for their work, so that no violent change may take place in the administration of the school.

This proposition has been indorsed by the superintendent of Indian schools, Dr. Hailman, and has been submitted to the Indian Commissioner, but an official answer has not yet been received.

The proposition thus made involves a sacrifice to the Unitarians of several thousand dollars for the value of their buildings. They have full confidence, however, in the Government school system, and also in the policy set forth by the Secretary of the Interior in his report and by the President in his message in regard to the absorption of denominational schools by the Government and the general extension of Indian education.

The committee appointed by the Indian committee of the American Unitarian Association to negotiate this matter were Rev. Alfred Manchester, superintendent of Unitarian Indian work, and Rev. S. J. Barrows.

I am your obedient servant,

SAMUEL J. BARROWS,
For the Committee.

President GATES. This completes the list of reports from churches. When at Hampton I heard a young man from Alaska, Mr. Marsden, speak, and he interested the 700 students wonderfully. It was one of the three best addresses I have heard within a year. Seven or eight years ago this young man did not know a word of English. He is now a senior at Hampton. I shall now invite another man from Alaska to speak, Dr. Sheldon Jackson.

Dr. SHELDON JACKSON. With regard to Mr. Edward Marsden, he was a delegate from one of the Christian Endeavor societies to the great convention at Cleveland last summer. A minister from New York who was present said to me that Mr. Marsden's address, to his mind, was the best one made on that occasion in that great convention. Mr. Marsden is also the man that is being helped by the Mohonk conference. The members of the late conference will remember that they raised a sum for assisting young men, to give them better facilities for a higher education. For two years Mr. Smiley has sent me $100 a year for Mr. Marsden's education at Marietta College.

ADDRESS ON WORK IN ALASKA.

[By Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D.]

The last printed report on education in Alaska, 1891-92, is now ready for distribution, being received from the Government Printing Office last week. The work changes little from year to year.

When the Christian denominations voted to cease taking money for contract schools Congress cut off $20,000 from the appropriation instead of taking up new school work. The reduction in the appropriation has hampered our work and closed three or four of our schools. This last year we had 16 day schools, with 846 pupils, and 15 contract schools, with 592 pupils, making 1,438 pupils in school out of a total school population of 10,000. From the appropriation given by Congress less than 15 per cent can be educated. To the eight contract schools the Government gives $7,892, averaging $15 for every boarding pupil. On the other hand, the churches gave $77,967; that is, the churches put in $10 to every $1 that the Government put in for the support of the contract schools. At the present stage of civilization among our Alaska natives there can be no sectarian instruction, as it is understood among The schools are all primary, and we can not make sectarians of the people if we should try. There is no sectarian training.

us.

I would like to call your attention to the wise distribution of effort on the part of the Government and of the churches. The work is arranged in such a way that the schools are located in the widely separated centers of influence. Not being able to supply every place, we have designed to take strategic points. In southern Alaska the Presbyterian Church has six missions and a training school; the Friends have two missions, and the Roman Catholics one. In the same region the Government has ten day schools. Three hundred miles north of the Presbyterian missions is one of the Swedish Evangelical, with a school attached. Five hundred miles westward are Government schools at Kadiak and Afognak, and a Baptist mission-home school at Wood Island. Four hundred miles farther west a Government school, at Unga, and 200 miles west of that a Government school at Unalaska, one of the Aleutian Islands. There is also at Unalaska a very successful mission to girls that is supported by the Women's Board of Home Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They attend the day school carried on by the Government.

Eight hundred miles northeast from Unalaska are the great rivers Kuskokwim and Nushagak, where the Moravian Church has missions, and in connection with which are two Government contract schools. The Moravians have had extensive revivals.

Their missionaries travel each winter thousands of miles on snowshoes, with the thermometer from 30 to 40 degrees below zero, preaching all up and down those valleys.

Crossing into the interior of the country, upon the Yukon River, there are three Roman Catholic contract schools. The Protestant Episcopalians have two missions and day schools. They receive no funds from the Government. To the east of the Yukon there are three schools and missionaries of the Church of England receiving, of course, no aid from the American Government. West, 200 miles from the Yukon, is a mission and school of the Swedish Evangelical Union Mission, whose headquarters are in Chicago. Four hundred miles farther you have a school of the American Missionary Association on Bering Straits, aided by the Government.

