EXHIBIT No. 7E. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Rev. FREDERICK C. COLLETT, General Delivery, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: In reply to your letter of April 15, 1921, asking that the salary and traveling expenses be furnished for a competent physician to aid the State of California with certain health activities among the needy Indians of that State, you are advised that I will be pleased to detail a physician to this work, and that I am communicating with the State board of control to ascertain when and where they desire him to report Sincerely yours, Rev. F. G. COLLETT, CHAS. H. BURKE, Commissioner. EXHIBIT No. 7F. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Executive Representative Indian Board of Cooperation, San Francisco, Calif. MY DEAR MR. COLLETT: Replying to your letter of August 9, 1921, in which you refer to Mrs. Thompson's letter to this office of the 3d instant, a copy of which you have received, the office desires to inform you that it concurs in your suggestions that in the class of cases mentioned other resources should be exhausted before further Federal aid is asked. In a letter to Mrs. Thompson dated August 13, this position of the office regarding the division of responsibility was again stated quite clearly and reference was made to office letter of June 24 in reply to yours of June 15. Your active interest in this matter and your apparent desire to aid in reaching a fair and equitable basis of operations is appreciated. Very truly yours, E. B. MERITT, Assistant Commissioner. Rev. F. G. COLLETT, EXHIBIT No. 7G. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Executive Representative Indian Board of Cooperation, San Francisco, Calif. MY DEAR MR. COLLETT: Receipt is acknowledged of your letters of August 20 and 23, 1921, relative to the motor clinic and health campaign among Indians in northern California, and inclosing correspondence of Mrs. Thompson on this subject. There has also been received to-day a copy of your letter to Mrs. Thompson dated August 27, 1921. Your active cooperation and valuable suggestions are highly appreciated and it is believed that they will prove of much value in the further conduct of this campaign. Very truly yours, E. B. MERITT, Assistant Commissioner. Mr. COLLETT. I wish to say, in all fairness to the Office of Indian Affairs, that we have had very prompt and hearty cooperation in connection with various projects in California. I believe that the exceptionally heavy overhead expense has been due largely to perplexity as to how to spend the small appropriations which have been given on a project as large as that in California. We have had the hearty cooperation of the office in all matters, especially under this administration, with the one exception of the Court of Claims bill, and the only difference seems to be a difference of policy and a difference of opinion as to what ought to be done. We have contended that if we were to swap horses every two years in our project of settling with the California Indians, we would never get anywhere. The work of settling with the California Indians can not be completed with any one administration. Yesterday, Mr. Chairman, you asked several questions as to whether there was any new light on the subject of the treaties which would justify their reconsideration. I wish to submit to you at this time a few editorials which will act as an offset to the legislative action in 1851 and in 1852. They will show that to-day we recognize that we did the Indians of California, under the gold excitement, a great wrong; that the people of California to-day, as expressed in the editorials of the leading periodicals of California, are in favor of righting those wrongs so far as they may be righted. The CHAIRMAN. How much of a propaganda does your organization put into operation to bring about these editorials and this new sentiment that is seen in the articles of which you speak? What part of your activity is it to see that those articles are written? Mr. COLLETT. To see simply that the facts as to the Court of Claims bill and as to the conditions of the Indians of California are brought to their attention. These editorials in no instance have been solicited. The CHAIRMAN. Understand, I do not think it is unusual that you should do that but I take it for granted that a part of your work is to see that the newspapers in every way boost your propaganda. Now, just one other matter and then I am through. It was brought out yesterday that some attorney or attorneys in the city offered to pay the expenses of the delegation to Washington and back, and I was wondering whether you had anything to do with that? Mr. COLLETT. I have not heard of any attorneys making any offer of that kind. The CHAIRMAN. You heard that statement? Mr. COLLETT. I heard the statement, but the Indians have not told me of anyone approaching them in that way. There have been attorneys who have been exceedingly kind toward the Indians; in fact, they furnished them with automobiles and gave them every privilege. The CHAIRMAN. You mean since you have been here? Mr. COLLETT. Yes: in fact, these Indians had not been here a week before they were taken joy riding. The CHAIRMAN. How