While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The Relation of the New York Indians to the
United States
Third session,
Thursday morning, October 17.
The president, Dr. Merrill E. Gates, introduced Mr. Philip C. Garrett, of
Pennsylvania, chairman of the special commission named by Hon. Theodore
Roosevelt, when governor of New York, to investigate the condition of the New
York Indians.
The Relation Of The New York Indians To The United States.
By Philip C. Garrett.
The beautiful State of New York, among other picturesque objects, is decorated
by a lot of old time Indian reservations, scattered across and through the
length and breadth of the State from Long Island, in the southeast to the St.
Lawrence River, where the St. Regis Indians are, through the lake valleys in the
center to almost within sight of Niagara, and to Lake Erie and along the
beautiful valley of the Allegheny, in the southwest. Those who have attended
these sessions will remember that years ago the condition of these reservations
was a source of interest and discussion. Bishop Huntington first brought it to
the attention of the conference. He had found at his door south of Syracuse, the
Onondaga Reservation, one of the most backward of them all, still maintaining
barbarous rites of worship. He was much scandalized by the condition of things
there and the injury it caused to the surrounding country. Judge Draper, then
superintendent of schools of the State of New York, made a powerful address here
against them. From that time to this, the topic has claimed more or less
attention, and the reservation system has received the condemnation of
intelligent people throughout the State and country. The Indians insist on
retaining pagan worship, about half of them being pagans with their old rites.
Some of these are regarded as objectionable by those who know most about them.
These reservations are like scars on the beautiful territory of this State. They
are imperia in imperio; they are foreign countries in the midst of the State of
New York. They ought to be removed.
Last year, while Mr. Roosevelt was still governor of New York, a citizen wrote
to him, calling attention to these reservations and asking him to consider what should be done with them. His nomination as Vice-President followed in June,
and I suspect that he forgot all about it during his six-hundred speech stumping
tour. I happened to be attending the first meeting of the State Conference of
Charities and Correction at Albany last November, and I spoke to Mr. Roosevelt
about the matter. He invited me to an interview in the executive chamber and
show r ed that he was deeply interested in the subject, although he confessed
that he had naturally lost sight of it for a time. That led to the appointment
of a commission to investigate the whole subject. He selected a commission of
five, four of whom were citizens of New York, and I felt honored and
complimented, being outside of the State, to be appointed as the fifth. The
other members were Bishop Walker, Mr. Darwin R. James, president of the board of
Indian commissioners; Mr. Daniel Smiley, and Hon. Oscar Straus, at that time
minister to Turkey. We had a very short time to get the report in to the
governor, and it was rather brief and, perhaps, superficial. We were unable
to obtain information about the legislation of the State of New York and other
matters desirable, and which would require more time than the committee had at
its disposal before the term of the governor should expire. However, they did
make their report, which will be found bound with the report of the board of
Indian commissioners for last year. They reviewed the state of things and made
some recommendations, stating that they had found on the reservation somewhat
barbarous conditions not at all in keeping with the civilization of so great and
old a State. Their main recommendation was that everything relating to the
legislation for the New York Indians should be relegated to the United States.
That was a principal point of discussion, whether the United States or the State
of New York should deal with them. It was our conclusion that the United States
should take charge of the matter and that proper legislation should be sought at
the next session of Congress, extending the provisions of the Dawes bill to the
Indians of New York, who were specifically left out of its application.
The commission also discussed the subject of the leasing of Indian lands, to
deal with which may require a Congressional commission. I think the report was
made December 20. The consequence was that Mr. Roosevelt, whose gubernatorial
term was to end December 31, himself being about to assume the duties of the
Vice-President of the United States, having other matters to attend to, really
did not have an opportunity, as governor of New York, to give the subject much
attention. It was our hope that, being in Washington, he would be able to
further this legislation, and I trust that may prove to be the case yet. In his
still higher exaltation to the Presidency of the United States he will be able
to further such legislation, and his study of this subject, albeit somewhat
limited hitherto, will lead him to see that the same line of treatment is now
needed for the Indians of the whole country that is, the destruction of all
reservations and the conversion of the Indians into citizens, and their
absorption as members of the entire body politic of the United States. That is
what we now want. In my estimation the Indians are all nearly ready for citizen
ship. I believe the great majority might safely be made citizens. Of course
there are backward tribes, but I believe that even in those cases there would be
less suffering from their conversion into citizens and the destruction of the
present old and complex system than from the great expense to the people of the
United States by the retention of that system. It would cause less injury to the
country than we suffer all the time from a lot of rowdy, lazy, loafing white
people in the western country. If it were not for the patronage system, I think
the Indians would have made much further preparation for citizenship. Patronage
is the curse of the United States. You cannot get a reservation abolished
because some member of Congress wishes to hold on to it for those to whom he
owes his position in Congress. This is the principal source of the retardation
of the Indians in their progress toward citizenship. The church may well add to
her prayers, "From the evils of patronage, good Lord, deliver us; from the
despotism of agencies, deliver us, good Lord."