You will remember that two years ago Mr. H. R. Thornton, a missionary of the American Missionary Association, was killed at Bering Straits. To show their abhorrence of the murder, the natives at once caught and shot two of the three young men connected with the deed, and promised that they would kill the third one when caught, and keep his body on ice until the vessel came back again in the summer, to show that they had killed him. The man did come back, after the departure of the ship, and his uncle caught him and told him that he might take his choice of being shot or hanged or stabbed. He chose to be shot, and was at once killed. At the time of the murder Mr. W. T. Lopp, the second missionary of the A. M. A., had gone to take charge of the reindeer station. Last fall he, with his wife and two children, returned to Bering Straits, where they are now, the only white people in that village of 600 people. They were warmly welcomed back by the people to the mission work. Mr. William A. Kjellmann, a Norwegian from Madison, Wis., has been appointed to Mr. Lopp's place at the Teller reindeer station, and with him are seven Laplanders who know the best methods of caring for the reindeer. We brought them, with their families, from Lapland, and they were taken across the continent to the station. Immediately upon their arrival they showed their proficiency over the Siberian herders in the treatment of the herd.

The reindeer enterprise, so far, has been a complete success. Since its establishment in 1891 there has not been a single reverse, and all the prognostications have failed. We have had no difficulty in transporting them or caring for them, nor interference from the natives or from their dogs. This action on the part of the natives is the more remarkable from the fact that in the later months of the winter they are on the verge of starvation. Day after day the men and women and children go out on the ice in the early morning, trying to fish for something for breakfast; and they fish there over a hole from three to fifteen hours sometimes before they get anything. And yet that reindeer herd, within half a mile of them, and at that time under only two white men, was untouched. It would have been easy for them to kill the herders and take possession of the herd, but it evidently did not occur to them to disturb the reindeer. Out of about 400 at the station last spring the births numbered 200, so that we had 200 natural increase. This past summer, 120 more were brought over and added. We have made our first experiment in distribution. One hundred and eighteen were given to Mr. Loop, and he took them to his station. That is now our second herd. Arrangements were also made that upon the 1st of January a third herd of 100 should be given to five of the best Eskimo young men, those that have shown the greatest proficiency in caring for the herd. The agreement which they have signed with their names, not making their mark, is that at the end of five years they shall return 100 reindeer to the Government and keep all the increase themselves. This, we trust, is the beginning of a distribution of reindeer that will eventually introduce them over that whole country. The Laplanders say they never saw such abundant pasturage as they find in northern Alaska. The dissemination of the reindeer has a great bearing upon the development of the interior of Alaska. During the last summer unusually rich gold deposits have been found upon the smaller streams. One miner, as a result of two month's work, took out $12,000 in gold dust, of which $8,500 was net profit. Four men took out $30,000. There are about 700 men in that region now; they expect, this coming spring, to have 1,000 miners go into central Alaska, where the thermometer is in winter 700 below zero. The question of food supply is a pressing one to the miner. Small steamers ply for 2,000 miles up the Yukon. They can carry provision in summer, but they can not take it up the small tributary streams, upon which most of the mines are situated. There are not dogs enough to convey it by sleds, and consequently the miners are obliged to leave in the winter. They are urging the Government to hasten the time when they may have reindeer for transportation, and to increase the herds so as to develop the industry in the central portion of the country. The commercial interests demand this rapid extension.

Every winter the whalers, who have destroyed the whales in the neighboring waters, are now compelled to go round the most northerly point, 800 miles, near the mouth of Mackenzie River, and allow themselves to be frozen up. Twelve ocean steamers are frozen up there this winter. Five of the captains have their wives with

them, and there are six or seven children. If these men could have a mail communication with the rest of the world it would be worth, to the capitalists that furnish these steamers, many thousands of dollars in fitting out the fleet next spring. They do not know what to depend upon; they do not know what has been the success of the Arctic fleet.

It is proposed, as one of the possibilities, to establish a reindeer express, starting from Point Barrow, calling at the several mission and the reindeer stations, crossing to the Yukon, and coming down to the coast near the Chilcats, where the mail vessel can go once a month through the entire year. The Government is now talking of making a trail from the sea to the Yukon River. That will open communication out from the country, and keep these whalers from being cut off from communication with the outside world.

Question. What would be the whole length of such a route?

Dr. JACKSON. Including all the branches, it would probably be about 4,000 miles. That is the only way of communication unless you could hire natives. Question. What is the latitude where those whalers are frozen in?

Dr. JACKSON. About 70°, I think.

Question. What is the speed of the reindeer?