long have you and the Indians been here this time? You have been here some time, have you not? Mr. COLLETT. Yes, sir. The Indians have been here since January. The CHAIRMAN. How is it that during all of that period you, nor anyone representing you, asked for a hearing before this committee until just recently? Mr. COLLETT. We had asked the Senate for a hearing and were delayed in getting a quorum over there. We thought it was not advisable to ask for a hearing here until we had had that opportunity. The CHAIRMAN. Of course, I knew you were here in the city. I wondered what all the delay was about, knowing that there must be considerable expense connected with it, and I have been concerned to know where the money was coming from to pay all this expense. Then, when it was developed here yesterday that some one had offered to pay the expenses of the delegation here, some lawyer in the city of Washington, of course, I could readily see where it might work in with your organization to have some lawyer do that very thing. Mr. COLLETT. Naturally. The CHAIRMAN. With the hope of bringing to the minds of these people that there was something here that might be gotten? Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Was that occasioned by the question which I asked? The CHAIRMAN. I would not be surprised. I do not just recall now who brought it out, but I remember that it did come out. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. I did not base my question upon any information with reference to this particular delegation; I founded my question on something that was brought out in a former hearing on another matter and was trying to ascertain whether or not the same sort of practice had been sought to be inflicted upon these Indians as in the other case. I did not base it upon any information that I had with reference to this band of Indians. Mr. RAKER. May I interpolate this, so that the chairman may be enlightened as well as myself, that during the extra session, as the chairman will remember, I appeared before the committee and asked for a hearing on this bill and was informed that the committee had determined not to take up any of this kind of legislation. That is a fact, is it not? The CHAIRMAN. That is a fact; yes. One of the reasons why this committee was willing to take this up again was the fact that it has developed, since the previous hearing, that this activity to bring the claim into prominence was not known at that time, at least by the chairman of this committee. Now, what I am trying to do here, and what I shall continue to try to do, is to prove whether or not this society which is forcing this claim in behalf of the Indians has any motive except the one that appears on the surface, and while I do not think that has much to do with the merits of the case I think we ought to prove and show conclusively whether the Indians are spendin their money for the benefit of some parties or whether they are spending it in the own behalf. That is all I am trying to get. Mr. COLLETT. I may say that the Indians, in addition to wishing to be heard on the Court of Claims bill in the House and before the Senate, have had a great many other ¦ matters which they wished to take up for their people; they have been taking them up and they have been studying their own situation very diligently. I believe they have had 60 or 70 meetings since they have been here. Now, as to these editorials. I ask that they may be made a part of the record. The CHAIRMAN. You spoke of two or three but there seem to be more. I would have no objection to your sorting out two or three of the most prominent ones but I do not think we want all of them. What you have in your hands is practically a whole news! paper. Mr. SANDERS. These editorials, as I understand you, were not paid for? Mr. COLLETT. No. Mr. SANDERS. But simply put in by the editors of these papers without any sug gestion from you? Mr. COLLETT. Without any solicitation. The CHAIRMAN. He did not say that, because he said it was a part of their activity | to see to it that the newspapers boosted this proposition. Mr. SANDERS. I wanted to find out whether they paid these papers to do it or whether they did it voluntarily. Mr. COLLETT. The newspapers did it voluntarily and without any request on our part of the editors. They were sent certain news items, and those news items and their own knowledge of the situation led them to write these editorials. The CHAIRMAN. I have no objection to your putting in a few of them, but not all of them, although I am willing to put it up to the committee. If my suggestion is agreeable to the committee, we will let him select three, four, or five of them, or if the committee wants them all in, it is agreeable to me. Mr. RAKER. Let them all go in, as they answer the questions which some individuals have asked. The CHAIRMAN. With all due respect to you, I am asking the committee. Mr. RAKER. But I was asking this of you. The CHAIRMAN. I am asking for advice from the committee. not that I am unwilling to have your advice, but I would like to hear from the members of the committee with regard to it. Mr. ROACH. Speaking for myself, I do not expect my action on this or any other bill to be largely