrs. Chester P. Cornelius, Esq., of Seymour, and Dennison
Wheelock, Esq., of De Pere, Wisconsin.

The Chairman opened the meeting Tuesday a. m., June 20, by
calling attention to the need of a letter to be sent out to the Indians
of the country, giving information about the Conference to be held
in Columbus, Ohio, next October, and that this letter should be
accompanied by a pamphlet, giving all necessary and detailed infer-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

ii

mation. It was moved, seconded and carried that such a letter
and pamphlet be sent out. The members of the Committee present
then selected extracts from letters which had been sent in by absent
members and formulated what is known as the " Indian letter."
Each letter sent in by absent members was read by the Secretary
and discussed by all members present. The whole forenoon was
devoted to this work.

The meeting adjourned for luncheon.

After luncheon the meeting continued on the subject of the
" Indian letter " a part of the afternoon.

The pamphlet, like the " Indian letter," was formulated from
ideas obtained in letters submitted by all the members of the Execu-
tive Committee.

The next question brought before the Committee was, whether or
not a " non-Indian " letter should be written, and by whom ? It
was moved and seconded that such a letter be written, and by
unanimous agreement it was decided that Professor F. A. McKenzie
write the letter on the letter-head of the Department of Sociology
and Economics, of th$ Ohio State University, and that the letter be
sent out from Columbus. It was also agreed that each one of
these letters be accompanied by a card, stating that the letter was
sent at the suggestion of the person furnishing the name and
address.

Membership of the Conference.

It was unanimously agreed that every tribe be asked to select
and send its own delegate, and the Executive Committee shall issue
invitations to all of those designated by the tribes as delegates, unless
for very special reasons their judgment dictates otherwise. The
Executive Committee will also invite any other Indians whom they
think it advisable to have as delegates to the Conference.

The question of changing the name of the Association to indicate
more clearly its membership and its purpose was brought before
the Committee, but it was finally decided wise to leave that matter
for the decision of the October Conference.

The meeting adjourned until the following day.12

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Wednesday, June 21, 1911.

This session was called to order by the Chairman, who presented
the subject of the programme for the October Conference.

Upon the written request of Dr. Chas. A. Eastman, Chairman of
the Programme Committee, who was absent, Professor F. A.
McKenzie was asked to act as Chairman.

Every member of the Executive Committee present was furnished
with a skeleton programme sent out by Dr. Eastman, previous to
the meeting. Work on this began by the discussion of the topics
suggested on the programme and the persons selected to discuss
them. The matter of assigning subjects to the different persons
whose names had been suggested seemed a most difficult task, so
after much thought and talk on the part of every member present,
it was deemed advisable to allow the speakers to select their choice
of subjects from those named. It was moved, seconded and carried
that the Corresponding Secretary send out to all members of the
Conference, indicating their intention to attend, the programme,
asking them to suggest competent persons as speakers for each
topic, and to ask each member of the Committee, " Which topic
would you prefer to discuss yourself ? "

Upon motion, it was ordered that the writers of papers must
submit them to the Chairman of the Programme Committee, care
of The American Indian Association, Columbus, O., not later than
September first next.

A motion was made, seconded and carried that Prof. McKenzie
be authorized to ask President W. O. Thompson, of the Ohio State
University, Columbus, O., to act as Chairman of the Thursday
evening meeting. That he shall invite whomsoever he chooses to
assist him in welcoming the Indian delegates. He shall also intro-
duce the Indian speakers responding to the addresses of welcome.

It was deemed advisable to have an entertainment Friday
evening, October 13th, and charge admission. Admission price to
be fifty and twenty-five cents. This evening's entertainment has
been left an open question, to be filled by correspondence.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

13

It was agreed that the Executive Committee shall control the
Saturday evening meeting (October 14th), which is to be addressed
by non-Indians of national reputation.

It was moved, seconded and carried that the Sunday afternoon
meeting be held in Memorial Hall, that there shall be no stated
admission price, but that a collection shall be taken at the meeting.

This meeting shall be for the purpose of presenting the religious
and moral problems of the Indian, and that Rev. Frank Wright be
aisked to be the closing and principal speaker of this meeting.
Three of four other speakers, among whom shall be Mr. Steven
Jones, on " Y. M. C. A. among Indians," may be asked to speak
(10 minutes each).

It was agreed that there shall go out with the pamphlet to all
those indicating their intention to attend the Conference, a request
that they come prepared to submit either a platform or such planks
of the platform, covering such subjects as they wish to be consid-
ered and voted upon by the Conference.

Each writer of a paper will be asked to submit plank covering
the subject on which he is writing, and at the same time that his
paper is submitted. This is to be submitted to the Conference for
its action.

It was unanimously agreed that the officers of the Executive
Committee furnish credentials to any member of the Association,
or any other Indian, desiring to attend the Universal Races Con-
gress,1 in (London, during July, 1911. Mr. Chas. E. Dagenett,
Denver, Colorado, was appointed a committee of one to take charge
of this matter.

A motion was made, seconded and carried that the Chairman
appoint a committee to formulate the Constitution and By-Laws for
the Association, and request that same be presented for consider-
ation at the opening meeting of the Conference, Thursday after-
noon, October 12, 1911.

1 Dr. Charles A. Eastman received such credentials and attended the Races
Congress, representing the American Indian in that body. His address was
on " The American Indian."14

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

The meeting adjourned, subject to the call of the Chairman at
some time in the near future.

(Signed) L. M. CORNELIUS,

Secretary.

June 22, 1911.

Objects of the Society.

The Committee, after its Seymour meeting, issued the following
statement:

The American Indian Association is primarily an organization of
American Indians. It proposes to bring together all progressive
Indians and friends of Indian progress for the purpose of promot-
ing the highest interests of the Indian as a race and as an individual.
It asserts that any condition of living, habit of thought or racial
characteristic that unfits the Indian for modern environment is
detrimental and conducive only of individual and racial incompe-
tence. While the Association and its founders most sincerely
appreciate the splendid elements and achievements of the old-time
Indian culture and the methods by which early conditions were met
it realizes most keenly the inefficacy of these methods in meeting
the conditions of modern times. It asserts that the life hope of
the Indian of America depends upon the ability of the Indian to
meet enlightened races upon an equal footing in all walks of life.

The Association seeks to bring about a) condition whereby the
white race and all races may have a better and a broader knowledge
of the red race, its claims, its needs and its ability to contribute
materially and spiritually to modern civilization.

The Association asserts the right of the Indian to an active voice
in the rights and destiny of his race and will ever seek to defend
all rights and just claims of the race. One of its high aims is to
see the development of conditions whereby the Indian as an indi-
vidual and as a race may take his place as a man among men, as
an active member of the great commonwealth, amd independent of
all support not accorded to any body of people who have achieved
a position equal to the most enlightened.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

15

In stating this the Association emphatically asserts its belief that
the Indian possesses natural ability and aptitude for every life
mission and that under proper conditions these capacities will find
a useful and successful development.

It believes that the development of individual ability and the
stimulation of high ideals far better than the impressing of every
man into a preconceived type. It therefore believes that Indian
progress depends upon awakening the abilities of every individual
Indian, the realization of individual responsibility for self and race,
and the duty of responding to the call to activity.

The Association expects every progressive Indian to become an
Active member. To its Associate membership it invites all non-
Indians interested in its principles. Their kindest friends, however,
will realize and insist that the Indians' first help must come from
and through themselves. Let them come out of the silence, voice
their common demands, and develop their strength by serious dis-
cussion in national council. Not all will agree, but all can learn
from each other, and will find many points of agreement which will
lead to common action for the good of all.

To-day the white man does not believe in Indian capacity — does
not believe that he has either the intelligence or the dignity to hold
such a Conference as is here proposed. The Conference alone will
by its success win great things for the race. Everyone, however,
should realize that this is not an association organized for the pur-
pose of antagonizing or opposing the efforts of the government or
of other agencies in their efforts in behalf of the Indian, but to aid
every move tending toward race and national advancement.

The following communication was mailed to about 4,000 Indians:

THE AMERICAN INDIAN ASSOCIATION.

Columbus, Ohio, June 25, 1911.

Dear Fellow Indian:

What is to be the future of the American Indian? Is he to
continue to be the creature of outside forces? Every Indian says,
No! We earnestly believe the time has come when the Ameri-16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

can Indian should take the initiative in the struggle for his race
betterment, and to answer in his own way some of the vital ques-
tions that confront him. The first step in this direction is, we
believe, the revival of the old face-to-face discussion around the
" Old Council Fire " composed of Indian men and women not of
one tribe only but of all the tribes in the United States. Will you
not help to form a council to take up the industrial, educational,
religious and legal problems confronting our race? This is a repre-
sentative government and it is time we were heard.

A great many problems have arisen out of the question of race
adaptation to new conditions. Mistaken work will continue unless
the Indian expresses himself, for no one knows the heart of the
Indian as the Indian himself.

An organization that shall voice the best judgment of the Indian
people, and that shall command the attention of the United States
has become a vital necessity. In no other way can we so effectively
mould public opinion and bring about conditions for the good of
the Indian race.

In order to deal with, this great question and to secure more
united action, leading ultimately to effective organization for race
progress and race betterment, it became evident that an association
of American Indians should be formed. A number of the signers
of this letter met in Columbus, Ohio, in April to arrange for the
first meeting to be held in October. At that time it was felt neces-
sary to draft the statement of "Purpose" which you will find in
the inclosed pamphlet. We believe it is a statement which will
appeal to every lover of our race. Friends of the Indian are rising
up everywhere to endorse this movement. Does it appeal to you?
This will be the first association of its kind, and it is hoped that
every person of Indian blood will take pride in assisting to make
it one of the leading and most beneficial associations in the United
States. Its primary object will be to serve in every way possible
the best interests of the race. You alone, as an Indian, can realize
what an immense advantage will come to you personally by what-
ever gain the Association shall secure for our race. Personal free-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

17

dom and personal advancement are dependent upon racial rights
and racial achievement.

This is your opportunity to help your people. Becom^ an active
member of the Association. If you cannot become active to the
extent of attending the Conference, you may be active enough to
become a member and send us at least $2.00 to help defray expenses.
More than that will help to make the greatest convention of the
kind ever held, and do a greater good for our cause. At least you
can send in a list of names of progressive Indians whom you know,
with their addresses, and interest as many of them as you can.
We hope you will do all three. Please let us< know to what extent
we may depend upon you. We want you to feel free to express
yourself fully with regards to the Association and the Conference.

Further information concerning the Conference will be mailed
to you upon receipt of your intention to attend. There is enclosed
a little pamphlet that will give you additional information in regard
to the Association and the Conference.

Yours for results,

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

White friends of Indian progress were sent the following letter
by Professor F. A. McKenzie, who was elected the Columbus
representative for the Society.

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
W. O. Thompson, D. D., LL. D., President.

DEPARTMENT OF
economics and sociology

J. E. HAGEETY
M. B. HAMMOND
F. A. MCKENZIE

?-c-LO°iS*SL	Columbus, Ohio, June 25, 1911.

W. F. GEPHART	'	'

C. C. HUNTINGTON
BEATRICE SHEETS

The persistent desire of the white man from the days of Columbus
to the present to bring the native people into whatever of civiliza-
tion he himself possessed has been largely negatived by an equally
persistent cupidity and frequent erroneous judgment. The benevo-i8	proceedings of the first conference

lent endeavors of state and church and people have not, however,
been entirely lost. There has been developed, or there has sur-
vived, a body of Indian men and women who have the vision and
spirit and ability when joined in a common movement, to interpret
each race to the other and to inspire the despondent of their own
race, through the sacrifice inherent in leadership, to a splendid
upward struggle. By organization and by conference a race con-
sciousness and a race confidence will be developed. Not lack of
capacity but isolation and despondency are the destruction of a
primitive people. Optimism and union will be their salvation.

The importance of this move toward self-help is so great that
the friends of the race cannot afford to let the plans fail of success.
By public discussion of his own industrial, educational, legal, and
religious problems, the Indian will contribute powerfully to their
solution. I, therefore, deem it an honor and privilege to be author-
ized to invite you to become an Associate member of the American
Indian Association. Your name and your membership fee of two
dollars (or more, if it be your pleasure to so favor us) will assist
in making the October Conference a larger and more potent body.
As citizens of the United States we owe it, do we not, not only to
the native people but also to ourselves to demonstrate an efficient
friendship for the Indian? The greatness of nation and of self
is measured in the ability to see beyond race lines.

Trusting to receive your approval and cooperation, I am,

Very truly yours,

f. a. Mckenzie,

Columbus Representative The American
Indian Association.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

19

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE.

The following programme was drawn up by the Programme
Committee:

Conference Programme.

Thursday, October 12.

Morning session: 9.00 o'clock.

Registration...................Ohio Union, University Campus.

Afternoon: 3.00 o'clock.

Organization..................Ohio Union, University Campus.

Evening: 8.00 o'clock.

Addresses of Welcome....................Memorial Hall, City.

Presiding Officer, Dr. W. O. Thompson, President Ohio State

University.

Hon. Judson S. Harmon, Governor of Ohio.

George S. Marshall, Mayor of Columbus.

Fred B. Herbst, President of the Chamber of Commerce.

Responses — Indians...................................

Chairman of Association.

Hon. Charles D. Carter.

Miss Laura M. Cornelius.

Mr. Thomas L. Sloan.

Address...............................................

Hon. R. G. Valentine, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.20	PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Friday, October 13.

Morning: 9.00 o'clock.

Industrial Problems.

Chairman — Chas. E. Dagenett.

Subject: "Indian in Agriculture"................J. E. Shields.

Marvin Jack.

" The Indian in Industry "............Miss Laura M. Cornelius.

General Discussion.

Subject: " The Indian as a Skilled Mechanic"......Cbais. Doxon.

General Discussion.

Subject: "Modern Home-making and the Indian Woman"

Mrs. Anna Dawson Wilde.
Mrs. Marie L. Baldwin.

General Discussion.

Afternoon: 3.00 o'clock.

Ohio Union — University Campus.

Educational Problems.

Chairman — Charles Doxon.

Subject: "The Philosophy of Indian Education"........

Arthur C. Parker.
Dr. G. J. Frazier.

General Discussion.

Subject: "Higher Education for Indians "—Howard E. Gansworth,
General Discussion.

Subject: "The Preservation of Native Indian Art"......

Mrs. Angel Decora Deitz.

General Discussion.

Subject: "Indian in the Profession"...........John M. Oskison.

Dr. O. DeForest Davis.

General Discussion.

Evening: 8.00 o'clock.

Entertainment............................Memorial Hall, City.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS	21

Saturday, October 14.

Morninig: 9.00 o'clock.

Ohio Union — University Campus.

Legal and Political Problems.

Chairman — Dennison Wheelock.

Subject: "Reservation System, Administration"..........

Thomas L. Sloan.
De Witt D. Hare.

General Discussion.

Subject: "Land-holding"......................Charles Kealear.

General Discussion.

Subject: "Trust Funds and their Management"..........

J. Hampton Tucker.

General Discussion.

Afternoon: 2.00 o'clock.

Ohio Union — University Campus.

Chairman — Thomas L. Sloan.

Subject: "The Law and the Indian of the United States"

Hiram Chase.
Thomas W. Mani.

General Discussion.

Subject: " Citizenship for the Indian "... .Hon. Charles D. Carter.

Chester P. Cornelius.

General Discussion.

Evening: 8.00 o'clock.

University Chapel — University Campus.

Address—"The North American Indian"...............

Dr. Charles A. Eastman
Short Voluntary Addresses by Associate Members.

Open Discussion.22

PROCEEDINGS OP THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Sunday, October 15.

Morning: 9.00 o'clock.

Indian speakers to be delegated to the various churches of the city.

Afternoon: 3.00 o'clock.

Memorial Hall, City.

Moral and Religious Problems.

Rev. Frank H. Wright.	Rev. William Holmes.

Henry Roe Cloud.	Rev. Sherman Coolidge,

P. J. Deloria.	Robert H. Hall,

Secy. Indian Y. M. C. A.

Evening.

Indian speakers to be delegated to the various churches of the City.

Monday, October 16.

Morning: 9.00 o'clock.

Election of Officers.

Adoption of Platform, Constitution and By-Laws.

THE CONFERENCE.

The Conference opened Thursday morning, October 12th, at the
Ohio Union building, on the campus of the Ohio State University.
Registration occupied the greater part of the morning. At two in
the ajfternoon the Temporary Chairman, Charles E. Dagenett,
called the meeting to order and requested an invocation by one of
the clergymen members. By unanimous consent it was asked that
the Temporary Chairman and Secretary be retained in their respect-
ive positions throughout the Conference.

The Chairman appointed the following committees: Committee to
prepare the Constitution and By-Laws, J. M. Oskinson, Arthur C.
Parker, Thomas L. Sloan, Laura M. Cornelius and Charles E.
Dagenett; Committee on Statement of Purposes, Dr. Charles A.
Eastman, Rev. William Holmes, Henry Roe-Cloud, and Mrs. Rosa
B. La Flesche.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

23

Thursday (Oct. 12) Evening Session.

The Thursday evening session was the first public session and
was held in Memorial Hall, the largest place of assembly in the
city of Columbus. Dr. W. O. Thompson, President of Ohio
State University, presided. Addresses of welcome were made by
the Secretary of the Governor of Ohio; Hon. George S. Marshall,
Mayor of Columbus, and Hon, F. H. Hysell, representing the
Chamber of Commerce. Responses were made by Arthur C. Par-
ker, Charles E. Dagenett, Laura M. Cornelius, and Thomas L.
Sloan.

The principal address of the evening was by Hon. Robert G.
Valentine, and was as follows:

Address of Hon. Robert G. Valentine, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs.

" It has long been the custom of the Indian Office in writing
letters to Indians to address them as ' My friends,' and sign ' Your
friend/ It is a good old custom. It is the great need of the
tangled conditions which exi&t in the present economic and socio-
logical structure of our society, that everything which brings to
the front, and emphasizes, and enlightens, the idea of friendship,
be observed among us in every possible way. Peace on earth, good
will toward men, the golden rule, those wonderful three chapters
in the book of Matthew beginning with the beatitudes in the fifth
chapter and ending with the seventh, are becoming every day, not
only standards in an ethical world more or less apart from the daily
struggle on our farms and in our offices and in our shops, but are
becoming an integral part of the very structure and muscle and
nerve of business and commerce themselves.

" The more destructive processes of competition are giving way
gradually to a proper harmonizing of interests. The only question
is, not of the superiority of combination to competition but of the
method of combination, so as to retain in the sovereign of this
country, which is all the people, benefits which are their right and
privilege. On friendship in its personal and individual sense much24

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

has been written; but on it in its sociological sense, much remains
to be said; and when such chapter of our progress in America is
truly written, Indian affairs will be dealt with there, for Indian
affairs is one of the great tasks of this age of friendship. Many
people will not believe this statement; even all those of us here, who
are alive to the work, may well feel that the work is so undermined
by mistakes and overlaid by corruption, that it is mere idle dream-
ing to think of friendship as of its essence. But friendship is of
its essence. At leaist, this is the one statement I shall make here
to-night on which I feel justified in being dogmatic to the extent of
saying that it is the only point in all Indian affairs on which I dare
to be dogmatic, in that I feel that I am true to myself in addressing
you here,— all of you, as my friends.

" At this point my dogmatism ends. I had hoped not even to be
asked to speak, further, at least, than the few words I shall want to
say to you a little later on in closing as to how deep my personal
belief in this Conference is, and the great good which I believe is
coming to Indian Affairs from it; but I have been asked to say a
little something before I come to that, and I will gladly lay before
you two subjects.

" The first is very closely related to the thoughts which we were
thinking together a few moments ago. The substance of friendship
is Truth; its breadth and finer spirit is candor, frankness, openness,
or, in the technical political language of the day, publicity; and
probably the one policy which I have the most undeviatingly pur-
sued since my first day as Commissioner is to welcome without
reserve in the Indian Office and throughout the Field, publicity of
every sort.

" In pursuing this policy of throwing the Indian Service and all
its affairs wide open to the light and air, and allowing everyone
access to our records and the freest possible opportunity to study
conditions on the Indian reservations, I*have frequently been- urged
to draw the line between so-called responsible and irresponsible per-
sons. I have refused to draw that line,— first, because it is useless.
It is true, of course, that an irresponsible person, frequently carry-
ing a large amount of ignorance into his researches, and comingSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

25

out not only no wiser but more confused, can cause a certain
amount of temporary trouble; but, look at the alternative: always
forced publicity with wrong motives impugned instead of a candid
disclosure of facts as they are.

" The experience of the past has shown that even the most
irresponsible criticism will find support in some quarter and fre-
quently the criticisms passed are just; for the Indian Office, like all
other human organizations, has its faults, makes even serious mis-
takes, and sometimes does things wrong. Furthermore, positive
injury has come to the Indian Service from not enough free and
general concrete discussion of Indian policies.

" Indian affairs are, even under the best possible administration,
peculiarly ai field for the grafter, and all other wrongdoers. The
lands and the moneys of the Indians offer a bait which the most
satiated fish will not refuse, and frequently a whole local com-
munity will get on the wrong track toward the Indians. I have
heard genuinely respectable members of a community say that the
best thing that could happen to the Indian was to lose all his lands
and all his money, and have to go to work. They say this not-
withstanding the fact that by such a time the Indian would have no
physique, physical or moral, left, for drink and disease are allies
of those who seek to prey upon him.

" To offset all this, not only the utmost publicity as to all Indian
affairs, but the freest discussion of all divergent views with regard
to them is essential. I have felt it a distinct loss to my adminis-
tration that many persons who are accustomed to think and write
on Indian subjects have never paid the Indian Office a visit, and
sought to learn first hand here what we are trying to do, and how.
It is my hope that I may meet personally every such person.

" If things of any sort are going wrong, every officer in the
service, on behalf of his own reputation, is the most concerned in
righting them, and no man who is doing his duty can have any-
thing to fear from any kind of an investigation. While some of
the reservations are what might still be technically called closed
reservations, I prefer to handle them all as open propositions. The26

PROCEEDINGS OP THE FIRST CONFERENCE

day has gone by, even if it were still desirable, which I do not
admit, to run them from a more or less closed administrative point
of view on the theory that " too many cooks spoil the broth." They
must be run to-day, and I am glad that it is so, in the light of ful-
lest publicity, and the Indians, however incompetent, must like the
rest of us to some extent run their risks from interested or disin-
terested or dishonest advisors and learn themselves to choose sound
counsel. The number of people now settling around the reserva-
tions, and even on most of them, makes this course inevitable.

" The fact that this is so, makes the work of every superintendent
a vastly difficult one. While he must listen to all and suppress
nothing, it is still his duty to act as he thinks right, only, of course,
being careful to see that his reasons are clearly stated for the public
to consider. If any superintendent feels that this is too difficult a
task he should be somewhat comforted by the fact that the Com-
missioner has even more of such difficulties to encounter.

" Under my second subject I want to lay before you a few par-
ticular problems on which we are now working. Each and every
one is a problem on which I need particularly the help of those of
you who are outside the Government service. Under the tremen-
dous pressure of daily routine, those of us in the Government
service too frequently are in danger of losing the thread of our
work, of wandering from the right path. It requires a much
stronger mind and clearer vision than I dare to hope that I possess
to feel assured that one is not blinded by the detail to the main
issue. I frequently have to get away from my desk, and go into
the woods or on a hill top,— actually, physically, in order to bring
my mind to bear right on an important problem. I feel among you
here as if I were again on a hill top.

"As to many of the problems now before me, I have already
come to some more or less tentative conclusions. As to others, I
am frank to say I have no conclusions at all worth calling such; but
as to either or both of these classes, I need your help. Where I
have some kind of a conclusion, I may be wrong; and where I have
none, I need your help doubly."SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

27

The Commissioner then spoke on the following topies :

1.	I have been going slower and slower on the issuance of
patents in fee. Do you think that I am going slow enough, or too
sIqw? I realize that this is a question which lies at the very root
of all that the Indian Office is trying to do.

2.	Out of 300,000, about 166,000 are potential citizens of the
United States. Industries and economic developments, trust funds,
State school system.

3.	Making reservations semi-communistic, self-supporting com-
munities.

4.	Whether that part of the Act of May 8, 1906, deferring citi-
zenship was a mistake or not.

5.	Social grouping of allottees.

6.	9,000 Indian children not in any school.

7.	Dr. Gulictas meeting of physicians.

8.	General Jurisdictional Act.

9.	Co-education in Indian service.

10.	Segregation of tribal funds.

11.	State liquor co-operation.

12.	Promotion from field to office, new examinations. Indians
pushing up — 6,000, 30 per cent, are Indians.

13.	Ask for personal letters criticising outcoming annual report,
and suggestions at all times.

" It is because of the existence of these problems and the mighty
questions they raise that when I first heard of this proposed meet-
ing I felt that a new day had come in Indian Affairs. The public
opinion of the country as a whole has its attention so largely taken
up with other particular big problems that its reaction on Indian
affairs is too spasmodic, too local, or too superficial to be funda-
mental help in our work.

" I hope this organization will continue to broaden its member-
ship till it includes every critic of the Government, every class and
shade of opinion. The minute that any man thinks that this meet-
ing and its successors is not sympathetic with his ideas, and so
plans to stay away, that minute he becomes the one person most28

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

urgently needed here. And the one thing that I venture to say to
you about your internal affairs is that the greatest mistake you can
make is to think that you yourselves do not stand most in need of
that man.

"We need an All-Indian public opinion. This meeting is epochal
in that it and its successors can bring to us that help."

FRIDAY MORNING SESSION.

October 13, 1911.

The Conference was called to order at 9.30 o'clock.

The Chairman introduced Mr. J. E. Shields, who presented a
paper on "The Indian in Agriculture."

In explanation, Mr. Shields said :

" Just a word before I start my paper. You will notice in my
paper here that I have just mentioned the tribes of the Arapahoes
and Cheyennes. We have, of course, many more tribes represented
among us, but since I only know about the Arapahoes and Chey-
ennes, I make mention of just those two tribes in my paper."

THE INDIAN IN AGRICULTURE.

By J. E. Shields.

One of the greatest problems that has confronted the govern-
ment of the United States has been the question of how to deal
with the Indian, and lead him from former environments, sever him
from the previously formed nomadic habits of hunter and plains-
man, and transform him into a citizen and agriculturist.

There have been volumes written upon this subject, and I do not
presume to, within the short time allotted to the reading of this
paper, advance any new theories or enter into a discussion of the
many complicated questions that naturally present themselves in
relation to the Indian affairs and the governmental policy in dealing
with him as a ward or as a citizen. My purpose is to state as briefly. + 'f.

J. E. SHIELDSSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

29

as possible what the Indian ha® accomplished in Oklahoma, and to
point out some things in connection with his development which are
within themselves a splendid prophecy of future success. It must
not be forgotten that but little more than a quarter of a century
ago the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were restless, wandering
plainsmen, for whom the reservation had no attraction and whose
untamed spirits tenaciously held out against the restraints which
the rapidly advancing westward marching civilization was slowly
but surely throwng around them. The buffalo had disappeared
from the western plains. The settlements were gradually pushing
westward, and the time had come for the passing of the old and
the coming of the new.

As far back as the early seventies in the last century, the Chey-
ennes and Arapahoes had commenced1 to take hold of the new prob-
lems of citizenship upon which hung their future destiny.

To describe their first steps in the new way, I herewith submit
an extract from Agent Darlington, in the third annual report, dated
August 26, 1871, which illustrates the early steps taken:

" It gives me great pleasure to report considerable advancement
in the objects connected with this Agency since my last report.

u We know of but one instance of any depredations being com-
mitted since our last annual report. The last winter's hunt realized
a bountiful harvest of excellent robes. A number of the Arapahoes
were ready to raise corn and other produce. " Big Mouth " was
the leading chief in farming. He had; twenty-five acres of corn,
of which he is justly proud. The Cheyennes said that they would
not take the corn road until they saw how the Arapahoes succeeded.
Some little farming was being done by the Indians from 1871 to
1877, but for the lack of plows and other farming tools the farm
work was limited.

" In 1877 our Agency received a large shipment of plows and
wagons, which were shipped to Wichita, Kansas, which was then
our nearest railroad point.

" The Cheyenne and Arapahoe Transportation Company was
composed wholly of Indians, and as they set out from the Agency
with 160 of their best horses and mules, bound for the city of30

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Wichita in charge of two Government employees who acted as
wagon masters, it was a> unique company. Their arrival was a novel
sight to the citizens of Wichita. Crowds of them were soon at the
depot. Some of them offered to assist in " setting up " the wagons,
but the trainmasters would accept of no help except from the
Indians.

' 'Awkward as they were at first, they soon learned how to put a
wagon together. In three days they were ready to hitch up and
pull out the train of forty, four-horse wagons, hauling sixty-five
thousand pounds of supplies, which the Indians delivered to the
Darlington Agency in good order and condition. Then the Indians
were the happy owners of wagons, harness and plows, paid for by
their own honest labor. Thus the Indians were able to farm on a
larger scale, and were making good headway, as there were a good
many small fields being opened up along the river bottoms."

In 1889 and 1890 the allotting of this reservation begun, and each
man, woman and child was allotted his or her 160 acres of land,
and it was intended that each family of Indians would move on their
own allotment to live. This, of course, was something new for
the Indians, as they had been in the habit of living in little villages
wherever they choose, but after some little time, and with the untir-
ing efforts of the Agents, the Indians were finally induced to move
on their allotments, and those that were able began building and
opening up little farms. In all the farming that they had been
doing they had to use their small ponies for work stock, and this
was becoming somewhat discouraging, and some of them were
about to give up farming, but some of the more industrious fellows,
who were drawing big annuity, managed to get money enough to
buy farm horses. About this time the Indians began leasing their
lands, and while this wais considered by some a drawback to their
farming, for it enabled them to have their lands worked by the
white people, yet some of the Indians made good use of their lease
money by buying a better class of horses. In the last few years
the Indians have been selling their inherited lands, and this, together
with their lease money, has enabled them to buy up-to-date farming
implements.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

31

I have often heard the remark made that the Indian could never
be induced to farm his own land, but I must say that this is a big
mistake, for in looking the country over you will find that the
Indians have many nice little homes and model farms in connec-
tion with these homes being operated by full-blooded Indians.

The Indians are rapidly advancing in agriculture, as has twice
been proven in the last two annual fairs that we have had for our
Indians, and with one exception, that of live stock, we have proven
to our white brother that we are his equal as agriculturist. At our
annual Indian Fair, which was held art Weather ford, Oklahoma, and
by the way, which was our first real Indian Fair, we had about
thirty entries in the live stock and poultry department, and this
year, with our fair at Watonga), Oklahoma, we had ninety entries
in the live stock and poultry department. Showing a great advance
over last year, and as we are yet young in the fair business, having
had just the two Indian fairs, we expect great results in the near
future, for I believe that our Indian fairs are doing as much as any
other one factor toward advancing the Indian in agriculture.

The fair which we held at Weatherford last year, as before stated,
was our first endeavor along that line. The results were very
gratifying. The fair at Watonga this year was a revelation to
many people who did not know the capability of the Indian along
agricultural lines. The fair at Watonga was well attended by
people from <all over the country. They were there from many
States. People from other States who were attracted to the
Watonga Fair by the extensive publicity given it through the local
and outside press, were surprised to find a large concourse of
Indians, not the wild man of the prairie, but many of them exhibit-
ors of agricultural products, and deeply interested in farming. Of
course there were divers exhibitions of old-time Indian customs
and traditions, such as war dances, sham battles, etc., for amuse-
ments, but all this was more in the way of stage play than anything
else. It bore the same relation to the past that the modern stage
does to past history and conditions.

It was ai representation of what had been and not what is to-day.
No better representation of the real merits of the fair at Watonga32

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

could be given' than an extract from the recent article in the Post-
Dispatch, of St. ILouis, by Frederick Barde of Guthrie, newspaper
correspondent and magazine writer, who- attended the Watonga
Fair to secure data for a number of newspapers and magazine arti-
cles in relation to the Indians. Mr. Barde, among other things,
had the following to say in his Post-Dispatch articles: " This fair
movement was organized, primarily, by the Superintendents of the
United States Indian Department, of whom there are four, William
B. Freer, of Darlington; Walter F. Dickens, of Colony Oklahoma;
Byron E. White, of Cantonment, and Willis E, Dunn, of Red
Moon, Oklahoma. It is the intention of the Federal Government
that the fair in time shall be managed by the Indians. These Super-
intendents are merely teaching the Cheyennes and Arapahoes to
walk in the fair business. The President of the Fair Association,
John Otterby, is a full-blooded Cheyenne, and a man of keen intelli-
gence. An advisory committee is chosen each year by the Indians,
and consists of twenty-eight members, of whom seventeen are
Cheyenne and eleven Arapahoe, in proportion to tribal population.
The white men of Watonga and Blaine county looked with aston-
ishment upon this second Indian fair. There were visitors from as
far north as Chicago' and as far south as Houston, Texas. Not-
withstanding the bad crop year, no better corn should be found in
Oklahoma than was shown in the pavilion devoted to agriculture
and domestic economy, and much of the corn was equal to the best
grown in any season in Missouri, Nebraska or Kansas. There were
exhibits of Kaffir corn, wheat, oats, watermelons, pumpkins,
squashes, alfalfa, onion®, potatoes, tomatoes and other garden
vegetables.

" In several booths were exhibits of the work of the boys and
girls in the Indian schools. The Indians seem to enjoy even more
than white persons the sight in this pavilion, and all day long they
stood and gazed at the exhibits. A Cheyenne father, with a blood'
red feather dangling from his scalplock, stood with his squaw and
pointed at this apron or dress, or at that cake or jar of jelly that
had been made by their daughter, and both seemed mightily pleased.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

33

" The Indians began coming to the fair a week before it was
opened. Some of them traveled more than a hundred miles by
wagon, camping along the way. On Sunday night the Indians
assembled in the grandstand, where prayer was offered by mis-
sionaries and by converted Indians. There were " experience"
talks by Indian leaders and the singing of hymns."

The preceding quotation from Mr. Barde's article is introduced
here to show what was thought of the Indian agricultural exhibit
by one who has no special interest in the fair, except as writer and
newspaper reporter. It was common talk at the Watonga Fair that
the Indian agricultural exhibit surpassed in quality and quantity
those of the Blaine County Fair which had been1 put on exhibition
by white farmers when that fair was held in August preceding the
Indian fair. While we all realize that the Indian has- to move on
slowly and will be encompassed by many difficulties in his sudden
transition from wandering plainsman to farmer, yet enough has
been seen of his work to demonstrate that he can and will become
a successful grower of corn and raiser of stock if given an oppor-
tunity to show what he can do.

The Indian in farming is like a child learning to walk. He has
to take short steps,, and he may fall now and then, but, like the
child, he will get up and try it over until he succeeds.

Husbandry was man's first occupation, and it is the foundation of
success in every true civilization.

The progressive Indians all realize that the farm is the hope of
their people, and they are determined to make the best of it.

Traditions and customs could not change in a day.

The Indian had to work up to the new problems gradually. But
no one knows better than he knows that the traditions of the past
now live only in dreams and1 the visions of the night. The old
days have gone never to return. They have passed on, but cannot
come back. The plains where his fathers chased the wild buffalo
are now covered by farms. The wild deer have gone, and the lands
where they roamed have become the homes of the domestic horse
and the cow. Out of the stirring and eventful past the Indian has
come with his eye now fixed on the sun of the future. He realizes34

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

that his road is not through the past, but that it leads far into the
future. His eyes are not fixed upon the setting but upon the rising
sun. When the sun of past traditions went down in the west, the
new sun of hope and promise arose for him in the east.

He now stands ready with the white man to go forward and work
out the problems of civilization.

Give the Indian an opportunity. Lend him encouragement.

He will do his duty and not long be behind in the race of life.
(Applause.)

The Chairman here read the following telegrams from members
of the Association :

Buffalo, N. Y., Oct. 13, 1911.

" Regret that it is impossible for me to get away and be with
you."

(Signed) HOWARD E. GANSWORTH.

Antlers, Oklahoma, Oct. 13, 1911.

" In behalf of the Council and Choctaw people, extend best
wishes."

(Signed) VICTOR At LOCKE, Jr.,

Principal Chief, Choctaw Nation.

Washington, D. C., Oct. 13, 1911.

" Important business compels me to be absent from Conference.
Regret exceedingly."

(Signed) CHAS. D. CARTER,
[U. S. Congressman from Oklahoma.']

The CHAIRMAN: If there are any remarks in connection with
the paper that has just been read, please let us have them. Speak-
ers will be limited to three minutes.

Mr. JOHN M. OS'KISON: Mr. Shields' statement that this
was the first Indian fair is not quite true. It seems to me that I
have heard a great deal about fairs among the Crows. If there isSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

35

anybody here who has attended any of those fairs, I would like to
hear about it.