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Dr. JACKSON. In good condition, and when the snow is good, they will make 18 miles an hour. In Lapland they easily make 150 miles in twenty-four hours. hundred miles a day for a reindeer in Lapland is ordinary traveling, if the snow is in good condition.

Question. You say the allowance for the students by the Government is $15 a year. What does it cost for each student?

Dr. JACKSON. Probably $75 year.

Question. For what purpose is whaling carried on now?

Dr. JACKSON. For the bone. Kerosene oil is so cheap that whale oil is now of little account. The commercial value is in the bone. It is worth from $7,000 to $10,000 a whale, according to the size of the whale and the quality of the bone.

Col. M. H. Kidd, one of the commissioners to the Indian Territory, was next introduced.

THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

[An address by Col. H. M. Kidd.]

MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I spent about four years in the Regular Army as a commanding officer in the Indian Territory and Oklahoma, at Camp Supply, Fort Sill, and Fort Arbuckle. It was my business to study the character of the Indian, and I did what I could. For the last year I have been in the Indian Territory, among the Five Civilized Tribes, under the guidance of ex-Senator Dawes, endeavoring to make a contract with them for the division of their lands and the acceptance of a Territorial instead of a tribal government. I have very decided views with regard to the way to civilize the Indian. It is absolutely necessary, you would civilize and Christianize the Indian, that you should look after his temporal wants. You might as well undertake to civilize a man or woman in the cellars of New York as a nomad Indian. You must first localize him and establish a home round which will cluster his hopes and his love.

I have heard some things here that may say I do not agree with.

if

President GATES. We make it impossible for any one to leave these conferences without hearing some things that he does not believe in.

Colonel KIDD. The cruelest thing the Government ever did was to allot land to the Apaches, the Arapahoes, and the Cheyennes. Last summer I had some curiosity to see what progress had been made since the land was allotted. I find the wild Indian tribes in groups together, destitute, living, or eking out an existence upon rations, brought in contact with the lechery and saloons of that new country; and I say to you that they were being borne down a hundred degrees where they were being elevated one, by the influences around them. I do not approve of the allotment of land among Indians until they have reached a point where they are fit for it. And the five tribes of the plains are not fit for it-the Comanches, the Kiowas, the Arapahoes, the Cheyennes, and the Apaches.

I wrote to Judge Holman that the only way the Government could repair the injury done to this people was to have them cede their allotments to the Government, and move them to the Kiowa and Comanche country, and take charge of them and shut out from them all the bad influences of whisky and bad white men, until they had reached a point where they were fit to take care of themselves. They are being made drunkards of to-day in Oklahoma.

There is another way that they might be helped. If you could find honest men, devoted to their duty-and I want to say that after they get out there there is a wonderful shrinkage of that virtue-if you could find such men who could go out to these allotments and have some provision made by which the Indians could have

houses put upon their land, could have their ground fenced off and plows given them, and so have them encouraged in a small way to raise something to live upon, that would be an immense benefit to them. Perhaps, under the existing circumstances, that is the best thing that can be done for them.

The Kiowas and Comanches have made a contract with the Government for the division of their land and the cession of the residue. The Government has never approved that. When I was there many of the people were making commendable efforts to make houses, but there is much misdirected effort among those that try. The country is leased out, most of it, to cattlemen from Texas, and the Indian does not dare to have his house out on his land, for he must protect his family against the cowboys. So they are building houses close together where there will be too many on one allotment. They will have to be moved from there. If there could be somebody to direct them it would be better.

I talked with a subagent there about it and he told me that he had not time to give them the attention that they ought to have, and it was impossible, over such an extent of country, to direct them.

Now, about the Five Civilized Tribes. While allotment is ruin to the Indian before he is fit for it, there comes a time where tribal government, the holding of land in common, is the worst possible injury that can overtake him. The governments of the Five Civilized Tribes are utterly inefficient; they protect neither life nor property. The blood that is being shed by the whites and Indians, the robberies that take place and other crimes, are carrying these peopie back to barbarism, and undoing what people have been doing for them for fifty years. I have been there with Captain Kennan and Senator Dawes, and this is the conclusion that we have all reached.