influenced by newspaper articles or editorials; I expect to be controlled by the merits of the case as shown by the evidence before this committee, and I think it would be unwise to unnecessarily encumber the record with a whole lot of newspaper articles and editorials. Mr. SWANK. I have examined some of those editorials, and I think they have a good deal of information in them, so that I am in favor of all of them going in. Mr. MONTOYA. Mr. Chairman, these editorials may have been written in the course of a propaganda, as has been mentioned here, but if the propaganda is bona fide or the people entitled to certain rights it may be very important, and the editorials written as the result of the propaganda no doubt show the sentiment of the people of that State in regard to the Indian question, and it would illuminate the minds of the committee if they could get at these editorials in some shape. I am a believer in the press because I am a newspaper man myself, and when editorials are written on questions which come up in any State or in any part of the country they show the trend of the minds of the people as affecting the questions under consideration and as affecting the claims of the parties concerned. So I am in favor of putting in, if not all of the editorials, at least, as the chairman suggests, some of the most salient or most important ones. The CHAIRMAN. That is entirely agreeable to me if it is agreeable to the rest of the committee. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Unfortunately I came in late and maybe I am not entitled to take any time, but I assume from what has been said that these are for the purpose of showing the trend of public opinion toward the Indians in the State of Cali fornia. Mr. COLLETT. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. They are presented in reponse to a question asked yesterday as to what new evidence might have come up since the rejection of the treaties that would lead this legislative body into any new thought with regard to the matter and which would give it standing. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. I am inclined to agree with the gentleman fro New Mexico. I rather think they would throw considerable light upon the question and be of assistance to the committee in ascertaining just what the attitude of the people of California is-that is, the white people of California-toward the matter. The CHAIRMAN. Then we will let it stand on the suggestion made by Mr. Montoya. Mr. COLLETT. I thank you. (The editorials submitted by Mr. Collett follow:) [Los Angeles Fxaminer, December 17, 1921.] MISTREATING THE INDIANS. It is not easy for America to speak with good grace about other nations' treatment of "subject peoples." The red Indian is always there to smile a bit ironically about it. America has not always played the game square with the Indians. Right here in California are some of the red men who can prove it. The history of the California Indians is a long story, known in detail to but few. But those few, whenever they speak of it, become indignant. So it must be a history that is not particularly creditable to the "white conquerors. Untellable quantities of words have filled the Congressional Record in speeches about the affairs of European and Asian people, even to the tribesmen of Hedjaz. Perhaps here would be another opportunity to use the slogan "America first" and get back to our own, even when they are our own iniquities. The few enthusiasts for "justice to the red man who periodically meet here to discuss the Indians and plan for their welfare deserve praise, encouragement, and assistance. They are working to clear America's conscience. [San Francisco Bulletin, February 9, 1922.] INDIAN CLAIMS. It is comforting to learn that the Indians now in Washington for the purpose of securing justice for their people in California are not asking for the impossible. Instead of demanding all that was granted them in the original treaties and all that has accrued to them by virtue of the increased values of land, they are asking only compensation for the lands at their valuation at the time the pacts were made. As reported by Helen Dare in her special article to the Bulletin "it is stipulated in their Court of Claims bill that this (value of the lands) shall not be more than $1.20 an acre," though some of the lands are among the richest in California. Some day the historian will shed a vicarious tear as he records the regrettable prose of our dealings with the Indians. We have dispossessed these people, but we have not done them the justice we would be legally obliged to do when dispossessing those with more legal but less moral claims to their holdings. [New York Globe, February 27, 1922.] SOME DISPOSSESSED AMERICANS. Some sixty years ago the Federal Government negotiated 18 treaties with the Indian tribes of California, under the terms of which the tribes accepted 18 reservations, comprising about 7,500,000 acres of land not especially desired by the whites, and surrendered their claims to their old hunting grounds. The Government agreed in addition to the grant of land, to provided schools and teachers and to furnish clothing and other supplies and the necessary implements for