in a way that very few men who are physically able to work and able to do in that way do.

Mr. RAKER. How did they eventually get the water on this Tuolumne Reservation, do you know, Mr. Fuller?

Mr. FULLER. Well, the Government finally went to work and surveyed it and put Iydrants on it and put in a water system.

Mr. RAKER. Have you a water system?

Mr. FULLER. Water system; yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What percentage of Indian blood are you, Mr. Fuller?
Mr. FULLER. Half.

STATEMENT OF ALBERT F. JAMES.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. James, will you simply give your name in full, what your occupation is and whom you represent, and what section of the country you hail from?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir. My name is Albert F. James. I live in Loleta, Humboldt County, Calif., and I have followed the fishing industry for the past two years until 1921 when they passed a bill at Sacramento prohibiting fishing entirely, and so I do not know what industry I am going to follow after I get home. I am representing a few people from Delnorte County also, and a few from Humboldt County, and these people

Mr. LEATHERWOOD (interposing). Did you testify before this committee some time ago? Have you ever testified before or made any statement before this committee? Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I had the same thought when you spoke.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. He looks very much like a gentleman who did.
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. JAMES. Well, the people who have sent me here to plead for this bill, this Court of Claims bill, feel that they have never received anything from the Government so far. They have heard emphatically that there have been appropriations made at different times for the Indians in California, but they have never received any. The only thing that they have gotten is what they have heard, that I know, until a few years ago when there was bought for them 20 acres, I believe; and this land is worthless. You can not raise anything on it, and it is unhealthy for this reason: the water stands upon this land about two-thirds of the year, I should judge. It is different from these other lands that have been spoken of here before. This land has too much water on it and these people have no other place to which to go, so they had to go upon this land to live.

I know of another ranch that was bought by the Government in Delnorte County at Smith River. This land there is worthless, because whichever way the wind blows this land shifts. Of course it is merely sand. It is on the ocean beach, and if anybody is familiar with the ocean beach he knows what ocean sand is, and that is what this land is. So the people whom I represent stated this to me before I left. They said, "We can see from what other appropriations have been made by Congress for the Indians in California that we have never received any of it, and now we feel that the only way that we could ever receive anything is by getting a day in court." They want to have a day in court so that they can have their case heard. If they have anything due them they would appreciate getting it, but if they have not anything coming to them they want to find out, and they will go on living as they have been living for years.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, you take the position that you never received anything? You have therefore got nothing to lose?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And you have everything to gain by the enactment of this bill? Mr. JAMES. That is about all I have to say.

Mr. ROACH. If it should turn out that in the course of the next ten years that, on the policy the Government is now pursuing, you would get considerably more than if you got the full amount under this claim, there would not be anything to your argument at all, would there?

Mr. James. No; for this reason the people have stated that if they are going to get anything they might as well get it all because the people there, whom I could name, have a bank acount in Humboldt where they can put it and save it to buy what they want. They are full-blood Indians.

Mr. ROACH. I understand you to say they have not been getting anything?
Mr. JAMES. Well, they have not.

Mr. ROACH. Well now, if it should turn out to be an actual fact, however, that they have, and that the amounts that they are getting and will get for the next ten

years, pursuing even the present policy, without extending it and enlarging upon it, that would be a considerable amount more than they would get if they got all they are asking under this bill, and then your argument is blown up, isn't it?

Mr. JAMES. Well, I would rather you state that a little more clearly.

Mr. ROACH. You are expressing your argument on the ground that they have not gotten anything and that they are entitled to something. I agree with you and believe they are entitled to something.

Mr. JAMES. For this reason: They believe they are entitled to something because they have been massacred in diffréent places from 1850 up to 1860.

Mr. ROACH. I agree with you that they are entitled to something and ought to have it, but I do not agree with you that they have not been getting anything.

Mr. JAMES. Well, for this reason, that I said they had not gotten anything because

Mr. LEATHERWOOD (interposing). What tribe do you represent?