Mr. ARTHUR C. PARKER: In order to correct any impres-
sion that the Oklahoma Indians had the first agricultural fair, I
would like to say that the Six Nations, of New York, have had
agricultural fairs for the last sixty years, and are known as the
" Iroquois Indian Agricultural Fair Association."

The CHAIRMAN: " Good:"

Mr. PARKER: This Fair Association is in the most flourishing
condition, and is vieing with the fairs of the white people held in
all the counties of New York State, and New York has a well-
developed county fair system. We have automobiles by the dozen
coming to see this fair, bearing loads of people, aind carriages are
stretched for a mile along the roads next to the fair grounds. We
have been in agriculture since the beginning of our history, and I
would like to place that on record here. We have long been an
agricultural people and the people are interested in agricultural
fairs. I do not say this, however, to appear as trying to rival the
Cheyennes and Arapahoes.

The CHAIRMAN: Mr. Shields, when you referred to that as
the first Indian fair, did you refer to it as the first Indian fair of
the Cheyennes and Arapahoes ?

Mr. SHIELDS: I meant the first Indian fair among the Chey-
ennes and Arapahoes. That is what I meant. I did not mean to
give the impression that it was the first Indian fair ever held.

The CHAIRMAN: You will notice that as a preface to his
paper Mr. Shields said that he limited his remarks to the Cheyennes
and Arapahoes.

Miss LAURA M. CORNELIUS: I also want to state that the
Oneidas, of Wisconsin, have had 'successful agricultural fairs for
about twelve years at one time. They have been discontinued only
within the last few years, and that for the simple reason that they
are going to organize another tract for themselves which is better
than the one they have been occupying.36

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

A second paper on agriculture was presented by Marvin Jack, a
Tuscarora. Mr. Jack's paper was read by a member of the Con-
ference in his absence.

INDIAN IN AGRICULTURE.

By Marvin Jack.1

From time immemorial the American Indian has been tilling the
soil for his subsistence. Before Columbus ever stepped upon the
American soil, the Indian was girdling the forest trees for his
annual fields*, planting and cultivating his corn and even fertilizing
them with fishes. It is almost needless to say that some of our
important farm crops trace back their origin to the American
Indian. Following up the development of agriculture into the time
of the Revolution, we find that General Sullivan once reported of
having destroyed old Indian orchards upon the council grounds of
the Iroquois around the Finger Lakes of New York State. The
young stocks of these apple trees were probably obtained from the
colonists. In the division of labor of those early days the heaviest
work of the chiase and war was left to the men, while the compara-
tively lighter work of attending to the fields fell to the lot of the
women.

So much for the historic days of agriculture among the Indians.
What we are most concerned at the present moment is the Indian
in agriculture of the present time.

Agriculture among Indians has now grown into vast proportions.
It seems to have been the most natural substitute for the hunt, and
having some skill in that occupation already it was certainly easier
than learning a trade. The result is that in 1908 most all the
agencies reported that the majority of Indians under their super-
vision were capable of self-support either from the fiarm or from
stock raising. The exact figures for the State of New York were
from 60-75 P'er cent- of the population. The fruitful service of the
Government Agricultural Department is annually swelling the ranks

JMr. Jack is a graduate of Cornell Agricultural College.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

37

of this great army of " food-producers." Now, all Indians cannot
engage in farming, some, either from choice or circumstance, must
obtain their livelihood in some other occupation. Hence, the pro-
portion that could possibly become farmers under the reservation
system is very nearly reached.

There are two phases of farming among Indians; in one farming
is simply a livelihood, while in the other farming is a business. The
first suits the traditional Indian mature of living for the day; and
the other is the transition period. In my further discussions, I wish
to confine myself mainly to the business phase of agriculture under
reservation conditions.

I know of no better way to impress upon you the situation that
confronts the Indian in agriculture than to give a sketch of the his-
tory of agriculture upon the Tuscarora Reservation, New York.

Tuscarora Reservation was formerly a timber land of hard and
soft wood. In those early days men still possessed a strong
physique. Any ambitious man was permitted to fence out a piece
of woodland, clear it, and call it his homestead. The opening up
of the Erie canal brought new impetus to agricultural activities out-
side and gradually spread contagion among the Indians. Brotherly
feeling was yet strong, and clearing bees were frequent. As the
years passed on one-piece farms of large sizes appeared. Tilling
the soil was easy work, and I have heard said that a " brush " was
sometimes used for a drag. The yield of wheat was large, the
market price high, and hands could be had in abundance. Thresh-
ing machines were purchased on co-operative basis. So much wheat
was raised in those days that three of these threshing machines were
kept busy on the reservation alone. Money came easy, borrowing
and lending was made in quite large sums. Long investment was
possible, and therefore large orchards of apples and peaches were
planted. Many of the farms were run on a large scale. This was
the Golden Age in the history of the Tuscaroras.

What do we find to-day? Only a few large farms may be seen,
while most of the other farms are not in one piece. However much
an heir may wish to keep the old homestead intact, he is practically
helpless. He cannot buy of the other heirs on long-term notes,—38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

his note is worthless. Consequently, the farm goes to pieces. Often
the shares are too small to support a livelihood, they are therefore
rented, sold or exchanged for more convenient fields. Large
orchards have come to the same fate. A young farmer is then
obliged to buy up those scattered fields and exchange them again
into one farm if possible. In the meantime he must spend a good
share of his time on the road working small and widely scattered
fields. By the time he has succeeded in building up a farm he is
about ready to die. Under these conditions Indian farms are too
unstable for a steady progressive improvement.

This continual division of farms is the curse of Indian farming
lands. The chances for good farm lands to go into the hands of
disinterested owners is altogether too great. It is the main source
of the rent problem on the reservation. For convenience we might
divide the whole renting situation into three groups. In the first
group renting is a matter of speculation. Lands are acquired any-
where and in almost any way possible. They are either bought or
obtained through a sort of mortgage deal for loans advanced to
poor folk to pay their funeral expenses. (Lands are then rented,
and whatever is used is put to meadow for many years. In the
second group are those who prefer to keep their land, but through
incapacity to use it are forced to rent their land. Many of the
present farmers belong to the third group. Usually they manage
to use all their lands, but are sometimes forced to rent a portion
of their farm through pecuniary difficulties. In the first two groups
lands are rented continuously, more or less, and improvements are
in rarity; while in the last group lands are rented only occasionally.
When a farmstead is divided up the shares almost always adjust
themselves into one of these groups, whence most of the so-called
farms of to-day have come into some one of these groups.

From this brief review of the land-rent situation upon the Tusca-
rora Reservation one can readily see the condition of soil to which
the average land is destined. The soils are mostly of the silt-loam
and the clay-loam types; or in other words, fruit, grain and hay
soils. These soils have already become very difficult to manage,SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

39

and, therefore, more capital must now be invested in the more
costly tools and the more power that conditions demands. Crops
have become so uncertain that a large capital is also necessary to be
constantly on hand as a security in times of unfavorable seasons.
Many of the Indian farmers who are tempted to stray into extensive
farming are sooner or later brought back home to the truth of the
old adage: "A little farm well tilled and a little barn well filled."
They cut down their acreage, fit their lands into the best possible
condition and plant the crops in season, but still the yields are dis-
appointing. They come face to face to the crying needs of to-day
for intensive farming. This, of course, also demands more capital
in order to properly stock their farms. The fungi and the insects
aire also busy on the scene with their quota of the bills of expenses.
The bushes along fences afford them excellent breeding places. All
these items add to the impressiveness of the large capital that must
be invested in order to run a farm successfully, and especially of
the business limitations of the Indian in agriculture under reserva-
tion conditions.

Business integrity has been abused, though in many cases through
no real faiult of their own. An Indian is naturally honest and means
to pay his debts, but the emergency brake of the business world has
been wrenched from his service. If he fails to meet his note he
cannot borrow money with which to settle it. Lands being inalien-
able, he cannot mortgage them to help out the difficulties. It
would not have been quite so bad had the Indian lived in Canada,
where loose property, being more easily convertible into money than
real estate, is the main object of mortgages. An Indian is there-
fore forced to mar his good name, and what can the creditor do?
The general laws of New York State forbid anyone to force pay-
ment from an Onondaga or Seneca Indian and their friends. This
makes the Indian altogether too untangible for business, and this
very fact is the ruination of all his business enterprises. Money
loans in large sums among Indians themselves have practically
ceased. Opening large accounts with outside merchants is a rarity.
Co-operation for business enterprises is risky and unprofitable. The
Indian on the Tuscarora Reservation is therefore compelled to run40

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

his farm an cash basis. The amount of business that he can pos-
sibly command is certainly very limited.

What ist the result of this cash business ? Only such crops are
grown as will give the most immediate returns. Commercial
orcharding is practically out of question, although fruit lands out-
side the reservation are worth from $100 to $300 per acre. Por-
tions of farm lands are leased for small cash sums. The ready cash
that day labor and teaming affords has a greater attraction than the
slow and uncertain incomes from their farms, they, therefore, spend
much of their time at odd jobs. In the scramble for the almighty
dollar there is very little time left for improving the farm. Bushes
around fences are therefore left just as their fathers have left them.
The young generation of farm boys show no healthy interest in
agriculture. Many of these, having seen only the hardships on the
farm, imagine that some wonderful occupations are in store for
them in the industrial schools. They flock into these schools, but
are never seen to take up agriculture of their own free will.

The whole financial situation of to-day upon the Tuscarora
Reservation may be summed up into a few pointed statements:
Money loses its elastic qualities when it comes into the reservation.
It does not move freely enough to meet the demands of present con-
ditions. Business suffers. It is easily tied up from further useful-
ness when once invested in real estate. It sinks when invested in
land improvements, since the market value of Indian lands prac-
tically never changes. Credit, the right arm of business, is bound
up. If similar conditions were to be duplicated all over the country,
I assure you, a great financial panic would follow in short orders.

Here, then, you have the facts, the main causes and their effects,
and the general outlook of the whole farming situation.

Farmsteads are continually being divided up and subdivided until
they are only fit for rent. The rent system is robbing the soils of
their very vitality at a dangerous rate. Crop yields are decreasing,
and the cost of farm operations are increasing, thereby drawing
upon the financial resources of the farmer in two-fold rate. Well
meant protective laws, that were good in their days, have shattered
business confidence, and the Indian farmer of to-day is compelledSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

4i

to face all these things with but one arm of business, which is cash.
At the present stage of farming in the Eastern States, the average
farmer, in spite of all his business advantages, is already at odds
with the rapid rate of soil depletion. Abandoned farms have
already appeared in central New York. What success ought we
then to expect from the Indian in agriculture situated as he is?
Success is almost impossible.

Although: I have described the agricultural conditions on the Tus-
carora Reservation alone, yet I am fully confident in saying that his-
tory has repeated itself in most of the other reservations of the State
of New York. The progressive men of the Cattaraugus Reserva-
tion will tell you that real farming has ceased with the death of the
early big farmers, that renting is now in full blast and that there is
but little interest in agriculture in the younger generation. I will
not take time to describe the other reservations, as the conditions are
too well known and the problems the same. The days of prepara-
tion for citizenship have passed, and the painful suspense of the
anticipation is reigning. The best interests of the New York In-
dians demand that they should become citizens at the earliest pos-
sible moment. If 60 to 75 per cent, of the population are capable
of supporting themselves from their farms, then the majority of
Indians will benefit by the change. New laws to correct the evils
will not do; the Indians are too far advanced; the executive end of
Indian government is too slack, and the peculiar aversion to law
suits by the Indians themselves tend to make the Indian laws a dead-
letter. Some are already conscious of their business limitations,
while a great many more are born into the situation and therefore
take the conservative view of the question of citizenship. If a
change is to come it must come from the outside, and through the
united efforts of a body of intelligent Indians like " The Society of
American Indians." They represent the "Board of Trade" to
boom the business interests of their fellow Indians.

First of all, then, we must establish the Indian in agriculture upon
a solid business footing, and afterwards proceed to polish him with
education. Education creates skill in the work, and education pro-
duces confidence in the business world. Education in agriculture42	PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

is the cry of the land to-day and is contagious like a great many
other good things. It is bound! to come and ought to come soon
into the Indian reservations. The doors of agricultural colleges are
widie open and Farmers' Institutes are scoring the country, but still
they do not seem to reach the masses. The solution of the whole
problem seems to be agriculture in district schools, and certainly it
would also be the means of solving the problem of the prevailing
farm-sickness among the younger generation of Indians. Non-
reservation schools break farm sympathies, and students are usually
too old when they enter, other interests having already developed.
Like all other professions, agricultural education must begin with
the child for best results. The old proverb is ever true: Teaich
a child in the way he should walk and when he is old he shall not
depart from it." It is to be regretted that the present reservation
schools do not hold the child long enough. It leaves him at an age
when he is just forming opinions of his future occupation. To
many of the Indians a district school is their high school and their
college. Much good would then result, if the district school could
hold the child through the grades and agricultural subjects be intro-
duced as provided in the' syllabus; or perhaps, better still, to hold
the older children for four winter months to be taught in agricul-
ture and business. Small inexpensive experiments could be per-
formed during the winter months and crop contests during the sum-
mer. I am sure that if these were carried out the State Depart-
ment of Education would soon be planning for an Agricultural High
School in connection with the Thomas Indian School on the Cat-
taraugus Reservation.

Citizenship and education for the Indian is my mission to you,
fellow Indians, of the society, and I hope these will command your
most thoughtful consideration. (Applause.)

The CHAIRMAN: The next paper is by Laura M. Cornelius,
on " Industrial Organization for the Indian." Miss Cornelius is a
Wisconsin Oneida.MISS LAURA M. CORNELIUS
(Oneida)SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

43

INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE INDIAN.

By Miss Laura M. Cornelius.

Whether he is a citizen or not, or whether he has lands or not,
whether his trust funds continue or not, whether he is educated or
ignorant, one thing remains unchanged with the Indian: he has to
have bread and butter, he has to have a covering on his back, he
has to live.

Of all the phases of our national problem, none other seems so
immediately important to me as our industrial status. It at once
decides whether we shall become degraded toward pauperism or
whether we may secure to ourselves permanent independence.
Whatever our political or social status may be, we are and always
will be tried and judged on our ability individually to maintain our-
selves, indeed our very integrity depends upon it. I repeat what
I have said elsewhere, that this country does not set aside the Indian
because he is brown or because he wears beads around1 his neck.
It is more often a question of soap and water, a lack of fitness to
turn a good furrow in a field, or to labor by the sweat of his brow
for what he eats. Now I am not saying that he shall be as clean
as the man with a porcelain bath tub in his house, when the Indian
has to haul water in a cup or an olla from a mile away. No! What
I do say is: the bath tub and the pipes must move to the Indian,
and that he must make them move to him in a system. Not only
this, but he must produce adequate supplies out of his own environ-
ment. He must labor — and he must labor to the best advantage
for himself and not to the exploiter.

It is upon this conviction that I shall proceed in this paper. The
good things of life must move to the Indian by a system. Instead
of wasting .what he already has, and looking for himself in the out-
side world, he must make his own world at home. This point of
view is the result of some years of close economic study of the
industrial conditions not only in this country but those of Europe,
and a study, too, of the Indian himself.44

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Realizing that he was turning his face toward Caucasian insti-
tutions as his ultimate good, I have looked into them critically, with
his advantage uppermost in my mind, and I have become convinced
that he cannot copy everything the white man does with advantage.
Certainly is it a mistake in some important phases of his industrial
life to follow him exactly as he is to-day.

This imitation is on the part of the Indian an indication of our
own weakness and inability to present a better program than his
own. I do believe much of this is born of our growing disbelief in
ourselves due to our having been misrepresented: so long, and in
deferring everything to the white man's opinions of us.

Under the heading " Industrial Organization for the Indian,"
then, I wish at once to suggest that the way out for the Indian, of
his present situation, is along the lines of organization for himself
and by himself — organization of those things which shall control his
livelihood and which shall be based on a special consideration for
his needs. In the present space allotted to me for this subject I
can but briefly pass over a great many phases I should like to dwell
upon at length, leaving out much of the detail.

Before I proceed further I wish to be understood as to my atti-
tude toward the " Pratt Ideal." I am wholly in accord with its
idea of equal opportunity for the Indian, its belief in the ability of
the Indian and the need of a proper environment for demonstra-
tion. And I am just as strong against Paternalism and Ward-
ship and Reservations as a regime as any self-respecting Indian or
educator can be. But I do not agree with certain failures on its
part to calculate upon the possibilities of the Indian on, the reserva-
tion, neither do I believe we can overlook the influence of human
ties. A good majority of the Carlisle students, who have been
taught to leave the reservation to establish themselves outside, come
back to it even after they have learned trades. From unbiased
observation this seems to point to the fact that the Indian's ties are
very strong. He is naturally clannish, he does not seek to mix
with the paleface either in interests or blood, down deep in his heart
he feels superior to the ordinary white man,— and the real Indian
is. A proof of that is that after he has been surrounded by whitesSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

45

on every reservation for several hundred years, he has not amalga-
mated enough to have changed the face of his racial problems.
What I do not see is the necessity of crowding him to become a
white man, when opportunity is all he needs. I do not wish to be
understood to mean, when I speak of the Carlisle students going
back to the reservation, that he is a failure. Far from it. I have
been careful to observe certain localities upon this point, and I have
found that Carlisle has no more failures.. than high schools in the
outside communities, and in some instances less, in proportion to
the population, than the outside.

A second factor, aside from the ties of home, is his interests in
the way of allotments and inheritances on the reservation. The
Indian naturally comes back to these if it is no more than to look
at them.

This being the case, there seems the need of a complement to the
Pratt Ideal. It is this I propose to meet. Instead of forsaking
what we already have in holdings, to go away to the white world
of industry to be there too often wage-earners for life (I am taking
into account the majority rule), instead of being fixtures in an
industrial world, which is itself still largely problematic for the
white man, I maintain that the line of least resistance to the great-
est possible good under our present circumstances is to citizenize
the possibilities and to reorganize the opportunities of the Indian
at home; to organize the Indians' holdings into- a system of
economic advantages ; to convert his large wastes into industrial
centers which he can take care of to modernize his affairs and to
assure him at least a comfortable maintenance if he will work. I
believe in struggle and in competition in whatsoever vocation he
shall prefer. I believe in struggle and in competition with the out-
side world. I am one who knows at first hand what the knocks in
it are. I am a product of almost every institution of the outside
except the insane asylum and Tammany Hall. Struggle is the mak-
ing of men, but I do not believe in thrusting the weak, without due
preparation, into the intense and unfavorable industrial strife of a
foreign world. Awhile ago I said that I did not believe in copying46

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

everything the white mail did, if we could improve upon it. I want
to explain what I mean by that.

Some of the gravest problems in this country to-day are to be
found in the industrial world of the white man. With all his
acumen, with all his advantages, with all his training, the great
masses of labor (who make the things he wears and the things he
eats, and who serve the money despots) are by no means rewarded
for their toil or taken care of when they need care, much less have
they the leisure or the means or the energy for higher education.
Why?

The social conscience in this country is not generally enlightened,
and it is far from being ethical. Those that are enlightened are
in a very small minority, and they have their difficulties in effect-
ively bringing about legislation to the protection and betterment of
labor, because public sentiment has to be educated first before it will
move to anything, and it isn't so easy to educate it in a land where
politics would control. There is something in the social order that
is responsible for this. The development of intense individualism
and the age of unprecedented prosperity no doubt are largely
responsible for the selfishness of the American people.

Look about you into the working world outside and see that first
of all there is no uniform and happy adjustment between labor and
capital in this country. For while the conditions of labor differ
between the country and the city, between different localities
between cities themselves, they all come under one grand general
wage system and modern capitalism. The wage system is a product
of the nineteenth century and has not yet triumphed altogether
above slavery and serfdom (the two conditions it aims to escape)
for the reason that it is dependent upon capital, and capital in this
land is suffering from acute despotism.

In order to save the cost of production, and to supply the grow-
ing demand of civilization (and in this it is evolutionary), capital
has taken the work originally done on a small scale and put it into
big machines; hence the factory system. The factory system is
then at once responsible for some of the biggest problems for the
Caucasian mind. Here are some of the evils to which it has givenSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

47

birth: child labor, employed in place of adult employment, with
light-running machinery, because it is cheaper; industrial accidents,
due to large machines without protective appliances, because protec-
tion is an item of expense to the employer and the laborer himself
is still too ignorant to demand protection before he takes the work
that at any moment may take his limb and life; factory regulation
and unemployment; unsanitary conditions and long hours— though
the last two have been improved by legislation in the past few years,
they are by no means above reproach to-day. Unemployment is
the result of the invention of labor-saving machines and the unset-
tled condition created by differences between labor and capital.

The fact that capital is such a terrific power in the hands of the
civilized but unenlightened is producing a class struggle in this
democratic country of ours wherq they shout, " equal opportunity
for all men," and then thieve it. The wage earner to-day is a
wage earner always. Once he gets into it he cannot get out of it.
Let me quote one of the biggest economic authorities in this coun-
try, who says: " The great majority of men do not possess the
abilities or the opportunities to secure the large capital necessary
for the successful conduct of a modern business. For the masses,
indeed, it is true and increasingly true that once a wage earner
always a wage earner."

Take particularly the wage earner in the city where the most of
the population of the country is congested. Even a casual look at
the labor market there is enough to show that the conditions of the
white man's toil are far from being happy or equitable, indeed, they
are tragic; look at the wan faces of the ill-nourished multitude
closely packed, like a lot of cattle, in a foul car hurrying to their
work in the city. Follow a hollow-chested bent old man at forty-
five years into the close shop where the wind never made a clean
sweep, where the sun never had a chance to creep in through the
high walls of the neighboring buildings; listen to the story of the
boy to earn and save enough to buy his mother a home,— he never
did. Watch him go out of the dingy shop at six o'clock, a bent
and sick old man, he would like one day off to-morrow, but he would
lose his place and his means of support. He is still dependent48

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

upon to-morrow's toil for to-morrow's bread. Follow him into the
old and dismal quarter of the city where rent is cheap and where
the noises never cease. Follow him up the rickety old steps into
the rented rooms, damp, sickly smelling dark rooms, whose win-
dows closely face another wall, stay and hear him ask for a good
sirloin, and see him get a red sausage and a dill pickle ; hear him
cough and remember that he helps to make the clothes you buy in
the shops. No, I cannot see that everything the white man does is
to be copied. The tragedy of young hopes and healths crushed out
by the heavy heel of money despotism in the industrial world is not
an unusual thing in this country. The average man in the white
labor markets lives a miserable existence to-day that he may live
another miserable day to-morrow, and so on till disease or accident
take pity upon him. I do not look with optimism upon these con-
ditions, not for any race of people under the sun. You may argue
thajt the sweatshop is not the only industry into which the Indian
can turn, and that there is legislation now against this evil. It is
true there is legislation and there is factory inspection, but here is
what a thorough investigator of the particular problem says: " The
effects of this legislation' have been beneficial where they have been
enforced, but with a shifting irresponsible population and a lack of
public sentiment in favor of the law in the very quarters where it
is most needed, it takes an almost superhuman vigilance to secure
its enforcement, of the large cities where sweating has gained
ai foothold. Boston is the only one which may be said! to have the
system under control, and as a consequence of this control a great
part of Boston's clothing business is said to have been transferred
to New York. The exact extent of the evil is not fully determined.
The statistics are compiled from returns made by the manufacturers
themselves, and many small establishments escape census enumera-
tion, but at that there are 5,308,400 employees in the sweatshops in
the United States."

I have given the sweatshop as only one of the evils of the white
industrial world. Skilled labor has better conditions, of course, but
outside of the agricultural pursuits skilled labor, too, is confined to
indoor life.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

49

The Indian does not realize that under proper sanitation he is a
superior man to any other class in this country, physically. The
fact that he is an outdoor man is perhaps the chief reason why he
has sustained himself and survived conditions of housing which is
killing the white man, only he doesn't acknowledge it. His tendency
to the great white plague is not so inherent as it is a matter of
environment. With proper conditions thrown about him, which
means returning to the observance of his original laws of health, the
Indian would eradicate this tendency toward tuberculosis. The
great white plague thrives in the indoor shop. Several years ago
I had the pleasure of breaking the record in the investigation of
the causes of tuberculosis in the city of Milwaukee. In this par-
ticular investigation we found that the average working family num-
bered five members, and the heads of families were earning nine
dollars a week. When the rent and the fuel were taken out it left
ninety-four cents for each one to live on per week. As a conse-
quence the laboring population was dying from tuberculosis. These
people represented not only the sweat shop but the general condi-
tions of city employment. The white man laborer cannot earn
enough to feed him properly, and, as for the sanitation of his house,
the Indian tepee isn't a circumstance to the cheap tenement house.
I have never forgotten the smells of the closed parlors with their
heavy draperies and the dismalness of drawn shades. The tenement
house of the city has since become a dread to me, and I fear some
Indians who have an undue worship of Paleface ways will likewise
follow closed windows and drawn shades. I may be departing a
little when I dwell upon this beyond a passing mention, but when
I have looked over the white man's conditions of living with the
idea of putting the Indian into it I have seen things that we do too
often pass over without due consideration.

Wherever there is intelligence in the land, there is a return to the
Indian's habit of living out of doors. And when you stop to think
that out of twenty-four hours each one of us is taking 25,000 breaths
it is easy to see that one of the reasons why we have been particu-
larly free from the white man's foul diseases before he contaminated50

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

u® is because we drew in health 25,000 times instead of poisons. An
indoor race cannot have the reddest of blood.

It is a matter of statistics that as. soon as a people have had long
experience with tenement life and city employment they return to
the country. Now then my plea is that we avoid the things that are
killing off the majority of the laboring population in the country
among the whites.

It has been agreed by all thinkers that the ideal life is the small
community life, which combines the advantages of concentration
with the health of the uncongested freedom. Before I go into the
details of the organization I here propose let me sum up the reasons
why the Indian should seek to organize something different and
better for himself than already exists).

1.	He has lands, a valuable asset in the business world. He does
not need to buy sites for the construction of industrial centers.

2.	He has funds which could be called out for organization ex-
pense—enough of it to cover the whole Indian population with
organization.

3.	Certain ideas of his own way of living; namely, the devotion
to simplicity and outdoor life, and he ought to insist upon their
being reinstated.

4.	The conditions of labor in the outside world are inferior to
the conditions which he can establish for himself.

The organization which I believe to be most effective for our uses
is called the Garden City. In this country it has triumphed in the
experiment on Long Island. In Europe it has triumphed generally
wherever it has been tried and it has been tried extensively — the
most modern examples being found in England and Germany and
France. The kind I propose for the Indian I prefer to call the
Industrial Village, for the siimple reason that it has been suggested
to me that the name Garden City sounds too much like an Utopian
idea, or ai soft notion of philanthropy. This thing I propose is a
hard-headed, practical scheme which is not dependent upon charity
to carry it out.

In distinction from the experiment in New York, the industrial
village is not a relief from the congestion of population, but it is a
planned concentration of population.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

51

The tendency in the cities to move back to the small community
life is a sign of progress, and quite logical. Here are some of the
chief reasons for it:

1.	The social nature of man is more satisfied in a village than on
isolated farms, and the isolation of city life where families side by
side do not need to know each other.

2.	The advantages of systematized life can be readily and more
economically secured.

Sewage, lighting, and water-works can be had by a' group of
people of moderate means when the same people individually cannot
have them at all.

3.	The enforcement of regulations for the public good can be
more effectively carried out. This includes not only the purely
etchical institutions, but sanitation and education and amucements,

4.	Facilities of transportation can be more easily secured.

5.	The successful carrying out of commerce in modern times
requires concentration of population. There is greater economy of
manufacture and running business in the organized community.
In this it is a practical school for wholesome citizenship and it de-
velops municipal efficiency.

With the installment of the industrial village, there must be insti-
tuted at the same time the industry which shall be the source of
revenue for the villagers. This industry among our Indians need
not be the same for the different localities. We have among our-
selves the consideration of the different stages of anthropologic cul-
ture to consider. There are four stages in the development to con-
ventional civilization of any primitive people; first, the hunting aind
fishing stage; second, the pastoral or the keeping and tending of
flocks; third, the agricultural; fourth, the horticultural stage. All
these stages the Indians of the United States had at the time of the
advent of the Caucasian.

Some of them fished and hunted only, some of them herded the
buffalo, some of them planted maize enough to trade or make it a
tribute to their conquerors among themselves. The Cherokee actu-
ally knew and practised the art of raising orchards and even of
grafting. There is nothing more densely ignorant than the white
man on these various stages of the American Indian's development,
as is evident in the Indian policy. The Navajo is in the height of52

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

the second stage. The Nez Perce and the Oneida are tin the height
of the third stage. I might enumerate at length. It would be
nothing short of folly to impose upon the Navajo a change of
industry. The thing to do for him is to place his industry on a
modern business scale and to go one step beyond — eliminate the
middle man's interference with him. Instead of the white trader
getting the 60 per cent of the profits as he does in the white man's
world of commerce, let the Navajo so organize that he can sell his
wares to the consumer direct and get 90 per cent of the profits.

In Oneida, Wisconsin, where soon every individual Indian will
became a full-fledged citizen, the organization of the village we hope
to make along lines which combine the foreign Garden City with
the Mormon idea of communistic cooperation.

The point of improvement on the foreign Garden City plan is a
triumph over the white man's institutions of to-day the world over.
The foreign and the American city both are corporate institutions,
capitalized by money. Every member of the corporation holds so
many shares of stock, which represent tangible assets. The man
then who enters into the corporation must be represented by some
form of money. If he have not this, he either cannot become a
member of the organization or else he must go in debt for it. Now
there is nothing under the sun that is more unproductive than gold
itself. Money is merely a medium of exchange for the products
of the earth. That saying that " it takes an ounce of gold to get
an ounce of gold out of the mine " illustrates my meaning. Money
represents an exchange of values, and when you trace these values
to their sources they are soil and labor. In other words, the wealth
of a country is in her soil and her men. Gold lies dormant in the
earth till man comes along and handles it, and the only thing that
never fails to produce is the soil. Herein is the failure of the mod-
ern systems of business to become at once equitable, in the fact that
money represents the worth of a man. Now what did the Mormon
do? How did he go into the desert with his destitute colony and
establish economic freedom to every individual man the way it has
never been done in the history of the white man in Western civili-
zation? How did he keep from starving in the desert where thereSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

53

was neither waiter, markets, nor money? Some one among that
Colony had the right inspiration about organization. Some one
reckoned out this defect in relying upon capital for everything.
He had men and he had the soil. What did he do ?

He saw that he needed water on the sand to make things grow.
The Colorado river must be tapped. How was it possible to do it?
Labor must do it, and it did. The Mormon practised irrigation
twenty years before the rest of the country did. He did it without
money because he capitalized labor. Men were worth just exactly
what they will always be worth when the estimate is right: men
were worth just what they could do for the community. They
brought that water from the Colorado by the labor of their own
hands, and whether they were educated or ignorant. How were
they paid? Each man was paid in shares of stock in the cooperative
store and he received the best the community had for a living.

As soon as they established the water system, they put the seed
in the ground, and they divided their labor so that no one man had
more than twenty acres to look after. They placed every man at
the oversight of a competent, man who knew land values and the
secrets of cultivation. They took no risks. Wherever their colonies
went, they sent with them the expert who oversaw to the quality
of industry, and to the economy of energy and space; their travel-
ing missionaries were men more bent upon learning the local condi-
tions, the proper methods, the secret of successes, the market
requirements, the development and advancement of every locality,
than upon converts. They took no risks.

And note how they understood the meaning of economy. They
had to build a reservoir, for example. They did it with their own
hands and thus avoided the rake-off to the contractor, the banker,
the bonding company, and the promoter. They had 90 per cent
of their value at home, and when they established their cooperative
stores this is the way they did it: They sent their wool, their hides,
their grain, their mutton and their beef to the market and traded
them in goods. They paid for the hauling of these in shares of
Community stock. Now being one Community, every one was in54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

the family. If a hard, lean year came along, he had credit given on
his shares of stock,— this being appropriable for payment.

At Woodruff, Arizona, 150 people used less than 600 acres mak-
ing a distribution of 20 acres for adult labor per capita. The re-
duction of space to intensive use of the soil did away with too
broad a distribution of one man's energy. This resulted in a
greater success from 20 acres than outside individual farmers made
on three and four hundred acres. At St. Joe, Arizona, there are two
farms not larger than 20 acres that have amassed a fortune of
$50,000 each for their owners, showing that men in the Mormon
Commune may prosper individually according to their ability, which
is the great note in the New Socialism. When men are equal in
their opportunities they receive the maximum of economic
advantage.

Where Socialism fails to triumph in this country is because under
the present form of corporate rights, the individual has as many
votes as he has shares of stock. A man, therefore, who has 51 per
cent of all the stock decides and rules. And he may outdistance
the small share holder, who may be a superior man to the
organization.

There are two remedies I would suggest for this:

1.	Apply the Rochdale system of "one man, one vote," regardless
of the number of shares of stock, or,

2.	Provide against 51 per cent control in the hands of any one
individual.

The foreign American and European idea of the division of
dividends to the share holder is a communistic idea of capital and
not of men. The Mormon idea is a communistic idea of men. In
his institution every man draws his proportion performed. Each
man in it shall own lands, but the work and the advantages are
communistic. The Mormons to-day are the richest people per capita
in the world. There is one precaution they took among other
things. And that is they fortified themselves against the lazy man.
If he could not perform a fixed minimum of labor he had to get outSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

55

of the Community. The Community might take his property at
its own price.

The principle of intensive cultivation as. carried out by the Mor-
mons has been carried out in other countries to a remarkable ex-
tent. Denmark, for example, is one-fourth the size of the State of
Wisconsin, yet she supplies all Europe with butter and eggs.

The American scientific agriculturist is realizing that space is not
necessary with soil for returns. The great note in Western civili-
zation to-day is toward practical science.

Awhile back I said that we had four stages of anthropologic
culture to consider in our organization. Let me reiterate in con-
clusion that no one industry can be uniformly installed on the
Reservations if we would intelligently handle every locality and
group. Expert service must be secured to look over Indian terri-
tory, to judge for what the locality is best adapted, and to find the
market. The town-site for the Industrial Village should be chosen
after determining these. In short, I believe that were the Indus-
trial Village organized with the Mormon idea of capitalization, com-
bined with the European and American idea of the market, that we
would secure the maximum advantage. That we must calculate to
meet and to use modern business methods goes without saying, but
the great distinction I wish to impress upon your minds is that to
reach a state of economic equity we must follow the Mormon idea
of making men the capital of the community.

In these pages I have not berated white institutions because they
are white, but because all economists have agreed already that they
are neither as economic nor as equitable as they hope to be. Let
us take the natural advantages the race already has in its pos-
sessions and make for ourselves Gardens and teach the white man
that we believe the greatest economy in the world is to be just to
all men. It is my belief that the old saying, " Be good and you
will be happy " is fast coming to mean " Be happy and you will be
good." Man is only a creature of circumstance after all. (Applause.)

The CHAIRMAN: There will be no time for discussion. The
next paper is " The Indian as a Skilled Mechanic/' by Charles M.
Doxon, an Onondaga and a graduate of Hampton, a man who is56

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

peculiarly fitted to speak on that subject, as he is himself a skilled
mechanic, drawing the best wages of such. His paper possesses
the golden quality of brevity. I take pleasure in introducing
Mr. Doxon.

"THE INDIAN AS A SKILLED MECHANIC."

By Charles Doxon.

In speaking of the Indian as a skilled mechanic I shall endeavor
to show you the actual advancement he has made up to the present
time as such, and what his opportunity is in reaching the point of
excellence ithat draws the attention of the mechanical world.

The word " mechanic " covers a great many trades, but I can
speak of only a few which are followed, so far, by the Indians.
The first trade that was taken up by an Indian, that I know of, is
that of the carpenter trade. I have known one for many years.
That he is skillful ait the trade is shown by the fact that he always
has a job; doing the inside finish as well as the outside from the
foundation to the top. He is spoken of by his fellow carpenters
(white men) as ranking amongst the best mechanics in their Union.
The inside and outside finish of his own nine-room house is the
work of his own tend and compares very favorably with the finest
homes along the city line.

