USES OF ALLOTTED INDIAN LANDS

ADDRESS OF MR. O. H. LIPPS

What use is the Indian making of his land? This is a question an Indian agent is called upon to answer oftener, perhaps, than any other; and a great deal of uneasiness appears to be manifested by the friends of the Indian as to what disposition he will make of his lands when the restrictions as to alienation, or even as to the leasing and management of them, are removed by the Government. It is urged by many that it is an unwise policy for the Government to give over to the Indian the full control of his lands free from all departmental supervision. Some are of the opinion that if the Indian is given permission to lease his allotment he will be induced by unscrupulous whites to enter into written agreements for the use of his lands for less than a fair rental value. It is also argued that as long as the Indian has his lands, and these lands are controlled by the government for his benefit, his future support is assured, and that at the death of the allottee, his children, who may or may not have allotments of their own, will be provided for, and thus is banished at once all fear of the Indian becoming a public charge on the community.

To the casual observer this sounds like good logic, but to the man on the ground who has been standing face to face with the Indian problem for years it sounds like a bit of sentimentalism and an excuse for evading the responsibility of the real task before us the task of teaching the Indian to become independent and to feel the responsibility of his own acts.

In order that we may get a clear understanding of the subject under consideration I desire to call your attention to actual facts as they exist to-day on many of the allotted reservations, and more particularly on the Nez Perce reservation in Northern Idaho.

This reservation is a very large one, being about thirty miles in width by sixty miles in length. About 2,000 allotments were made on this reservation, aggregating about 185,000 acres, the greater portion of which is fine agricultural land. In 1895 the surplus lands on the reservation, about 500,000 acres, were settled upon by about 3,000 white families. The fact then is this: in the year 1895 the Government gave to 2,000 Nez Perce Indians 185,000 acres of land and to 3,000 white settlers 500,000 acres of land. No special favor was shown toward the Indian there. His lands were to be free from taxation and restricted as to alienation for a period of twenty-five years. Now let us see which has taken the better care of his heritage or used it more wisely, the white man or the Indian.

To-day the Nez Perce Indians still own 94% of the lands originally allotted to them, notwithstanding the fact they have been at liberty to sell off fully one-half of their holdings under the act providing for the sale of inherited Indian lands, while not more than 20% of the original white settlers still own their homesteads. The Indians have sold and received patents in fee for only 6% of the total allotments made to the tribe fifteen years ago. They still own more than 150,000 acres of fine agricultural land, or an average of about 100 acres for each man, woman and child now living and belonging to the tribe. They also own in common 32,000 acres of fine timber lands which they refuse to sell at any price. Is the Indian then a person who can not be trusted with the care and keeping of his own property? (Applause.)

Nearly 300 Nez Perce allottees have been granted permission to lease their own lands without departmental supervision. It is really remarkable to note the good judgment and business ability they have exercised in transacting their business affairs in this regard. So far as I have been able to learn not a single Indian has been defrauded and most of them have secured exceptionally good contracts in the leasing of their lands.

What are your Indians doing in the way of farming their own lands? What kind of homes have they, and are they industrious and self-supporting? These are questions that I am frequently called upon to answer.

My reply is that nearly every Nez Perce family cultivates at least a garden and raises a few acres of wheat or oats for hay, and many of them are farming from forty to two hundred acres of land. The Nez Perces have always been self-supporting and it is a maxim of the tribe that "No Nez Perce ever goes hungry." It is true that with the opening of the reservation to settlement by the whites fifteen years ago came large annuity payments with all their attendant evils, and the tribe has not yet fully recovered from the effects. It is particularly noticeable in traveling over the reservation that most of the orchards and houses are old and that few new improvements bear testimony of the energy and effort that marked the industry of former days, when they received no rich returns from leased lands but were forced to obtain their living by the sweat of the face. The Nez Perces were formerly a very industrious and economical people. Quite different now. Very few Indians make any effort to raise anything for market except where they can do so on a large scale and haul their products to market with a four-horse team.

In this connection I desire to call attention to one fact that I believe is often overlooked in considering the lack of industry and ambition in the Indian. Of late years I have observed, more

particularly among the school children, that what often seems to be laziness in the Indian is not in reality a lack of desire to work, but is rather a lack of physical strength and vitality. I am satisfied that many pupils in school are thought to be lazy when, in fact, they have through a weak constitution lost all energy and ambition. I remember two cases of the kind that have come under my observation during the past three years. Both pupils were about fifteen years of age and were apparently in good health. They were not disobedient, but they could not be induced or persuaded to do their work. Both are now dead. They were no doubt slowly dying at the time. I know of several Indians who were ambitious to get along, were hard workers and had big plans for the future, but who suddenly broke down in health and gave up and are now in the last stages of consumption. The civilized Indian is often a physical wreck, and we should not expect too much of him.