agriculture, to the further value of about $1,800,000. But, although negotiated, the treaties were never ratified; the Indians were driven off every acre that the white man coveted, and the Government has never kept its part of the bargain. As a result the California Indians, like nmay other tribes throughout the West, sank into poverty and despair. To set right this ancient wrong friends of the Indians have reintroduced in Congress a bill giving the Indians access to the Court of Claims and looking to the payment of the debt the Nation owes them, and are seeking the cooperation of Secretary Fall of the Department of the Interior. The six decades of the white man's undisputed rule in California have reduced the Indian population from 200,000 to 20,000, although under tolerable living condition: most Indian tribes show a tendency to increase. The racial stock, contrary to the reports of some superficial observers, is strong and good, and many of the tribes were extremely proficient in the arts suitable to their environment. All of them seem to have been teachable, as the success of the mission fathers in making artisans and builders of them shows. Certainly it is not inconsistent for a Nation which protects birds and other forms oi wild life to do bare justice by these impoverished survivors of the wild human life i which once possessed in fee simple the present territories of the United States. [San Francisco Bulletin, March 15, 1922.] INDIANS DECLINE A GOVERNMENT HAND-OUT. Word comes from Washington that the Secretary of the Interior is opposed to having the Indians of California present their case for redress to the United States Court di Claims. Congressional action is necessary in order to get the Indians before the court, but Secretary Fall refuses to approve the pending bill. He does not see eye to eye in this matter with his distinguished predecessor, the late Franklin K. Lane. Secretary Lane vigorously approved the plan to have the rights of the Indians under the so-called lost treaties tested in the Court of Claims. Secretary Fall, for reasons unexplained in the dispatches, does not want the Indians to go to court. Provided they abandon that plan he promises to do what he can to get them a congressional appropriation. Under the lost treaties negotiated by Government agents with the Indian chiefs of California in 1850-51, the aborigines waived their rights to the land in consideration of receiving in perpetuity about 7,500,000 of acres as well as sundry goods, school buildings, etc. The treaties were never ratified by the Congress. The Indians lost tenure, and got nothing. For 70 years they have been waiting with a diminishing confidence in the justice of Uncle Sam. Now they are making a last attempt to get what is justly theirs. The compensation they ask is based on the valuation of the lands they were to have received-not the present valuation, but the valuation as of 1850-51. They do not ask even this directly. They merely seek permission to lay their case before a court of justice. A bill authorizing this procedure went half way through the last Congress and was buried beneath a mountain of more important" last-minute legislation. 46 Secretary Fall gave the representatives of the California Indians a hearing recently, and they appear to have presented their case with dignity, eloquence, and intelligence. When it was all over, the Secretary had not changed his mind he still refused to approve the bill permitting access to the Court of Claims-but he volunteered to sponsor an appropriation. The Indians said they would think it over. After deliberating in unhurried, thorough going Indian fashion, the nine spokesmen for the Indians wrote Fall a letter declining his proposition. 4' We beg to advise you," they wrote, "that we are not so much interested in the limited relief that might be obtained through gratuitous appropriations as we are in a just and final disposal of the California Indian problem. We believe that this can be done best under the provisions of the California court of claims bill. We, therefore, have agreed to press our case for the enactment of that bill." So the California Indians must go their own way, unaided by the Secretary of the Interior. It is to be taken for granted that they will have the hearty support of our entire congressional delegation. It may be that they will have to show cause why they did not accept that apparently generous offer of an appropriation. This will not be difficult. Congress recently appropriated money at the request of the President for the relief of Indians (not in California) whose crops failed last year. The bill as it came from the Senate recommended that the Indians be relieved, not with money, but with supplies of food left over from the war and so far unsalable; also that the cost of this leftover food be deducted from the tribal funds held in trust by the Government. In other words, the Senate is prepared to relieve the distress among those Indians in so far as it can be relieved with bully beef" and Army bacon not disposed of on the Government's bargain counter. 46 The Indians of California don't want that kind of a hand-out. They want justice. No wonder they turned down Secretary Fall's suggestion. |