Another Indian mechanic that I am well acquainted with is a
blacksmith. He is not employed in the city, but has a blacksmith
shop of his own on the reservation. He does all the resetting of
wagon tires and horseshoeing to be done in his neighborhood, both
for whites and Indians. He can weld a new steel on an old axe,
so that it would sink into the wood like a new axe. In describing
the perfection of the old axes he has repaired, his customers use
the old saying, "The chips fly before it strikes the wood." Is he
not worthy of the name " skilled mechanic ? "

There are a few machinists that I know of who are steadily
employed in large shops throughout the country. While I am un-
able to point out to you some great examples of what they have
done, it is not a proof that they are not as skilled at their trades asCHARLES M. DOXON
(Onondaga)tut

Of THE

i") r*

yrSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

57

those of the carpenter and blacksmith I spoke of. If he is a lathe
hand, the parts he finishes are lost in the construction; of a machine.
If he is a fitter or assembler, his part of work is lost when the machine
goes out of the factory. If you go into a supply house for inspec-
tion, and ask the salesman who made the machine you are pointing
at, he will tell you it was made by such and such a firm. All the
credit of the fine workmanship of the machine goes to the president
of that firm. But the machinist does not think of that. He begitls
his work every morning with the full sense of responsibility for
speed and accuracy of the work to be turned out. Even if the
machine he is running is an automatic one, he must be constantly
wide awake as to the accuracy of its operation. He must see that
the size and shape of the work he is turning out do not vary. This
is done by frequent tests and a proper care of the machine and the
cutting tools. In fact, he must be on the job all the time, mentally
if not physically. If a mechanic is employed in fitting or assembling
he begins his work with the same sense of responsibility as that of
the machinist; he picks up the finished parts that are sent to him
and places them ins their proper positions. He must know the duty
of each part; in other words, he must be theoretical, in the common
sense of the word at least. If a piece is to have a running fit it
must be thoroughly tested ; if it is to have adriving fit it must receive
the full share of consideration. So as he assembles the engine or
machine he corrects the faults as he goes along by chipping or filing.
While the whole construction must receive the greatest of care, it also
requires a great deal of muscle. The mechanic must shove, pull and
drive with a hard and soft hammer as the case may require, yet
when the machine is finished there should not be even a scratch
mark left on it. And as you look at it in its brightness you would
not think it had received a blow. If a mechanic cannot finish his
work like that he is soon detected by the sharp inspectors and is put
down as unskilled and undesirable, and therefore he cannot hold his
own. All those Indian1 mechanics, that I know of, are holding their
own wherever they are employed. I have heard and read of other
Indian mechanics who have succeeded even better than those I have
known. While we cannot yet put up one to equal some of the58 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

famous white mechanics yet it is no proof that we never will. In
the short time that we have been in actual contact with our white
brothers I think we have made a great stride toward skill.

I began my schooling at the age of twenty-one. Just coming
out of the influences of a primitive state I found myself as timid
as a rabbit amongst the whites. But by a persistent effort I gained
and enjoyed respect amongst them far more than my expectation.

The present generation is now being drawn forward by many
forces and influences, the greatest of which is inducement, the same
force that has placed the white race at the head of the industrial
progress.

But we Indians must understand, however, just as the white
understands, that inducement is an independent element. Only
those qualified need apply for it. In other words, the individual
must bear in mind the truth that he must have reached the point
of excellence before he can hope to command that valuable element,
the inducement. The young generation does not understand the
truth of that, and since it will never understand it without the
proper training, it becomes our duty to see that it is kept in the
field of such activity as shall lead the way to success, and when it
shall have reached the point of excellence, the inducement will do
the rest. (Applause.)

The CHAIRMAN: The time being limited, we must dispense
with the discussion of the paper, and proceed to the next on the
programme, which is, " Modern Home-Making and the Indian
Woman," by Mrs. Marie L. Baldwin, a Chippewa.

MODERN HOMEr-MAKING AND THE INDIAN WOMAN.

By Mrs. Marie L. Baldwin.

Were I to follow my own desire I should be quick to accuse
myself of presumption in speaking on so weighty a theme as
" Home-Making and the American Indian Woman," subjects which
have puzzled many minds, but I reassure myself with the thought
that I am only responding to my assignment to this task by theSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

59

honorable Committee which prepared the programme of this First
Annual Convention of the American Indian Association.

Reversing the order of the subjects of the title let us ask, first,
what was the Indian woman of the North American continent?

To judge from her share in the arts, the culture and the manifold
activities of the life of her people, she was a most magnificent
salvage and barbarian, yet she was none the less a woman — human,
noble, patriotic,— and above all a mother — fond,* loving, careful,
religious,— whose tireless devotion and self-sacrifice to home, hus-
band and dependent dhildren yield the first-place to that of no other
woman.

The North American Indian woman lived under great differences
of climatic and other environmental conditions, for she occupied
the entire continent from the cheerless Arctic wastes to the regions
of the torrid zone, and in this vast territory there were great tree-
less tracts, broad, barren and waterless plains and valleys, and rich
forested lands; and in this varied habitat the flora and the fauna
differed greatly; and it was in this vast territory of propitious and
of hostile environments the North American Indian woman kindled
the fires of her home and those of sacred altars to her many gods.

In a large number of tribes she was on an absolute equality with
her sons and brothers in the exercise and enjoyment of the several
rights and patrimony of her people; and by exceptional environ-
mental conditions she established matronymical or matriarchal insti-
tutions, in which she was supreme in the choice of her rulers, who
were of course her sons and brothers, and whose title to office were
hereditary in her own right and over which she had the absolute
right of recall. She herself in some cases exercised executive func-
tions in the various activities of her people.

The division of labor between the woman and her sons and broth-
ers began with the establishment of the first home. And it must be
remembered that this division was based on consideration of sex,—
on motherhood; and it was emphasized by the invention and use of
fire. The woman remained by the fire to feed and keep it alive to
warm her home and offspring and also to broil the meat and to bake6o	PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

the roots and the tubers prepared for the food of herself and her
family.

The American Indian woman, or as she has been aptly called the
Amerindian woman, was the fruit-gatherer and the berry-picker, the
nut and the acorn collector, and the harvester of grass seeds and
wild rice, mesquite beans, and every edible member of the surround-
ing flora; she gathered oysters, clams, and other shell fish, and in
some regions she dried the oysters for future use; she was also a
fisher-woman as well, catching various kinds of fish and eels; of
the latter many hundred weight have been found cured and stored
in the larder of the lodge; she was not only the food gatherer, but
she and her daughters were also the water-carriers and the guards
ians of the springs of water and pools of fresh water.

As a founder of Social organization, the American Indian or
rather Amerindian woman had1 to suffer the pains of motherhood,
and in most cases she bore this travail alone and without the pres-
ence and encouragement of the father of her offspring, for her
mother, aunts, or possibly, her elder sister, acted as midwife and
nurse.

In those regions where nature was niggard of her gifts of food
and drink and shelter there often arose the question whether the
new-born creature should or should not be permitted to live; and
the mother was often the one to raise this question; this was fre-
quently the case with the Eskimo woman; if, however, as elsewhere,
it was permitted to live it was carefully nursed and educated in the
duties of a woman of her people. Its education usually ended with
the age of puberty.

In Mexico, according to the codices there were near the temple
buildings used as seminaries for the nurture of girls, over which
presided matrons or vestal priestesses; these buildings were guarded
by day and by night by old men; the girls could not leave their
apartments without a chaperon; and if one broke this regulation
her feet were pricked with thorns until the blood flowed ; the girls
of these seminaries swept the precincts of the temple and kept the
saicred fire in it alive; they were taught featherwork, and were in-
structed1 how to spin and how to weave mantles and other usefulSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

61

articles of great beauty; they were required to bathe frequently and
to be skilled and diligent in all duties of the household ; they were
taught to speak with reverence, to humble themselves before their
elders and to maintain a modest and reserved demeanor at all times.

The textile industry of the American Indian woman may be con-
veniently divided into basket-making and weaving; in addition she
spun, netted, looped, braided, sewed, and embroidered. Baskets of
splints, of hark, of grass, of bast, of skins, and of roots, according
to locality and need are found; some baskets were woven on a
warp, and others were sewed by the continuous stitching of a coil ;
the types, the fineness and the beauty of the designs and decorations
are unsurpassed by the art of the women of other races, Unrivalled
too in beauty and workmanship were the mantles and the head-
dresses of featherwork and of the skins of rare birds of brilliant
plumage.

The dressing of a skin was not a short or easy process; the kind
of skin and the object in view largely determined the process
through which it was carefully put to prepare it for use. The hides
of deer, wolves, foxes, buffalo, musk oxen, antelopes, bears, rac-
coons, walrus, moose, elk, beavers, gophers, muskrats, seals, skunks,
squirrels, porcupines, hares, opossums, alligators, tortoises, birds of
all kinds, fishes, and reptiles, and authentic tradition says, of human
beings, were some of those which the primitive American Indian
woman employed in her many industries. And it must not be for-
gotten that all the tools required in the various processes to make
them articles of use were designed and made by her own hands.

In the division of labor which we have seen was equitable, the
womani became the burden-bearer of the family, a task which she
shared with her growing children; many devices for carrying in-
fants were invented and utilized, as well as those adapted for the
carrying of meat, skins, fish, fuel, water, and even clay for pottery;
and splints, bark, fibres, reeds, grasses and tough roots were col-
lected and carried home on the back of the woman to be utilized in
her many crafts in husbandry housekeeping and the textile arts, as
basket-maker, planter, tailor, and shoemaker.62

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

In the process of washing and mixing her clay for making pots,
she carefully assorted it for different kinds of ware, the coarser
grades of clay for the ruder ware and the finer material for her
more artistic and pretentious productions; thus a delicacy of feeling,
the training of the judgment, and a keen sense of color, were gradu-
ally developed in the conscientious pursuit of her craft.

The beauty and the exquisite workmanship displayed in the deco-
ration and in the designing of the many productions of her handi-
craft show clearly that her artistic taste has grown apace with the
development of the various departments of her industry.

The American Indian woman with her children was the agricul-
turist of her people; she cleared with the aid of fire and her brothers
her fields and there she planted the corn of many varieties, the
beans of divers species, the yams, the sunflowers, and the squashes
and sometimes the tobacco. And when the tender plants sprouted
she was ready to care for them by keeping down the weeds and by
supplying them with sufficient earth; it was she, too, who harvested
these crops when they were matured, and she stored them for the
sustenance of her family.

This work in the field was a part of her division of labor between
her brothers and herself, and usually no man felt called upon to
aid her, except when a public emergency might arise.

The great importance of this one industry of the American In-
dian woman can be appreciated when it is learned that in many of
the tribes it supplied from one-half to three-fourths of the visible
available food supply.

Language.— In her capacity as linguist, the American Indian
woman in the region north of Mexico had developed with the aid
of her sons and daughters fifty-eight entirely distinct and unrelated
stocks of languages which comprised about seven hundred dialects
in this region. These languages and dialects were the treasure-
houses of the poetry, knowledge and wisdom of her sons and daugh-
ters,— the sages, prophets and philosophers of her people: into
them she talked the mythology and the religion of her people, a
rich and limitless unwritten literature of which any other race mightSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

63

well be proud, and the Maya and the Aztec woman had aided in
devising and developing hieroglyphic systems of writing which mod-
ern scholarship is still unable to decipher. Into the terms of these
varied languages and dialects the American Indian woman and her
sons have woven with infinite and sacred care and aptitude the life
histories and the wisdom of their myriad gods and creators, and
these stories, traditions and legends they have dramatized into vast
and complex systems of ceremonies and imposing rituals.

The American Indian woman was thus the patron of religion.
In the observance and conservation of these rituals and ceremonies
in honor of her gods consisted her religion and worship.

Professor Mason aptly says: " It will be a> genuine surprise and
we shall fail after long inquiry, if the fundamental ideas of the
female pantheon in primitive life be not the four duties or functions
that have been and must remain the peculiar province of woman's
activity, to wit:

" 1. The bearing and nurture of children; the maiden, the wife,
the mother (the tutor of her children in all arts, crafts and wis-
dom).

" 2. The nourisher of the human family, the one who gives food.

" 3. The maker of the fireside, the house, the home.

"4. The clothier of men, the spinner, the weaver, and, indeed,
general guardian of peaceful industry and practical wisdom."

One of the most erroneous and misleading beliefs relating to the
American Indian woman is that she was both before and after mar-
riage the abject slave and drudge of the men of her tribe.

This false view, due largely to inaccurate observation and mis-
conception of American Indian institutions, was perhaps correct, at
times, ais to a very small portion of the tribes, and only where the
environment afforded only the barest necessities and needs of life,
and, sometimes, withheld even this scanty meed.

The American Indian woman being domestic, industrious, unsel-
fish, provident, adaptive to existing conditions, and artistic in her
tastes, is well equipped for the making of a modern home,— one's
own dwelling-place of a time not ancient or remote,— the making64	PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

of an abiding-place of the present time of domestic affections, of
love, of tenderness, of peace that is not ruffled nor broken by the
turmoils and tempests of life.

A home is not an outright gift of God, but with His merciful
help it is acquired in time by a slow process of building upon fixed
laws of life and nature.

The first and most important things about a modern home is a
house, and a house to be a true home must be adapted to the re-
quirements of its occupants, to their position in society and to their
means and income.

The modern home need not necessarily be large, but it must be
of such size as to afford the largest measure of convenience and of
the ordinary comforts of life.

Of course, the woman alone cannot make such a home. The
man who is to share it with her must cooperate with her in working
out the details of home-making; each has a part to perform, and
happiness in the home cannot be attained unless the duty of each is
faithfully fulfilled.

Among my people, the Chippewa of the great Algonquin stock
of languages, each sex has its own peculiar sphere of duty.

To the man belongs the duty and obligation of protecting his
family,— his wife or wives and their offspring and near kindred,
and to support them with the products of the chase and of the
fishery; to manufacture weapons and wooden utensils, and com-
monly to provide suitable timbers and bark for the building of the
lodge. These activities required health, strength and skill. The
warrior was usually absent from his fireside on the chase, on the
warpath, or on the fishing-trip, weeks, months, and sometimes years;
and he was subjected to the hardships and the perils of hunting and
fighting, and to the inclemency of the weather, often without food
and shelter.

To the woman belongs the duties required in the home, in the
lodge. Taking care of the children and attending to the cooking,
the sewing, the making of mats, baskets, and pottery, and utensils
of bark; she also gathered and stored edible roots, seeds, berries,
and plants, for future use and present consumption; the smokingMRS. MARIE L. BALDWIN
(Chippewa)SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

65

of meats and fish and eels, brought by the hunters ; when on the
march it was the duty of the woman to care for the camp and its
equipage and the family belongings, in which labor she was of
course assisted by the children and such men as were incapacitated
for more active service. Sowing and cultivating the crops was
chiefly the duty of the woman, although she was at times assisted
by the men.

The woman was industrious, frugal, loving and affectionate, and
performed her duties willingly and cheerfully. She was not a
drudge and slave of her husband and the men of her tribe. She was
treated with the respect, the esteem, gentleness and loving con-
sideration she so richly merited and appreciated.

Her native artistic ability enables her to beautify her home in
many ways with the materials which the modern merchant has to
sell. It was my good fortune to visit the home of a woman of
Indian blood, in which paintings both in water color and oils richly
adorned the walls and a large number of embroidered sofa pillows
of exquisite beauty graced the sofa, and in which I saw a profusion
of embroidered center and individual pieces, as well as fine drawn
work which adorned the dinner table, and pieces of hand-painted
china bonbon dishes, fruit dishes and vases tastefully placed here
and there; and there I also saw curtains of net filled in with darning
cotton with designs of artistic beauty, two of which had been origi-
nated by my hostess, and the draperies which hung in the space of
the folding doors between the front and back parlors were of fish
net, edged with tassels of her own handiwork. All these things
were the product of this noble woman's own hands and industry.
This woman took pride in saying that everything in her home ex-
cept the furniture, carpets, the piano, and the housekeeping utensils,
had been made with her own hands or those of her sister.

This woman in addition to this did all her own cooking of meats,
vegetables, pastries and breads; she too preserved all the fruit, and
prepared all the pickles, jellies and jams used in her household.

She had two children and did all the sewing for them and her-
self. In this manner she was doing her full share in the home-
making ; she was a good wife and a good housekeeper.66

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

This is, I am proud to say, only one example of many happy
homes among people of Indian blood wherein the woman by her
naitural industry and thrifty domestic management has done her part
in the making of home.

In the home I visited the husband was a printer. He toiled hard
to support his little family, often denying himself of personal com-
forts ins order that he might bring some pleasing gifts to his wife
or children ; he counseled with and confided in her concerning his
business and plans; he realized that woman's quick intuition often
sees at a glance what a man is slow in discovering. And so even
though she did not give him great aid in his business, she was
thereby made happy by being taken into his confidence, and on the
other hand, he was inspired by her trust and encouragement.

With the training derived from her mother's experience in cutting
up the meat products of the chase, the Indian woman possesses
a knowledge which enables her to purchase the exact piece of meat
she may want for a certain dish. I remember many a beef roast
I was sent to market to purchase was turned into a potroast or a
stew by my mother while I was learning to market, because she
recognized that that particular piece or cut of meat that I had car-
ried back to her was not suitable for the oven roast which she had
desired.

But the environments of the primitive life of the American In-
dian woman have in large measure changed. Conditions have be-
come transformed and so new environments have been created; new
institutions, customs, laws and beliefs have gradually displaced the
old, the ancient; here lies the difficulty with the modern American
Indian woman,—her people are no longer independent and self-
governing; she must change her motives and ideals in life and so
adjust herself as well as she may to these novel surroundings which
have, unsolicited, been brought to her door by peoples of the eastern
hemisphere; her outlook upon life must now be in large measure
from new viewpoints. New values must be given to the facts of
life. To secure welfare and happiness she must adapt and wisely
adjust her inherent and acquired talents to these modern surround-
ings. Many of the things that were useful and necessary, yea,SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

67

sacred, to her own mother, must now be laid aside. Methods of
producing, securing and preserving shelter and the necessaries of
life must be adopted or changed or discarded1 altogether to meet the
new conditions of life on this continent.

And the American Indian woman who fails to realize this duty
and obligation to her race in her home-making fails completely to
read aright the signs of the time.

In short, the peculiar customs, laws, beliefs and institutions of
her ancestors which do not comport with these changed conditions
and which have come into collision with those which are better
adapted to secure welfare and happiness under modern conditions
of life, must be laid aside; let them rest with the glorious deeds and
attainments, the heroism and the patriotism of her ancestors, in the
hall of fond memory. (Applause.)

The CHAIRMAN: We have just five minutes in which to
adjourn for luncheon, as guests of the Faculty of the Ohio State
University.

Upon motion, the Conference adjourned until 2.00 o'clock the
same day.

Friday Afternoon Session, October 13, 1911.

The CHAIRMAN: The meeting will please come to order.
Before proceeding with business I wish to read a telegram from
Mr. Friedman, Superintendent of the Carlisle Indian School.

Mr. Dagenett then read the telegram, in which Mr. Friedman
expressed his regreat at not being able to attend, and extended his
best wishes for the success of the Conference and the perfection of
a permanent organization.

The CHAIRMAN: Another matter that is up before we pro-
ceed with the programme is the question of a meeting of the com-
mittee to draw up a constitution. There is so little time between
our sessions that it almost impossible for this Committee to meet
except during the regular sessions. The Committee to draw up
a constitution is ais follows: John M. Oskison, Thomas L. Sloan,68

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Miss Laura M. Cornelius, Arthur C. Parker and myself. Those
members of this Committee who are not on the programme this
afternoon are requested to meet in the Constitutional Committee
room immediately, to at least start on this work. Mr. Henry Roe
Cloud will act as the Chairman of this session.

Mr. CLOUD: In opening this meeting this afternoon I want to
do something a little out of the usual order. To a great many of
us, this gathering here in Columbus means a very great thing, not
only to those of us who are here, but to those Indians whom we
represent, and it seems fitting that we shiould relate all our doings
here to the Great Spirit, in whom every one of us believe. I have
never met an Indian yet who did not believe in the Great Spirit,
and so I take the liberty, as Chairman this afternoon, to call upon
Rev. Sherman Coolidge to lead us in a word of prayer before we
begin this discussion on education.

Mr. Coolidge then led the Conference in prayer.

Mr. CLOUD: I am asked, by Mr. Dagenett, to announce that
those who belong to the Committee to draw up the constitution and
by-laws should retire immediately, as I understand it, to their task.

Our subject this afternoon is the question of the educational prob-
lem of the Indian, and it is divided into two parts, " The Philos-
ophy of Indian Education " and " Higher Education for Indians,"
and as branches of higher education, the subjects of " The Preserva-
tion of Native Indian Art" and " The Indian in the Professions."
Now we will have the pleasure of listening to Mr. Arthur C.
Parker, a Seneca by descent, on the subject of " The Philosophy of
Indian Education."

THE PHILOSOPHY OF INDIAN EDUCATION.

By Arthur C. Parker.

At the time of the white invasion of America, beginning in 1492,
a >new type of ethnic culture was introduced to the continent.
Whatever may have been the merits of the institutions of the purely
American cultures before this time or since, we must recognize theSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

69

fact that, viewed ethnologically, the so-called civilization of the
whites was a distinct advance.

Few American Indian tribes at the beginning of the Columbian
epoch, especially those north of Mexico, were above the first stages
of barbarism, and some were pure savages. The new culture
brought them new ideas and new materials. It showed them how,
by the application of labor and through change of character, many
hitherto useless objects could be made to contribute to human enjoy-
ment, and how through a systematized knowledge of natural laws
that which was better and greater could be devised. The simple
American, accustomed only to the simple things about him, and
familiar only with utilizing things nearest at hand, saw a demon-
stration of the supreme power of knowledge when he saw ships and
horses, guns and implements of steel. These things gave men
power, power not only over beasts and other men, but power over
space and elements. The Indian was subtle enough to see his own
weakness, and thus in his own way he sought the power that the
higher culture gave, but at the same time protested against it.

This education, which a higher culture gives by contact with
another culture, is termed acculturation. Ordinarily we call it
civilization.

When the white race sought to teach its culture to the Indiam,
and when the Indian endeavored to acquire it, both races discovered
that there was some fundamental difference that prevented imme-
diate success. The fault lay in the chasm that separates one stage
of ethnic culture from another, it lay in a difference of mental
texture, in <a difference of hereditary influences and in a difference
of environment. The fault did not lay in a difference in capacity.
In the earlier days no one seemed to recognize these facts. The
white race thus regarded the Indian as an inferior and accounted
for his failures on that score. Here it made a serious mistake, for
the relative position of any race as a higher or lower human group
is not measured by their present cultural attainment, but by their
capacity for advancement when placed in a favorable environment.1

1Franz Boas, Human Faculty as Determined by Race.70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

That am ethnic group is found in a lower stage than some other does
not signify incapacity. It may show, on the other tend, a healthy
conservatism that under proper conditions and with proper stimuli
will develop a vastly superior culture. Culture scale is no measure
of capacity or of ultimate attainment. The Teuton and the Gaul
were hairy savages delighting in devouring one another when other
races now decadent enjoyed the acme of contemporary civilization.

Ability to imitate is, likewise, no criterion of position or capacity.
A purely imitative race may be a lower race, as much as their out-
ward appearance may resemble a higher order. Contrariwise, a
conservative race, such as the aboriginal American, that loves best
things which it itself has produced, and which makes haiste slowly,
after all, may show the most healthy growth and rise to a superior
position. If that race is ultimately assimilated and absorbed by a
greater body its influence as a factor in the blood of the greater race
will then be paramount.

The reputed inability of the Indian to walk in the white man's
trail is due to a difference in environment that differentiates ethnic
cultures. The Indian rested upon a? different base.

Russell Sage once had a railroad that ran into Poughkeepsie. It
was bad enough for it to run into Poughkeepsie, but it couldn't
help it. It could run no further. This was not because it lacked
fuel or steam,— it had plenty of that. It stopped only because it
was a physical impossibility for it to progress safely any further.
If it had attempted to switch its cars over on other tracks the train
would have been wrecked and the valuable cargo lost. To avoid
such a fate it unloaded its freight for the New York Central to
carry on. The trouble with the railroad was that it was narrow
gauge. As fine as it was and great as it was its capacity for taking
on freight, it could not advance on a road meant for standard trucks.
To attempt this with its limited running gear would have meant a
smash up.

Civilization to-day is the present standard gauge. Of what avail
is it to load a splendid car with precious freight and, forgetting
that its trucks are narrow gauge, to send it on over standard tracks ?
All is lost. So with Indian education and Indian civilization. TheSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

71

underpinning, that which is basic, that which a man runs on, must
receive attention and must be standardized before the superstruc-
ture, as great as it is, may progress safely. If you don't believe it,
look at the wrecks along the way.

Civilization is a matter of evolution!. It is not bred overnight or
even in a century. It comes to a race by a well-balanced develop-
ment of its mental and moral capacities. No race may acquire the
culture of another until every incident of that other's environment
is made theirs. Even then the great basic things of the sought-for
culture must become fundamental with the accreting race before
the desired elements of the culture become fixed characters.

The Indian did not acquire civilization immediately, nor could he
at once even understand its complexities. He could not become
educated in the folk-ways and the folk-thought of the white race
for the very reasons given. His mental viewpoint, the result of his
ethnic stage, gave him a different perspective and he saw things in
a different if not an altogether distorted light, though sometimes he
saw quite clearly, it is needless to say.

Until the peculiar elements of the culture of the Indian began to
disintegrate there could be little hope of the success of an Indian
educated in the white man's way among his own people, and so he
went back to the blanket. There was no other place to go. As a
matter of fact, the educated Indian of former periods was always
a failure unless by rare chance his education had been of the sort
that made hiim better able to live in the environment in which he
was placed. With any ethnic group there is always a tendency to
a leveling. Progress cannot be made any faster than the majority
or their ruling element are willing to make it. He who is in advance
is alone, unprotected and despised. For very existence he falls back
into the group, knowing of things beyond, yet not daring to speak.
The exceptions aire the great men who cling to their convictions and
pull the masses with them, but usually the gravity of the greater
body attracts irresistibly the vagrant corpuscle, energized though
it is. The solitary educated Indian sent back to his own tribe could
do little for it. Moreover, he could do little for himself, for he had72

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

lost has skill as an Indian, and his knowledge of most things was of
little use to his kinsmen.

With the gradual 'acculturation of the Indian, and with a changed
environment wherein he is dependent for his life necessities upon
the commodities of the white man, the field of educational effort has
become greatly enlarged. There is not now the impassable gulf
between the educated Indian and one who has not received such
advantages, for in a general way the external surroundings and
necessities of each are the same. With the majority of Indian tribes
there is not now the suspicion that the educated Indian is a sort of
imitation white man who may betray his people. With this changed
condition there -is a possibility of greater success than formerly.

As far as I have been able to determine, it is the aim of those
responsible for Indian schools to study the individual needs of the
student and to measure his aptitude along certain lines. Discover-
ing this, his special training and discipline are directed toward
developing him in the most fitting way. The modern way is to
teach the Indian to make a living for himself. There is therefore
an elaborate system of practical manual training. There are prob-
ably few places in America where there is a better opportunity of
obtaining a thorough working knowledge of the necessary arts than
at the various Indian schools. As a rule the officers of these schools
discharge their work with a zeal that springs from heart interest.
They have an earnest desire to develop skill and ambition, and to
fit their pupils for the world's work. When one of their former
students " makes good " they feel amply repaid for their efforts,
and no parent could be prouder.

Students that stick and study receive the best of that which can
be given. The benefit depends alone upon the capacity of the stu-
dent. No school can train a pupil beyond that. No school can pro-
duce new material; it can only shape and polish that which is given
it and turn ovut the finished product when nothing more can be
done. Both the student and the school have their limitations. If
the school is to produce better results, one of the prime necessities
is better material upon which to work. There can be little improve-
ment. however, until the sources from which the material comesARTHUR C. PARKERSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

73

improve. Reservation conditions demand immediate improvement,
if not entire regeneration. Because reservation conditions are what
they are and because reservation ideals are not what they should
be, it is not always possible for the schools to obtain children who
have had the best hereditary influences and the best early training.
Demoralized social conditions are very apt to produce an inferior
people who beget an inferior progeny. A few great minds rise
above such conditions and are brilliant examples of the possibility
of overcoming unfavorable environment. To the great majority,
however, the moral and social conditions of reservations react
doubly. They send out, in the first place, children, who, had their
parents been placed in better conditions, would have been given bet-
ter brains and better bodies, hence greater capacity for development.
Secondly, they invite back to themselves their children trained in
schools that taught higher ideals and better ways of living. Once
back, the student is very apt to follow the lines of least resistance
and live outwardly, and perhaps inwardly, like any " poor Indian
with untutored mind." This is the influence, among other things,
of the " leveling tendency " of social groups.

The recognition of such conditions points to a new field for edu-
cational endeavor among Indians. To insure a better quality of
students, and to protect the returned student, the adult population
of the reservation must be reached and taught. Missionaries have
done many splendid things, but the limitations of their training
and the prescribed functions of their calling have sometimes pre-
vented their highest usefulness. To supplement their work, social
betterment stations should be established where the necessary things
of hygiene and industry can be taught, and these stations should be
under the supervision of responsible bodies reporting to the State
or to the Federal Government. The appeal which this idea is apt
to make to popular sympathy is very liable to invite the cunning
pseudo-philanthropist who through egotism and avarice may do
much harm while seeming to do good; hence the need of competent
jurisdiction. In this connection it strikes me that if the Govern-
ment and the State can establish experiment stations for growing
good vegetables and breeding better cattle, it can likewise consist-74

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

ently establish industrial and social betterment stations among a
people to whom this country owes a great debt.

The first effort of such an undertaking, I would suggest, should
be the teaching of independent action, of a pride that would lead
to self-help, of a sentiment that would clamor for abolition of spe-
cial laws that permitted the operation of tribal customs not consist-
ent with modern progress, and of a lively desire to demonstrate the
ability of the race to advance.

It will be admitted that the Indian cannot survive as an Indian
alone. The very fact that at present the Indian is thought to need
special laws and government protection is an admission that he is
not yet able as a race to compete on an equal footing with the domi-
nant race. The Indian is not in a self-elected position, nor is he
in an independent position, hence he is not in a normal position.
He is in an abnormal position. The modern American ideal is to
give to every man the right to occupy a normal position in society,
for only the normal can survive. In his present dependent position,
with ai false environment, the Indian can only become crushed by
the weight of conditions about him. To survive he must become a
contributing factor of society, and one able by his own efforts to
attain a producing status. He must win in competition to succeed,
and to win he must become as efficient as any other member of
society. To* make him so is, or should be, the aim of every division
of Indian service, from the Department of Indian Affairs to the
reservation district school.

This modern America needs men and women who are efficient.
They are an economic necessity to the commonwealth. Dependent,
inefficient and non-producing persons or communities are a drain on
the resources of the great body politic. Hence the need of normal
individuals.

No body of people in this country can successfully remain apart
and distinct from it, nor can the Indian, whatever may be his claims,
hope to be an exception. To survive at all he must become as other
men, a contributing, self-sustaining member of society. This does
not mean, necessarily, the loss of individuality, but the asserting of
it. The true aim of educational effort should not be to make theSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

75

Indian a white man, but simply ai man normal to his environment.
Every Indian who has succeeded is such a person. Hundreds of
Indians have attained honorable positions and are as other Ameri-
cans, yet they retain their individuality as Indians and in reality
are the only Indians who can appreciate the true dignity and value
of their race, and they alone are able to speak for it.

To place the Indian in a normal sphere, the right kind of educa-
tion must be given him. There may be as much madness in educa-
tion as in anything else misapplied. Some kinds of education may
be sheer folly, a waste of effort and a life-long detriment, just as
other kinds may be advantageous. Indian education means, or
should come to mean, more than the inculcation and absorption of
certain facts. It should mean the development of the best inherent
propensities, the strengthening of weak characteristics and the
stimulation to independent thought and action. Indian educational
effort should build backbone as well as fatten brain. Any other
form of education but adds the sting of bitterness to a former
unhappy state. Under certain conditions it may be better for the
Indian to be ignorant than surfeited with mal-education, but we
desire no such conditions and no sucth form of education.

The ultimate duty incumbent on every nation is to insure the
quality of its future elements.1 Every individual living in a com-
munity is an element in its makeup. No nation can afford to permit
any person or body of people within it to exist in a condition at vari-
ance with the ideals of that nation. Every element perforce must
become assimilated. I do not mean by this that the Indian should
surrender his essential individuality or his love of more spiritual
things and passively allow himself, like clay, to be pressed into a
white man's mold. I do not mean, by assimilation, that his love of
the great esthetic ideals should be supplanted entirely by commer-
cial greed or that his mind should become sordid with the conven-
tionail ideas of white civilization, for it is by no means yet estab-
lished that the existing form of civilization is susceptible of no fur-

XA. C. Parker, The Mission of Making New Americans from Old, Assembly
Journal, Feb., 1911.76

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

ther improvement, nor that the white man as a type is the ultimate
model. I do mean, however, that the Indian should accustom him-
self to the culture that engulfs him and to the force that directs it,
that he should cease to struggle from without against it, that he
should become a factor of it, and that once a factor of it he should
use his revitalized influence and more advantageous position in
asserting and developing the great ideals of his race for the good
of the greater race, which means all mankind.

The future endeavors of the Indian American who is in advance,
as well as the efforts of the State and the nation, and of the philan-
thropic institutions within them, must be directed, therefore, toward
teaching the Indian to adapt himself to modern conditions. The
ability to adapt is a test of the right to survive, and it measures the
capacity for assimilation. With this ability once developed and
fixed, the Indian is ready to surge' forward with enlightened man-
kind in the race toward higher goals, the nature of which to-day we
may only obscurely dream.

To this end all educational effort must be directed.

Mr. CLOUD: I have often heard the remark made that an
Indian can be educated so much and no more, and whenever I hear
that remark I always think about that little story of that small steam-
boat going up the Mississippi river. Its engines were so weak that
when it blew its whistle, why, the boat would stop (laughter), as
though the Indian, after trying to acquire education, and having
gotten to a certain point, all his brain power was exhausted and he
could go no further. To those of us who heard Mr. Parker last
night in Memorial Hall, and who have heard this paper, there is a
convincing refutation of that outcry against the Indian that he can
be educated to a certain point and no more.

I regret to say that Dr. Frazier, who has the next paper, is not
here to-day, so we will proceed to the general discussion. I under-
stand that we have twenty minutes for this discussion, aind the last
speaker has surely suggested enough points for all kinds of remarks.
The meeting is open now for general discussion upon the subject of
" The Philosophy of Indian Education/'SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

77

DISCUSSION ON INDIAN EDUCATION.

Dr. EASTMAN: I would like to say a word or two apropos of
the last paper on the last subject. One of the professors of Cam-
bridge laid out a discussion on attainment, the capacity and power
to attain. It was said that it has been proven scientifically that no
race, as far as is known, is denied that power; that there have been
members from each race known to have attained the highest suc-
cess where they have had the opportunity, thus showing that every
man has that capacity and ability to develop to the highest point,
and that no race is denied that power.

Mr. CHASE: I think that a great amount of the natural abili-
ties of our people lie still dormant because of a lack of proper edu-
cational institutions. I know of my own self that my English has
been neglected. I have in trying to acquire this English language
and progressed faster by comparing my mother tongue with the
English than any other way. That is one of our great draw-
backs in this Indian civilization. Some of our Indian people at
home, and some of our old people existing to-day, have just as good
intellects as you or I have, who have been to the white schools, but
cannot express their feelings to white men. (Applause.) There is
an Indian education as well as a white education. (Applause.) I
would just as soon sit down among our older men to-day and hear
them talk and tell their old stories as I would to turn to my library
and read Chairles Dickens and such writers as that. I say that this
education of our people, if it had been left to us, would have
developed a civilization of our own much higher than it is now.

Mr. Chairman, I am happy to be here to-day. One good thing
that the Government of the United States is doing for our youth
is the giving to them of an education at such institutions as Carlisle
amd Hampton, and those other institutions throughout the West
that we know of. That is only in part payment for what belongs
to us. We need a higher education, and if we had been left to con-
duct our own affairs in the matter of progress and civilization, and
not had it left to others that are based upon false doctrines, I say78	PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

again, that our people would be on a higher plane of civilization
to-day.

The paper written by the gentleman who last spoke is certainly
an accomplishment, and is a step toward that. I say that if we had
controlled our own education, had been permitted to keep our own
Indian education, what we have had from our ancestors, along with
the white education, we would be much better off, and would be
better than a great many white people to-day. I argue that there is
a time coming when our race will be more educated in the line of
civil institutions; that the time is coming when each one of us will
need such knowledge, and it devolves upon each one of us here,
each one who are better educated,— to go home and teach our
people their rights and their duties as citizens. That is one of the
missions that belongs to each one of us, and it is all foolishness to
talk of progress unless we know what our rights are, and have the
assurance that the United States Government is protecting us in
these respects.

Mr. JOSEPH K. GRIFFIS: I think one thing which has stood
in our way is the fact that one race of people cannot understand
another until it gets their ideals,— come to feel as they feel, and
to think as they think, and; other things which have stood in the
way of the Indian's progress are the things which took place a
good while ago.