Mr. JAMES. The Weott Tribe of Indians.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. You say the Government has not given any help to this tribe? Mr. JAMES. NO; not up to just a few years ago, when they bought them a place, a little piece of ground about 20 acres in size; but they believe that this ground is not theirs and they are not claiming it, because they have no papers to show for it. Mr. RAKER. Where is this land located?

Mr. JAMES. On Table Bluff. I believe it is called the Lower Heel in the records. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. What is it used for now?

Mr. JAMES. They just naturally built a little shack on it and lived there, but during the summer

Mr. LEATHERWOOD (interposing). Is it like the rest of that Humboldt land-the finest land in the world for apples and garden truck and things of that kind? Mr. JAMES. This land the Indians are living on?

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. This 20 acres?

Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Do you know now that all through that Humboldt country they are raising peaches and apples and cabbages and corn and everything that you can raise in any country and that it produces well? Now, is this 20 acres of that character?

Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. What is the matter with it?

Mr. JAMES. It is swamp.

The CHAIRMAN. Can it be drained?

Mr. JAMES. Well, I guess it could be drained, but the Indians do not want to improve it, because they think that by the time they get it improved the Government will take it away from them. That is the feeling which they have.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, let me ask you two or three questions. You seem to be a pretty intelligent fellow. When did you take up your activities under the advice and counsel of Mr. Collett?

Mr. JAMES. I would rather you make that a little plainer. My education only goes to the fourth grade, so there is a lot of those words I do not understand.

The CHAIRMAN. When did you first begin actively to work for the passage of this act? Mr. JAMES. Since last November.

The CHAIRMAN. Then you have gotten into it later than the witness who just preceded you?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, now then, you heard that witness say that he was told, or that in his discussions he learned, that everybody else in the East was organizing or getting something from the Government and that it would be a good thing for the Indians to organize and see if they could not get something? Did you have any such thought as that?

Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

I have

The CHAIRMAN. Did you have any such notion as that in your mind? Mr. JAMES. Well, only what I have read in different magazines and papers. read about the Osages many times. They claimed that they were wealthy people. The CHAIRMAN. Now tell us how you came to get actively at work in this matter and how you came to be a delegate.

Mr. JAMES. Well, we have

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). You say your connection with Mr. Collett began last November. You must have come very quickly here after you got acquainted with him, did you not?

Mr. JAMES. Well, I will tell you. We have talked it over among the Indians ourselves for many years as to why we have not received anything; that is, like the other reservations have, like the people in different parts of the country have, like they

in a way that very few men who are physically able to work and able to do in that way do.

Mr. RAKER. How did they eventually get the water on this Tuolumne Reservation, do you know, Mr. Fuller?

Mr. FULLER. Well, the Government finally went to work and surveyed it and put Iydrants on it and put in a water system.

Mr. RAKER. Have you a water system?

Mr. FULLER. Water system; yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What percentage of Indian blood are you, Mr. Fuller?
Mr. FULLER. Half.

STATEMENT OF ALBERT F. JAMES.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. James, will you simply give your name in full, what your occupation is and whom you represent, and what section of the country you hail from?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir. My name is Albert F. James. I live in Loleta, Humboldt County, Calif., and I have followed the fishing industry for the past two years until 1921 when they passed a bill at Sacramento prohibiting fishing entirely, and so I do not know what industry I am going to follow after I get home. I am representing a few people from Delnorte County also, and a few from Humboldt County, and these people

Mr. LEATHERWOOD (interposing). Did you testify before this committee some time ago? Have you ever testified before or made any statement before this committee? Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I had the same thought when you spoke.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. He looks very much like a gentleman who did.
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. JAMES. Well, the people who have sent me here to plead for this bill, this Court of Claims bill, feel that they have never received anything from the Government so far. They have heard emphatically that there have been appropriations made at different times for the Indians in California, but they have never received any. The only thing that they have gotten is what they have heard, that I know, until a few years ago when there was bought for them 20 acres, I believe; and this land is worthless. You can not raise anything on it, and it is unhealthy for this reason: the water stands upon this land about two-thirds of the year, I should judge. It is different from these other lands that have been spoken of here before. This land has too much water on it and these people have no other place to which to go, so they had to go upon this land to live.