The agent is an absolute autocrat on his reservation. The progress of the Indian
toward civilization is blocked by the agency. Why can we not get rid of them?
Toward that we should bend our energies. This question of the New York Indians
is only a trifling illustration of the need of that. The reservation system is a
hindrance to the advance of civilization. It is preposterous in a State like
this. The Indians have made scarcely any progress in a hundred years, and yet
some of them are as well prepared for citizenship as many of the farmers around
them.
With Dr. Gates I enjoyed a visit to the reservations this last summer, and we
were much interested to observe that among the best of the Indians there was
manifest preparation for citizenship, almost equal to that of the white people
about them. We visited a number of houses of farmers where the evidences of
intelligence, of education, and taste for art were manifest. Some of them had
pianos in their parlors, and their conversation indicated that they had been to
schools and colleges, and it really seemed absurd to think of them on any theory
as savages, and as though these reservations must be kept up.
I am inclined to believe that we have reached a time when we ought to look
forward to the entire abolition of the Indian system at an early day. We want an
emancipation proclamation which at a stroke can set free the Indian peoples and
let them be self dependent and subject to all the penalties, privileges, and
immunities of the laws of the United States. I think we should do all we can to
bring that about.
Continuing The "Indian System" Indefinitely Will Do More Harm Than Would Follow
Its Immediate Abolition.
The President. Each added week of attention to this subject convinces me that if
the entire Indian Bureau could be speedily done away with we should risk vastly
less than I used to think we should. I believe that we should risk less than we
risk by perpetuating the present system if within the next five years the whole
Indian system could be swept away. I doubt if there is a tribe now in any State
or Territory in the Union which within the next five years could not be put
under the operation of the laws of the State or Territory and the local
administration of the counties where they now live, and have land allotted them,
with better results upon the whole than will follow if they are left as they now
are. We must certainly face the problem.
May I add a word about New York? I visited not only the Cattaraugus and
Allegheny reservations, but also the Tonawandas and the Onondagas last summer.
While on this trip I was interested in looking up a little mission church where
a missionary whom I knew in my boyhood had earlier preached to the Indians,
sixty years ago and more. Fully three generations ago there was a little
Presbyterian church for Indians in that neighborhood. But you can still find
pagan customs there. You will find there many Indians as well qualified to
manage their own property as are the members of this conference. Still, they are
herded together there as Indians, and paganism is perpetuated in the heart of
the Empire State. Let in the law! Establish homesteads and homes! Allot land,
and make self-respecting citizens of these people, too long " coddled " by a
special system!
Beside the gospel, we need law. We need to make these men worth something
to the State, and to themselves as individual citizens. They need to manage
their own property, and to learn to take their places as American citizens. Let
the end come soon.
I think Mr. Garrett has struck the right chord the great danger from a
continuance of the reservations. The men in office in Washington, in the Indian
Bureau, and in the Indian agencies want this system to be perpetual, and the
politicians want it so that they can distribute positions for political work,
for there are many offices to fill. We are going to have a tremendous struggle
to get rid of the Indian reservation and of the Indian Bureau. We recommended
last year that ten or more agencies should be given up, but we got rid of only
three. I had a letter from Mr. Murray, who says the question has come up in
Oklahoma. If an Indian has taken up land in severalty he has become a United
States citizen, and can vote or do anything that any other citizen can do; yet
in Oklahoma the agent takes those Indians and manages them as in the old times.
He takes charge of their property, leases their land, prevents them from going
off the reservation; they are not allowed to vote, and they are treated exactly
as in old times, so that the Indians are worse off than before. That ought not
to be. These Indians lease their land and go off and live in a tent, putting
their children into boarding schools, and live themselves like savages. Such
Indians should be thrown into deep water and left to swim. I wish the moneys
that the Indians got from the sales of land could be lost this year, every
penny, and let them work or starve, those who have able bodies. This pampering
of Indians is an error. I am more and more convinced of it. You can never
civilize the Indians until they work for their own living. Colonel Pratt is
right. The more I see the more I believe this. The tendency of benevolent people
is to give them land. How many of our poor white people have land and homes? Why
should they be treated in a different way? A man who can earn $1.25 a day and
will not do anything but smoke and drink and gamble and lean against the fence
in summer, then when winter comes let him starve; he deserves it. You will never
make the Indian worth anything so long as you pamper and feed him. I don't
believe in their renting their land. It ought to be stopped. Then there is the
question of land for which there is no title. Out of 800 allotments to the
Pawnees, over 300 are now vacant. The United States must find some way of
disposing of that land. I repeat that I believe in throwing the Indian into deep
water and letting him swim.