A short while ago I spent some time among the Seminoles of
Florida, in the Everglades, and they will not allow one of their mem-
bers to learn to read or write. I said, " Why do you do this ? "
" Well," they said, " a good while ago some of our men learned to
put their names on paper. That meant the signing away of our
homes. To learn to write may be good for the white man, but it
is not good for the red man, and so it is partly because of these
prejudices that the Indian has not made better progress. And now,
as has been emphasized by this Conference, the Indian, the young
men, the boys and girls, should be taught that they belong here,
that they must play a part in this civilization, and they should be
given a chance to learn how they may adjust themselves to progress.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

79

Mr. JOHN M. OSKISON: We must not run away from here
with the idea that we alone appreciate Indian civilization. Some
white people with whom I have talked are anxious to get together
in some sort of organization that will help to perpetuate all ideas
and organizations1 that are distinctly Indian, and which are worth
preserving. It was suggested to me that the beginning might be
made in the Puebloes of Mexico and Arizona. There a complete
civilization has been worked out and a state of government which
has been entirely successful is in vogue. There they say, "We
would like to have the power to exercise a sort of censorship over
our government, and not to let any teacher go to a Pueblo which
is well organized, and which is prosperous — not to let a teacher go
there who will not understand the necessity for perpetuating all the
good that is represented in the government of that Pueblo, and
prevent any trader going in there who is not sympathetic and will
not try to understand us." Encourage in some way the perpetua-
tion of the Indian industries. Extend that idea wherever it is pos-
sible. Do that first among the Pueblos and then go among the
tribes generally. The one idea being to keep for the study of
Americans in general those things which are distinctive and which
represent an element in human progress. I believe that that would
be a popular idea to propagate. I think also that it will meet with
sympathetic appreciation among the whites. We are rapidly chang-
ing to the point of view of the white people toward the Indian.
Americans are pretty shrewd. You do not need to hit them with
a brick to make them see a point. We have been successful in
showing that, and the white people who have come in contact with
the Indians have a pretty fair understanding of what we stand for.
It is possible now to push this idea further. I am looking forward
with a great deal of interest to Mrs. Deitz's paper, because she will
touch, I am sure, one of the very vital problems that will confront
the society, or organization, or people undertaking a thing of this
sort.

Rev. COOLIDGE: I wish to say in regard to the education of
the Indian, that during the last forty years the process has been
going on, and I think we have reached a time when the white people8o	PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

are pretty well educated to the fact that the Indian can be civilized,
can be Christianized, cam be a good man. We must also educate
the white people to be careful not to make too many false state-
ments about the Indians in general, or about some, perhaps, in par-
ticular. I know a white man among the Arapahoes who said, " You
can't educate the Arapahoe any more than you can the Ethiopian,"
and I have heard friends of mine say I was educated because I was
an Arapahoe smart enough to take all the studies and carry them
through creditably, including the Latin and Greek languages; that
the Arapahoe was the quickest to catch on ; he had a quicker intel-
lect than the Sioux and the Chippewa who were educated in the same
schools. I believe there are many Chippewas, many Sioux just as
smart as I am! (Laughter.)

I believe the responsibility of being educated and having had
better opportunities than some of our fellow men of our own tribe
and other tribes, is a heavy one, and a very serious one. I have
thought many times of my playmates, the boys I played with around
the tepee when I was a little child, and whom I have seen later when
I went back as a missionary,— still living in tepees, men who played
as boys with me along the riverside, along the hillside, and on the
mountain side, and I have seen the heiad chiefs of our tribes, whose
great abilities led them up to the very high positions which they
occupied as chiefs of our tribes, amd I have often thought of the
position they could have attained had they had the advantages of
education such as I have had. (Applause.) There are men and
boys in our camps who are still uneducated. It is your duty, and
it is my duty to go and teach those people to take hold of oppor-
tunities. Why, I have seen white men who have said, " I wish my
mother and my father had taken me from my home to the school
house and made me go to school in order that I might occupy a
better position, and be able to earn more money than I am earning
now." Don't let our people neglect their opportunities; let them
realize that they must compete in life's race, and in the condition of
our American civilization.

Chairman CLOUD: We have three minutes more.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

81

Miss CORNELIUS : I cannot express how grateful I am to find
that that position, which is inherent in those of us who know our
race, is going to become general, by the expressions of our big men
upon these lines, that the idea of being a new Indian is a fake; that
we have enough to do when we stand as being of the old Indian
type; when we reassert ourselves and say, " I am not the new
Indian, I am the old adjusted to the new conditions " (Applause.)
And I want to thiank the one man especially who has caught this
note and has spread it broadcast throughout the land. I think we
all know the distinguished Sioux who has done that in his lectures.
I think we owe him a great debt of gratitude that in his life among
the whites he has maintained that position, all alone. Perhaps he
did not know there were other Indians who would support him. I
think that one of the greatest fallacies in the Indian education, in
those Indian schools, is that you take away the traditions of the
youth on which all other nations build their hopes, and then you
expect to make him a great man. There is nothing so great, when
a man can possess it, as to have some pride, and there is no race
on the face of the earth that is so rich in pride as the Indian race.
(Applause.)

Chairman CLOUD: The Chair regrets very much to bring
this part of the program to a close. Surely it is a very good part
of the program. I think we are just warming up to the work for
which we came. I believe one of the speakers, Mr. Chase, referred
to the fact that the old Indians who have no education would do us
good if we could hear them. I know personally that if you threw
this discussion into the Winnebago language you could have some
pretty valuable material from this direction over here (pointing to
the Winnebago delegates), and I know that is true of your tribe.
They would contribute in their own language some valuable ideas
to this Conference. It is said that the American Indian was the
highest type of savage, and surely a people which has such a dis-
tinction among the races of men has something unique to contribute
to the other races, and we are going to be introduced to that sub-
ject by a Winnebago woman, Mrs. Angel De Cora Deitz, who will
speak on the subject of " The Preservation of Native Indian Art."82

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

NATIVE INDIAN ART.

By Mrs. Angel De Cora Deitz.

1 have been asked often just what is meant by Native Indian Art.
I hardly think this audience will put up such a question, but on the
other hand there might be diversified views on the subject, and
since I have been invited to speak on the subject, I will give you my
interpretation of Native Indian Art by right of practical experience
with the art.

To begin at the very foundation of the. subject, art in all its forms,
is the expression of man's best impulses; from the joy of the heart
man sings or writes a poem, when the inspiration comes through his
visual sense, he makes a pictorial record of it in form, line or color.

There is no people without art. The early history of every race
has come down to us through the medium of graphic, plastic and
textile arts, and if we wish to attain a scientific knowledge of art
we must begin at the foundation and study the nature of the art of
primitive peoples.

Up to the present time the art of the American Indian has
appealed to just two classes of professional men, the scientist and
the artist. The Indian in his natural state was a source of inspira-
tion to the artist. Painter, poet and sculptor have immortalized him
on canvas, in marble and in verse. They have realized that he was
akin to the arts, but it was the general effect of the Indian in buck-
skin and feathers that the artist took for art, never dreaming there
was a cause for effect. (I came across a newspaper cartoon some
time ago that illustrated well this point. The picture was an old,
so-called " blanket" Indian and an old eagle standing before two
coins, ooe with the head of an Indian with a feather bonnet and on
the other coin was the eagle, the national emblem. The old Indian
apparently addressing the old eagle says says, " Nature and Art —
that's us.")

The Indian is an artist and on the details of his garments he
lavished his utmost skill. The Indian artist's first aim was to pic-MRS. ANGEL DECORA DEITZ
(Winnebago)SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

83

ture his thoughts, and he drew them on the material at hand. His
skin garments, utensils and nearly all his persoftal possessions bore
record of his thought. At first no attempts were made at realism,
the simple forms and figures had practical significance, but gradually,
through the process of evolution, the pictorial arrangements tended
to cultivate his decorative sense and thereby started his art on the
more aesthetic plane.

Aesthetics in art is the study or practice of art for art's sake, for
the sensuous pleasure of form, line and color. As to what is pleas-
ing, that each person must decide for himself.

All art is founded on the primitive efforts of people's needs in
their daily life — each nation shows individual taste, always devel-
oped by environment. This makes Egyptian and Greek art dis-
tinctive, and neither can be or has been adopted by any other people,
although their classical designs are often adapted to the uses of
other countries, yet none claim them as their own original work.
The Greeks and Italians have reached the highest order of art, and
will always stand as models for the whole world. Every town and
hamlet testifies to the grave love of the beautiful developed in their
ordinary daily life.

But to the American people the European art is not the only art.
They copy every nationality. They adopt the simplest forms of
peasant dress, adopt the form of ordinary home-spun material to the
richest fabric. Tourists from the East buy every vestige of Indian
handiwork that they can see at the stations of the Southwest. They
use these varied articles for decoration in houses in close contact
with curios from Japan and China. Some use belts and chains with
impunity which may be more or less appropriate.

How much they can learn if they properly consider the true sig-
nificance of these designs that they are the correct form for which
they are used upon articles in use by Indians.

The designs, if thoughtfully considered, form the nucleus of Native
Indian Art which can be exploited and adapted to as many and
varied uses as any of the designs brought from foreign countries.

To-day the oak leaf and acorn adorn the coronation robes of the
British Sovereign. The thistle of Scotland and shamrock of Ire-S4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

knd are also incorporated in many designs. The Swastika of the
Southwestern Indians is closely allied to the designs of antiquity.
Other designs are equally valuable and have their artistic merits.

The Indians are gifted in original ideas of ornamentation as can
Jbe seen on their personal decorations. To train and develop this
decorative instinct of the Indian to modem methods and apply it on
up-to-date house furnishings is the mature and intent of the Native
Indian Art Department as now carried on at the United States
Indian School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Indian's training for
keen observation makes him an apt pupil in the pictorial art as those
of you who have taught in Indian schools can readily verify.

Some years ago I attended a National Educational Association
convention. I spent some time looking over the Indian school
exhibit. The art work was the same as is prescribed for public
schools, the usual spray of flower or budding twig done in " wash "
after the manner of Japanese brush work, and some stilted forms
of geometric figures apparently made under the strict directions of
a teacher. The only trace of Indian about the exhibition was some
of the names denoting clannish nomenclature.

As I stood there studying the accurately copied work of the
Indian scholars, it occurred to me that the American Indians had
two art systems, the sign language and a decorative art, the two
mediums of communication which were almost universal with the
whole Indian race. There were the tribal differences, but the two
systems were well founded and well established. The fact is not
so well known that the hand manual of the deaf mutes was the out-
come of the Indian's sign language. However, this little blessing
of the Indian to the human race does not eclipse his glorious record
as preserved by the War Department.

Further contemplation and study convinced me that the Indian's
art was a well-established system of designing and if the young
school Indian was permitted to practice it in the class room it would
make as interesting an exhibition as the one I saw at that National
Education Association convention, and moreover it might be further
cultivated by the educated Indians and adapted to modern methods.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

85

The nature of Indian art is formed on a purely conventional and
geometric basis, and our endeavors at the Carlisle Indian School
have been to treat it as a conventional system of designing.

From the best specimens of bead work designs, we study the sym-
bolic figures, first of the Sioux, as they represent a certain style
of Indian designing peculiar to the tribes of the middle west or those
whose habitat was the prairie. The Indian/ pictured the broader
aspects of nature, such as sky, clouds, hills, lakes, rivers, trees and
rocks in symbolic figures of geometrical shapes, so the general
character of the country had much to do with each tribal scheme of
symbolisms.

The study of the fundamental figures was followed by the
combined figures, made up of two or more of the elements of de-
sign, then the still more complex figures made by repeated use of
two or more of the elements of design. Under this analytic system
we have studied the various tribal styles, the Arapahoe system
which represents the tribes of the mountainous regions, and the
Winnebago which treats of the forest and lake country; the Navajo
presents still another style showing the character of desert coun-
try. The Zuni, Pueblo and Hopi offer a much more developed
system of decorative designing which lends itself wonderfully to
interior wall decoration. After much drilling in this geometric sys-
tem of designing, the unit system was introduced. By this develop-
ment all the page ornamentations of the Carlisle school magazine,
the Red Man, were made by the pupils. We have made stencil de-
signs for the friezes and draperies, design's for rugs, embroideries,
applique, wood carving, tiles and metal work. We not only have
produced the designs, but they have been applied whenever we had
the material at band. Rugs, draperies, sofa cushion covers and
smaller articles were designed and made by the girls of the Art
Department and the boys of the Art Department under Mr. Dietz,
who is also a trained artist, have done all the pen and ink decora-
tions for the Red Man, such as the page borders, initial letters and
other page ornaments. In the metal work Indian designs were
wrought in silver jewelry, copper and brass trays in all the novelty
shapes.86

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

The Indian designs modified and applied to interior house deco-
ration are especially in harmony with the so-called " mission " style,
the geometric designs lend themselves well to the simple and straight
lines of mission furniture.

One of the best art schools in the country thought it worth while
to have Indian students in their midst who would impart some of
their native ideas of designing to their pupils, in return for which
the Indian pupil would receive the full technical training of the
institution. Some of the students were sent from our preparatory
training to the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art in Philadel-
phia, but lack of means prevented some from completing the course.

There has been much expression of sentiment from various
sources over the efforts made by the art pupils of the school to apply
Indian designs on modern house furnishings, and the purpose of
this talk is to show how the school-trained Indian, with little tech-
nical training, has made use of this geometric system of designing.

By careful study and close application many hundred designs have
been evolved. Many of these designs have been thrown upon the
market of the country and each one has brought its financial re-
ward, but more than that, from these small and unassuming ven-
tures, we have drawn the attention of artists and manufacturers to
the fact that the Indian of North America possessed a distinctive
art which promises to be of great value in a country which hereto-
fore has been obliged to draw its models from the countries of the
eastern hemisphere. Its continued development shows that much
more can be expected as time and opportunity offer new occasions
for its application. Its scope grows wider each year and the future
has much in store.

My experience at Carlisle shows me that in addition to the cre-
ative ability in designing, it is no effort for the school Indian to
acquire the technique of any art handiwork, but in all probability
none of these excellent designers will ever find their way to any art
school for a finished training, but should one care to look into their
future homes, however modest they might be, one will find there a
sense of harmony peculiar to the American Indian. These young
people have shown resourceful minds in application of their nativeSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

87

designs to modern furnishings. Indian designs could be used very
effectively in brick and slate works, in parquet and mosaic floors,
oilcloths, carved wood furniture, tiles, stencil designs for friezes and
draperies, designs for rugs, embroideries, applique, metal work,
enameled jewelry and page decorations.

Manufacturers are now employing Indian designs in deteriorated
forms. If this system of decoration was better understood by the
designers, how much more popular their products would be in the
general market.

An Indian with the technical training of a good art school would
readily find employment with establishments that employ designers.

The Indian in his native dress is a thing of the past, but his art
that is inborn shall endure. He may shed his outer skin, but his
markings lie below that and should show up only the brighter.

As all peoples have treasured the history of their wanderings in
some form, so has the American Indian had his pictograph and
symbolic records, and with the progress of time he has evolved it
into a system of designing, drawing his inspiration from the whole
breadth of his native land. His art like himself is indigenous to
the soil of his country, where, with the survival of his latent abil-
ities, he bravely offers the best productions of his mind and hand
which shall be a permanent record of the race. (Applause.)

Chairman CLOUD: You have all heard Indians tell stories,
and what a richness of color the story-teller puts into his story.
He can do this because he understands nature. He is a child of
nature, and we have been told by one who has studied out this
subject extensively that this is inbred in him, that he is a born
artist, and she has opened to us the wonderful possibilities there are
for Indian people along that line. That is one great thing we can
encourage among our own people as we return to our several homes.

The discussion will now follow on this subj ect of the Preservation
of Native Indian Art, and I wish you would restrict yourselves to
this particular subject of native Indian art.

Miss CORNELIUS: Mrs. Deitz spoke of the manufacturers
now employing Indian designs in deteriorated forms. A while ago88

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Mr. Doxon spoke along lines similar to this. It seems to me that
there ought to be some organization come from this very meeting
that ought to place a censorship on that manufacture, to prevent the
use of these deteriorated forms, and to insist upon the manufacture
of the real article.

Dr. EASTMAN: I would) like to say just a few words along
that line. It gave me a peculiar pleasure to listen to this young
lady when she read her paper on this subject. We have been drift-
ing away from our old distinctive art. In Indian art originally, as
Mrs. Deitz has described it, the geometric figures predominated.
In most of the designs you will find the light background; it is, of
course, intended to represent the bright blue heaven; and then you
will find the sun effect shown by shafts. In others you will find
the rays of the sun and the shadows dovetailed, symbolizing the
Great Mystery of the day and night, summer and winter, life and
death. The true Indian can do these things, and he can grasp and
master them, and in real Indian art you will find that broad con-
ception. Some have the distant outline of mountains, and others
waving tree tops. It all shows that one basic idea, but it has been
very badly confused by our teachers who are white people, who
have mixed the different characteristics of the different tribes, so
that you cannot tell an Arapahoe from a Sioux now, and cannot
tell a Cheyenne from a Crow. (Laughter.) I hope that in this
gathering we will come to some realization of these things in the
proper sense; that we may take a backward step, if you please, in
art, not in the sense of lowering our standard, but returning to the
old ideas that are really uplifting, and are a purer basis for char-
acter building, and that we may conserve and preserve some of
these beautiful principles which were the very inspiration of the
North American Indian. He has his faults, but in the original
Indian art you will not find the incongruities which may be noticed
in some of the northern tribes, due to the French influence. In the
original type it is systematic and beautifully blended in color, and
so rich that it is uplifting, and I hope that we may take steps to
look into these things and preserve them for the future generations
of this country. Sometimes when we see things in this way andSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

89

have gone back to the old order, our teachers have said that we
have gone back to barbarism, and many times I believe it would be
well if we had.

Mr. DOXON: I want to take this opportunity to say a word in
regard to art. It has many branches, each of which demands a
special skill. For instance, I have known a man, an artist, who
draws Indian characters entirely,— Indian figures and Indian faces.
I have known this man; for twenty-five years — I won't say more
than twenty-five years — but perhaps more. I have known him for
a good many years, and he has been spending all his time in paint-
ing Indian faces, and his dress, and Indian characters,—devoting
all his time to just that one subject. Then I have known other men
who paint just flowers, and another man who paints precipices, and
I have even heard of a man who devotes all his time to painting
fleas, and he has collected many fleas from all over the country.
(Laughter.) Now you see there are many different branches.
Now don't let any one think he is going to learn them all. Just
take up one thing and then carry that out. It is just the same way
with the machinist's trade,— it is divided up into a great many
branches,—and in order to succeed in any kind or line or work,
we must keep right down to it, and do good hard driving.

I have known this lady who has just read this paper — we were
at school at the same time. (Little did I dream that she would have
the success that she is having now. I thought she was just a com-
mon little girl, and didn't know anything (laughter), and it turns
out that I didn't know anything myself. She got right down to
work when she left Hampton, and she has not been home. She has
been self-supporting, and I think that is a great revelation and a
great lesson to the rest of us Indians. The secret of success is
getting right down to business and earning your own bread and
butter by the sweat of your brow. That is the secret of success.

I don't suppose we can learn any new line of business, we have
got to be satisfied with our own occupation, but some of you have
children, and with our children lies the future of the Indian. If
you can't train your children, why send them to somebody else who
can. If you keep them at your homes, and let them grow up wildgo

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

and good for nothing, take a tomahawk and scalp yourself.
(Laughter.) Do all we can to train the young people.

I would like to be able to draw, but I have never had patience
enough to learn how to make even a decent picture of a horse, but
I do think I have the talent for it, if I had only had somebody to
take a club and drive me to exercise it. (Laughter.) Opportunity
is great in all branches of labor. Don't forget that. Take up
something and follow that line of work.

Chairman CLOUD: We should congratulate ourselves that
there are no tomahawks in this room.

You can see how these people have changed their jdeas towards
one another in the course of the years. I wish that we could make
the paleface change his ideas towards us in some such way as the
Indians have done one to another.

Mr. OSKISON: I just want to say that we have a very fine
opportunity here to get some ideas of Indian art, by going to the
exhibition downstairs. Take the pottery exhibit, along by the win-
dow. There are examples from the Pueblos. Take the pieces that
come from San Domingo, for instance, and compare them writh the
Moqui pieces, and you will get some idea of how individuality in
treatment was worked out, all with the utmost nicety of work-
manship.

Mr. HORTON G. ELM : It seems to me that the matter of edu-
cation is certainly important for us. I have studied to a certain
extent the history of all educated peoples of to-day, and I have
studied the history of the negro race to a certain extent. I have
tried to find out how other races developed ; how other races have
been civilized, and it seems to me that in this matter of educating
the Indian there is a tendency for us to begin where other people
are leaving off. I am convinced of that. We simply appeal to the
senses,— to the eye. You want to make an outward show, and we
forget the manhood of the Indian. I would like to see the time
come when every Indian with his idealism and force of character
would cut through the mere racial life. I do believe that the
solution of our Indian problem is that he must identify himself withSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

9i

every interest and phase of American life. I do not believe in this
separation. I believe that in this century that the unity of the
human race is becoming more and more realized. (Applause.)
Nobody appreciates more than I do that this matter of Indian art
is important, yet at the same time, we as a race cannot all be artists.
The Indian race is like any other race if they are subject to the
same environments. There are good Indians and there are bad
Indians; there are good white people and there are bad white peo-
ple ; there are good mechanics among the Indians and there are bad
mechanics among the Indians; there are intelligent Indians and
there are others who are not so intelligent, just as it is with other
races, and that is what I want the Indians and all people to realize.
We all belong to the human family and we are subject to the same
natural laws; we are subject to the same civil laws; we are subject
to the same government, and I want you to identify yourselves with
every interest and phase of American life. That is the idea that
I want you to take home with you. I do not want you to remain
stationary, and I do not want you to- lose interest in the community
in which you live, and I want you to identify yourself with every
interest that the white man takes in the building up of the com-
munity. I want the Indian to advance on his merits, not on what
he has done in the past. The past is dead. We cannot recall it.
The past should be in the museum, and there we can look back and
trace our history. We can say, " There is where our forefathers
were; " " There is where we were in the Nineteenth Century." We
as a people must think seriously and work seriously. That is what
we ought to emphasize,— work seriously and think seriously, and
then ais a race we will be thought of seriously and, therefore, seri-
ously respected. (Applause.)

Rev. COOLIDGE: I wTish to remind the last speaker that the
race has the reputation of being too serious. (Laughter.) We
want to assure them that we are not quite so> serious as we were in
the past. Mr. Doxon, you know, got up hungry this morning, had
no breakfast, and spoke about bread and butter. He is a serious
bread and butter man. (Laughter.)92

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

I am struck with the idea that we ought to preserve all that is
best in Indian art, and that there is too much of a tendency to
condemn all Indian things ; that there are beautiful things among
the Indians, as well as useful things. My wife is a white woman.
She was born in Boston, educated in New York City, and belongs
to the white race, but she sees the usefulness and beauty in some
of the Indian things. I don't think she has had a baby that she has
not had in an Indian baby case because it was warm, it was handy
and it was beautiful, and made by our people, the Arapahoes, on
the Indian River Reservation, and she is wearing a pair of mocca-
sins that were made by the Arapahoes or the Cheyennes. She says
they are eaisy, and they are warm, and she likes to wear them, and
there is enough room so they don't hurt her feet. (Laughter.)
And the Arapahoes' sacred tepee — I have a picture of it,—I wish
I had it here. I have used this tepee myself, but not in the cause
of the old religion of our people, which was not so very bad after
all. Why, when I was in New York, taking a special course in
college, the rector asked me to take his place one Sunday in a very
aristocratic church, and I addressed those people about something
that was tender among them, and that was the pew-rent system.
Those people paid so much for their pews, those in front, of course,
paying a little more than those behind. There were only one or
two pews, way back in a corner, for the poor people and for strang-
ers, and I want to tell you that I did not feel as though I was in a
religious house and in a religious atmosphere. When I went in
there I felt that I could not sit down and worship God, and I told
those people in that sermon that I would rather have the religion
of the Arapahoes, of my fathers, and sit in their sacred tent, than
a religion auctioned off in that way. There is art in their religion,
not commerce. (Applause.)

Mr. SLOAN: The thought occurs to me thi3 time that in art
we have much to be proud of. We have here with us Dr. Eastman,
who paints in word pictures the sentiments of the Indian, and has
handed them down to us so that they will be preserved for time
immemorial, and we have as an organization, the honor of having
that man with us. He is recognized around the world as one ofSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

93

the most beautiful Indian word painters that the world has known,
and he has brought to the knowledge of the world sentiments, char-
acter and religion that has not been known before.

On the other hand, we have the other artist, known to me origi-
nally as a schoolmate, Miss Angel De Cora, now Mrs. Deitz, the
instructor of art at Carlisle, who paints in pictures those same sen-
timents, so that they may be preserved, and we in this organization,
I believe; should be proud to be able to preserve these sentiments in
word pictures and in painted pictures — these sentiments and sym-
bolisms of our past that are preserved, and be able to hand them
down to posterity, We should be proud of that. (Applause.)

Chairman CLOUD: It is a wonderful thing to have such men
and women in our movement. It certainly ought to give a great
momentum to thi-s movement to be able to gather here such men
and women.

A suggestion was made that some action be taken in regard to
the preservation of that which is truly Indian. I do not know
whether a committee has been appointed on resolutions, or not, or
whether the Committee on Organization would include that, but it
seems to me that whoever is on that committee, whoever is appointed
to that committee ought to certainly get the sense of this meeting,
and I think it is the sense of this Conference that whatever is
purely true native Indian art ought by all means to be preserved.

We shall have to pass over the paper, " Higher Education for
Indians," that was to have been presented by Mr. Howard E. Gans-
worth, as he is not present, nor has he sent his paper. I am very
sorry, indeed, that Mr. Gansworth is not with us to-day to present
this paper, as he is a Tuscarora ami graduate of Princeton Univer-
sity, and a living embodiment of that subject.

The subject of the next paper is " The Indian in the Professions,"
by J. M. Oskison, a Cherokee.94

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

" THE INDIAN IN THE PROFESSIONS."

By J. M. Oskison.

My business, or profession, is writing and editing. In my small
way, I've tried to make myself an interpreter, to the world, of the
modern, progressive Indian. The greatest handicap I have is my
enthusiasm. I know a lot of Indians who are making good; I know
how sturdily they have set their face toward the top of the hill, and
how they've tramped on when the temptation to step aside and rest
was strongest. When I try to write about them I lose my critical
sense. Then the editors sympathize : " Too bad he's got that Indian
bug"—and ask me about the cowboys. Now, I'll write fiction
about cowboys, make 'em yip-yip and shoot their forty-fours till
everybody's deaf, but I'll be hanged if I'll repeat the old lies about
the Indian for any editor that ever paid on acceptance!

" Most of the Indians that go through Carlisle really do go back
to the blanket, don't they! " It was an assertion rather than a ques-
tion, and a modern magazine editor made it to me not a year ago.

" You're wrong," I said. " I can send you accurate statistics
compiled by Mr. Friedman, Superintendent of the School, which
show exactly what has become of the Carlisle graduates. They go
back to useful, serviceable lives. They plow and trade, become sol-
diers and mechanics, enter the professions — teaching, nursing, the
law, the diplomatic service, the ministry, medicine, politics, den-
tistry, veterinary surgery, writing, painting, acting. If you want
me to do it, I'll assemble a gallery of individual Indians who are
getting to the top of their professions in friendly, honorable compe-
tition with ninety million white Americans that will fill half of your
magazine." Did he want me to do it? Not he! Better for him
one Indian who had slumped than a hundred who had pushed ahead.
If only Congressman Carter or Senator Curtis would go back to
the tepee and the blanket! That would be a story worth telling!
The other day there came to me in the office of Collier's Weekly,
of which I am associate editor, a package of papers from theSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

95

Council of Santa Clara Indians at Espanola, New Mexico. The
letter from the Council, signed by Santiago Naranjo, opened in
this way:

"Lately we observed your comment upon the Pima Indians.
Encouraged at the display of fairness, we are submitting to you a
few carbon copies of some correspondence which will in a slight
measure indicate the maladministration of the affairs of the Pueblo
Indians, which is even yet in no measure relieved after eight or
more investigations."

To a copy of a memorial addressed to the Secretary of the In-
terior were signed the names of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor,
the War Captain and the Principal. Signing as Principal for San
Felipe, I noted the name of Harvey Townsend. I recalled a long
drive up the Rio Grande with Dagenett two and a half years ago
when we stopped on the edge of the village of San Felipe and asked
for Harvey Townsend. Harvey and Dagenett were at Carlisle to-
gether— in the same military company. As we drove on from
San Felipe to Santo Domingo, the Supervisor made some scattered
observations to the effect that the white man wouldl certainly say
that Harvey Townsend has gone back. But he hasn't. He has been
Governor of the Pueblo, he is now Principal, and he is one of that
Rio Grande Indian Tea Party that is out to get a square deal from
their agent and to break up an illegal traffic in liquor that is ruining
many of their young men.

Professional reformers they are — I pity the short-sighted official
who thinks he is dealing with a lot of ignorant and pliable children
when he goes against the 52 Pueblos who signed that letter to
Secretary Fisher. Everywhere the Indians are getting back their
voice and speaking out for their rights like men and women who
mean to get them. We know the meaning of worry these days at
Yuma, at Sacaton, at Santa Fe. And Government officials know it,
too. Our Commissioner of Indian Affairs is honest and efficient.
Neither his tongue nor his mind is crooked. And he is having the
devil's own time to keep pace with the Indian recruits to this pro-
fession of reforming. I don't think he'll ever catch up; I hope not!
Let us develop this profession of reformer, let us develop self-96

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

confidence — make ourselves effective, sane and scientific! Cut out
mere complaining, and develop the lawyer's habit of investigation
and clear arrangement of facts.

Last Spring at Carlisle I heard a Siceni Nori, a graduate of the
school of 1894, make a talk to the graduating class of 1911. Mr.
Nori is, I believe, a Pueblo Indian, and is the chief accountant at
Carlisle. I should like to quote all of that good speech to you,
changing it here and there to make it fit you. The gist of one para-
graph I cannot resist using. It is one in which Mr. Nori ran over a
list of Carlisle graduates who are making good in business and the
professions:

" If it shall be the pleasure of any one here to take a trip to Cuba
and it becomes necessary to have the assistance of a dentist, just
look up Dr. James E. Johnson, who is enjoying an annual income
of $4,000; and his wife, also a graduate, employed by the govern-
ment at a salary of $1,200 per annum; or, if you do not desire to
take the water trip, take the Pennsylvania Limited and go to Tiffin,
Ohio, where you will find Dr. Caleb Sickles, another graduate and
a prominent dentist, who is equally successful; then, if you have
time, go to Oneida, Wisconsin, where you will find Dr. Powlas, a
prominent physician, who has the largest practice at his home at
De Pere, Wisconsin, and is a real leader and missionary among
his people. Then proceed to Minnesota and find Carlisle graduates
practicing law and other professions in the persons of Thomas
Mani, Edward Rogers and Dr. Oscar Davis. Or, if you took the
southern way, you would find along the Santa Fe route, Carlisle
graduates and ex-students working in the various railroad shops
and taking care of sections of that great railroad system, preferred
above all other kinds of skilled labor, for they have shown their
worth as good workmen. Or, you might meet Chas. A. Dagenett,
a graduate, who is National Supervisor of Indian Employment,
who has by experience gained here at this school under the Outing
System, been able by untiring effort to systematize and to build up
what is really the Carlisle Outing System for the entire Indian
Service, and for 300,000 Indians, It is not often possible to find a
man who can be equally successful in everything that he attempts,SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

97

but we have in a Carlise graduate, Charles A. Bender, the world-
famous pitcher of the Philadelphia Athletics, a crack marksman ancf
a jeweler by trade, and a past master in all."

Every month I get the " Southern Workman/' the school maga-
zine published at Hampton. Over in the back is a department of
" Indian Notes/' which is inspiring reading. Here are printed bits
of news of Indian graduates who are busy in the world. In one
paragraph you will read that Elizabeth Bender is taking a nurse's
training at the Hohnemann Hospital in Philadelphia; in another,
that Eli Beardsley has gone to take a job as engineer at the Grand
River School in South Dakota; in a third, that Jacob Morgan, a
Navajo, is working as a missionary among his people in New Mex-
ico. Month after month the list of those who graduate into the
professions lengthens. And not only at Carlisle and Hampton are
the professions recruiting Indian members, but Haskell and Sher-
man Institute, the high schools of Oklahoma and scattered colleges
from Dartmouth to the University of Washington are turning them
out. With me at Stanford University was an Indian named Jeffe,
from Washington. Not only was he a good football player, but one
of the best students we had in our law department. Another law
student who came to Stanford in my time was a Cherokee named
Hughes. He had previously spent two years in Dartmouth. Last
fall at Muskogee I had a good talk with a young Cherokee named
Bushyhead, son of a former chief of my tribe. He had just come
back from six months in Mexico, where he went to learn Spanish.
He was fitting himself for an appointment in the Diplomatic Ser-
vice. How many here know Little Bison, that thin-faced, keen-
eyed Sioux, who wants to colonize Nicaragua with American In-
dians? There's the type of professional man who stirs the imagina-
tion. Professionally, Little Bison is a veterinary surgeon — very
modestly, he told me once that there isn't a better horse doctor in
the country — but he has also been a showman, an artist's model,
a companion for an invalid man who wanted to see the ends of the
earth before he died. Now he is a colonizer, a practical diplomat,
having business with the Estradas and the Zelayas of Central Amer-
ica. He comes to my mind, a figure of adventure, out of a tropical98

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

upland where the bright-plumed parrots screech. He brings the
bright feathers and stories about curing a mule for a native of
Nicaragua, about the fine land waiting for development, and about
the power 5,000 Indian men would be down there when a revolution
broke out.

To my mind, Little Bison is a type of promise. He lives by his
wits. And that is my definition of a professional man. Not to
follow worn trails, but to be ready to break out new ones — let this
be the aim of those of us who enter the professions — whatever
they be.

The professions are wide open to us. We have the strength and
the steadiness of will to make good in them. Prejudice agtainst
the Indian simply does not exist among the people who can make
or mar a career. Always the climb for the top will be going on.
The Indian who fits himself for the company of those at the top
will go up. He will go as swiftly and as surely as his white brother.
There is no easy, short road up — either for the Indian or for the
white man. Conscientious, thorough training, character, haid work
— the formula for success in the professions is simple. I believe
the average Indian would rather work his brain than his hands.
That has been accounted our misfortune. I think it will be our
salvation. There is room for us in the professions, there is a wide
market for brains. (Applause.)

Chairman CLOUD : The second paper oni this subject is by
Dr. O. DeForest Davis, a graduate of a dental college in Minne-
apolis, where he is successfully practicing his profession. Mr. Davi9
could not be with us to-day, so he has sent bis paper.

THE INDIAN IN THE PROFESSIONS*

By O. DeF. Davis.

The question of how best to care for and educate the Indian has
perplexed our government ever since it began, and even now no
satisfactory solution has been accomplished. Hundreds of thou-
sands of dollars have been spent annually for schools, teachers and
the maintaining of numerous reservations throughout the country,SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

99

and still the problem remains unsolved, which proves that the sys-
tem followed has not been an unqualified success. This, however,
does not indicate that the Indian has not the qualities which when
properly trained and governed make for well-balanced, successful
men.

The problem which confronts us is one which must be met and
solved by the Indian himself. It is a fundamental law of life that
in order to gain the fullest possible development each man must
ultimately work out his own salvation. The Indian can do this
ajnd will as soon as the way has been indicated and he has been
relieved of the retarding influences of the present system.

There are perhaps numerous avenues through which we can ac-
complish this much desired end. But as a professional man I am
partial to the idea that professionalism affords the best field for
the Indian. I believe he has natural qualities which especially fit
him for professional work. His usually perfect physique and quiet,
firm manner give him a personality which is invaluable to pro-
fessional men. He is mechanical and has wonderful ability to work
with his hands. This would add greatly to his success as a surgeon
or dentist. There is one quality, however, which will handicap him
and must be overcome. He demands a perfectly free life, dislikes
close application to minute details and has an inherent disregard
for the systematic use of time and energy.

One of the principal reasons why I advocate professional work
for the Indian is because the education itself will take him away
from the old retarding relations and influences. It will create in
his mind new standards and higher ideals,— and we know that a
man with no standards, no ideals to attain to is like a ship without
a rudder — he never arrives. When we have accomplished this
I consider that half the battle is won because I believe that if the
Indian is given a definite work with high standards of perfection to
attain to and a normal, healthy atmosphere in which to work, he
will show results as good if not better than his white brother.

