The Dawes Commission

The Dawes Commission.

The problems which, were involved in the work, assigned to this Commission, have proved to be more complicated and difficult of solution than was at first supposed. Nevertheless, the work already accomplished seems to us to vindicate the wisdom of the policy of breaking up the tribal government in the Indian Territory; securing a share for all Indians in that land which was reserved for the benefit of all, but had passed into the hands of a few rich members of the tribe; providing for a just administration of law throughout Indian Territory; recognizing the needs and the rights of more than a quarter of a million of whites who were dwelling upon the land of the Five Nations without school privileges and without defined rights, and, in general, of putting an end to that solecism in our American system, the maintenance upon the soil of the United States of petty nationalities and governments not subject to the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

Irrigation And Water Supply The Pima.

In our last annual report we emphasized as strongly as possible the terrible need of the Pima and Papago Indians of Arizona, who are famine struck by reason of the diversion from the Gila River of that water supply to which these Indians, as the first irrigators to use it, were legally entitled. They had made use of this water supply for irrigation purposes for several generations. White settlers on the ver above them have recently diverted the water which belongs to these Indians, and which later settlers would never have been allowed to take away from earlier irrigators without protest and legal protection if these earlier irrigators had been whites and not Indians. We regret that the proposed appropriation to begin work upon the San Carlos Dam was not made at the last session of Congress. We are gratified at the earnest recommendation for the speedy construction of this dam which is made by the Secretary of the Interior in his last annual report, and we trust that the needs of these industrious and peaceful Indians, always friendly to the United States and now suffering from the total destruction of their crops for several successive years by the diversion of this water to which they are entitled, will not be overlooked in the plans for irrigation which are now before Congress.

Irrigation Of Reservations Needs Scientific Direction.

We renew our suggestions as to the danger from irrigating systems hastily constructed and not well planned which have in many cases resulted in destroying what were at first the best parts of the agricultural land thus irrigated.

After Indians have been settled in severalty upon bottom lands irrigated by hastily constructed canals, when the remainder of the reservation has been thrown open and the better judgment of men who are scientifically trained in the principles of irrigation has led to the taking out of a larger canal, heading above that which first supplied the Indians, and covering the benches or terraces where the best lands lie, the seepage water from these higher lands works down toward the river bottom, and ultimately the seepage sub irrigates and finally destroys the lower farms by making them marshy or bringing up the alkali."

In the course of a few years it is seen that the Indians not only have retained the poorest land of their former reservation, but, are in a position to be deprived of their entire water supply. Proper scientific supervision of the work of irrigation on our Indian reservations would have planned the high-level canal in the first place and thus would have secured the best land to the Indians. Upon this subject we ask attention to the Appendix (p. 36) of our last annual report, for the year 1900.

Too Much Leasing Of Indian Lands.

At a meeting of this board on January 23, 1902, in view of repeated complaints and objections to the system of Indian leasing recently pursued, and profoundly impressed as a board by the serious and threatening evils of this s} T stem as now loosely managed, the board adopted the following resolutions:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners that in any leases of Indian grazing lands all the leased land should be fenced off from the Indian lands at the expense of the lessees; and the fences so to be built at the expense of the lessees should be so built as to secure to the Indians, fenced in for their own use, the hay lands (meadows) now used or desired by the Indians for curing hay, and the sheltered and bottom lands now used or desired by the Indians for their own use in cattle raising.

Further, That a Government official should be required to inspect and see that this is done before the cattle of the lessees are turned upon the land.

And it is further their opinion that the leases should not exceed three years, in order that the Indians may as early as possible graze their own lands.

And further, that with all the tribes whose reservation is so situated as to make cattle raising their main dependence, all the proceeds of such leases should be used to purchase improved cattle to be issued to these Indians for breeding purposes.

It was further
Resolved, that a copy of these resolutions be sent to the Secretary of the Interior and to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, with the respectful request that they be carefully considered before action is taken upon the leases now pending in North and South Dakota.

It was also
Resolved, that we view with serious apprehension the increasing tendency to dispose by lease of large tracts of Indian lands for a term of years. If the area of an Indian reservation is to be reduced by tracts as large as some of the States of the Union, we believe that it would be far better to provide for such reductions by special or general legislation than to make them by the present method of unregulated and varying official action.

For years this board, in its annual reports, has urged considerations against the leasing of Indian land. It is with great regret that the board sees the leasing of vast tracts, in some cases larger than entire Eastern States, made upon very short notice and without what seem to us proper safeguards for the welfare of the Indians. It seems very clear to us as a board that leasing of immense tracts (upon which Indians are now raising cattle) to white men for terms of five years or more is likely to break up among several of our Indian tribes the most promising attempts which have so far been made at self-support by cattle raising and grazing. The recent trouble with proposed leases at Standing Rock is a case in point.

The Recommendations Of Our Last Two Reports.

It is with great gratification that we notice, in reviewing the last two years, that of the nine especial points summed up in brief paragraphs at the close of our thirty -first annual report as seeming to us of the most importance for the welfare of the Indians, five seem to have been fully accomplished. Upon a sixth, caution in leasing Indian lands," passages in the last report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are quite as emphatic as we could hope to make them. On two of the other three points, "cattle breeding and grazing for Indians," and the "breaking up of tribal funds into separate holdings," we think that progress may be safely reported. And as to the remaining one, "compulsory law" for school attendance for Indian children," we renew our earnest recommendation that such a law be enacted. The appointment of an attorney for the Pueblo Indians, since made, covers the tenth of our recommendations.

Report of Board of Indian Commissioners

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Notes About this Publication:

Source: Thirty-Third Annual Report Of The Board Of Indian Commissioners, 1901,  Government Printing Office.

Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual output.

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