But what is the necessity for the Indian leasing his land? Why does he not farm it himself? some one asks. The reason is this, to some extent: on nearly every reservation the Indians own more land than they can possibly farm themselves. Take it on the Nez Perce reservation, for example. Nearly 2,000 Indians received allotments fifteen years ago. The tribe has since decreased nearly 25%, there being only 1,470 Nez Perce Indians on the reservation, including minors and many who are too old to work. Many of these own several hundred acres of land each. The only thing to do for these people is to lease the lands and use the rentals for their support. It is also true that quite a number of the adult healthy Indians are too indolent and thriftless to farm their lands and so they lease it, eking out an existence from the proceeds. How to get the able-bodied adult Indians to improve and farm their own lands is the serious question now confronting us. That we are making headway in this direction there is no doubt, but there is still much to be done before this class of Indians is made independent and self-supporting in the fullest sense of that term. I am often asked how much money the Nez Perce Indians receive as rentals from their lands and what they do with it.

We collect annually more than $100,000 as rentals on Indian allotments on the Nez Perce reservation, and this money is mostly used in the purchase of necessities. Occasionally an Indian will draw his rent money and go immediately to the nearest town where liquor can be procured and remain there until the last cent is gone. It sometimes happens, too, that an Indian, just like many white men in that country, will work hard all summer, and when he gets the money for his labor will go to the nearest town and squander it in riotous living. There are numerous cases on the

Nez Perce reservation where white men have made thousands of dollars farming Indian land and then have gone to the bad just as rapidly and degradedly as any Indian has ever done. Still, there appears to be no great alarm on account of the improvidence of our white population. Our Western white farmers are now buying automobiles, pianos and expensive furniture, and yet if an old Indian sells a piece of inherited land and with the proceeds buys a driving team, in order that he may ride around over the reservation in ease and comfort to visit his friends and relatives, we are too prone to criticise him and to tell him he should have purchased a plow and a yoke of oxen instead.

The facts then are that the Indian is not materially different from the average white man with whom he comes in contact. He uses his lands and his money much the same as the white man uses his lands and money under similar conditions in our Western states. There are thousands of white people who are just as much in need of a guardian to take care of their property and money as the Indian, but we would not consider it a wise policy for the Government to exercise guardianship over white people simply because they do not make the best use of their property and opportunities.

We sometimes fall into the error of treating the Indian as a grown-up child. This is a great mistake. I have found that the Indian is capable of understanding the reason for things and that the same reasons that appeal to the average white person are understood and appreciated by the Indian.

What about the issuing of patents in fee to the Indians for their lands, some one asks?

As a general proposition, in my opinion, this is a matter in which the Government should exercise great caution. As a general rule the better class of Indians do not want patents in fee for their lands on the same grounds that many white people who take up homesteads defer as long as possible the making of final proof in order to avoid the payment of taxes on the land. Very few Indians desire patents in fee to their lands except in cases where they wish to dispose of it. It is a difficult matter to determine who is competent and who is not competent. All the Nez Perce Indians who have received patents in fee for their lands have sold them at goodly prices and many of them have made good use of the money. Some have squandered it within a very short time, but even these are in some respects better off without their land, for now they realize they must work or starve and most of them prefer to work. As each reservation presents a different problem; only the man on the ground can form any intelligent opinion as to what is best to do in such matters and each application must

be considered on its merits, taking into consideration all the facts and conditions of each case as it comes before him.

After all, the sooner the adult Indians who are physically and mentally competent are placed upon their own responsibility entirely, both as to the education of their children and the support of their families, as well as the management of their property, the sooner will they evolve into independent, self-supporting and useful American citizens. (Applause.)

Mr. VALENTINE: It is one of my ambitions to get as many Indians at work on this business as possible. We have now between thirteen and fourteen hundred Indians among the five thousand employes of the Indian Service. Many of them are giving the finest kind of service, in humble ways, and some are rendering conspicuous service. I will ask an Indian, Mr. PETER PAQUETTE, superintendent of the Navajo School, Ft. Defiance, Arizona, to speak to you.

INDIAN LABOR

ADDRESS OF MR. PETER PAQUETTE

In the nineteenth verse of the third chapter of Genesis we read: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." This injunction laid upon the first man is the inheritance of us all. We are given strength and a body well suited to the performance of manual labor.

During the centuries in which the Indians had undisputed possession of the Western Hemisphere their subsistence was obtained principally from a natural supply of wild game and no more was slain than was needed to supply their immediate wants which insured to the Indians a permanent supply of food and raiments, as the natural increase of the animals which were hunted was in excess of the demand. This method of securing food during untold generations has inbred in the Indians a faith in the maxim that "The Lord will provide," which has left them in a rather helpless state, as with the advent of the restless, colonizing European and his insatiable desire to accumulate in quantities far and away beyond his present needs the game has practically disappeared and the Indians are taken unawares, so to speak, compelled to learn an art of which they knew little or nothing hitherto. The generation of Indians now ending found it almost impossible to adjust themselves to this necessity. The newer generation of Indians show a much greater ease of adjustment to the new order and only those who have worked with them or among them as