There are a large number of Indians throughout the country who
are making good as professional men and I believe their success
may be directly attributed to the fact that they have severed their100

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

more intimate tribal relations and gone out where ability is recog-
nized and paid for,— gone out into an atmosphere where every man
is doing some definite work and making good at it. An atmosphere
of this kind is a great incentive as compared with the reservation
where almost nobody does anything definite and few make good.
This is an age of specialization and I know it would simplify our
problem if we were to advocate a professional education for as
many enterprising young Indians as possible. This would take them
away from everything that is not progressive and put them where
success is the rule rather than the exception. It would relieve them
of that dead, stagnant thought which pervades every Indian reser-
vation and makes progress of any kind extremely difficult if not
impossible.

Undoubtedly the organization of this Association is the greatest
progressive step that has ever been taken in the history of the
Indian problem. The beautiful part of it is the fact that we are
not being called to conference by our white brothers. We are taking
this step ourselves. We are better fitted than anyone else to do the
work before us. It is our problem and we understand it best. Our
salvation lies with the young Indian, and I know that as soon as
he is relieved of the dead, retrogressive thought which has been
instilled in him through generations of subjection to a pauperizing
system, and his mind filled with thoughts of ambition, activity,
power and success, then will the Indian go to work and dem-
onstrate forever and beyond all possible question the utter falsity
of the old saying,—" The only good Indian is a dead one."
(Applause.)

The CHAIRMAN: The next on the programme is "General
Discussion." In any great race, the home stretch is always the time
of the greatest exertion, and when a man wants to win the race
that is when he exerts himself to the utmost. Now this is the last
twenty minutes of discussion, and this is the last opportunity you
will have to express yourselves on the subject of " The Indian in
the Professions."

Dr. EASTMAN: The professional life of the North American
Indian is somewhat of a question for me. The recent Indian Com-MRS. EMMA D. GOULETTE (nee JOHNSON)
(Pottawatomi)SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

IOI

missioner was a man who seemed to have no use for an Indian, and
did not care to see him succeed1, but he is only one man, and when
you can point to an Indian who has achieved some distinction, it
makes an impression among the public. It gains for us the sym-
pathy and assistance of those who are willing to work for the
Indian. I was much gratified when, in Mr. Oskison's paper, the
speaker pointed out some of the successes of our tribesmen, both
men and women, and it is a source of pride to me and a pleasure,
and the knowledge of those successes will be an inspiration to us
in the future. We hiave a great many Indians to-day in every walk
of life and the fact that they are succeeding is an inspiration to us
all in our efforts to better the conditions of the Indian race.

Miss EMMA D. JOHNSON: I cannot resist saying a few
words upon this subject. I am no public speaker, except when
I feel that I have to speak. I have been through the country quite
a little in my work as teacher. I have seen our Indians in the pro-
fessions and I have seen them with their higher education, and
I have seen them in the camp, and I regret very much that the
majority of the people of the Caucasian race of the United States
do not recognize the ability of the Indian to compete with the white
race. So often we have found that the Indian who has received
a training in the higher education, who has gone back and worked
very energetically, has received very little recognition, and very little
encouragement. I wish very much, and I do not speak for myself
only, but also for the boys and girls whom I have had the pleasure of
teaching, that the members, especially the Active members of this
Conference, would do their utmost in trying to acquaint the world —
I don't mean the United States, I mean the world — with the abilities
of the Indian. As has been stated several times to-day, the Indian
is capable. All he needs is favorable circumstances and favorable
opportunities to go ahead and become one with the people of the
United States, in every walk of life. So many people seem to think
that the Indian is like an animal; that he is incapable of thinking —
that is the common impression among the majority of the people;
of course, not in the more highly educated class, the broad-minded
class, but it is that class which we must work against, and if we can102

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

only encourage our boys and girls not to be afraid of taking up
the professions it will help to break down this prejudice. We are not
all agriculturists,— we have our lands allotted to us, it is true, but
we are not all agriculturists. I hope that the members of this Con-
ference will herald it far and wide, not Qnly by words but by exam-
ple, and encourage our younger generation not to be afraid to step
out and say: " I am not an agriculturist; I am a carpenter; I am a
blacksmith; I am a physician," and go ahead and not be afraid
after we get out to assert ourselves, not so much in speaking, as in
acting and proving to the world that we are capable. (Applause.)

Mr. SLOAN: I feel impelled to say something because of the
confession by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that more than
nine thousand Indian children are without school facilities.
Wherever the white man has settled the wild country in any num-
ber, where they are always scattered over a great territory, immedi-
ately the schoolhouse is in evidence, and if the white people in their
organization in the states and territories can provide schools for
their children under such circumstances, it seems to me that the
mighty government of the United States could provide all the
schools that are necessary for the education of the Indian children.
(Applause.)

I am impressed with the Indian school system, because whatever
I have attained, and whatever success I may attain, has for its
foundation the education that I got at Hampton, and I owe every-
thing to that institution because I have been to no other academic
school since. (Applause.)

It strikes me that every race in its development has mile-stones
marking its history, and those mile-stones are its great men who
have established some history-making epoch in their career, and
it strikes me that the Indiam school system, as we have enjoyed it,
is one of those great epoch making periods that has enabled us to
come together with the knowledge and information so that we
might with proper organization at this time do some great good,
and as I think back, how wonderfully and fortunately it came about.
General Pratt was placed in charge of the captured Apaches at
St. Augustine, Florida. Among those captives there were a num-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

103

ber of Apache children. He wrote to the government officials that
those children were guilty of no crime, and that under the American
system of education, all children within its borders were entitled to
some opportunity of education, and after this appeal to the govern-
ment or its officials, he appealed to the country at large, and the
appeal was answered by another great man, Samuel Chapman Arm-
strong, of Hampton, the man who opened the school and the oppor-
tunity for the Indians to gain an education. The Apaches, in charge
r,f General Pratt, commenced their studies at Hampton, and then this
great man joined hands and made an appeal to the country at large,
and out of that appeal grew Carlisle, and out of Carlisle has grown
the school system extending to the reservation, and most of us here
have enjoyed some benefits from it. I have in mind this one state-
ment, as it came to me most forcibly at the time of the death of
General Armstrong. The Review of Reviews published his pic-
ture, and the only thing that I could find that was thought necessary
to say about him was these words: " Samuel Chapman Armstrong
died " such a date. There are very few men of this character in
the United States and among the greatest was General Armstrong.
(Applause.) The other gentleman is still living and his work is
still going on, and I would like for every Indian who has enjoyed
the benefits and advantages of that great work that was started by
those great men to appreciate their labors and the value of their
work. These men have made it possible for you to enjoy the bene-
fits of it, so I feel that it is necessary for us in this Association
to see that these nine thousand Indian children who have no school
facilities, shall obtain them within a reasonable time. (Applause.)
If the Department of Indian Affairs through an executive officer
cannot make a sufficient appeal to Congress to furnish those facil-
ities, we should appeal to the people at large of this country, and
see that they in the magnitude of their might and the heartiness
of their spirit, and earnestness of their purpose see that those chil-
dren get what they are entitled to.

In passing over that portion of the great Sioux reservation, which
is a vast territory, for miles and miles without house or trail, you
will come upon little schoolhouses about which are Indian camps,104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

and those Indians have camped there that their children might have
the advantages of an education. It is an improper system, and
some way should be devised of meeting these conditions.

Chairman CLOUD : We want this Conference to contribute
something very definite to the general public, and I think it is well
worth while to think very seriously on what the last speaker has
said in this regard, and before the Conference is over, something
ought to be done definitely and presented to the public along those
lines. Our time of discussion is over, and if you will allow me a
few seconds, I would like to say a word or two in regard to the
Indian in the professions.

I like Mr. Oskison's definition of the Indian in the professions,
" The man who lives by his wits," and that would include not only
the Indians who have gone into the professions such as teaching,
the law, medicine and1 all that, but all Indian men and women who
have gone out upon their own initiative and worked out their own
salvation, perhaps in some line of business. Another speaker has
spoken of the fact that the best way to overcome the prejudice that
the white man has against us, is to go out in the professions and
compete with them, and I want to speak upon this fact. I have
noticed among the Indian people a certain prejudice against the
Indian who is trying to strike out for himself. Here is an Indian
who has started a store, and the Indian passing in the street says,
"This man is trying to set himself above me, and I will, go and
trade with the white man next door," and the white man next door
may be the greatest grafter in town, and that Indian who is starting
out in business may have had a vision. He may have undestood
the meaning of the times, and he may have said to himself, " As
for me, I will strike out and do this thing," and his fellow Indian
passes by on the street to the white man the next door. You may be
the very ones when you go home, to start in some such thing as
that, and they may pass you by in that way, and I would suggest
that we do everthing in our power to overcome this prejudice among
our own people, in order to further these new ideas that we have
been discussing this afternoon, and in regard to the discussion we
have had this afternoon, I wish that we would have had freer dis-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

105

cussion. I think we have had a great afternoon in the limited
discussion that we have had.

Miss CORNELIUS: I am not a product of any of the Indian
schools, for the reason that my father got the idea that the greatest
advantage in the shortest possible time was not derived from an
Indian school, but from the public school, which is the white man's
greatest institution in this country. I appreciate, however, the splen-
did work that has been done in the Indian schools. They are all
right as far as they go, but they do not go far enough. We have
had demonstrations enough, I am sure, to establish the fact that
there is nothing the matter with the Indian's ability, and that it is
only a matter of being given an opportunity.

There are certain things that I have thought of for some time.
There is no fund for getting into the higher professions. The
appropriation for Indian education does not set aside any fund for
college education. I came up against this as long ais six years ago
when I suggested the appropriation of a fund for college education
for some very able Indians that I knew, and the Indian Office re-
plied that the appropriation was confined to the Indian schools.
Now, instead of going and putting about two millions in brick and
mortar to establish Indian schools, it seems to me that two millions
to any tribe ought to educate all the men who can enter the pro-
fessions, and this country is already fortified in splendid and mag-
nificent institutions, and it seems to me a waste of money to go on
building Indian schools at a very great expense, when with that
sum of money we might install some such system as the Porto Rican
system. I am not very well fortified with statistics with regard to
that, but I believe something like five hundred dollars is set aside
for the Porto Rican for his public school education, and that this
money is sent to him in installments to pay for his board and living
and tuition, and then he goes and looks for the best information,
according to the line or the prof ession that he choses. I do believe
that this government owes it to us, and1 I think that the American
people want to give it to us, want to administer the justice to us that
is due us,— when they see the need, and that we are capable of
doing these things — and I think it is due us. We must insist on106 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

that, I think, but I do not see why some such system as this Porto
Rican system could not be installed by the Indian Office, and' let
each man, each boy or girl, who is fitted for it, begin with the
academy or the school that fits for the university, get this money
like any other boy or girl in the country who comes from home
and whose parents are well able to take care of him. This would
be the suggestion that I would leave, that we arrive at some definite
conclusion with regard to that future system of the Indian school.
The present system, as it is, is not going to last. Just as soon as
citizenship comes in it will leave, and we are going to be forced into
something that is not definite in the minds of anyone, and I do think
we have got to take a definite attitude with regard to the future
greater evils that will arisen The present reservation schools will
be taken away, and then we do not know just where we are going
to be received. With regard to the boarding school as an institu-
tion, I have heard educators say that they did not believe in board-
ing schools in its moral effect upon the child — that it hurts them
too much, and there is not enough individualism developed in it.

Mr. DAGENETT: The speaker is mistaken in designating it as
the " Porto Rican system." It is Philippine, and it is under the
Insular Bureau of the War Department. An allowance of five hun-
dred dollars per year was made for each of about 200 students
that were sent over here. The money was not given to the student,
but his expenses were paid by the man in charge of what is known
as the " Philippine American Student Movement," through the
Insular Bureau.

We miust regard the Indian school as an evil, but at a certain
staige of the game it is a necessary evil. Nobody, I believe, seeks
to defend the government Indian school as the ideal educational
proposition for the Indian.

But there is another thing. Nearly all the agricultural colleges
of the United States are in a way aided by the general government,
and nearly every one of the institutions are open to any young
Indian, man or woman, of the United States free of tuition, if they
want to accept it. The only thing is their expenses. That move-
ment is being worked up. I have had correspondence with prac-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS	107

tically every institution in the United States in which it would be
desirable to place the advanced Indian young mam and woman, or
rather the finished product from Indian schools as they stand to-day.
Only from a few have I received adverse comments on the proposi-
tion. One was from an institution in the midst of Indian schools,
Albuquerque, New Mexico, and another was from the Superintend-
ent of Public Instruction of the State of Idaho. My plan is along
the lines suggested by Miss Cornelius, namely: that we take those
whom it would be desirable to give advanced education and let them
be provided for in the public institutions of the country, the educa-
tional institutions of the country in which the children of the people
of the country are educated. Let the Indians be educated in these,
rather than in special Indian institutions. The cost would be a little
bit more,— perhaps fifty or sixty per cent, more, but I believe the
good would be five hundred per cent. more. It is feasible to have
practically the same plan for our advanced Indians, young men and
women, as is now in operation in behalf of the Philippine students
in the United States. Correspondence with the Insular Bureau of
the War Department at Washington will give you all the informa-
tion about this Philippine student movement you may desire.

Mr. CHASE: I for one belong to that class of Indians that
wants to stand upon their own feet, upon their own exertions. I
don't wish this country to know that they are maintaining me by
any gifts or donations. (Applause.) The government is educating
our youth in the fundamental principles upon which this govern-
ment stands. They owe it to us as a moral obligation, not as a
legal obligation. It is the good sense of the Christian people of this
country that has elevated — as myi friend' Sloan mentioned awhile
ago — men like General Armstrong and men like General Pratt, to
influence congressional legislation to bring about appropriations for
such institutions as Hampton and Carlisle. (Applause.) It was
not because we had a right to demand it. The education that our
youngsters are getting, as I understand it, is fully upon the standard
of any of the public schools, and as thorough, as I understand it.
There is one failing in these institutions. The Indian should be
taught the history of this country more, and of his own race, and108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

of his rights as a citizen — civil government is what he needs in his
education more than anything else..

This idea that the government is going to give my children money
to elevate him into a profession is not the thing that we want. If
a man becomes capable of it, instinct will tell him what he is good
for and he will strive for it. When I left my home in Nebraska
to attend the Liaw School down here in Cincinnati, I went there with
a purpose. Before I went there I made a resolution that I was
going there for hard work, and I did. In two years' time, although
not coming out with flying colors, I maintained my own with my
class.

It has been flouted throughout the country that our people are
being maintained by the government, have been fed and clothed by
the government all these hundreds of years. I say it is a falsehood
and a libel upon our people. What we hctve is from our own efforts
and from the lands which the government has solemnly pledged to
our people. I do not know of any time in the history of the Omaha
tribe, or any of our northern tribes, where the government has
spent one cent. All the money that we have had with reference to
our living came from our efforts and from money justly belonging
to us under contractile obligations with the government, and I say
it is a false notion with the white people that we are being fed and
clothed by the government of the United States, that we live by the
sufferance of the government. I saiy if I can't live in this country
with a consciousness that I am living here because God placed me
here, and that I am living under a government that is obliged to
protect my life, my liberty and prosperity, the* same as any other
citizen, I want to leave that country. (Applause.) Here are things
to be considered in the education of the Indian. You may teach
him everything, but you must also understand his duties as a citizen,
and of his rights as a citizen, and be able to maintain them.

Dr. EASTMAN: In connection with the words of the last
speaker, that there has been a great deal of injustice done to our
tribes, I wish to say that really no prejudice has existed as far as
the American Indian is concerned. I have found that it lies within
us to show the paleface what we can do. There: is a reward, andSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

109

a fair one, too, when you reach it, but it lies within you, wherever
you live, to make a success in your profession. You must be hon-
orable and moral, and in this way move up and be of service to your
neighbor, for it is only the ignorant, the worldly of the worst kind
that turn up their noses at our people. There is no prejudice
against our people in the professions. Where I live, in Massachu-
setts, I always like to have the white people in my home. There
are always a lot of college girls and college boys there all the time/
My house is full of college boys. I happen to have five daughters
growing up. (Laughter.) Much that we have thought is prejudice
against the Indian is not prejudice, but is simply misunderstanding.
Now you know they used to talk about the Indian war-whoop. We
have no war-whoop, it is simply the Indian cheer.

What I want to impress upon your mind is that there is no real
prejudice against any honest Indian on the part of the white people.
We can easily take our place in society. I have visited from tepee
to White House, and I have met many people, some of whom I get
so sick that I wish that I did1 not know them.

Miss CORNELIUS: I wish to be understood definitely with
regard to a certain position I took awhile ago, when I suggested
that the Indian have some funds on which he shall base his higher
education. I appreciate the depth and the fineness of public spirit
behind Mr. Chase's remarks, that we don't want to be taken care
of. That is not the idea. We do not want to install that as a sys-
tem, but there are certain other factors we have to take into con-
sideration. For one thing,-

Mr. CHASE: I rise to a point of order. If we are going to
discuss these things longer, let us have some time set.

Chairman CLOUD: Our time for discussing the paper of Mr.
Oskison has expired.

Mr. SLOAN: I move you that if it is the sense of this Associa-
tion that where there are Indian children without common school
facilities under the direction and control of the Interior Department,
that we request the Indian Office and the Congress of the Unitediio PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

States that provision be made to furnish those children with proper
school facilities.

Motion seconded and unanimously carried.

Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Conference adjourned
to meet the next morning, October 14, 1911, at the same place.

The Public Entertainment.

At 8.15 p. m. of the same day a musical programme was carried
out at Memorial Hall, where a large and appreciative audience had
gathered to greet those taking part.

Except for the services rendered by Miss Nora McFarland and
quartette of boys from the United States Indian School, Carlisle,
Pa., all who took part in the programme were members of the
Society, and contributed freely and gratuitously of their talent.

PROGRAMME.

Part I.

Pantomime Song —" My Wandering Boy ".............

Miss Nora McFarland, Nez Perce.

Words by Quartette:

James Mumblehead, Cherokee.

John Goslin, Chippewa.

Clement Hill, Tuscarora.
Abe Clonahaski,Cherokee.

Song —Chippewa Melodies...................Carlisle Quartette.

(a)	" Manitou Listens to Me."

(b)	" Why Should I Be Jealous."

Cornet Solo —"The Palms"..........M. D. Arcbiquette, Oneida.

Miss Emma D. Johnson, Pottawatomie, Accompanist.

Song —Steal Away ....................Carlisle Quartette.

Essay — " Chippewa Customs "......Michael V. Wolfe, Chippewa.

Solo_" Once ".................Miss Sadie Wall, Pottawatomie.

Miss Johnson, Pottawatomie, Accompanist.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

in

Part II.

Song — Omaha Melody.......................Carlisle Quartette.

(a)	" Song of the Leaders."—Ojibwa.

(b)	" Canoeist's Love Song."

Cornet Solo — "Bridal Chorus"......M. D. Archiquette, Oneida.

Baritone Solo — Bedowin Love Song...................

Rev. Frank H. Wright, Choctaw.

Solo — Indian Lover's Song.......Miss Sadie Wall, Pottawatomie.

Pantomime Song — " Nearer My God To Thee "........

Miss Nora McFarland, Nez Perce, Carlisle Quartette.

The most unique feature of this programme was the demonstration
in the Indian sign language of familiar hymns by Miss McFarland.
As the quartette sang the words of each hymn Miss McFarland, in
the sign language, kept up with the singers.

The evening's entertainment was a very interesting and pleasing
one, considering the fact that the performers — members of the
Society attending the Conference — were in no wise professional
musicians. For further description, see page 171.

Session of Saturday a. m., October 14, 1911.

The Conference was called to order by the Chairman, Mr. Dage-
nett, who read a communication from the President of the Columbus
Chamber of Commerce, inviting the Association to hold its meeting
at Columbus during the celebration of the centennial of the found-
ing of the permanent capital at Columbus, commencing August 27
and continuing until September 12, 1912.

Mr. SLOAN: I move that we do not accept the invitation at
this time, but leave it for further consideration at some future time.

Motion was seconded and carried.112 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Chairman DAGENETT: In view of the facts that the regular
Chairman* of this session, Mr. Dennison Wheelock, is not present, I
will appoint Dr. Caleb Sickles to preside over this meeting this fore-
noon. Dr. Sickles takes the chair.

Chairman Sickles invited Rev. William Holmes to open the meet-
ing with prayer.

Chairman SICKLES: The first speaker on the programme is
Mr. Thomas IL. Sloan, who will address us on the " Reservation
System — Administ ration."

ADDRESS OF THOMAS L. SLOAN ON"RESERVATION
SYSTEM — ADMINISTRATION."

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Conference: This Confer-
ence of the American Indiajn is called to provide for his general
welfare, and to establish a better and broader understanding of his
condition, necessities, and his rights as an American citizen and as
a man. Anything that may enlighten this body on all the questions
that involve the rights of the Indian, his betterment, his property
interests, his condition, or education, and above all that which will
develop his manliness and independence should be openly, freely and
honestly discussed. Wrongs or improprieties that affect the Indian
or his property should be discussed here, and the only limit set for
that discussion should be the truth.

Since the advent of civilized government on this continent, the
Indian has been recognized as the subject of the dominant power
claiming and holding the territory. While treaties were made with
all the solemnity of international law, still the Indian tribes were
within the power and jurisdiction of the dominant government.
They were not separate nations within the judgment of civilized
governments who among themselves made treaties which they re-
spected. The civilized nations made treaties with the Indians as a
matter of expediency.

Early in the administration of Indian affairs it became evident
that the Indian could not rely upon the statements of the Indian
Service officials, the laws made by Congress for their protection, norSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

113

the treaties made between them and the United States of America.
The rights to hunt, to fish, to make homes and to occupy the lands
of their fathers were never held sacred to the Indian, although
declared to be by law or treaty. Public policy and political policy
joined in the administration to deprive him of his rights.

In Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado an official first named
to protect his water interests, without which the lands were of no
value, recommended that he hold his rights: under the State and
territorial laws. This was in States where the Indian's rights are
least considered, and where it is the practice to steal water and take
advantage by the use of it. This protecting Indian official wanted
those rights turned over to the State. He even1 admits under oath
that where the courts have decreed that a certain quantity of water
on specifically described lands, he, as an official of the Indian Office,
ignored the decrees of the court, the previously acquired water
rights and the established rule of law as announced by the court for
the protection of Indian lands and water. When asked what he
had done to recover the stolen water rights for the Indians, he said
he did not think it right to take it away from the whites who had
used it so long. He was paid to protect and look after the interests
of the Indian, but he had no desire to recover that which belonged
to him. The long years of use by the Indian had! no effect upon
him as to their established water rights. But when it had been
stolen from them by the whites and used for a shorter time it was
wrong to take it from them and give it back to the Indian to whom
it belonged. That is an example of administration protection, and
a disgrace to the service and to the nation, against which complaint
should be made.

In the administration of the lands of deceased allottees by the
Indian Office, the decision of the Secretary of the Interior is at-
tempted to be made final and conclusive. In one case, after the
heirs had establish their rights in a bearing after due notice, and
the Secretary of the Interior had approved and promulgated the
order and given notice to the heirs of their respective rights, the
Secretary of the Interior, upon the request of a senator, without
notice, hearing, evidence, or any legal papers being filed, has takenii4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

up the case and reversed his previous decision. The heirs were
afterwards informed that they had no rights in these lands. This is
a confiscation of property rights. It is the most extreme disregard
of property rights and interests that can be found in modern times.
A " star-chamber " proceeding, without notice of hearing, depriving
the individual Indian of property rights and interests without due
process of law. That is some of the recent administration protec-
tion. The most solemn safeguards of vested property rights are
overriden by the very power that was designed to protect the
Indian's rights.

It has gone on to such an extent that in one case the Supreme
Court of the United States has said that the action of the Interior
Department was so arbitrary that it had no place in American juris-
diction; and in that particular case they restored the rights of which
the Indian had been deprived by decree of court and made the state-
ment that there was no place even in the Executive Dpartment of
the Government for such arbitrary action and disregard of law.
Still the very thing which the Supreme Court of the United States
found to be arbitrary and unreasonable is the very thing that has
been done and will continue to be done until it is limited by whole-
some and just laws.

Think of a politician who had never had any court experience
acting as a judge in controversies involving land titles by descent
worth millions of dollars, and who, without experience, attempted to
adjudicate thirty or forty cases in a single day. He not only acted
as judge, but also as attorney for both sides. The record shows
that this acting judge in some cases heard all of the evidence upon
one side and then gave notice to the other side. One of the funda-
mental rights in the courts of law concerning controversies over
property is to be faced with witnesses, and to examine and cross-
examine them upon the testimony which they offer. But in these
cases the acting judge saw fit to hear all the testimony upon one
side before giving notice of hearing to the other side.

Appeals from this acting judge go to the superior who appointed
him. The idea of the Indian Office seems to be that they are better
fitted to handle all the affairs of the Indian than the Indian him-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

115

self, or the other departments of a republican form of government.
The Indian Office says, " The Indian does not know what is best
for him in the administration of these inheritances." So a politician
is selected to act as judge for them, and this politician acting as
judge violates every rule of law for the protection of property, and
the Indian is subjected to rules and regulations aod arbitrary action
that violates constitutional limitations. The evil seems to be that the
Indian Bureau administers as if the Indian was selected for their
benefit, to exploit them, and not they that were created for the
benefit of the Indian. This spirit prevails generally in the Indian
service.

It seems that there is no step forward in the Indian service.
With less lands now to administer, with fewer ignorant Indians,
they still have more employees, greater expenditures', and a greater
per capita cost to maintain their work than before. More rules and
regulations, and when an Indian learns to comply with one set of
rules and regulations they are changed so that he is compelled to
begin again.

Although the President of the United States appointed a so-called
competency commission to determine the competency of the Omaha
Indians, and they made their report, which was approved, and the
Indians declared competent, still the superintendent in charge may,
without hearing or notice of any kind, declare a citizen Indian of
the tribe to be incompetent. Should the superintendent in charge
report favorably upon any such man, a> clerk or some one else in the
Indian Office may overrule it, and the communications which are
submitted to the Indian Office are treated as confidential and there-
fore not open to an investigation by the party affected. It is in effect
a star chamber proceeding that determines that a citizen of the
United States is an incompetent person. Their status as men and
women determined in such a manner is not by law, but by autocratic
and arbitrary power. The practice of subjecting a man or woman
to investigation without notice, heading or trial, and declaring him
or her incompetent upon a secret order, is one that cannot be
defended under any circumstances. Such men and women, being
citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they live,n6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

are entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities of citizens
of the several States, but they are treated as arbitrarily as the sub-
jects of the Czar of Russia. Men, through political accident, and
most likely through business failure preceding it, are placed in posi-
tions of arbitrary power. They evolve new theories, discover latent
powers, old and new wrongs, and remedies for all. They are fol-
lowed by a horde of their appointees who know nothing more than
themselves about the people and their conditions. About the time
they have discovered their success or failure some new politician is
found or some " land duck " requires a berth. Then begins some
new idea.

The local communities about the reservation always desire some-
thing to be done with it. The representatives of the business people
of the town adjoining a reservation desire that the land be obtained
in fee, sold or otherwise disposed of, not for the welfare of the
Indian, but to enable them to develop business or trade. Business
men, politicians, farmers, railroad men, grafters and sharks in the
vicinity of a reservation wish it open, not for the benefit of the
Indian, but for a larger opportunity for each in his own line. Such
influences reach the executive branches of the government as well
as Congress more readily than the Indian, and when something is
to be done with the Indian land or property under the general guise
of some good for him, he is the last person to know about it, through
some action taken that affects his property or his income. Among
the Omaha Indians, admittedly among the most advanced, there was
a new scheme about leasing their allotments. It was discussed at
Washington by the commissioner and the delegates from the towns
around the reservation, and with the superintendent in charge and
the leading citizens about the reservation, but not with the Indian.
The last to know anything about it were the Indians. Yet it was
their property; they were affected most by any change as to their
income or manner in which they should get it, but they were the
last to learn anything about it and were not consulted as to what
might be best in reference to their land. Those people who were
consulted were those who had interests adverse to the Indian. They,
because of their position or political influence or the two combined*THOMAS L. SLOAN
(Omaha)SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

117

were the first who were given consideration, and those who were
most affected, whose rights were being considered, were the last to
be notified, not consulted, simply notified.

Sales of Indian land have been made under the directions of
agency officials. Usually the Indians, before the sale, obtained more
money in a year from rentals than they can get from the proceeds
of the sale of the land in the same length of time while held in the
agency office. In some cases after the sale of such lands and its
dissipation in a few years, the Indian is without any income at all,
and he would have had an income through rents during that same
period an amount equal to the sum which was paid to him from the
principal. The money is held at the agency for the sale of land,
which furnishes some means of living, and the only means of living
for many Indians.

On the Rosebud Reservation it costs1 the Indian as much in time
and money and effort to collect the small sums of money at the
agency as it would to have gone out and earned it. Others with
sums of money at the agency have suffered in want. One old man
past seventy years of age, living near Bonesteel, on what was for-
merly a part of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, was told in a letter
from the office at Washington, in answer to his, application to be
paid some money, that if he would go to the agency he would
receive from his four thousand dollars there on deposit such amount
of money as would be necessary to provide for his needs. It was
one hundred aind fifty miles across the country to the agency. To
go around by railroad was more than three hundred miles, and the
stage route twenty-five miles more. He had neither the means nor
the physical ability to make the trip, and this particular old man died
in absolute want, except such means as were provided him by the
neighbors. An inspector of the Indian service says there are many
such cases.

An old Indian woman past eighty years of age, in order to get
from the agency a check of ten dollars, money due her derived from
the stale of her land, had to travel seven or eight miles each month
to get the check. During the severest kind of cold weather, about
the 1st of January, it was necessary for her grandson to carry herii8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

to the wagon and cover her carefully and drive a distance of seven
or eight miles and return, and the hardship upon that old lady was
more thlan it was worth to get it. Had she paid her grandson a
reasonable compensation for taking care of her there, he should have
had five or six dollars left out of the ten dollars that was paid her.

The ration system is no worse than the present money system,
which holds the Indian a bondsman and makes him eke out the same
kind of living or existence that he had when he received the rations.
It takes from him every incentive for development, and holds him
in such subjection that his independence and manliness are destroyed.
He gets no experience, and he is subservient at all times through the
control of this money to the agency official and to the reservation
system. It is only a continuation of the old system, which was
admitted by the Indian Office, by the Indians, and those who have
any general knowledge of those affairs as a thing greatly detrimental
to the Indian. He gets no experience; he has no incentive to
develop.

In some instances where Indians have lived from the reservation,
and because of the law which provided that when an Indian separ-
ates himself from his tribe and adopts habits of civilized life he is
a citizen of the community in which he lives. Stich an Indian may
hold an allotment upon the reservation. The Indian Office seems
desirous of bringing such Indian into bondage through the control
and supervision of his lands. Such men have made application for
fee patents and they have been refused. Some of them, where they
have a section of land, have been offered a fee patent for one hun-
dred and sixty; and a hundred and sixty acres of land, as sold
upon the Pine Ridge Reservation at this time, would just about
yield the expenses of going up there and selling it and coming back.
I think that about five dollars an acre is all that could be demanded
for the ordinary lands upon the Pine Ridge Reservation at this time.

One young man who was doing business in the city of Chicago
made several trips to Washington to obtain a fee patent for his land.
Although he had been in the general grocery business in that city
and had deposited in the bank the sum of a thousand dollars and a
little more, still he is not considered competent by the Indian Office,SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

119

through their star-chamber proceedings, so that he might handle the
proceeds of three hundred and twenty acres of land that might
bring at most ten dollars an acre in the Sioux country. It seems
that in order for such a man to be free it would be absolutely neces-
sary for him to abandon his rights upon the reservation and live
separate and apart and independent of the Indian nations and every-
thing that he might have.

To those who only know reservation life among their own people
and nothing of what can be done away from it, a breaking away
cannot well be expected. The long years of reservation life and
the dominant official control has been exercised to such length that
the reservation Indian does not know the limit when it is reached.
An allotment has no property value to the Indian citizen living in
Chicago or other places away from the Indian country unless he
can turn it to some advantage, and that is denied him absolutely
by the present policy of the Indian Office. He may have been
unfitted for life in the open, no means of making use of the land
because of want of teams and agricultural implements and a house
in which to live, and the necessities of life to live upon until he
could break up his land and raise a crop.

The country in the immediate vicinity of Pine Ridge was a num-
ber of years ago broken up by hordes of homesteaders, who, when
the dry season came on, abandoned the country, left their land, their
houses, their barns, their fences, and were glad to be able to get
back to some of the more prosperous parts of the country with their
teams and families, and the country was absolutely abandoned, and
still it is expected of an Indian that he shall make a living and thrive
under the same conditions and upon the same kind of land where
the educated and prepared white man failed.

No man in Washington, neither the head nor the subordinate,
can know the conditions of the man -or his opportunities or his
capabilities. The Indians are individuals and are not bound di-
rectly or controlled by any set of rules and regulations which may
be promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior or the Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs. The man on the ground, the agency offi-
cial, is overwhelmed by official duties and does not know, perhaps,120 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

does not care, about the individual; be has more than he can do,
and he is expected to do that which only the individual can do for
himself. He is not given a chance to get away from supervision
long enough to assert his individuality, and it may be that he will
only develop manliness after he has been defrauded out of his
lands or has frittered it away. At any rate the present system is
not making men and women. There is a lack of development of
the man in dealing with the Indians.

A missionary on the Rosebud Reservation said that the Sioux
Indian was simply eking out an existence upon the inherited lands
which had come to him and which he had sold, and that he was not
as manly, as independent, or as strong as he was some fifteen years
ago when he made efforts on his own behalf.

How many inspectors of the Indian service have sustained the
Indian in an investigation against an Indian Office official? Most of
them have sought to sustain the official against any Indian who
complained. Complaint was made about a certain Indian official
and an inspector was sent to the agency. Witnesses were examined
and the acts complained were practically admitted. It appeared
that he had held an open honest meeting, and here for once was
an opportunity where the truth could be reached and something
decisively done where a wrong had been committed. The officials
were transferred. It was thought that everything had been done
honestly and fairly. The report disclosed " that the thing com-
plained of had been done, but the inspector said the officials
employed at that agency were faithful to the government, and it was
wrong to condemn or to punish them. That to do*so would be
detrimental to the service and would encourage complaints.

These are some of the things of which the Indian should com-
plain, and in which the administration should be improved. When
you think of inspectors, y6u expect them to investigate for the
benefit of the Indian, but it has happened in many instances their
inspection has been to the detriment of the Indian.

This covers sufficiently the matters of administration, and the
law applying to it, so that the subject is open for discussion, tn
the administration of Indian affairs there should be such reformsSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

121

as will give the Indian in hearings and investigations those rights
which belong to him under the Constitution of the United States.
That his property may be protected by regular court proceedings,
and that when the court decrees certain rights, no Indian official
be permitted to disregard the decree of the court and the law pro-
tecting the Indian, and not to violate his own oath of office to the
detriment of the Indian. We should ask for reforms, and the
repeal of this Act of Congress, which provides that the investiga-
tions of the Secretary of the Interior as to the heirs of deceased
allottees shall be final and binding as in violation of the express
limitations of the Constitution of the United States, which provides
that the government of the United States shall be vested in the
three departments, legislative, executive and judicial. The Supreme
Court of the United States has said that the action of an executive
officer can never be a judicial power. Even the layman can see that
when a controversy arises between two parties in reference to the
vesting of property rights by descent, that controversy is one for
judicial determination as to the claims of the parties under the
law. We are having these lands administered in a manner that
is a shame and a disgrace to any civilized nation, let alone these
United States, and we ought to ask for such reform as will guar-
antee to us the protection of the laws and the privileges with refer-
ence to our property rights, which are given to every citizen, and
for that matter, to non-citizens who hold property within the
United States.

DISCUSSION ON RESERVATION ADMINISTRATION.

Chairman SICKLES : We have heard this very excellent paper
by Mr. Sloan, and we are now ready for the discussion of the same.

Mr. CHASE: It is my opinion that the evils which we are now
feeling are the result of the violation of common principles of
justice, our treaties, and even the Constitution of the United States.
The duty of investigating property rights belongs to the judicial
department and not the executive, and the law which gives the
Secretary of the Interior the right to decide questions with refer-122 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

enee to ownership of land is unconstitutional and void, and we are
not bound by the decisions of the Secretary of the Interior if he
violates our rights and decides adversely to our vested rights. We
have had innumerable cases of that kind on our reservation, and I
do not lay the injustice that we have suffered to any wanton de-
sire to injure us, but to the fact that the executive department is
the weakest power in construing or interpreting laws. I believe
that the whole system of procedure should be changed and that the
rights that are guaranteed to every man under the Constitution*
should be given the Indian.