I know of another ranch that was bought by the Government in Delnorte County at Smith River. This land there is worthless, because whichever way the wind blows this land shifts. Of course it is merely sand. It is on the ocean beach, and if anybody is familiar with the ocean beach he knows what ocean sand is, and that is what this land is. So the people whom I represent stated this to me before I left. They said, "We can see from what other appropriations have been made by Congress for the Indians in California that we have never received any of it, and now we feel that the only way that we could ever receive anything is by getting a day in court." They want to have a day in court so that they can have their case heard. If they have anything due them they would appreciate getting it, but if they have not anything coming to them they want to find out, and they will go on living as they have been living for years.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, you take the position that you never received anything? You have therefore got nothing to lose?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And you have everything to gain by the enactment of this bill? Mr. JAMES. That is about all I have to say.

Mr. ROACH. If it should turn out that in the course of the next ten years that, on the policy the Government is now pursuing, you would get considerably more than if you got the full amount under this claim, there would not be anything to your argument at all, would there?

Mr. James. No; for this reason the people have stated that if they are going to get anything they might as well get it all because the people there, whom I could name, have a bank acount in Humboldt where they can put it and save it to buy what they want. They are full-blood Indians.

Mr. ROACH. I understand you to say they have not been getting anything?
Mr. JAMES. Well, they have not.

Mr. ROACH. Well now, if it should turn out to be an actual fact. however, that they have, and that the amounts that they are getting and will get for the next ten

years, pursuing even the present policy, without extending it and enlarging upon it, that would be a considerable amount more than they would get if they got all they are asking under this bill, and then your argument is blown up, isn't it?

Mr. JAMES. Well, I would rather you state that a little more clearly.

Mr. ROACH. You are expressing your argument on the ground that they have not gotten anything and that they are entitled to something. I agree with you and believe they are entitled to something.

Mr. JAMES. For this reason: They believe they are entitled to something because they have been massacred in diffreent places from 1850 up to 1860.

Mr. ROACH. I agree with you that they are entitled to something and ought to have it, but I do not agree with you that they have not been getting anything.

Mr. JAMES. Well, for this reason, that I said they had not gotten anything because

Mr. LEATHERWOOD (interposing). What tribe do you represent?

Mr. JAMES. The Weott Tribe of Indians.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. You say the Government has not given any help to this tribe? Mr. JAMES. No; not up to just a few years ago, when they bought them a place, a little piece of ground about 20 acres in size; but they believe that this ground is not theirs and they are not claiming it, because they have no papers to show for it. Mr. RAKER. Where is this land located?

Mr. JAMES. On Table Bluff. I believe it is called the Lower Heel in the records. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. What is it used for now?

Mr. JAMES. They just naturally built a little shack on it and lived there, but during the summer

Mr. LEATHERWOOD (interposing). Is it like the rest of that Humboldt land—the finest land in the world for apples and garden truck and things of that kind? Mr. JAMES. This land the Indians are living on?

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. This 20 acres?

Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Do you know now that all through that Humboldt country they are raising peaches and apples and cabbages and corn and everything that you can raise in any country and that it produces well? Now, is this 20 acres of that character?

Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. What is the matter with it?

Mr. JAMES. It is swamp.

The CHAIRMAN. Can it be drained?

Mr. JAMES. Well, I guess it could be drained, but the Indians do not want to improve it, because they think that by the time they get it improved the Government will take it away from them. That is the feeling which they have.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, let me ask you two or three questions. You seem to be a pretty intelligent fellow. When did you take up your activities under the advice and counsel of Mr. Collett?

Mr. JAMES. I would rather you make that a little plainer. My education only goes to the fourth grade, so there is a lot of those words I do not understand.

The CHAIRMAN. When did you first begin actively to work for the passage of this act? Mr. JAMES. Since last November.