The Chairman. When you see this state of mind produced on this man of peace, you
can imagine how deep the evils must be.
Mr. Smiley. If we had such women as Miss Collins, with her kind heart and good
sense, all over the land, we should have little difficulty. The trouble is, we
have to deal with politicians.
He was followed by Rev. H. B. Frissell, D. D., principal of Hampton
Institute,
Va.
Rev. H. B. Frissell, D. D. I think the wisdom of Mr. Smiley in opening this
conference to the consideration of the needs of other peoples besides the Indian
.is evidenced by this morning's session. Certainly what has occurred in Hawaii
ought to help us in our dealing with the negro and Indian races of our own land.
My illustrious predecessor, General Armstrong, gained this thought through long
years of experience, and the wisdom of his method of education was due very
largely to the fact that he knew this Hawaiian child race, and understood the
needs of similar races. I am glad of the last word that was spoken, that we can
not do these things all at once. We speak of the Hawaiians as a nation born in a
day. They were, in a sense. They were easily converted to Christianity, but we
must realize that the civilization of a race is a long, long process. One of the
most difficult things which we have to deal with in trying to civilize a race is
the condition of our own people. We need to be a great deal more civilized than
we are. A little Indian girl was once asked by a Hampton visitor, "Are you
civilized?" "No," said she, "are you?" And it is very questionable which had the
most civilization. With all these undeveloped races we feel that we have not got
to fight against their barbarism so much as against the barbarism of the
Anglo-Saxon.
A great deal has been said here in regard to the matter of religion. I feel that
not too much has been said. I believe that the awful crime that has lately been
committed in this country has emphasized the fact as never before that our
religion has got to go into every part of our life. We have fought in this
country for the separation of church and state, and, I believe, rightly. We must
understand, however, that there is to be no separation between religion and
state; that religion has got to go into every part of the state, into all our
life. I believe that today our Government Indian schools ought to have more of
the religious life. I am sure this is the feeling of our superintendent, Miss
Reel. I believe, from my observations at the conference in Detroit, that that is
the feeling of almost all the superintendents. Religion ought to go into our
common schools, too. When Mr. Sherman's Indian committee came to Hampton, one of
the committee said to me when he left, " I like Hampton because there is so much
religion here." We are most of us Protestants, but I do think that we teach the
religion of Christ just so far as possible. We at Hampton, with our
undenominational church, are trying to show what can be done along the line of
Christian undenominational teaching.
Gen. John Eaton. What will you do in the Government schools with that
constitutional clause that forbids Congress to appropriate money for the
establishment of any religion?
Dr. Frissell. We are not establishing a religion. Religion comes in as part of
our life there; we are not establishing it; we are trying to live it out.
General Eaton. It was on that ground that they tried to exclude Hampton from
receiving Government aid, on account of that clause in the Constitution.
Dr. Frissell. Senator Pettigrew did try to fight it, but we have conquered. We
have said that it was right that an undenominational school should have help
from the Government, and I believe the principle is right. Senator Pettigrew has
brought up year after year what we have done at Hampton in our Sunday-school
work, and in our missionary work, and we have been glad to say, "Yes, we have
done it all, and more than you have said, but we are undenominational, and it is
right that we should have the help of the United States in our Christian work
for the Indians."
I am sure that we were all grateful for the word said to us last night by our
illustrious friend, General Morgan. I think that the system of Indian schools
that he established is of great advantage to us. These schools have much to do
with every-day life. General Morgan said that all this educational work ought to
be adapted to the people for whom it is carried on. He did not mean to say that
the Massachusetts high school ought to go to Porto Rico, or the Philippines, or
even to the Indians. We have got to study these various races, and meet their
individual needs. We have got to teach them how to live, how to get out of the
old ways into the new.
I am very glad of the words spoken by the ladies in regard to native industries.
Each of these races has something to bring to us something in art, something in
religion, something in life, and something in native industry. One other
thought. If we are going to encourage these native arts we must have more
freedom. The man in the store at the agency has control of everything. We want
to open up these industries on all the reservations. A little while ago even the
Government found that it could not get hold of certain baskets because they were
all in the hands of a single man. We want freedom to buy and to sell. We must
have more freedom for the Indian that he may be more of a man.
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Thirty-Third Annual Report Of The Board Of Indian Commissioners,
1901