Miss CORNELIUS : If anybody goes away from this meeting
passive in regard to his attitude toward our position in this country
on this point, I miss my guess on it. I - declare, when we hear
things from the experiences at first hand, of men like we have
heard this morning, and have felt in our own lives the conditions
that they have portrayed, and then to stand by and not know where
we stand in regard to this organization, I declare we won't do it.
If there is going to be any indefinite attitude with regard to what
we are going to do when we have the problem in our hands, we
never in the wide world expect to win as Indians, as individuals or
as a mass, and it seems to me that the great thing this morning
that we should take away is that definition of our position in the
future.

Miss JOHNSON: I have not heard all of this discussion this
morning, I am sorry to say, but I am interested in this question
of helping the Indian at home. I think I know that our schools
do not teach the amount of civil government they should to cover
the practical needs, or the common laws, and the practical laws that
would apply to them in their business transactions right on their
reservations.

I have come from a reservation recently, where I have been
investigating, as much as time would permit, perhaps two months,
and I find not only those who have been in 'our schools and sent
out as graduates,-—not only those older Indians, but even those who
hiave been in my class and sent out as graduates—know nothing
whatever about the manner in which they should go about it toREV. SHERMAN COOLIDGE
(Arapahoe)SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

123

transact their business and hold out for their own rights. What
sort of citizens does the government of the United States expect us
to be when our education in the most vital lines is neglected?

In fact, I must say right here, my experience of twelve, years
has been that it is not the Indian pupil that has been first, but it
is the beautiful grounds andi the beautiful buildings and the feather
in the cap for the officials, the money has gone for that. The child
has come secondary. I know it. I have had to take money out of
my own pocket, and I have done it ever since I have been teaching,
to buy material for my work in order to give my pupils the necssary
object lessons, and I have worked hard to get my money, too. I
have been three years in getting Caesars to work wit1", and a
few things like that in the class room. The desired ends now
seem to be the posing, the beautiful grounds and training the chil-
dren to go before the public and show off, and behave like monkeys,
I suppose. (Laughter.) I don't know what else.

I have thought of that question ever since I have been teaching,
and I recommend strongly against calling certain ones graduates of
schools when I knew they were not fitted to go out and be called
graduates and have the people look upon them and feel that they
were incompetent, any more than infants would be, because they
had just gotten away from their Indian ideas and had not learned
enough English to grasp the meaning of the words in the class
room to know what they really had been trying to — what they
teachers had been trying to teach them. They were left in a worse
condition than they were before, and I cannot emphasize too
strongly the necessity of us taking action, among the first things
that we do, and submit to those who may be of assistance to us,
that the study of civil government be introduced in our schools,
substituting and adding in that study, any practical thing that
might come up. It is the same way in our commercial departments.
Our pupils need most dreadfully the information necessary to
deposit money, to write out a check and to draw their own money,
and know what a mortgage is when a person comes -to them.
There are hundreds of people on the reservation to-day or around
the reservations where lands had been opened to the public, who124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

are continually coming and saying, " I want to sell you a piano;
don't you want this, and don't you want that?" "Just give me a
mortgage on your land." There is not one in fifty, I am most
sure, who knows what a mortgage means, and knows under what
obligations he is placing himself when he gives a mortgage, for
the simple reason that he is not up on the tactics and the sly move-
ments of the other race, who will take the greater part or even
,the whole of their lands.

These are extremely vital questions for our Indians to be in-
formed upon, and not only those who have not been in school
recently, but those who are turned out as graduates to-day. They
need modern business training. They need more strict infor-
mation about the laws, and in order to get that they need interested
employes in our schools who will teach them. There are a great
many people who are interested, but not to that extent, who are
employed in our schools. There are a great many who deserve a
great deal of credit, but there are more who are there for the money,
and the government is paying their salaries, and the work for the
Indian is secondary. I tam speaking for the reservations I have
had the pleasure of living upon,

Mr. SLOAN: Was that a great pleasure?

Miss JOHNSON: It was a pleasure because I was a teacher
and I could investigate and see their needs and such things.

Mr. SLOAN: I wanted to know.

Miss JOHNSON: I live upon a reservation now. At my own
home it is not a pleasure, but where I can investigate when I am
not under the thumb of the government it is.

Take my own self. I know nothing whatever about my rights
as a citizen. I have been given a letter which reads as follows:
" You may control your own land, providing you do thus and so,"
and what brought that letter to me, I am free to state, was this:
The renting of my farm was in the hands of our Agent. I went
to him, as is the custom with our Indians, and I saw to the making
out of the papers. An agreement was made between myself andSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

125

this renter, calling for the clearing of a certain number of acres of
land. I allowed him his pay for this work out of the cash rent,
consequently taking a very small sum of cash rent, and I received
a very small sum. He had been paid in advance for doing this
work. When the time came for him to do it, he did not do the
work, I wrote to the Agent about it, and he said he would see
about it. I have the letters downstairs. I wrote him again, and
nothing was done. The man had not fulfilled his contract. The
United States government was behind; this Agent. I wrote three
or four letters. Finally I said that the work must be done in some
way, and I hoped it would not be necessary for me to refer it to
the Department of the Interior. A reply came back that when it
would be done and how it would be done was for this man to say*
I had nothing to say about it, and consequently that agreement was
never lived up to. There was no push back* of it, even after all
my letters to him. Then a letter came granting me the right to
rent, and the time is just about up for this renter, and he, from all
indications, is trying to get out of getting this piece of ground
under cultivation.

My people do not know when they are citizens or when they are
not. They send word to the Department, u We wish this and so "
The Department sends word back, " You are citizens of the United
States. We can't do that for you " They send in for something
else. The word comes back, " Why you are wards of the govern-
ment, we cannot grant you that" Where are we now? That is
the condition of the Pottawatomies to-day. I have just come from
them and I have known of their recent transactions, and I know
that they cannot get a hearing, either as citizens or as wards of the
government, and it is time that this Association should be adopting
some resolutions on questions upon which we are to act, and not
only to adopt them but act. There are a great many other things
I could relate upon this very same subject, but I think I have said
enough.

Mr. SLOAN: May I have a few minutes to relate a personal
experience ?126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Under the rules and regulations of the Secretary of the Interior,
leases for Indian allotments were required to be made upon certain
forms furnished by the Indian Office. These leases were signed in
the first instance by the Indian, and then by the white lessee, gen-
erally, or the lessee at any rate, then approved! and irecommended
by the Indian Agent, and then forwarded to the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, who recommended it, or recommended against it,
iand then approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and when
approved by the Secretary of the Interior it constitutes a valid
contract. You can enforce it. On our reservation we are required
to make leases in that way. Through influence, however, the office
is partial to different persons who are lessees, and in one instance,
an old Indian, now past seventy years of! age, only two or three
years ago went to the office and he desired to make a lease to a
certain person that he thought was a friend of his. The Indian
Agent refused to permit it. He had another man he wanted to
have this land leased to. As it would result in delay to object, the
Indian acquiesced to the demands of the Agent.

Now it happened that this particular man was financially embar-
rassed, and a poor farmer, so that he had neither money to pay
his rent in the first instance, nor the ability as a farmer to get it
out of the land. The usual custom was to pay all rents on Wednes-
day of each week, so after the first day of March, when the lease
had been made by this Indian to this man, he came to the office
for his rent, and he was there every Wednesday, and sometimes
went to the office between times to inquire about it. During the
meantime, however, he had sold a piece of land which had been
allotted to a child, and the child had died, making him the sole
heir. He made the sale and went home, and he had considerable
money on deposit, and out of that deposit he was authorized to
purchase a team. He continued to drive to the Agency, a distance
of eight miles, every Wednesday, and once or twice between, to
learn when he was going to get his rent, and that went on about
a year and a half. And then he asked the Agent one day if he
could have authority to buy another team out of his money that
was on deposit from the sale of the child^s land. The Agent said,SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

127

" What have you done with that team you bought about a year
ago?" He said, "That team I bought out of the heir-ship land,
I killed that running her to get my rent, and I have not got it yet."
(Laughter.)

Rev. COOLIDGE: I hope you will pardon me for perhaps
repeating what has already been said, but it seems to me that this
is something of an experience meeting, and these things are related
to show how generally all these evils exist in different localities
and among different tribes.

Of course, one of the first things we have had to complain about
is treaty making. You all know what treaty making is; that the
treaties we have made are easily broken. Now, one of the speakers
spoke, who was evidently experienced as a teacher, about things
she had to buy out of her own pocket to use in her class room.
I am a missionary, and I have been everything — that means every-
thing—to be a missionary. It means judge, farmer, butcher,
preacher, teacher, policeman, doctor, and everything else.

Now I first went on my reservation as a missionary. They had
a very poor excuse of a man for Agency physician. How he man-
aged to be practicing medicine, I do not know, but he was the
doctor at the Agency, and employed by the government and paid
by the government. The Indians did not want to go to him for
medicine. I tried to coax them to go, and I tried to induce them
to go and get their medicine from this doctor, but they would not.
Some of them were suffering. About that time one of our friends
sent me some money, and among the uses that I made of that money
was to buy patent medicine, and I went over the directions on the
bottles carefully, and had them interpreted, and I told my patient
emphatically that he must take that medicine just so, and it would
cure him, and he would never have that disease any more.
(Laughter.) I have never lost a case. (Laughter.) Now,
I was teaching in a school room at that time, and I
taught the young how to shoot, and they shot. Another
teacher took my place when I resigned, and she said, " Why they
seem to know everything." (Laughter.) Now I go on lecture128

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

tours to Iowa and to Missouri, and I was once asked to speak
before the Teachers' Institute in one of the Missouri towns, and
they said to the audience, " The Rev. Sherman Coolidge is with
us to-day and he will tell us about his people. He is a Cherokee."
(Laughter.) They had been talking about Freebel, and his system,
and so on. I told them I had never heard of the man before. I
said, " The text books that we are using in the boarding schools
of Wyoming are those that were used when I was a child myself,
about twenty-five or thirty years ago, and one of my text books
was Ray's Primer." No wonder the teacher had to put her hands
in her pocket and get something that she could use to advantage.
I have had to do that, and my salary has ranged anywhere from
$100 a year to $800 a year. It was $200 for a long time, and
$250 for a long time, and that where prices were high and1 where
things were scarce and hard to buy even with money, if you had it.

Now, the other subject I wish to speak of is in regard to the
changing of regulations. I applied for a patent to my land, to my in-
herited lands, and to my own allotment. " Oh, yes," they said; " yes,
why you ought to be able to get it in three months, a man of your
education and ability and character, and of everything that is good.''
(Laughter.) I wrote out my application, and I waited with the
patience of an Indian, and I am waiting yet. (Laughter.) I may
have to go to the other lands, and wait there. (Laughter.) About
ten months afterwards, there comes a letter which said that " Since
you have spoken about that application, the regulations have been
changed. Enclosed you will find the new forms to fill in and make
out." (Laughter.) The regulations had changed by that time, and
so had my mind. (Laughter.) Now I said to myself, " If I get
a patent to my land, they will tax that land, and I will have to pay
it," and I said, " Keep your patent as long as you want to. I am
not going to create taxes that I have to pay. Let my land lie up
there. It cannot decrease in value. It must increase. Keep your
patent, and I will not have to pay taxes that I would have to pay
if I became a citizen of the United States. I do not know whether
I am a citizen of the United States or not. I am forty-eight years
old,— nearly half a century. I have been an educated, civilizedSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

129

man since I was twenty-one, and before. Put that in your pipe of
peace and smoke it." (Applause.)

And the wills that you and I ought to be allowed to make, to give
our property to our families, our wives and our children, and rela-
tives, or to our friends, or charitable institutions, we cannot make
them without obtaining the approval of the Department. I have
tried that for another Indian. I wrote out a will, just as good as
any that Mr. Sloan or some other legal light can make (laughter),
and the Judge said, " That is all right; you ought to have no trouble
about that," but I never heard anything about it. We submitted it
to the Agent, and I do not know whether the Agent has pigeonholed
it, or whether it was lost between the Agency and the Dead Letter
Office. I do not know what has become of it. We have not heard
from it. I think that is one. thing we ought to take up, that we
ought to be able to make wills, the same as any other people in the
United States. I have taken up more than my share of time, but
I have a whole lot of things that I still want to tell you, but I won't
tell them now.

Miss JOHNSON: I wish to make one statement here while we
are speaking of wills. Since my father's death I have tried to get
a patent to his lands. Now he was a white man, and a brother
of the Chief of Police of Washington City, who recently died, James
Johnson. We have been citizens and civilized always. My brother-
in-law, who had charge of the administration, has been a citizen.
He has been an architect and builder. He has supervised the con-
struction of various Indian schools, and he is now Superintendent of
the Water-Works in the city of Shawnee, Wyoming. He is recog-
nized as a competent mechanic. He was appointed administrator,
and we have not been able to get a satisfactory reply from Wash-
ington, only that under certain rules and regulations, the patents
could be granted.

Mr. HORTON ELM: I am certainly glad that we as a people
are reaching a point where we can discuss the different phases of
the question with a great deal of patience and generosity. We are
reaching a point where we can differ on 'these questions and yet at
the same time shake each other's hands with genuine friendship.130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Civilization is certainly reaching a higher stage among us when we
can do that. It is certainly very interesting to me to hear some of
our great speakers. There has been a great deal said that I did not
know anything about, and I have been deeply impressed by it. I
have learned a great deal, and when I go home I will surely talk
about it; I will surely tell my friends out there the progress that
the Indian is really making; I am proud of them. I am proud of
every Indian who makes a step in advance, because I can talk about
it; I can talk to the white people and say to them, "Here is an
Indian who is doing something; who is showing that he can become
civilized, that he can become master of the different lines of work
that he undertakes; he is just like other people."

When I was coming away I was talking to one of my friends and
I told him that I was coming to Columbus. He asked me, " What
are you going there for?" I said, "We are going down there to
talk about the Indian problem."' He said, " What do you want to
go out there for; the problem is right here on the reservation." But
I think the farther we get from the reservation the better impression
we will make with the public. We want the sympathy, we want
the active encouragement of the strong forces in American life; we
want the friendship of the white people ; we want them to help us ;
we want to cooperate with them ; we do not want to set up a par-
tition; we want to break down this partition which stands between
the civilized and the uncivilized, and I believe that this is the enterr
ing wedge in the solution of our problem. The individual relation
between the white man and the red man will settle righteously,
I believe, our Indian race problem.

Now, there has been a great deal said about what the Indian used
to be. To a certain extent I believe we put too much emphasis on
our former condition. (Applause.) We should think less of our
former growth and more of our present, and of the things that
hinder and retard that growth. I want to see the Twentieth Century
Indian. I do not believe in setting up a Chinese Wall of tribalism.
I want the interests of both races won. I believe the success of our
race depends upon our making our interests one with those of the
white man. (Applause.)SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

131

Mr. PARKER: Among the Six Nations of New York, of which
by Wood I am a representative, the State and Federal Governments
permit the operation of the ancient tribal laws bearing on the in-
heritance and transmission of property. These provisions in some
cases are at direct variance with the interests of any people, Indian
or white, of modern times. Under the ancient tribal law the wife
has no claim to her husband's property, nor have the children any
claim to their father's property. Under the present system this cus-
tom has generally lost its force where both husband and wife are
tribally the same. Where the wife, however, is non-tribal she and
her children, if they live on the husband and father's reservation,
are denied a claim on his real estate. It sometimes requires a severe
contest for such widows and orphans 'to establish a right to occupy
their home property. This is a result of the ancient matriarchal
system in which the woman was the head of the household and the
landowner. In civilized society such a system cannot be permitted
to exist without creating abuses. The family in civilized society is
the social unit, and where the family as constituted is not regarded
as a unit there is at once social degradation. In modern society the
clan family cannot supplant the actual family without causing in-
justice and misery. In ancient times when the man was the hunter,
the warrior, the defender of the home territory, the clan law was
a wise provision. The woman was the head of the household and
conserved the home. In modern society the man is the head, the
provider of food and shelter, and just because he lives on a reserva-
tion his wife and children should not be denied the right to the
home they have established together. This, as I have said, is fre-
quently done where the wife is non-tribal,— and the State of New
York sanctions such a custom.

In Canada, among the Six Nations, the case is different. The
husband is required to care for his wife and family. The wife,
/whether she be white or red, tribal or non-tribal, becomes auto-
matically adopted into the husband's nation and has all his rights.
In special cases where the old clan law must operate for the trans-
mission of a hereditary Chieftainship or official title, of course, the
case is different. Property rights, however, pass from the father132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

to the wife and her children, eliminating the abuses we find in New
York. I should like to recommend to New York Indian authorities
a consideration of the Canadian system, which guarantees justice.

And thereupon it wais moved that the chair appoint a Committee
of New York Indians to take up the matters pertaining specifically
to the New York Indians and to report their conclusions to the
general body; motion seconded and unanimously carried.

At this point Chairman Dagenett, of the Temporary Executive
Committee, announced that the Columbus Chamber of Commerce
had volunteered to raise the funds necessary to defray the ex-
penses incurred in securing Memorial Hall for certain of the meet-
ings of the Association. (Applause.)

Mr. PARKER: I move that we as a token of our appreciation
extend a rising vote of thanks to the Chamber of Commerce, the
University Faculty and all others who have rendered such great
assistance in arranging for this conference.

Motion seconded and carried.

Thereupon, upon motion duly made, seconded and carried, the
conference was adjourned until two o'clock P. M., Saturday, Oc-
tober 14th, 1911.

PUBLIC SESSION OF SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

Chairman DAGENETT: We are fortunate in having with
us this afternoon Mr. Thomas L. Sloan, who will act as chairman
of this afternoon meeting.

Invocation by Rev. Griffis.

Chairman SLOAN: Friends, it is our pleasure this afternoon
to have with us here a gentleman who has acted as attorney in be-
half of the Indians and white people. Men of ability in business,
lawyers of the town and community, have called upon him for
legal advice, and he has discharged his duty in a manner becomingSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

133

to a professional man in the practice of the law. He has been
County Judge of the County of Thurston, State of Nebraska, and
has occupied the position of County Attorney, and in all his ex-
perience he has been directly in contact with the legal matters per-
taining to Indian affairs. He is to present to you a paper upon the
law and the Indian of the United States.

I take pleasure in presenting the Honorable Hiram Chase, of the
Omaha tribe of Indians, who is a resident, office holder and citizen
of Thurston County, Nebraska.

THE LAW AND THE AMERICAN INDIAN IN THE
UNITED STATES.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Before we proceed it is appropriate that something be said con-
cerning this conference, and of its objects and purposes. Compli-
ments are due to the managers of this meeting, who have made it
possible for the Indians of this country to meet hereafter in repre-
sentative conventions, so that we may associate together for the
communication of thoughts, the formation of opinions, and have
in view the honor of the country, and plans to promote a better
civilization and good citizenship among our people.

And I wish to express a sentiment which I presume is felt by
all who have at heart the honor of this country, and the welfare of
our race, and it is this: that had conventions of this kind been
organized in the past, and conducted with intelligence, and with the
purposes which this meeting has in view, I venture to say that
the reproaches upon the government for the abuses resulting from
its dealings with our people would be few, and the condition of
our race better than it now is; as it is I think the condition of our
people is verging on a crisis — a crisis in which the worth of an or-
ganization of this sort will be measured by its ability to disseminate
the truth concerning the condition of our people, and teach them their
rights and duties, and above all to stand by them and insist that
our rights are as sacred under the Constitution and the laws as
those of any other class of citizens.134

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

The honor and glory of any country and the happiness of its
people of every shade of color or condition — white, black, red or
yellow,—rests on the faithful administration of the laws, by wise,
able and honest officers. The law is " Ye shall have one ordinance,
both for the stranger and for him that was born in the land," or to
put this into constitutional language: " No person shall be deprived
of life, liberty or property without due process of law."

What I wish to impress upon this meeting is, that a plan to or-
ganize an association composed of our own race for the purpose
of laying plans to promote the welfare and good citizenship of
300,000 people, the major part of whom are inexperienced and are
ignorant of the ways and laws of the white man, is a laudable move
on our part, but I wish to apprize you that according to my poor
ideas the task before us is an arduous.' one. Good citizenship of
any of us of Indian blood, whether he be a polished gentleman,
garbed in the latest fashions, gracing a seat in the halls of Congress,
or one of our common Indians who has not as yet outgrown his
swaddling clothes, taking care of his wife and babies on his
allotment, rests on the consciousness, that his life, his liberty and
his property is under the protection of the laws of an honest
government.

There is no middle ground to take in the measures you have in
contemplation. It is conceded on all sides that the Indian of this
country has not received justice — that he is the dupe of ill-advised
plans and policies — and what is to be regretted is that he is as
conscious of this as the best educated among us, and how do you
expect to make good citizens of such a people.

Upon the Indian Question, I belong to that class which believes
that the reproaches upon the government for the abuses in Indian
Affairs, the retarded progress in civilization and the unhappy pros-
pects of our people is due to Indian policies, founded on false doc-
trines, and in the disregard of our treaties, and upon laws the con-
stitutionality of which are questionable.

The principles of law which have been unheeded and which
should govern the United States in its dealings with our people are
few and simple—and these principles are as immutable as thoseSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

which govern the motions of the heavenly bodies—the planets—the
sun—the moon and the stars—and these principles are reflected by
the opinions and writings of eminent jurists among whom are the
names of John Marshall and James Kent. These jurists lay down
the following axioms of the law applicable to the Indians of this
country:

(1)	That an Indian tribe occupying its own territory secured to
it by treaties with the government is a STATE—a> distinct political
society capable of managing its own affairs, and governing itself.
(3 Kent, 384.)

(2)	That although an Indian tribe resides on its reservation
within the boundaries of one of the states of the Union, the right
of sovereignty over such reservations is vested in such tribe and
not in the state mentioned (3 Kent, 384), and this; upon the prin-
ciple of international law that, " nation® great and small are
equal in respect to each other, and entitled to claim equal considera-
tion for their rights, whatever may be their relative dimensions or
strength, or however greatly they may differ in government, re-
ligion or manners; that each nation has a right to govern itself
as it may think proper, and no one nation is entitled to dictate a
form of government or religion or a course of internal policy to
another, and no nation is entitled to take cognizance or notice of
the domestic administration of another state, or of what passes
within it as between the government and its own subjects. The
Spaniards violated all rules of right, when they set up a tribunal
of their own to judge the Inca of Peru according to their laws.
If he had broken the laiw of nations in respect to them, they would
have had a right to punish him; but when they undertook to judge
of his own interior administration, and to try and punish him for
acts committed in the course of it, they were guilty of the grossest
injustice. (1 Kent 21.)

(3)	It is clear that on these principles already stated, state laws
can have no force upon Indians residing upon their reservations,
and it is upon the same grounds that the validity of any law of
Congress may be questioned, which attempts to curtail or destroy
the rights of Indians secured to them by their treaties. (Supra Id
& Pollard v. Hagan 3 How. 212.)

Up to forty years ago the government recognized these principles
of law and acted on them in its relations and dealings with the136

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Indian tribes and their reservations, and it never entered into the
thoughts of any man that Congress had the authority to pass laws
over the Indians or their reservations, but such a monstrous doctrine
has its advocates to the extent that Congress may ignore the solemn
obligations of Indian treaties, and by mere acts of legislation, even
dispose of lands belonging to the Indians, at its will and pleasure,
without consulting the wishes of the Indian owners.

As against an Indian policy which rests on the false doctrine
that Congress has uncontrollable power to legislate over Indians
and their reservations created for them by the treaties, to the ex-
tent of dissolving their tribunal government, and segregating tribal
lands into private and alienable titles, and dubbing our people citi-
zens when they are not ready for citizenship, and sending them
forth without experience and knowledge of the white man's ways
and laws only to be robbed and plundered and be reduced to a
homeless people, in addition to what has already been said, I shall
submit in opposition another set of principles:

The inquiry now is, not what Congress has or will assume to do
in the way of legislating over Indians and their reservations, the
question is simply this: Whether or not Congress has the consti-
tutional power to do these things. Suppose therefore, that I have
stated the question accurately, I venture to affirm:

(1)	That the powers of Congress to legislate are restricted to
only such subjects as are enumerated in the Constitution.

(2)	That there is no clause in the Constitution which gives to
Congress expressly or by necessary implication the power to legis-
late specially over the Indians or Indian reservations.. If there is
such a clause let it be produced. The argument will then be at an
end.

(3)	Treaties under the Constitution are declared to be supreme
laws, and can only be made, and the rights under them can only be
modified, changed or destroyed by new treaties, with the consent
of the President and two-thirds of the Senate, and no by mere
acts of legislation. (Art. 2; sec. 2 cl. U. S. Const. & Federalist.)

(4)	The validity or constitutionality of any law of Congress
which attempts to impair or destroy the rights of Indians under
their treaties may be question on the grounds stated in the pre-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

137

ceding paragraph and also on the constitutional provision that no
person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due
process of law.

In an article by Mr. Clinton R. Flynn, of Indianapolis, Ind., en-
titled "The Legal Status of the Indian of the United States," ap-
pearing in the Central Law Journal of May 25, 1906, is contained
the whole strength of the arguments of those who maintain that
Congress has uncontrollable power to pass laws over Indians and
their reservations. According to Mr. Flynn, the inherent and
ancient rights of Indian tribes to continue their self-government
on their reservations does not rest on the guarantees of the govern-
ment pledge to them in solemn treaties; but that it rests on the
sufferance of the government, and through "pity" and for the
sake of "humanity." Then Mr. Flynn, like others, proceeds to
argue that Congress has the same authority to legislate over Indians
and their reservations as it has over the " territories belonging to
the United States." But the mere reading of the constitutional
provisions to which he alludes refutes his notions, which is as fol-
lows : " That Congress shall make needful rules! and regulations
respecting the territories belonging to the United States, the rule
of law for the construction of constitutions and laws being, that
nothing shall be read or injected into, not expressed1 by the law
giver; and that persons and things not mentioned in them shall
be excluded according to the maxim expressio unius est exclusio
alterius.

And in opposition to the barren notions of Mr. Flynn and others
have concerning the obligation of Indian treaties, I wish to quote
what a western judge said of them. This judge said that Indian
treaties were "as much of the supreme law as those made with
foreign nations. If our government solemnly pledges its faith, by
treaty with American tribes, it must ever be held as sacred and
binding as if it were pledged to civilized nations. To maintain
treaties—especially with the weak—is the glory of a nation, because
it redounds to its honor and prosperity; to break them is to violate
all law, and all faith and all honor, Carthage has come down to us138

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

through the long line of centuries as a people characterized by
' Punic faith.'" (Uhlig v. Garrison 2 N. W. 19.)

Mr. Chairman, a better Indian policy of the government which
would redound to its honor and glory and at the same time secure
the contentment and happiness of our people cannot be devised
than that reflected in the opinions and writings of John Marshall
and James Kent, and I can do no more than to submit what these
eminent jurists say concerning the relations existing between the
United States and the Indian tribes. These men say that " the
English, the French, and the Spaniards were equal competitiors
for the friendship and the aid of the Indian nations. The crown of
England never attempted to interfere with the national affairs of
the Indians, further than to keep out the agents of foreign powers,
who might seduce them into foreign alliances. The English gov-
ernment purchased the alliance and dependence of the Indian
nations by subsidies, and purchased their lands when they were
willing to sell, at a price they were willing to take, but they never
coerced a surrender of them. The English crown considered them
as nations competent to maintain the relations of peace and war,
and of governing themselves under her protection. The United
States, who succeeded to the rights of the British crown in respect
to the Indians, did the same and no more; and the protection stipu-
lated to be afforded to the Indians, and claimed by them, was under-
stood by all parties as only binding the Indians to the United States
as dependent allies." (3 Kent 384.)

And in speaking particularly of the relations of the United States
to the Cherokee tribe of Indians, and as decided by Chief Justice
Marshall in the case of the Cherokee nation vs The State of
Georgia, Kent says: "A weak nation does not surrender its inde-
pendence and its right of self-government, by associating with a
stronger, and receiving its protection. This is the settled1 doctrine
of the law of nations ; and the court concluded and adjudged that
the Cherokee nation was a distinct community, occupying its own
territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of
Georgia could not rightfully have any force, and into which the
citizens of Georgia had no right to enter but with the assent of theSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

139

Cherokees themselves, or in conformity with the treaties, and with
the acts of Congress. The court accordingly considered the acts
of Georgia which had been mentioned, to be repugnant to the
Constitution, treaties and laws of the United States and conse-
quently that they were, in judgment of law null and void." (3
Kent 384.)

And in reference to the relations of the States of the Union to the
Indian tribes, Mr. Kent referring to the decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States further says: " The decision of the
Supreme Court of the United States was not the promulgation of
any new doctrine; for the several local (state) governments, before
and since our Revolution, never regarded the Indian nations within
their territorial domains, as subject, or members of the body politic,
and amenable individually to their jurisdiction. They treated the
Indians within their respective territories (or reservations) as free
and independent tribes, governed by their own laws and usages,
and under their own chiefs, and competent to act in a national
character, and exercise self-government, and while residing within
their own territories, owing no allegiance to the municipal laws of
the whites. (3 Kent 384, 385.)

Mr. Chairman, in exposing to public view these principles of law
upon which a wise Indian policy should have rested, I do not expect
that officers of the government and others interested in the prose-
cution of a bad system, fraught with so much of the evils in Indian
affairs of our times, will retire from what they deem to be their
onerous duties; but I am resolved that those who have the honor
of this country, and the welfare of our people at heart shall know
that our people do not live by sufferance and at the bounties of the
government, as is generally supposed, but that all we own is de-
rived from efforts of our own, and from our lands secured to us by
solemn treaties with the government; I am also resolved that per-
sons anxious and interested in the welfare of our people shall know
that the honor of this country and the prosperity and happiness of
our people must rest upon an Indian policy founded on common
principles of justice, and in harmony with our treaties and the
Constitution, and not on the breach of them. (Applause.)140

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

DISCUSSION ON LEGAL CONDITIONS.

Chairman SLOAN: I am sure you have all been interested in
the able paper and able presentation of it by Mr. Chase* He is a
student of constitutional questions, and the statements that he has
made to you here are biased upon the judicial opinions of
the greatest constitutional authorities and writers of American
times.

In connection with his article there occurred to my mind a cir-
cumstance which I wish to relate: After the Omaha Indians had
been citizens for a period of twenty-two years the superintendent
or agent in charge of the agency requested authority from the Office
of Indian affairs to establish what was termed a Court of Indian
Offenses. The authority was granted, and this agent selected as
members of that court persons who were entirely subservient to his
will. The result wais that this court was the form through which
he exercised the power of prosecutor, judge and executioner.
Indians were placed under arrest; their money was* taken from
them by so-called fines; they were required to work upon the streets
and roadways around the agency; and a jail was built in which
some of them were confined. I do not know how long that prac-
tice was in existence, as I had been away for some time, but I heard
of it and was called to the agency. On going there I found one
of the Omaha Indians in jail under a sentence of that kind* I
looked up the record — so-called record which they had, and it was
full of blank pages without a record: of any form. This man who
was in jail asked me to get him out. I proceeded to the city of
Omaha, made application for a writ of habeas corpus to the United
States Circuit Court for the District of Nebraska, and a temporary
writ was allowed. It came on for hearing, and at that hearing the
court said this:

" The utmost research on the part of the United States District
Attorney and his ^assistant, supplemented by an effort on the part
of the court, has failed to find any authority of law for the establish-
ment of such courts or the exercise of such a power."SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

141

A peremptory writ of habeas corpus was granted to the defend-
ant, and he was released. This, under that statement of the court,
was one of the most flagrant violations of constitutional protection.
It was as arbitrary as anything could be; and if justice had been
meted out to the man who exercised that authority he would have
been in jail himself a while, and would have had to pay damages
for false arrest and imprisonment.

The question is now open for discussion.

Mr. GRIFFIS: I wish to express my admiration for this
most able paper. It contains that for which the Indian has always
contended; that is>, the right to take care of his own affairs. It is
what the Cherokees have contended for; the Creeks; the Seminoles;
and it is what that Little band of Seminoles in Florida, down in the
Everglades, are contending for to-day.

Legally a»nd officially there are no Seminoles in Florida. You
will remember that in 1855 they were all run down and sent to a
reservation in the west; but 112 of them escaped, and the descend-
ants of those 112 are now living in the Everglades, a place to which
no white man can go; and they have been living there in their
primitive condition since that time. They are hunters, farmers,
fishermen, making a good living. They say, " We have nothing to
do with the United States government. This home belongs to us
according to the treaties made with our ancestors. No white man
south of the Chattahoochee river has any business here. This is
our home and our land, and we will never leave it. We have a
right to govern ourselves."

And as an illustration of what the Indian might have been if the
white man had kept his hand off of him, look at this very people,
I spent a month with them. They gave me the best they had. I
happen to speak their language. I found how those people govern
themselves, and apparently there is no force in their government;
yet there is no stealing; they leave their belongings laying around
without any idea of protection. They are living just about as they
did when the white man first came there. One day I went out with
one of the men and he left his things laying around not locked up,
and I said to him, " Why do you leave these things here in the142 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

wigwam ? " " Why shouldn't I ? " he said. " Well/' I said, " they
are valuable to you, and someone might steal them." He said,
" Oh, no, there is no danger down here. A white man couldn't get
into these Everglades." But it is a fact that there is no thievery
among those Seminoles, because no white man can touch them.
(Applause.)

Miss JOHNSON: That is my opinion of Oklahoma) before it
was settled.	!

Mr. GRIFFIS : There is no fighting among them; no thievery;
no dishonesty. The only man who ever sees them or has anything
to do with them is an old trader who has been trading for twenty-
four years ; and he says those men do exactly what they say they
will. " If a man comes to me and says ' I will pay you on a cer-
tain day,' he always comes on that day; er if he doesn't make any
promise I know that I will get the money/'

At one time Bishop Gray went down there and made a big
barbecue for those Seminoles, expecting by that means to get them
to come in where they could preach to them aind have them accept
the Christian religion ; and by the way they hiave been there some
twenty years and have not secured a single convert. The Indians
said to them, " Why don't you go over and preach to those white
men who have stolen our homes away from us? Go and change
them; and if you can change them we will consider your religion."

I wish to say in closing here that the Indian has in him what is
necessary for him to govern himself, and he has always had. I
have seen many chickens hatched, but I never knew the process of
hatching to be facilitated by some person taking a stick to break
the shell. If the chicken inside was not a dead one it always got
out. Now, we Indians are not dead ones; we will get out and work
out our own salvation. There is an inherent power in the Indian
when he has the chance to adjust himself to modern progress, aind
he will do it if he is not interfered with.

Now, speaking of those Seminoles down there in Florida, down
in those Everglades: I have asked them what they would do when
the water in those Everglades was gone. I have said to them,SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS	143

"You will have no water; you will have no hunting, no fishing;
everything1 will be gone. You have no home; you have no reserva-
tion. What will you do?" And the old chief has pointed and
said, "See our guns; see our ammunition. That is what we will
do." That simply means that the Indian knows how to die, and
they will never remove them from those Everglades. (Applause.)

Dr. EASTMAN: This is an unusual opportunity, for most of
us are not lawyers, and we must extract from Mr. Chase by ques-
tioning some points that we may have in mind that he may eluci-
date to us in order that we may gain a fair understanding of our
status, not as citizens (though most of us here now perhaps are),
but upon that higher international law which affects all our prop-
erty. I was in Providence last Saturday, and a stranger came and
talked to me. " Do you know so and so? " I said, " No." " Well,
there is an Indian here who lives at Pawtucket; she just went by
the street here; she claims half or nearly half of Rhode Island; her
claim extended along the shore nearly fifty miles." And the people
somehow conceded to give her so much a month. Now, this treaty,
or whatever it was, was made a hundred or a hundred and fifty
years ago. And there are so many things all over this country
which stand out like that.

But what I want .to get at is, I think we can learn a great deal
by asking Judge Chase points on that paper that we would like to
understand. I think that the United States acknowledged, or at
least the statutes admitted that thiey could not, in case of homicide,
try an Indian who has killed another Indian on a reservation, and
I think that was the rule up to somewhere about March, 1880.

Chairman SLOAN: March 30, 1885.

Dr. EASTMAN: I think that is the case of Spotted Tail. I
would like to know whether those laws passed affecting those
Indians were legal or not.

Mr. CHASE: The principle of international law that I have
just stated in the paper there will solve# many of the questions that
have been propounded. Because the government of the United
States is composed of certain of the higher intelligent people of the144 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

human race, philosophers, scientists, lawyers of great ability, and
those skilled in all the arts and sciences — that fact does not war-
rant them in violating the treaty rights of our people. Our treaty
rights with the government of the United States, in the language
of that western judge, are just as sacred a/s the treaty made with
England or any of the foreign powers ; and the fact that we have
been placed here by the All-Wise Creator gives us the right to
enjoy this life after our own methods, our own ideas, our own
religion; and that is what the officers of this government guaran-
teed to our people in the early treaties, the terms of which they
violated in later times.