The CHAIRMAN. Then you have gotten into it later than the witness who just preceded you?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, now then, you heard that witness say that he was told, or that in his discussions he learned, that everybody else in the East was organizing or getting something from the Government and that it would be a good thing for the Indians to organize and see if they could not get something? Did you have any such thought as that?

Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you have any such notion as that in your mind?

Mr. JAMES. Well, only what I have read in different magazines and papers. I have read about the Osages many times. They claimed that they were wealthy people. The CHAIRMAN. Now tell us how you came to get actively at work in this matter and how you came to be a delegate.

Mr. JAMES. Well, we have

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). You say your connection with Mr. Collett began last November. You must have come very quickly here after you got acquainted with him, did you not?

Mr. JAMES. Well, I will tell you. We have talked it over among the Indians ourselves for many years as to why we have not received anything; that is, like the other reservations have, like the people in different parts of the country have, like they

claim to have received. I am not speaking of this as a fact. But this is what I have heard. It is hearsay. The Indians got busy and began to look into the matter.

Mr. ROACH. Let me ask a question. You claim to represent some one here on this bill. About how many people do you represent?

Mr. JAMES. Something over a thousand.

Mr. ROACH. Have you ever taken this bill up with the people whom you represent and read it to them and discussed the bill with them, and have you ever stated to them and discussed with them what Secretary Fall had to say as to his policy in dealing with this situation?

Mr. JAMES. No; I have not taken up the bill myself with them, but there are others here who have read the bill to the people. I have read the bill myself.

Mr. ROACH. There are only two policies here to be dealt with, the one policy advocated by the Secretary of the Interior and the other advocated by this bill. If you have not discussed this with your people how can you represent their ideas on the subject without such discussion?

Mr. RAKER. Before he answers the question, Mr. Roach, it would be fair to you and to the committee to say that Mr. Fall's policy was not established by anything except that letter which occurred after these delegates came to Washington.

Mr. ROACH. I know; but we are not dealing with generalities. We are dealing with cold facts. We have two propositions before us for consideration in the question of policy of dealing with the Indians. These people come here to appear before this committee and discuss with us this matter of policy and undertake to tell us how to pass on this legislation and they have never read the bill, have not discussed it with their people, and have not presented the true policy to their people, and yet they come here and say they represent the ideas of those people.

Mr. LEATHERWOOD. I would like to ask Mr. Roach when Secretary Fall wrote this letter defining his policy?

Mr. ROACH. This letter is only of recent occurrence, but here is a man here now who pretends to represent the ideas of these people on a proposition made to the Secretary of the Interior, which proposition has never been read to those people or discussed with them. And yet this man says he represents their ideas on that proposition when they do not even know what it is and have never heard of it.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, in November, when you first connected up with Mr. Collett, was there in your district, at that time, an auxiliary of this association?

Mr. JAMES. In November? Yes, sir; there was an auxiliary formed there of the association on the 7th day of November, 1921.

The CHAIRMAN. And you assisted in organizing the auxiliary?

Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. You had nothing to do with that?

Mr. JAMES. Not at that time.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, you helped to get the members to join the auxiliary, did you not?

Mr. JAMES. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. How did you come to join it?

Mr. JAMES. Well, I could see that it would be of some good to the Indians.

The CHAIRMAN. Just what argument was brought to bear on you that you join this auxiliary? Who spoke to you or who told you what there was to it?

Mr. JAMES. Well, no argument of any kind was brought to bear that got me to join this auxiliary or to get in touch with this work except through what I had learned from the Indians and how they had suffered, and I could see that if the Indians had a claim, if this bill were passed and their claim as presented to the court, and it was found that they had any thing due them, they would get it. But through the appropriations they would go on for years living pretty much in the same manner as they are at the present time.

The CHAIRMAN. You are a citizen of the State of California and a voter?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And you live in some district represented by some Representative in Congress from California?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know who your Representative is?

Mr. JAMES. Mr. Lea.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Lea?

Mr. JAMES. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And did you ever think it would be advisable to take up with him the question of expediting this matter? Did you ever take it up with him at all, you or your auxiliary?

Mr. JAMES. Well, I wrote to him.