The question which has been propounded by the gentlemen is
one to be reflected upon. There is a case in recent time coming
from Oregon, In re Soleski (I forget the citation), which has de-
cided that a crime committed on territory secured to an Indian
tribe under a treaty is so far out of the jurisdiction of the State
court that they cannot in any manner take cognizance of it; but
they went farther in that decision than I wanted them to. I wanted
them to stop there and to concede to the Indian tribe owning that
land the right to punish those two Indians that had been fighting
on that reservation. If the policy of the government had been to
listen to the principles laid down by our eminent jurists whom I
have quoted, what would have been done? They would have gone
up to your Sioux people, Dr. Eastman, and they would have treated
you properly; they would not have had; soldiers there to force you
into signing treaties; they would have htad their Christian men and
women there; they would have entered into your religion; they
would have got down and reasoned with you; they would have told
you that your salvation, your temporal salvation on this sphere, a
part of which God ha® given to our race, lay in adapting yourself
to new conditions; they would have told you that the time of the
hunt and the chase and the fight for the Sioux nation was at an end ;
they would have told you that you had too much land ; that this
country was large enough to hold all the Indians and the white
people that may come to live with us and be our friends; they
would have put you on an inalienable reservation sufficient forSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

145

your needs; and you could have worked out your salvation without
interference.

Dr. EASTMAN: They did that twice, and broke it.

Mr. CHASE: They would have drawn out your ablest men.
Let me tell you, the ablest men among our people are not always
the educated Indians. Some of our ablest men are those who can-
not speak a word of English, but who have high intellectual powers.
I know, too, many defame the name of Sitting Bull and men of
his type, but if they had been understood their names would be
venerated. Those *nen were fighting for just the same thing that
George Washington fought for. (Applause.) They were fight-
ing for their country, for their homes. The white man does not
seem to realize what our people used to be. They were warriors;
they were hunters; and; their mode of living, their nomadic lives,
necessitated a large territory over which to roam, and they had to
go to war to defend that country. Mr. Eastman, your people and
ours had many, many fights, and we both fought for the same
reason; we wanted to keep as much of those plains over which the
buffalo roamed as we could. And when the white man came we
had to defend ourselves against them; it was that that prompted
those terrible massacres. A fight between white men is a battle,
but when the Indian, fighting for his rights, gets the better of the
paleface, it is a massacre. But I do not wish to say one word
here that would alienate those of the white race whose sympathies
are with us, because our interests are their interests, our religion
should be their religion, and our aspirations should be the same as
theirs. But I do not believe that the salvation of the Indian rests
upon the division of tribal lands into separate ownership and alien-
able titles, and the thrusting on him, while he is unprepared to
receive them, of the rights and duties of citizenship. When our
Indians become civilized and wish to quit the reservation and its
mode of living, let them receive citizenship just as the Russian or
the Frenchman or the Spaniard who comes over here to make this
country his home. (Applause.)

Such a policy of letting the Indian alone to his own efforts I
think would redound to the honor and glory of the country.146 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Citizenship for the red man should be based upon his own exertions,
his own ideas, and such a policy would be an incentive to him to
strive for a higher standard of civilization. The Indian intellect
is just as keen, just as strong, and his character just as high as
many of our white brethren, and that, too, in face of the fact that
they have had civilization at their back for thousands of years, and
that the precepts of the lowly Nazarene have been with them for
twenty centuries. (Applause.)

The Constitution of the United States was framed by men of the
highest ability, and its principles were laid down to protect not
only the rights of its citizens, but of every person that may come
to this country, whether he be poor or rich, freeman or slave, the
Indian im the forest or the product of a high civilization. And
the Indian's rights do not depend upon his citizenship, but upon the
fact that he is a man, endowed by God with the same instincts,
the same love of life, the same hopes and aspirations as any other
man. If he had had his land owned by his own community, not
in common, but in such a way that it could not be transferred, he
would have worked out a standard of civilization equal to any
white community in this country. We do not need to be citizens.
In glancing through one of my scrap books at home I ran across
a little article telling how, at Fort Ticonderoga, during the Ameri-
can Revolution, under Colonel Ethan Allen, there were fourteen
Iowa and Missouri Indians fighting against the English. Think
of it! Those Indians were not from the colonies, but from the far
western plains. In every war the red man has furnished his quota
to fight for the republic. In the Rebellion there were many of our
people enlisted on both the Union and the Confederate side; in the
late Spanish War many of our young men went out to shoulder the
musket for the government of the United States. We do not have
to be citizens to do that. (Applause.)

It is too often true that our Indians have sold their lands ; in
advance of the title they have contracted debts of half or two-thirds
the value of their land; when they get their title their creditors sur-
round them, take them to some town, fill them full of whiskey, andSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

H7

they lose their land, without any real compensation. Those are
the condition® against which I am fighting.

Even in Ohio here, perhaps in the northern part of the State, up
around Toledo, there were at one time communities like the Wyan-
dottes and the Miamis, who were tribes of high intellectual powers,
who had made treaties with the government, who had their own
organizations and were self-governing, and who were prospering
until some Indian " policy" came along which drove them from
their homes, the homes of their fathers.

Mr. GRIFFIS: They did worse than that; they killed ninety-
six of them down here.

Mr. CHASE: That very thing occurred, and I do not attribute
it so much to the sovereign power of the United States ais I do to
the officers and the ministers of the government.

Dr. EASTMAN: When they push, them out of their homes
and destroy their means of living, and indiscriminately murder
them, don't you think that is the cause of the Indian's turning
against the whites and becoming so unreasonable, seemingly unrea-
sonable, and perpetrating some of the most atrocious methods of
warfare?

Mr. CHASE: The policy that has grown up in opposition to
the one I suggested in my paper has been inaugurated by grafters
and bad politicians, and men who want to make their millions off
of the Indian. The government is helpless if the political ward-
heelers are at its head and are to repay political obligations.

Dr. EASTMAN: Mr. Chase has said some very interesting
things. I do not want to look back to and live the old life and
deny myself some of the things we have now, but it is true that
we must know our status as far as we can. Some of us want to
be citizens, but we have one hundred and sixty acres there that is
hanging around our neck — wherever we go we are pulled that
way — and whatever little money is coming to us from our allot-
ment, and if we go to any part of the United States that Indian
agent holds that up before us ; and it is simply terrible. I have;
fought that same battle, and I have pushed it to the President; no148

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

less than five Presidents I have dealt with direct. In one reserva-
tion, when the land was sought to be leased the Indian agent claimed
it wajs with the authority of the commissioner. The Indians pro-
tested, but he went through the usual performance. The Indians
made him give them credentials to come to Washington to protest;
that they wanted to stand by their treaty rights. But they were
helpless. They went over to see the Indian agent in the usual way.
He says, " Come over such a time." And they went over and he
said come to-morrow. And they came back, and he says, ■" I have
so much to do; I can't see you now; come to-morrow." And he
kept putting them off. They were helpless. The Indian agent told
some of his friends that they were the kickers; that there was no
truth in their position; tha/t they were the natural kickers, the low
class of Indians. The Indians kept their silence. They came
before the Senate committee and I examined all the evidence.
They had even a telegram, copy of the telegram, that the commis-
sioner sent to Bismarck, ordering the Indian agent to make those
Indians lease that laod; and tell them that if they didn't do it he
would hold up their rations, or they would lease it from Washing-
ton by Hitchcock, who was then Secretary of the Interior. Senator
Stewart was then chairman. Those poor Indians presented their
case, Jones calling them kickers and liars, although in somewhat
pleaisanter words. They had the contract with them and finally
handed it to the old senator. The old fellow stroked his beard, and
he say5, " Commissioner, this looks bad; this looks bad." But
when the question was put up to the President, the politicians hung
around and nothing was accomplished.

Then I said to myself, " We must try the highest obligation of
all civilized nations; treaties; the highest obligation; the interna-
tional law." I went up and saw Judge Springer and said, " Haven't
we power to get an injunction against the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior to prevent their leasing
our lands without our consent ? " He said, " You can." We served
that from the District Court at Washington, and they were thunder-
struck. They immediately asked for thirty days to run over the
law, I suppose. I had in mind to push the case to the SupremeSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

149

Court as a test case. And he finally asked thirty more days, and
sent Commissioner Jones back to North Dakota and did the whole
thing and came back. There is nothing there. The trouble is that
politics is running the whole matter, and the officials keep their
mouths shut and pass it off some way, so that there is not a
decision; they do not dare to allow a decision to be made on some
of their acts.

As I have stated in my last book, I have discovered after thirty-
five years of experience in civilization that there is no Christian
civilization; that Christianity and modern civilization are direct
opposites; direct opposites; irreconcilable. There are people who
individually are Christians; there are families who are Christians.
I have no fault to find with Christianity. One of the most beauti-
ful things the white man has is Christianity, when he lives up to it.
But modern civilization is so materialistic and has gone on so far
— why, even the ministers in this State sell their votes if the papers
are to be believed! I have stated in one of my public addresses,
I think it was in Harvard, before an audience of the white race,
that " there will come a day when an Indian will be the Abraham
Lincoln to reform your politics! You are absolutely gone. Every
public man is a slave to your system. (Applause.) You have been
developing a superb civilization; along those lines you have de-
veloped a magnificent civilization,— material, brilliant,— but in it
you have lost all spiritually." (Applause.)

Here and there in the United States our people have owned lands
belonging to this tribe and that tribe. The whites recognize that,
as in the Rhode Island case. She had a son-in-law who was a
good lawyer and happened to be on the State Supreme Court. It
is recognised that we have rights, for if we did not these lawyers
who hang around Washington after these Indian claims zvoidd have
no business. It is not due to a lack of intelligence or education on
the part of the white man, but it is the politics. Municipal and
State governments are absolutely rotten with it. And I hope that
this body will add their little mite to the general reform movement
that is sweeping over the country along political and social lines,
however small our contribution may be in that direction. (Applause.)150 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Mr. HENSLEY: There is a question that has confronted the
Sioux tribe that comes under this subject. (I am sorry that I
haven't the English language as perfect as some of my brothers).
Among our tribe when we corner the government on any subject,
the excuse they give us is, " You are ai ward of the government;
therefore you are just like a minor or child, and we have got the
right to dictate to you and you have to listen/' The Sioux com-
mences to realize what that means. The Sioux in self-defense, in
defending his country, under the leadership of Crazy Horse, Sit-
ting Bull and others, had wars with the United States government.
And when we did try to defend ourselves and were defeated, then
they take the position- that we are minor children with no right to
speak for ourselves. And the Sioux, understanding this situation,
is highly insulted, because he is not used to that kind of life. He
is proud and thinks that he is a man, and he never knew that he had
to place himself in that position,— that of a child.

The Sioux defended their country in the old times, and they are
willing to defend it again to the very last. At that time the gov-
ernment was in a position to wipe out every Sioux in the country,
but it said, " Let us stop fighting. We think we owe you some-
thing and we are going to give it to you." The Sioux said, "All
right; let us see what you have got." And then the proposition is
brought forth. They said, "If it suits the Sioux it is all right;
we will stop here; we will stop and we will take what you have to
give us." They have waited all these years for what was promised
them, and they have not received it. When they asked for these
various things which had! been promised them the government has
said they must wait, they must take so much, they must live on a
reservation until some indefinite time. The Sioux does not want
that. They want to know why the negroes have no bureau at
Washington, while the Indians have. Is it because the Indian has
land and the negro has none, and they do not care what becomes of
him ?

Now, the Sioux say they never had any agreement, nor did they
understand that they were to be wards of anyone, nor have they
ever been conquered. But to-day they have found that that is theSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS	151

way the government regards them. So they have said to me, " You
go to this Congress; you will meet people of different tribes, who
are far advanced in education and who are familiar with such situa-
tions; try to find from our brethren if it is proper under the Con-
stitution that the government assume a guardianship over us, and
see if, under the law, there is any way we can remedy this and be
men. I said, " I will try my best to point out just what you wish,
and if the Conference understands me, find a remedy." (Applause.)

Mr. DOXON: Some of the speakers have referred to the fact
that whiskey is helping to deprive the Indian of his property in the
west. There is a law against selling whiskey to the Indian. That
does not seem to have much effect on the traffic. It seems to me
that the law should be changed. The whiskey traffic is a business,
and the man that sells or gives it away does it as a business. I
think that there should be a law which would permit the prosecu-
tion, not only of the dealer who sells it, but of the Indian who buys
it as well. (Applause.) The man who does it is not only guilty
of an evil in drinking the whiskey, but there is a certain wicked-
ness in wasting money; he simply wastes the money by buying
liquor; for it does no good, but rather harms the body and soul.1
(Applause.)

Chairman SLOAN: I wish to take just time enough to points
out a specific instance. One Indian Commissioner issued patents to
an Indian drunkard who had a large family in the State of Kansas.
This man immediately sold his land and drank up the proceeds.
He is now a charge upon his friends and relatives, and his wife and
children must be cared for by charity.

Miss JOHNSON: We have contended with that very same
thing on our reservation, and the decision has just about been made
that it will be necessary to grant patents only to those who are
competent, and retain control of the entire business of the drunkard
so as to protect the Indian children.

1 Mr. Doxon is President of the Iroquois Temperance Society in New York
State.152 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Chairman SLOAN : Mr. De Witt B. Hare will now speak to us
on the subject, " Trust Funds and Their Management."

Mr. Hare, in addressing the Conference, said in part :

TRUST FUNDS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Association: Of
the many questions which have come before this body for discus-
sion, one of the biggest and most important is the administration
of the trust fund. The trust fund is a thing that we as Indians of
the Sioux tribe are most concerned about. I wish that I had been
informed earlier, so that I might have prepared myself on the sub-
ject more fully and have given you more fully an understanding
of it as it is understood by us in our administration of the Sioux
affairs.

The mere fact that it is a trust fund signifies that it belongs to
us, to our race, and that the United States government has assumed
the position of trustee, and therefore is morally and legally bound
to use that fund to our best interests and advantages. In perform-
ing that duty to our best interests and advantages the trustee must
know thoroughly the natures, needs and conditions of our people
in general. The government's knowledge of the needs and condi-
tions of our people is necessarily derived largely from the reports
of individual agents or superintendents, who are assumed to know
and speak for our people. The difficulty in this respect lies in the
fact that a large percentage of these agents or superintendents are
men of limited knowledge of the real needs of our people and the
existing conditions in their field of labor, the reservation, and there-
fore cannot Very adequately convey to the government, or the de-
partment, rather, the information most desired.

Conditions on the Indian reservations to-day in the United States
are at a standstill, or are retrograding, because the man sent by the
government to be the example, guide, inspiration and teacher for
the people does not understand more fully the lay-out, the general
needs, the view of his work, and the real nature of the people whom
he undertakes to lead, inspire and teach. Such men fail in the per-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

153

formance of their offices and duties because of this misapprehension.
If it had not been for that very fact, these mistakes that have been
committed and the consequent miseries suffered by our race would
have been avoided.

The government, acting as a trustee for our people, really believes
and is thoroughly convinced that the matter of paying out ten dol-
lars per month from this trust or inherited money, belonging to our
people, is a very good thing; that this ten dollars per month is.the
only thing that could possibly be done to bring about the comforts,
blessings, and so forth, to our people advantageously; and that this
ten dollars per month payment is abundantly enough for an Indian
and his family to live on. Those of us who have lived on reserva-
tions among our people, and who have looked into the conditions
surrounding this money question more extensively, are fully aware
of the fact that the government's understanding of this matter is
very limited. That is not a good thing for our people by any
means. It is not a proper position, nor one that will bring about
the intended comforts and blessings. It is haird enough for the
Indian or any man with his family to live on that. This pittance
of ten dollars a month is just sufficient to keep an Indian hungry
and in need.

And one thing which I wish to bring before you and before this
Conference, as individuals or collectively, is to think over this mat-
ter and to act as a Conference by some concerted action whereby
we may influence the Congress of the United States to change this
system or perhaps to be more liberal in its policy.

I have had Indians come to my place, twenty-two miles from: the
agency, who wanted me to go down to the agency and interpret for
them, saying that they wanted certain moneys for their living; that
there must be something the matter with the interpreter or the
man that had stood them off, or they would not have suffered these
consequences. They wanted me to go down. They took me away
from my business. I had to go down there sometimes myself, drive
twenty-two miles a day and then back, only to be turned away with
the statement that the Indians are not good ; the Indians are bad;
and therefore they cannot get the money. I have seen Indians who154 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

are good who could not get their money because they are not in
with the United States government; I have seen Indians that are
bad, who are really bad, who are claimed to be good by the agent
or the superintendent, and therefore they get their money, for the
reason that these conditions exist on our reservation,

I wish to suggest to you, Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentle-
men of the Conference, that we submit some proposal to the Con-
gress of the United States recommending that a law be passed pro-
viding that the Indian, regardless of his circumstances, shall get
twenty-five dollars a month, or even fifty dollars a month, out of
his or her trust fund to be used for his or her advantage.
(Applause.)

Miss JOHNSON: We have that trouble on our reservation at
home. There were two old women who, after the failure of the
crops, had no chance of getting any money from their funds; they
were widows, and they had no relatives; they were allowed ten dol-
lars per month for their sustenance. It was not sufficient, and they
were compelled to go hungry. The younger people can hustle for
themselves, but our old men and women need protection.

Chairman SLOAN: Rents, proceeds from sales, money and
trust funds may be paid to all Indians except the two classes; minors
and incompetents. Thomas W. Mani was to have read a paper this
afternoon on " The (Law and the Indian of the United States."
He is not able to be present to-day. He has prepared this article
with great care, and the Chairman of the Conference has asked
Mr. Wolf, a Chippewa Indian, who is at present a student at Hamp-
ton Institute, to read that paper.

Mr, Wolf then read the paper.

Chairman SLOAN: The Committee on Purpose of Organiza-
tion is ready to submit its report at this time.

Mr. Henry Roe Cloud then read the Platform Committee's report
on the purpose of organization.

Chairman SLOAN: I believe the Committee on Constitution
is also ready to report.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

155

Mr. A. C. Parker then read the report of Committee on Con-
stitution.

And thereupon, on motion! duly made, seconded and carried, the
Conference adjourned, to met Monday morning, October 16, 1911,
at nine o'clock.

PUBLIC SESSION AND JOINT MEETING.

Saturday evening, in the University Chapel, Ohio State University.

8 o'clock p. m.

The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, who intro-
duced Dr. Charles A. Eastman, the Sioux writer and lecturer.

Address — The North American Indian, by Dr. Chas. A.
Eastman.

Short addresses by associate members as follows :

Matthew K. Sniffin, Miss Crawford, Mr. John W. Converse,
Prof. F. A. McKenzie.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15TH.

Morning.

9.00 o'clock.

Indian speakers delegated to the various churches of the city.

Afternoon.

3.00 o'clock.

Memorial Hall, City.

moral and religious problems.

Addresses by the following :

Rev. Frank H. Wright. Rev. William Holmes.

Heniry Roe Cloud.	Rev. Sherman Coolidge.

Rev. P. J* Deloria.	Robert H. Hall (Associate Member).156

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Evening.

Indian speakers delegated to the various churches of the city.

Most of the active members of the Conference spoke in the
churches of the city which had been assigned to them. It is esti-
mated that more than 10,000 church-going citizens of Columbus
heard the Indian speakers during -Sunday morning and evening.
The Christian! members of the Conference were thus given an excep-
tional opportunity to present the religious side and needs of the
race.

ACTIVE MEMBERS BUSINESS SESSION.

Monday, October 16, 1911.

The members of the Conference met in the hall of the Ohio
Union, October 16th; only active members being admitted. The
meeting was called to order at 9.45 by the Chairman, Mr. Chas. E.
Dagenett. A prayer was offered at the invitation of the Chairman
by Rev. Wright, after which the following business was transacted:

1.	Moved and seconded that the adoption of the statement of
purpose and the By-laws be deferred until some future time.
( W right-Coolidge.) Carried.

2.	Moved and seconded that the active members present of legal
age ajnd standing in this Conference constitute the temporary Com-
mittee of the Whole. (Eastman-Cloud.) Carried.

3.	Moved and seconded that the former chairman of this com-
mittee shall be chairman of the new Executive Committee. (East-
man-Coolidge. Vote: ayes, 21; noes, 5.) Carried.

4.	Moved and seconded that we reconsider the election of the
committee. (Cloud-Eastman.) Carried.

Mr. Chais. E. Dagenett was renominated and re-elected' chairman.
(Vote: ayes, 19; noes, 8.)

The chairman resigned, giving the following statement : " I
thank you for this expression of your confidence, but I tender youSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

157

my resignation as chairman of the Executive Committee, effective
at the close of this Conference."

5.	Moved and seconded that the resignation of the chairman be
accepted, and that we proceed to the nomination of a chairman, and
that the vote be by ballot. (Cornelius-Griffis. Wright-Johnson.)
Carried.

6.	Moved and seconded that Thos. iL. Sloan be nominated chair-
man of the Executive Committee. (Cornelius-Griffis.)

7.	Moved and seconded that Rev. Sherman Coolidge be nomi-
nated chairman of the Executive Committee. (Cloud-Parker.)

8.	Moved and seconded that Dr. Charles A. Eastman be nomi-
nated chairman of the Executive Committee. (Johnson-LaFlesche.)

9.	Moved and seconded that nominations close, and that the bal-
loting proceed. (Parker-Shields.) Carried.

The Chaiirman appointed as tellers Miss Emma Johnson and Wal-
lace Denny. Ballots were counted and tellers reported. Ballots
cast: Thomas L. Sloan, 20; Rev. Sherman Coolidge, 9; Dr. Charles
A. Eastman, 3.

Rev. Sherman Coolidge and Dr. Eastman had previously pro-
tested against their nominations and requested that their names be
withdrawn, which request was denied by the chairman.

Thomas L. Sloan declared chairman.

Request that Dr. Eastman escort the new chairman to the plat-
form at the close of the Conference. (Wright.) Granted.

10.	Moved and seconded that Chas. E. Dagenett be secretary-
treasurer of the committee as now constituted, and that he be au-
thorized to employ an assistant secretary. (Eastman-Shields.)
Carried.

11.	Moved and seconded that a vote of thanks be extended to
our retiring chairman. (Wright-Denny.) Carried.158

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

12.	Moved and seconded that we extend a vote of thanks to our
retiring corresponding secretary. (Parker-Wright.) Carried.

13.	Moved and seconded that a sub-committee of five, together
with the chairman and the secretary-treasurer, be constituted1 the
Executive Committee, and that each member be nominated and
elected by acclamation. Carried.

Rev. Sherman Coolidge, Hiram Chase, A. C. Parker, Hoary
Standing Bear and Miss Laura M. Cornelius were nominated, voted
upon separately and unanimously elected.

14.	Moved and seconded' thait the Executive Committee be
invested with the right to provide a provisional constitution for a
representative convention of all Indians in the country, and that it
recommend that each tribe send at least two representatives to the
said convention, designating the time for such tribal elections on or
before the 15th day of June. (Chase-Coolidge.) Carried.

The chairman ordered a recess in order that we might accept the
invitation of the Improved Order of Red Mai and the Daughters
of Pocahontas to dine with them.

The meeting was called to order at five o'clock by the chairman,
Mr. Dagenett, who in the absence of Dr. Eastman requested Rev.
Wright to escort the newly elected chairman, Mr, Sloan, to the plat-
form, after which business was resumed.

15.	Moved and seconded that we adopt for the name of the
organization that of " The Society of American Indians." ( Parker-
Chase. ) Vote unanimous. Carried.

16.	Moved, seconded and carried that Washington be the head-
quarters of the organization. (Cornelius-Griffis.)

17.	Moved and seconded that the name of our society, be regis-
tered. (Griffis-Coolidge.) Carried.

18.	Moved, seconded and carried that the chairman and secre-
tary of the Executive Committee, as a part of their duties, shall
observe closely any proposed legislation of Congress affectingSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

m

Indian affairs, and that they shall notify the Indian that may be
affected thereby, to co-operate with the Indian Office of the Interior
Department for the welfare of the Indians to the best of their
ability. (Wright-Sloan.) (Dagenett in chair.)

Discussion as to what the principles of the Association should be,
by various members.

The chairman requested to appoint a committee to draft a num-
ber of objects and purposes as a provisional statement of purposes.
The chairman appointed Miss Cornelius and Mr. Parker. Commit-
tee adjourned to carry out instructions.

In the meantime the following motion was made, seconded and
carried :

19.	That no member of this society be authorized to collect
money for it, but that money offered be sent by the donors direct to
the secretary-treasurer. (Griffis-Johnson.) Carried.

20.	The committee reported the following:

The objects of this organization shall be:

1. To promote citizenship and to obtain its rights. 2. To estab-
lish a legal department to investigate Indian problems and to sug-
gest remedies for abuses. 3. To exercise the right to oppose any
move which may be detrimental to the race in matters educational,
social and political. 4. To provide a bureau of information, includ-
ing publicity and statistics and to record Indian complaints. 5. To
provide through our open Conference the means for a free discus-
sion by Indians on all subjects bearing on the welfare of the race*
6. To conserve and emphasize those special race characteristics of
virtue which distinguish us as the American Indians.

Each article was discussed and voted upon separately. Each
article was adopted by the Committee of the Whole, and the report
of the Platform Committee accepted by the Committee of the Whole
as a provisional statement of purpose.160 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

21.	Moved and seconded that a committee of three take charge
of the selection of the designs for the badge and button and colors
for the society, and that the design be submitted to each of the mem-
bers of the society, and that this Committee on Emblem shall be
composed of Mrs. Deitz, Mr. Parker and Mr. Oskison. (Standing
Bear-W right.) Carried.

22.	Moved, seconded and carried that (a) the lecturers, mem-
bers of this Conference, be organized to constitute a bureau of
revenue, whose censorship shall be determined by the chairman
(b) and whose expense shall not be a burden to the other members
of the organization, ([a] Cornelius-[b]Johnson.)

Professor McKenzie was invited to enter the Conference.

23.	Moved and seconded that we extend a vote of thanks to
Prof. McKenzie for his services in aiding the success of the organ-
ization. (Chase-Johnson.) Rising vote; unanimous. Carried.

24.	Moved, seconded and carried that we extend a vote of
thanks to each person or organization that extended us their cour-
tesies, and that the following persons and organizations be notified
by letter of such action by the secretary-treasurer:

President Thompson and the Ohio State University.

Improved Order of Red Men and the Daughters of Pocahontas.

Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor of Columbus in behalf of the city.

Ministerial Association.

Dr. W. H. Kellog.

Federation of Labor.

Young Men's Christian Association.

State Historical and Archeological.

The Society of the Federation of Women's Club.

The Press.

The Ohio Union.

Hotel Hartman. (Chase-Griffis.) Carried.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS	161

25.	Moved, seconded and carried that a committee of three be
appointed to draft a vote of thanks to the various bodies who have
helped to make this Conference a success. (Parker-Coolidge.)

Rev. Coolidge, Mr. Griffis and Miss Cornelius were appointed by
the chairman to act on this committee.

26.	Resolved, That we ask Congress to provide for the appoint-
ment of a commission by the President of the United States to codify
Indian law and to determine the precise status of every Indian tribe,
its rights, duties and obligations and the rights of individuals of
Indian blood whose rights are affected by Indian law. (Parker-
Standing Bear.) Adopted.

27.	Moved and seconded that the next conference shall be
determined by the executive committee. Carried.

Moved and seconded that:

The membership of this society shall consist of three classes:
Active, Indian Associate and Associate.

Active members and Indian Associates shall be persons of Indian
blood only, and they only may vote and hold office, but Indian Asso-
ciate members may vote only upon questions relating to their own
tribal interests.

Indian associate members shall be Indians from other parts of
the Americas than the United States.

Associate members of the Society shall be persons of non-Indian
blood interested in Indian welfare.

Dues in this Society shall be payable in advance and be two
dollars per year for all classes of membership.

(Motion by Miss Johnson, seconded by Rev. Coolidge.) Carried.

Amended motion No. 19: That no member of this Society be
authorized to collect money for it, but that money offered be sent
direct by the donors to the Secretary-Treasurer, and that said Secre-
tary-Treasurer be authorized to receipt for funds and to disburse
same in expenses and obligations of the Society and to account to
the accredited Auditing Committee of the Society for such expen-
ditures. ( Dagenett-Sloan.)162

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

The following bill was drafted for presentation to Congress:

A BILL.1

To create an Indian Code Commission to codify the laws relating
to Indians taxed and not taxed, and to define more exactly the
privileges and disabilities of the several classes of Indians in
the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Presi-
dent of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized and
directed to appoint a commission of three men, qualified by legal
and sociological training, as well as by acquaintance with Indian
affairs and needs, to study the laws governing and the circumstances
affecting the various tribes, groups, and classes of Indians in the
United States, and to report on or before the tenth day of Decem-
ber, nineteen hundred and twelve, a codified law determining the
status of the Indians of the United States in accordance with
existing legislation and the future best interests of these natives.

Sec. 2. That this commission shall be authorized to employ a
competent secretary, at a salary of two thousand five hundred
dollars a year, and such clerical help as may be necessary, and that
the commissioners be reimbursed for actual expenses and be paid
ten dollars for every day of actual service rendered. The whole
expense shall not exceed twenty thousand dollars, which amount
is hereby appropriated for such purpose out of any money in the
Treasury not otherwise appropriated; and such disbursements as
are made under this enactment shall be made by the Secretary of
the Interior.

Upon motion the Society of American Indians adjourned until
such time as it might be called by the Executive Committee for the
second annual convention.

Onily carried motions are reported in the above report.

1 This bill was introduced by Hon. Chas. D. Carter on January 19, 1912 as
House Bill 18334.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS	163

After the close of the Conference the Secretary received the
following comments on the work of the Society:

INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION,

The following minute was unanimously adopted at the meeting
of the Executive Committee of the Indian Rights Association, held
on November 1, 1911:

"We extend a hearty greeting to the Society of American
Indians, which recently met as a body for the first time, at Colum-
bus, Ohio. The formation of such an organization, managed as
it will be exclusively by Indians, is< an indication of the progress of
the Red Man to a full recognition of his needs, and an appreciation
of the fact that the time has arrived for him to have an active voice
in plans for working out his own salvation. The movement is a
credit to the race, and is full of promise for the future, if it be
wisely directed, as we have every reason to believe from1 this meet-
ing will be the case. The high personnel and good spirit manifested
throughout this successful Conference also answers the question,
frequently asked, 'Why does not the Indian dto something for
himself ?' "

M. K. SNIFFEN,

Recording Secretary.

THE NATIONAL INDIAN ASSOCIATION.i

New York City, November 1, 1911.

Ever since I read in the May number of the Indian's Friend of
the very successful outcome of your long labor and unfailing hope
on behalf of the creation of an organization of Indians for Indians,
I have greatly wished to write you, and I hereby send you my heart-
felt congratulations on the above most happy and important result
of your " faith and works."

1From a letter to Prof. McKenzie.164

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

The organization effected is in the best hands and has delightfully
strong moral support and the promise, I hope, of as strong financial
support. Certainly all friends of Indians will wish to lend their
aid to the project in hand and I hope many if not all will like to
register themselves as at least Associate members. I have pleasure
in accepting the invitation to become a patron and most earnestly
wish for the Association the largest success.

For years you and I have realized that the greatest and best help
for Indians must come from themselves, in their own sense of
manhood, race responsibility and race philanthropy, and nothing for
the race welfare holds more promise, it seems to me, than the fact
of this new organization. One Indian Association has done able
and noble work for righting wrongs to the race; another and older
began the popular plea for its admission into the privileges and
duties of United States citizenship and began the planting of
Christian missions in the then unevangelized tribes, and with in-
dustrial training, and now the way is well opened for a crowning
work from the Indians thmeselves. May it have immediate and
best prosperity on all the broad interests outlined in your " Pro-
visional Platform/'

In this new day for Red Men believe me in sympathy and hope.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) AMELIA S. QUINTON,

Honorary President, The National Indian Association.

PUBLIC NOTICE OF THE CONFERENCE.

During the Conference many newspaper men were in attendance,
and reports of the proceedings were published in newspapers all
over the country. Later mention was made in various magazines,
such as Leslie's Weekly, The Review of Reviews, the Red Man,
The Southern Workman, etc. School journals and missionary
magazines gave much space to the work of the Conference. Vari-
ous journals of anthropology and sociology also mentioned the
subject.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

165

The Red Man gave the following editorial comment:

AN EPOCH-MAKING INDIAN CONVENTION.

The Red Man is giving a very complete account of the recent
meeting of the Society of American Indians, at Columbus, Ohio.
That the meeting was epoch-making and a pronounced success is
evidenced by the unanimity with which the work has been viewed
by both Indians and white men.

The meeting itself has absolutely dispelled any doubts which may
have been present in the minds of those who were pessimistic before
the Conference took place. There was a splendid spirit of good-
will and harmony manifested throughout, the addresses and dis-
cussions were of a high order, ami the whole American people have
been impressed, as a consequence, with the fact that the Indian has
reached that stage of development when he is beginning to solve
his own problems.

The writer does not remember a convention on Indian affairs
which has won such a cordial reception, or has done as much good
in forming public opinion as to the actual status of the Indian, as
the little convention of progressive Indians in Columbus. Hun-
dreds of editorials have appeared in the newspapers amd magazines,
and not one has been noticed which is unfavorable in its comment.

The American people are with the Indian in this last forward step
which has been taken for the salvation of the race. The next con-
vention will be larger than this one, and will have a wider and
deeper influence on every Indian tribe. It would be hard to estimate
the good that the Society can accomplish in the years to come by a
closely knit organization which harmoniously works for the race.

PRESS NOTICES.

A few extracts from editorials are herewith printed, which indi-
cate how the work of the Association was viewed by the American
press:

RALLY OF RED MEN.

At Columbus, Ohio, the first annual conference of the Society of
American Indians will open to-day. Possibly the concurrence of
the meeting place and the daste may not be accidental. Columbus
was the man who gave the name Indians to the aborigines of the
Western Hemisphere, and October 12 was the day when he got
his first glimpse of it. These details may have suggested the meet-t66

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

ing place and the time of the meeting to the gentlemen who arranged
for this first annual gathering of the representatives of many of
the tribes who were here when the great admiral started out from
Spain to find India, and who thought he had encountered some of
India's outlying possessions.

Indians to-day are found in all the country's activities. Among
them are farmers, stock raisers, fruit growers, cotton planters,
bankers, miners, lawyers, physicians, journalists, artists, educators,
clergymen, artisans of all sorts, and men in other occupations. Men
of Indian blood are in public station throughout the country. Among
them are Senators Owen of Oklahoma and Curtis of Kansas, and
Representative Carter of Oklahoma. On the whole, the first Ameri-
can is giving a good account of himself. Some very creditable citi-
zens of the United States will be in that gathering in Columbus
to-day anid for the remainder of the week.— St. Louis, Mo., Globe-
Democrat, Oct. 15, 1911.

A MEETING OF NOTE.

The adva/noement of the American red man is attested by the
holding of a conference at Columbus, O., made up entirely of edu-
cated Indian delegates. These men read papers and discussed sub-
jects of direct interest to their race, including educational as well
as industrial topics. A public concert, made up of Indian musicians,
was a feature of the meeting. A few years ago the impression pre-
vailed that the Indian could not be civilized, and as for educa-
tion, it was not considered worthy of attention. But a little patient
effort has shown that the American Indian is not only capable of
both, but possesses the essentials of good citizenship. This confer-
ence of educated Indians may be looked upon as a novelty, but it
shows the possibilities. If the Indians had been treated properly in
the first place there would be more of them now to enjoy the benefits
of civilization.— Pittsburg, Pa., Post, Oct. 14, 1911.

GIVES LO HIS OPPORTUNITY.

The government schools are not the only expressions of the
effort to elevate the standard of the Indian. These do the prelimi-
nary work, take the boys and girls from their semi-civilized surround-
ings, show them the advantages of civilization, teach them useful
arts, and turn them loose to act ais missionaries to their people. TheSOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

ambition thus inspired takes some of the young men through college
and ultimately develops them into professional or business men.

Meanwhile the Indian workers, who are both Indians and whites,
are endeavoring to bring the diminishing remnant of the half-wild,
half-spoiled Indians safely through the transition stage. The gath-
ering at Columbus will give an opportunity for the most eminent
of these workers to discuss methods and future plans.— Cleveland
(Ohio) Plain Dealer, Oct, 10, 1911.

A NEW TYPE OF RED MAN.

A new type of the Red1 Man has developed; a type that works
and reads and ponders and looks wistfully into the future for freer
pathways of opporunity that his people may follow. These are
the Indians that have promoted the congress to be held at Columbus,
October 12-15.

It is considered inevitable by some students that as a race the
American Indian will eventually vanish from the stage of the world's
action and will live chiefly, if not entirely, as a picturesque tradition,
This, perhaps, is true, but for that very reason it is especially inter-
esting that the remnant of tribes once so teeming and puissant
should gather in the evening of their history and, with forward-
looking thoughts, plan together for the betterment of their kind.—
Journal, Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 10, 1911.

A CHANGE OF POWWOWS.

That the congress now in session is not a copying after the pale-
face is clearly shown by the fact that powwows and councils have
always been distinctive features of Indian tribal customs, while the
capacity of the Indian for political organization and consideration
was demonstrated many years ago in the once powerful coalition of
the Five Nations, The present convention, then, will be but a
repetition of past meetings, barring the decorations of feathers and
war paint and including the substitution of addresses by earnest
students of contemporary social problems for the whoops of the
war dancers and the oracular utterances of the picturesque but
otherwise worthless medicine man.— Washington (D. C.) Post,
Oct. 14, 1911.PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

ASSIMILATION OF THE INDIAN.

The public, which has been accustomed to think of the American
Indian as a vanishing race, and to regard the diminishing' numbers
on the reservations as the evidence of the necessary evil of the
progress of benevolent civilization, is afforded a more pleasing view
in the first convention of the Society of American Indians, which
opens in Columbus, Ohio, to-day.

The new Indian Association should be an effective prod of official
action, and should make a new appeal for public interest in sup-
port of honesty and efficiency in the Indian service. There is an
opportunity for self-help.— Phila., Pa., Bulletin, Oct. 12, 1911.

THE INDIANS' CHIEF CONCERN.

The thing which chiefly concerns the Indians to-day and which
they have protested against for years is encroachment upon the
lands reserved for them by the Government, reservations extending
over vast territory, enough to allow 250 acres for every man, woman
and child of the Indian population. By degrees industrial ideas
are instilled into the Indian mind ; farming, the cultivation of the
sugar beet, digging trenches for irrigations, making sanitary pro-
vision to check the scourge of tuberculosis, and there is much yet
to be done. The schoolhouse is a potent factor in molding new
Indian thought.— Pittsburg (Pa.) Sun, Oct. 16, I911.

CAPABLE OF THINKING.

The United States might as well take notice first as last that the
American Indians have become capable of thinking for themselves.
Full blooded red men began a conference in Columbus this week
to consider matters of importance to their own race, and it is very
appropriate that they began their sessions on the anniversary of
the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The work of
the federal and the sectarian schools and of such institutions as
Carlisle is bearing good fruit, and so is the great foundation work
of heroic Christian missionaries.— Findlay (Ohio) Republican,
Oct. 16, 1911.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

169

IMPROVING THE INDIAN.

The educated Indians with their education are throwing off the
apathy of their race, and this is shown by the fact that this week,
on the anniversary of the day that Christopher Columbus discov-
ered America, a convention of Indians is to be held at Columbus,
Ohio, a convention at which there will be delegates from more than
one hundred Indian tribes, and which is held for the purpose Of
improving the Indian race and for affording the white race a better
knowledge of the red race, its claims and its needs.— Columbia,
S. G, State, Oct. 8, 1911.

RACE OF PROGRESSIVES.

However, these progressives are on the right road. Even those
who are not yet quite ready for a total renunciation of their guard-
ian are headed that way, and will presently come to recognize the
contradiction between a demand for freedom and a willingness to
continue any of the gratuities. Confident that they can hew their
own way, and recognizing in the present system only a humane
form of bondage tempered1 by gradual manumission, they will in-
sist upon getting rid of the whole pernicious business.— Kansas
City, Mo., Star, Oct. 2, 1911.

UPLIFTING THEIR RACE.

The Society of American Indians was organized at Columbus,
Ohio, Thursday night by pure blood representatives of all the sur-
viving tribes.

The purpose of the association is the uplifting and betterment of
the race. Educators, clergymen, authors, playwrights, professional
men of various callings, mechanics, farmers and students, all
Indians, gathered there Thursday to register. There are no blanket
Indians among the founders of the organization.— Bangor, Me.,
Commercial, Oct. 13, 1911.170

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

INDIAN HAS A CAUSE.

He protests against being an outcast in his own land He feels
keenly the dishonor of being discriminated against when the republic
distributes its civic blessings. He simply contends for his identity,
not as a political favor, but as a national right. The red man of
the forest, born and bred1 to freedom, is tethered to a stake and
given a crust to keep him quiet. Of course he has a cause. We
palefaces would have one, too, were we in his place.— Journal,
Columbus, O., Oct. 15, 1910.

OF VAST IMPORTANCE.

If many of the race divisions are unrepresented, a beginning has
at least been made that will result in fuller congresses in years to
come. Such gatherings will be of vast interest and importance in
fixing the truths of history, of American history, in which the part
of the aborigines of North America has not been by any means
insignificant,— Brooklyn Eagle, Oct. 13, 1911.

ELEVATING THEIR RACE.

These representatives of the various tribes are educated men,
devoted, in the most part, to the elevation of their race; and the
subject that will engage their attention is the progress of the Indian
and his attitude toward social and political conditions in the United
States. There is a greait program of addresses, essays, music, etc.,
and in these the purpose of the convention will be easily defined.—
Columbus (O.) State Journal, Oct. 10, 1911.

PROMOTING CIVILIZATION.

The advance of degeneracy of the Indian, as one wishes to view
it, is seen in this gathering of men of a warlike race, in which
members of tribes once hostile unite with the sole object of pro-
moting civilization among their people.— Rochester Union and
Advertiser, Oct. 14, 1911.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

171

The following brief description was given by Dr. McKenzie, in
The Red Man:	. <

THE FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF INDIANS

By F. A. McKenzie.

The vision of the day when from the four quarters of the land
there should come the representatives of the native peoples to labor
for the welfare of all the tribes, a vision which has long occupied
the minds and hearts of many men and women, has at last been
realized. The first national conference by Indians to plan for per-
manent organization and persistent and undying activity in the
interests of the Indians of the United States held its sessions, as
announced, from the 12th to the 16th of October, in Columbus,
Ohio. When the historic six, representing five Indian tribes, met
in April, no one could prophesy what the results in October might
be. Far easier would failure than success be forecast. But the
plans were built not on surface enthusiasm, and were not relin-
quished because of known and large difficulties. The faith which
removes mountains assumed charge, and it has been justified of its
fruits. Out of that little gathering there has come an organization,
permanent in spirit though free of constitutional forms, which num-
bers an Active and Associate Membership of over 300. From all
over the United States the messages of good-will and assistance
have come in large numbers. The first gathering brought together
more than fifty Indians, beside their friends, to consult over the
needs of their own race. When it is considered what a sacrifice
this represents in time and money, this showing is very significant.
Many more would have come had circumstances permitted.

The Associate Members from a distance shared in the same spirit
of interest and altruism, otherwise such people as Mr. Foote and
Miss Annie Fuller, of Boston; Mr. John W. Converse, Grand
Sachem of the Improved Order of Red Men, of Massachusetts;
Miss Crawford, of Oklahoma; Mr. Sniffen, of Philadelphia, and
Miss Andrus, of Hampton Institute, would not have been there.
The coming of the Rev. Fisher, from the Seneca Reservation, of
Dr. Robert D. Hall, of the Y. M. C. A., and the Superintendent172

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

of Presbyterian Missions, Dr. Moffett, also contributed to the
strength of the occasion. Bishop Brooke, of Oklahoma), greatly
complimented the Conference by coming, even though he could stay
only for Thursday morning. It was altogether a time made auspi-
cious by the spirit of those present and by the outlook and invitation
into the greater work of the future.

It was not a spectacular convention. The delegates were there
to wrestle with serious and difficult problems. Nevertheless there
were features of attraction for those interested in the curious,
unique, or artistic, and there were meetings exciting wide atten-
tion and publicity. The rare exhibition of blankets and pottery,
as well as the literary and industrial exhibit sent by a number of
Indian schools, including Carlisle, Hampton, Haskell, and Phoenix,
drew sightseers and purchasers from the opening day to the close
of the Conference.

The delegates began to arrive on Wednesday. Thursday morn-
ing was spent in registration and in strengthening acquaintance.
Thursday afternoon was given over to business. The temporary
organization was extended to the close of the Conference, and
committees to draft a constitution, by-laws, and platform were
appointed. Mention should be made at this point that the meetings
for business and for the reading of formal papers were all held in
the Ohio Union, a splendid building on the Campus of the Ohio
State University. The Union is the gathering place and social
headquarters for the more than 3,500 students of the University.
Ample quarters were provided for all the needs of the Conference.
The University went further and provided luncheon for all the
delegates in the " Commons " on both Friday and Saturday, Presi-
dent Thompson taking occasion to dine there himself on both
occasions.

From five to six Thursday afternoon, representatives of the vari-
ous organizations in Columbus, hosts to the Conference, tendered
an informal reception to the delegates at the Hotel Hartman, the
hotel headquarters. Manager Hadley, of the Hartman, is entitled
to the greatest of praise for the every favor and courtesy shown to
the individual delegates and to the Conference as a body.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

173

Thursday evening a large audience gathered in Memorial Hall
to listen to the addresses of formal welcome by representatives of
the city and to the responses by representatives of the Conference.
President Thompson presided and was joined in his greetings by
a representative of the Governor of Ohio, by the Mayor of the
city, and by the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. The
responses were made by Chairman Dagenett, Mr. Sloan, Mr. Parker
and Miss Cornelius. The principal address of the evening was by
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hon. Robert G. Valentine.
Mr. Valentine was on his way West, but stopped long enough to
express his deep interest in the Conference, and his hope that it
would stand for publicity and free speech. He ventured the opinion
that the membership of the organization should be continuously
widened until it included every critic of the government. The
Association could not exert its greatest strength if it were not
known to be free and untrammeled.

The musical entertainment of Friday evening afforded an un-
usual treat to an audience of about 600. The singing of the Car-
lisle Quartette, the interpretation of two hymns in the sign language
by Miss McFarland, the soprano solos by Misst Sadie Wall, the cornet
solos by Mr. Archiquette, and the powerful baritone solos by Dr.
Frank Wright, as well as the recital of Chippewa customs by
Michael Wolf from Hampton, all combined to send a most favor-
able report throughout the city, and so to attract larger numbers
at the next meeting in Memorial Hall.

Saturday evening the weather was not propitious. Nevertheless
in spite of the rain, a good audience gathered in the University
Chapel. Professor George W. Knight, of the Department of
American History, presided' over this meeting. The principal ad-
dress was given by Dr. Eastman, who held the close attention of
his audience in his interpretation of the Indian and his philosophy.

Ten-minute talks by non-Indians occupied the remainder of the
evening. The speakers were Mr. Sniff en, Mr. Converse and Miss
Crawford. Each brought good wishes for the new Association.

Sunday was designated as Indian Sunday, and the ministers and
some others were kept busy in the churches throughout the city.174 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

Never before was Columbus so thoroughly enlightened and so
thoroughly interested in Indian affairs and in Indians.

The Quartette and Michael Wolf turned missionaries to the
unfortunate during the day and sang for the inmates of the city
workhouse, and for the boys andi girls in the school for the blind.
Miss Wall sang for the farmers' convention at the Chamber of
Commerce, while Miss McFarland and the Quartette delighted the
large congregation at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in the
evening.

The real test of the interest and enthusiasm roused by the Con-
ference came on Sunday afternoon. Memorial Hall seats about
3,600. Hundreds were in the hall half an hour in advance of the
meeting; and when it came time for Dr. S<. S. Palmer, of the Broad
Street Presbyterian Church, to open that session devoted to Moral
and Religious Questions, the great hall looked practically full.

There were certainly more than 2,500 people there. Counting in
the meetings in the churches, more than 10,000 people in Columbus
listened to Indian speakers on Indian Sunday. Dr. Robert D.
Hall brought the greetings of the International Y. M. C. A. The
Rev. Philip Deloria talked on the subject of divorce. The Revs.
Sherman Coolidge and Henry Roe Cloud emphasized the necessity
of the recognition of religion. Dr. Frank Wright preached a ser-
mon which gave pointers, as Dr. Palmer remarked later, to the
orthodox of other races. By the raising of thousands of hands
(and also a good collection) the great audience expressed its desire
to have the Conference return to Columbus next year. Columbus
had met the test of hospitality.

But the essential work of the Conference was not found in these
large public meetings. Rather was it in the day-time discussions
at the Ohio Union. As time will show, the contribution which, the
Association and its members is to make to Indian welfare, will
consist in things which reach down and touch the every-day life
of the people.

What are the things worth while? That is the question which
must be answered if the Association is to lead the race from the
desert into the promised land. That is why the discussion of prob-SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS	175

lems stirred the delegates so much more than any public event.
That is why such a topic as " The Indian in Agriculture " could
start an intensity of discussion that only increased as the sessions
wore on. The papers by Mr. Shields and Mr. Jack brought out
even more clearly than was before known to interested people the
two facts : First, that the Indian can succeed under normal con-
ditions in agriculture, and, second, that the non-citizen Indian is
so handicapped that he cannot finance his industry to compete with
his citizen neighbor. Miss Cornelius presented her plans for an
industrial community operated for and by Indians. The philosophy
which lies back of this plan is one which must ultimately be applied
in many communities. Mr. Doxon proved in words as he has
proved in life, the possibility of the great success of the Indian as
a skilled mechanic, while Mrs. Baldwin pointed out not only the
historic position of woman in the home, but also conspicuous exam-
ples of artistic home-making by the modern Indian woman.

The high order of discussion was not lowered in the afternoon.
Arthur C. Parker's " Philosophy of Indian Education " was thor-
oughly modern in its matter and tone. Its advocacy of "social
betterment stations " was thoroughly in harmony with Miss Cor-
nelius' paper in the morning. Mrs. Deitz demonstrated anew both}
the existence and value of Indian Art in our modern life. Mr.
Oskison and1 Mr. Davis in spirited papers showed that the Indian
is succeeding in large numbers in the professions. Far from de-
crying the tendency toward the professions, Mr. Davis held that it
was better to live by brain than by brawn.

All of Saturday was devoted to legal and political problems.
Mr. Sloan presented the principal paper in the morning on the
"Administration of the Reservation," and in the afternoon the dis-
cussion centered round the papers of Mr. Chase and Mr. Mani
on " The {Law and the Indian of the United States/' When all
these papers and the stenographic report of the warm discussions
which accompanied them are published, as they will be shortly, they
will do three things: First, they will demonstrate the capacity of
the race to deal with serious problems; second, they will offer
substantial suggestions for the solution of the problems involved;
third, they will prove that speech in the Conference was free and176 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

unconstrained Criticism of the Government was frequent and
sharp. Like the platform drawn up in April, these papers are likely
to become historic. They will be in great demand from the day they
are put on the market, and unquestionably they will have an effect
on the legislation and policy of the nation.

As was not unnatural, a great deal of the interest of the dele-
gates was concentrated upon the subjects of the constitution and
organization of the Association. Late Saturday it was suggested
that a special session be called on Sunday to consider these matters
while all of the delegates were present. But the suggestion was
strongly and in the end practically unanimously voted down. So
it remained for the secret executive sessions Monday morning and
afternoon to thrash out these problems. According to the reports
that were made public, a draft of a constitution was presented, but
it was tabled. It was decided not to effect the final organization at
this time, but to leave the whole matter open until a Constitutional
Convention could be held in the summer of 1912. This decision
was indicative of a high order of statesmanship in the Conference.
Indian affairs have always been enveloped in an atmosphere of sus-
picion. By the action taken, renewed assurance is given to every
Indian in the United States that there is no secret force outside or
inside that is controlling the Association. Every one who wishes
may still have in 1912 an equal share in determining the organiza-
tion and administration of this organization of all Indians for all
Indians.

The Conference resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole to
carry on the business of the Association until the permanent organi-
zation should be effected. They then proceeded to elect officers
for this Committee, and chose Thomas L. Sloan, Chairman, and
Charles E. Dagenett, Executive Secretary. Mr. Sloan in law and
Mr. Dagenett in administration are men of exceptional ability and
efficiency. It was further decided to open headquarters in Wash-
ington, which has since been done. Mrs. LaFlesche is already in
charge of the office on the fifth floor of the Metropolitan Bank
Building, opposite the United States Treasury. The place for the
1912 Conference has not yet been decided.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

177

With the splendid start "thus made it rests with each individual
Indian to say what the final result shall be. For the first time the
door is open, and it is open wide. The impress which the Associ-
ation has already made upon the country is something remarkable.
If every one will pull steadily with his neighbors now, many good
things will come true. Every man and every woman, every boy
and every girl old enough to understand, can help. It will be neces-
sary to sacrifice time and money or (sometimes) ambition, but that
is the cost of everything worth while. The more valuable the
greater the cost, seems to be the usual rule of the universe. There
are some things that can be done right away. Before the next
Conference there ought to be at least 1,000 Active Members of the
American Indian Association, and at least 1,000 Associate Members.
Which thousand will be made up first ? Every person interested: can
help to find members. Probably letters will be the easiest means of
reaching friends. Everywhere everybody is urged to notify head-
quarters of his willingness to join and to help. Those who join
now will be charter members and can share in the making of the
first constitution.

It would be a matter of serious omission to fail to say something
about the luncheon tendered the Conference Monday noon, by the
Improved Order of Red Men. The Conference was aided in many
ways by this Order. With Congressman E. L. Taylor, Jr., as their
spokesman and toastmaster, this occasion proved' most delightful.
At the close of the luncheon the ladies' auxiliary of the Order pre-
sented a purse containing twenty-five dollars to the Association.
Before the delegates returned to their business meeting, the Red
Men also gave them an automobile ride through and around the
city.

At the Monday luncheon and in another smaller gathering, Con-
gressman Taylor pledged himself to do what he might for the good
of the Indian. This is but one sign of the gains that may be made
if only all the Indians will unite in harmony to consider what is
needed and justly belonging to the race. Every reasonable request
backed by a united race will secure prompt and serious consider-
ation by Congress and the country, and generally will meet with a
favorable response.178 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

ACTIVE MEMBERS PRESENT AT FIRST CONFERENCE
OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS.

Mrs. Kate H. Calvert.... 1412 Laidlaw avenue, Bond Hill Sta.,

Cincinnati, O.

Chas. E. Dagenett....... Denver, Colo.

DeWitt Hare ........... Dante, S. Dak.

Rev. Sherman Coolidge.. 303 West Oak street, Enid, Oklahoma.
William F. Springer..... Walthill, Neb.

Joseph K. Griffis........ 8604 Wade Park avenue, Cleveland, O.

A. C. Parker............ State Museum, Albany, N. Y.

Horton G. Elm.......... Syracuse, N. Y. R. F. D. 5.

Chas. Doxon ........... Syracuse, N. Y. R. F. D. 5.

Oliver LaMere ......... Winnebago, Neb.

Albert Hensley ......... Winnebago, Neb.

Michael V. Wolf........ Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va.

Miss Sadie Wall......... 229 North Park street, Shawnee, Okla.

Miss Mary E. Finn...... Indian Employment Office, Denver,

Colo.

J. E. Shields............ Watonga, Oklahoma.

Dr. Chas. A, Eastman.... Amherst, Mass.

M. D. Archiquette....... Rocky Ford, Colo.

Jos. R. Sequechie........ Chelsea, Oklahoma.

P. J. Deloria............ Wakpala, S, Dak.

Rev. William Holmes____ Santee Agency, Neb.

Miss Nora McFarland... U. S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pa.

Miss Jane M. Butler..... U. S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pa.

Thomas L. Sloan........ Pender, Neb.

Mrs. Marie L. B. Baldwin Indian Office, Washington, D. C.

Miss Emma Johnson..... 507 North Market street, Shawnee,

Oklahoma.

James W. Mumfblehead... U. S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pa.

Roland B. Nichols....... Hiram, O.

Miss Elsie L. Elm.------- Avon, N. Y.

Mrs. Rosa B. La Flesche. 515 Metropolitan Bank Building,

Washington, D. C.

Mrs. Esther M. Dagenett. Albuquerque, N. Mex.

Henry Roe Cloud........ Winnebago, Neb.

Mrs. Nannie B. Dell.....' 1115 Mt. Pleasant avenue, Coltunbus,

O.

Hiram Chase........... Pender, Neb.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

179

Mrs. Nellie R. Denny__________U. S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pa.

Wallace Denny ..................U. S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pa.

S. J. Nori...............U. S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pa.

J. M. Oskison......................Care of Collier's Weekly, New York.

Mrs. Angel DeCora Deitz.	U. S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pa.

Dr. Caleb Sickles................Tiffin, O.

Rev. Frank Hall Wright.	244 San Jacinto street, Dallas, Texas.

Henry Standing Bear________Pine Ridge Agency, S. Dak.

A. A. Exendine.................U. S. Indian School, Carlisle, Pa.

Mack Setima......................Rocky Ford, Colo. Care of M. D.

Archiquette.

Miss Laura M. Cornelius.	Seymour, Wis.180 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANa

ACTIVE.

Thomas L. Sloan.

Chas. E. Dagenett.
J. M. Oskison.

Dr. Carlos Montezuma.
Henry Roe Cloud.
Mrs. Rosa B. LaFlesche.
Miiss Emma D. Johnson.
Mrs. Marie L. B. Baldwin.
Miss Laura M. Cornelius.
Arthur C. Parker.

Howard E. Gansworth.
Gus H. Beaulieu.

Chas. D. Carter.

Charles Doxon.

Frank O. Jones.

Dr. Chas. A. Eastman.
H. C. Gadoury.
Wm. Franklin Bourland.
Frederick E. Parker.

Miss Lottie George.

Spotted Rabbit.
M. R. Farwell.

Lester Chapman.

Henry Standing Bear.
Antoine Denomie.

Richard E. Barrington.
Mrs. Cipriana G. Norton.
Mrs. Lucy Old Horn.
James Hampton Willis.
Charles De Corah.

Richard Shunatona.
J. E. Shields.

Rev. L. Bruce.

George Shawnee.

Miss Sadie Wall.
Mrs. Katherine Craig.
R. M. Hood.

Lewis D. Nelson.

Jim Hammond.

Sam B. Lincoln.

Clarence Three Stars.

Miss Dorsie E. Ross.

Miss Angeline F. Johnson.

Dr. Caleb M. Sickles.

Dr. Henry B. Favill.

Frank Conroy.

Mrs. Angel De Cora Deitz.

William H. Deitz.

Mrs. Anna Goyituey Canfield.

Rev. Sherman Coolidge.

Mrs. Bernhard Bollman.

Miss Mary E. Finn.

Joel Tyndall.

DeWitt Hare.

William F. Springer.

Rev. Joseph K. Griffis.

Horton G. Elm.

Oliver La Mere

Michael V. Wolf.

Albert Hensley.

Martin D. Archiquette.

Rev. William Holmes.

Rev. P. J. Deloria.

Albert Exendine.

Miss Nora McFarland,

Miss Jane M. Butler.

Jos. R. Sequiechie.

Roland A. Nichols.

Mrs. Nannie B. Dell.

Hiram Chase.

John S. Martinez.

S. J. Nori.

A. A. Taylor (Caesar).
Mrs. Charles H. Conley.
Meek Q. Setima.

Prof. J. N. B. Hewett.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

181

Mrs. Esther M. Dagenett.
Henry Horse Looking.
Miss Eliabeth M. Davis.
Joseph De Porte.

Frank Meachem.

Victor M. Locke, Jr.

Miss Ozetta B. Jenks.
Mrs. Kate H. Calvert.
Miss Alice H. Denomie.
Miss Mary W. Nelson.
Miss Jessie C. Morago.
Gabriel Hammond.

Mrs. Lillian Whiting.
James W. Mumblehead.
Mrs. Anna D. Wilde.
Holmes Colbert.

Frederick Big Horse.

Miss Elvira Pike.
Gov. Douglas H. Johnston.
Rev. Frank H. Wright.
John F. Grant.

Joseph Mack.

Mrs. Nellie R. Denny.
Wallace Denny.

Nobert J. Sero.

ASSOCIATE.

Mrs. Amelia S1. Quinton.
Opecancanough Tribe, No. 163,

I. O. R. M.

Prof. George A. Coe.

Prof. Frank Thilly.

Miss Annie Fuller.
C. B. Lohmiller.
A. S. Nicholson.'

Mrs. Molly Kinzie Gordon.
A. L. Lawshe.

John W. Converse.

J. D. Oliver.

James Y. Hamilton.

Wrn. B. Freer.

Jesse F. House.

James B. Royce.

Miss Cora M. Folsom.

Thos. J. King, Jr.

Prof. M. R. Harrington.
Charles O. Shaw.

Dr. Lyman Abbott.
C. W. Crouse.

Moses Friedman.

Miss Natalie Curtis.

John R. Eddy.

Knott C. Egbert.

McClellan Brown Sorosis Club.

Miss Edith M. Dabb.

Dr. W. J. McGee.

Miss Mary D. Colvocresses.
Altruian Club.

Mrs. Dorcas J. Spencer.

George O. Grist.

Prof. Charles S. Barrett.

Miss Florence Covert.

Miss Mary Burr.

Miss Eleonora Zeller.
Mrs. Katharine A. Seibert.

Fred Cline.

Miss Caroline W. Andrus,

Dana H. Kelsey.

Miss Harriet M. Bedell.

Frank Wood.

C. F. Hauke.

Miss Frances G. Paull.

Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter,

D. A. R.

John S. Lockwood.
E. M. Poston.

Foster Copeland.

Rev. Samuel S. Palmer.
J. A. Jeffrey.

William H. Sharp.

Charles W. Bryson.182 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE

W. E. B. Du Bois.

Miss J. E. Hamand.

John E. MeElroy.

Dr. Charles F. Meserve.
E. M. Wistar.

William S. Washburn.

Karl Kelsey.

J. W. Reynolds.

J. W. Alder.

Mrs. Adelaide Belle Reichel,

Morton C. Elm.

Prof. John M. Clarke.

R. F. Pettigrew.

Mrs. Grace Clark.

Rev. William H. Ketcham.

Deer Foot Tribe, No. 113, I.

R. M.

Karl Moon.

Thos. C Smith.

Rev. J. Emory Fisher.
Mrs. Emily P. Lincoln.

Miss Maud Russell.
Rev. Brewster Humphrey.
Joseph Keppler.
Hon. William A. Jones.

Miss Anna L. Dawes.

John Y. Bessell.

Mrs. Mary W. Roe.

Rev. Walter C. Roe.
J. C. Levengood.

Dr. Al. Leedts.

Mrs. Ida K. Galbreath.
Mrs. George U. Marvin.
O. T. Corson.

Wilbur Dunham.

Miss Mattie L. Setterfield.
C. W. Goodman.

Andrew G. Pollock.

Robert D. Hall.

M. G. Baily.

F. M. Clark.

O.William Henry Miner.

Mrs. E. D. Van Denburgh.
Mrs. Mary Hubbard Temple.
Rev. Floyd W. Tompkins, D. D.
Mrs. Mazzini Slusser.

Judge Mazzinii Slusser.

Edward Lindsey.

Mrs. Edward Lindsey.
J. W. Wheeler.

Prof. F. A. McKenzie.SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

183

STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE SOCIETY OF
AMERICAN INDIANS —OCTOBER, 1911

Oct, 3
14

17

18

Nov. 18
30

Oct. 18
Nov. 8

Dec. 6
8

Brought forward (Balance).......................

Dues and donations of Active members................

Dues and donations of Associate members.............

For the sale of tickets and contributions during Conference,
October 12 to 16, 1911............................

Moneys Expended
To Capitol News Bureau for clipping services from Sept. 16

to Oct. 16.......................................

To Ohio State Journal for advertising.................

To Columbus Citizen for advertising..................

To Columbus Dispatch for advertising.................

To Rosa B. La Flesche for services as clerk at $60.00 a

month, from June 15, 1911, to Oct. 15, 1911.......: •

To O. S. U. Chemical Supply Co., for expressage on exhibits

from Lawrence, Carlisle and Chilocco...............

To expenses of Miss Nora McFarland and quartette of boys

from Carlisle, Pa., 5 days...........................

To Miss Mary Finn for services as clerk................

To expenses and services of Mack Setima, in charge of ex-
hibits...........................................•

To Franklin Park Floral Co., for use of palms in Memorial

Hall, a days....................................-

To Heer Printing Co., printing addresses..............

To incidental expenses during Conference, car tickets, tele-
phoning, telegraphing, drayage, etc.................

To F. G. & A. Howald, rent of 12 tables...............

To H. S. Warwick, for rent of and hauling chairs for assem-
bly room..........................................

To the Stoneman Press Co., for printing cards and badges.
To the Wilkin-Redman Co., for rent of piano and drayage

of same...........................................

To Messrs. Armstrong & Okey for reporting, 2 days at $10.90
To Fifth Avenue Savings Bank, one-half cost of printing

voucher check books................................

To Michael V. Wolf, Hampton, Va., for expenses at Colum-
bus during Conference.........................

To Roscoe R. Walcutt, typewritten copy of proceedings of

Conference, 75 pages at 30 cents......................

To Spahr & Glenn, printing 10,000 tickets and 75 streetcar
signs for concert..........•........................

Balance.......................................

No funds received during November.

Moneys Expended
To E. A. Allen for expressage on exhibits sent to Columbus

from Chilocco......................................

To rent of office at $15.00 per month, for Nov and for
Dec. (rent payable in advance)...................

Balance......................................

For the payment of bills of the society, funds advanced
from my own personal account, it is indebted to me
as follows:

To packing box, 50c; packing goods, $1.50...........

To hauling to station..............................

To 6 large desk blotters............................

To 1 pen rack.....................................

To freight on goods from Columbus, Ohio............

To storage in Washington, D. C., of goods............

To drayage of goods from storage to office..........

To Monarch Typewriter Co., first payment on typewriter..

To rubber stamps.......................;............

To newspapers to send to members in the interest of the
Society, 1 package rice paper, wrapping paper, manila

envelopes..........................................

To 1 ball twine, pin ball, registered mail sent to Denver,

Colo..............................................

To expressage on package of paper from Denver, Colo....

To second payment of typewriter.....................

To postage stamps (2c).............................

Total to date.

Deficit Dec* 8, 1911.

$100 00
86 00
169 00

47o si

$s	00
3	OO
3	OO
3	OO
240	OO
6	93
175	7o
53	15
43	75
12	00
45	OO
23	40
6	OO
5	22
32	So
8	00
20	OO
3	87
46	35
22	50
14	25

1 4<5
30 00

%2 OO

2	OO
25

as

3	22
1 78

75
10 00
75

1 59

85
i 50
10 00
5 00

$39 94

$825 Si

$770 6a

$54 89

$3* 40

$23 49

$16 45

You will notice that I have not included in the above bill the summary for the month
of November.

(Signed) Rosa B. La Flesche,

Assistant Secretary.INDEX.

PAGE.

Administration of reservations.....................................112, 121

Adjustment of race.........................................76, 81, 130, 144

Agriculture among Indians:

Paper by J. E. Shields.....................................................................28

Paper by Marvin Jack................................................................................36

Discussion on......................................................34

Education in . . . . ................................................41-42

Allotments.......................................................118,	147

American Indian Association........................................................................7

Arapahoes.........................................c..................................28

Archiquette, M. D...........................................................no

Armstrong, Gen. C. A..............................................103,	107

Art, The Indian in, a paper by Mrs. Deitz..........................................82

Discussion on......................................................................................................87

BALDWIN, Mrs. Marie L............................................ 58

Bender, C. A.......................................................... 97

Books, Old, in Indian schools......................................123, 128

Business session..................................................... 156

CAPACITY, Indian has............................................... 5

Carlisle quartette.................................................... no

Carter, Hon. Chas. D...............................................34, 163

Cheyennes........................................................... 28

Children, Indian, not in school......................................... 102

Chase, Esq., Hiram, Paper on Law..................................... 133

Discussions on................................................27, 106

Cherokees . . . ......................................................... 138

Citizenship, uncertain rights of Indian................................... 125

Civilization.........................................................68, 70

Code Bill, Indian...................................................... 162

Columbus, O......................................................... 8

Conference.......................................................... 22

Conditions.................................................4, 73, 135, 152

Cloud, Henry .... .................................................... 67

Congress, Powers of.................................................. 136

Converse, John ... . .................................................. 153

Commissioner of Indian Affairs........................................ 23

Committees.......................................................67, 156

Coolidge, Rev. Sherman.........................................2®, 91, 127

Cornelius, Miss Laura M....................................14, 35, 43, 121

Criticism against government........................................25, 153

Crawford, Miss..................................................... 153i86

INDEX.

PAGE.

DAGENETT, Hon. Charles E.......................7, 22, 96, 106, 132, 156

Davis, Dr. O. DeF..................................................96, 98

Deitz, Angel Decora................................................... 82

Deloria, Rev. P. J..................................................... 153

Doxon, Charles M..................................................56, #9

EASTMAN, Dr. Charles A......................................7, 77, 100

Lecture by...................................................... 143

Education, Philosophy of Indian....................................... 68

Election of officers....,............................................... 157

Elm, Horton G......................................................9^, I29

Entertainment............................................*.......... no

Environment..............................................28, 30, 33, 69

Executive committee......................................... 8, 10

FAIRS, Indian................................................31* 34 35

Farming........................................................... 37

Friendship of government............................................. 23

GANSWORTH, Howard E........................................... 34

Grafting........................................................... 25

Griffis, Rev. J. E...................................................... 78

HALL, Robert H...........................................................................iSS

Hare, De Witt................................................................152

Henesley, Albert, discussion on wardship by...................................15°

Holmes, Rev. Wm..........................................................153

Home making...............................................................................58

INDIAN has no rights................................................ 124

Should have rights................................................. 122

Indian opinion, need of.............................................26, 28

Indian students . . . . ................................................. 123

Indian woman...................................................... 58

Indian in professions........................................... .93, 98, 100

Indian Rights Association............................................. 163

Industrial organization.............................................. 42

Inheritance......................................................... J3i

Intellect of Indian........................................................ 145

Interior department . . .............................. .............H'4»

JOHNSON, Miss Emma (now Mrs. Goulette)............101, no, 122, 124

Johnson, Dr. J. E..................................................... 96

LABOR, capitalized..............................................-52> 53

La Flesche, Mrs. Rosa B.....................................8, 10, 157, 183

Law................................................................ x33

Conditions of................................................... J40INDEX.

187

PAGE.

Lawyers, grafting of.................................................. 25

Legal conditions..................................................... 140

Locke, Hon. Victor M................................................. 34

McKENZIE, Prof. F. A..........................................7, 17,	155

Article in Red Man....................................................................171

McFarland, Miss Nora.............................................................110

Members, list....................................................178,	180

Mechanic, Indian as..........................„................................................56

NEW YORK Indians................................................. 131

Naori, S............................................................. 96

National Indian Association........................................... 163

OBJECTS of Society.............................................7, 14,	159

Ohio State University..................................................................................................7

Omahas..........................................................................................................................115

Organization of race.................................................13,	134

Organization of the Society......................................................................................7

Opinion, need of Indian...........................................................................26

Oskinson, J. M....................................................34,	7©

PATERNAL system............................................... 4

Parker, A. C......................................................... 68

Pine Ridge.........*............................................118, 119

Program . .......................................................... 19

Pratt, Gen.......................................................103, 107

Professions, Indians in.............................................94, 98

Press notices of conference........................................ 164-170

RACE Congress.................................................... 13

Rations............................................................ 118

Reason for conference................................................ 9

Red Men, Order of................................................158, 160

Rents..........................................................126, 154

Reservation, system................................................. 112

Religious problems..............................................155, 156

Rights..........................................................140, 147

Rose Bud Agency.................................................117, 120

SCHOOL system, Indian..................................72, 103, 105,	109

School, Indian children out of......................................27,	102

Scholarships....................................................................................106

Seminoles . . ........................................................................................141

Shields, J. E............................................................28

Sickles, Dr. Caleb.............................................96, 112,	121

Six Nations . . ...........................................................................................................131

Sloan, Thomas L..........................................17, 92, 109,	112

Sniffin, M. K......................................................155.	163i88

INDEX.

PAGE.

Social betterment .................................................• • 73

Status, conflicting . . .-. ....................................4> IJ5» I25> *37

Standing Bear, Henry.........»...........................>.......... 7

TARDY action of Government................................127, 128,	148

Thompson, President W. O.........................................-9>	l7

Tribal rights...........................................4» I27» I35» *36,	137

Treaty rights. (See Tribal rights.)......................................................................*35

Trust funds.................................................117, 126,	152

Tuberculosis..........................................................49

Tuscaroras................................................................37

UNCERTAIN status of Indian..............................4, 39, "5# *37

VALENTINE, Hon. R. G., Address by................................ 23

Village life......................................................... 51

WARDSHIP...................................................... 147

Right questioned *............................................... I51

Wall, Miss Sadie..................................................... no

Wolf, Michael...................................................... 110

Whiskey traffic..................................................... I5I

Wealth lies in soil and men........................................... S2

Woman, Indian..................................................... 5$

Wright, Rev. Frank.;.............................................m» *55This book is a preservation facsimile produced for
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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