We have been trying to effect a change. We have failed so far, and the prospect is discouraging. The country of the five tribes embraces about 20,000,000 acres of land. There are mountains and hills with black-jack groves, in which the land, except in small valleys, is worthless for cultivation. Here the real Indian settles, and raises hogs on the acorns; they find springs and wood convenient, and make their homes there. The balance of the country is one of the finest that the sun shines on, but it has been taken possession of by "intermarried citizens," as they are called; Senator Dawes calls them "squaw men." They are white men married to Indian women, and their descendants. Some of them have married for proper purposes, and some are educated and accomplished men; I am not speaking of squaw men with disrespect, for many of them are estimable gentlemen.

A few avaricious and grasping men have taken possession of nearly all this valuable land, and are holding it in quantities of from 5,000 to 100,000 acres each. In the Creek country they pay 5 cents an acre for the use of it, and let it for 50 cents to $1 an acre. These half-breeds or mixed bloods and intermarried citizens do not treat the Indians as if they were human. You may say that is not speaking in a complimentary manner of them. It is true. There is a great deal of bribery, and they reconcile their consciences to this by saying, "That is the way with State legislatures and State governments." They say to the Indians, "Congress sells out, and if you do not do that you are not doing like white men." When I have talked with them about this they say, "It is not a bit worse than Congress."

They have in various ways monopolized the whole country, and the Indian, who ought to enjoy the benefit of it, has to live in the barren, hilly part of it, with his house, a typical Indian house, a log cabin 14 feet square, with a cook stove, a deal table, and a rough bed; that is usually the extent of the furniture. But the Indian woman is a model housekeeper, so far as cleanliness is concerned. There is generally a shed on one side. The women take care of the house and do the little farming that is done. You will find that they pick out from 1 to 10 acres in some little mountain valley near the houses, where there is a bit of land that can be cultivated. Here the squaw and the children raise corn, beans, and sweet potatoes, and these, with an occasional acorn-fed hog, constitute the substance of the food for the family. The wealth of a family consists in a few hogs and sometimes a few cattle running over the country. The Indian man has perhaps a horse, saddle, and bridle, and in the morning he gets up and when the rations are short he rides out to a more favored neighbor and gets his victuals there, while his wife and children remain in destitution. Yet that man and woman and their children are owners of princely fortunes, but the white intermarried men have got it and are enjoying it.

The Choctaws and Chickasaws, as near as we can make out, will have about 700 acres of land each, as good as there is in the world; and yet the white man has got it and the Indian is living in such a way that it is impossible to force an existence out of the soil. The intermarried men chuckle and say, "We have got it, and what are you going to do about it?" We can not make those men give up the land. This conference will do very much if it can aid in extricating these poor people from this condition.

The Cherokees have two fine schools. There is not a full-blood Indian pupil among them. They have a fine corps of teachers in each. The children appear to 13276

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be white, but most of them have a little Indian blood, though you would never suspect it.

President GATES. Can the children of white citizens of the United States come into these schools?

Colonel KIDD. No; they are not allowed any privileges at all. There are neighborhood schools, but, as a rule, they are mere shams; most of their teachers are incompetent and take no interest in their work. They teach for a pittance, but they teach only for the sake of the money. That is one evil.

If you will help the Government to make these intermarried men let go, and restore to the Indian what belongs to him, you will perform a real service to the Indian.

We have said to them, "We will divide the land. We will not buy an acre of it. We will put the title into your own hands, so you can not sell it, and no man can take it from you. The land will be made inalienable during your life, or for fifty years if you want to make it so."

When you go down there-as Senator Dawes can attest-you fall into the hands of these wealthy gentlemen, who are all along the railroads and in the towns; and they will take you out riding, and tell you all about the thing, and how well the Indians are getting on, and how wonderful it all is. When we first went down there we thought it was so; butby and by an Indian came in and asked if we would talk with a common Indian. We said, "Yes, of course," and he came up. He was a Cherokee. We talked with him, and then we began to find that there was something beneath the surface that we had not expected, and we learned some facts about the situation. We said to him that if any others wanted to come and talk to us, he was to tell them to do so, even the freedmen. Then they came, and our office was literally filled for days and weeks with those people who came there to tell us the true situation. We asked them why they did not make these representations to their governments, and let them know what the people wanted. One of them replied, "It is not healthy to advocate allotment in this country. It frequently lightnings from behind a tree." It is treason, in the constitution of the Cherokee Nation, for any man to hold communication with a 66 foreign government," and there is a tradition in the Cherokee tribe that any man who advocates allotment shall be held guilty of treason, and executed by any Indian who meets him. They do not dare to say anything there in favor of allotment.

Another thing: There are 250,000 white people in that country, 60,000 white children without any schools. All the education most of them have is daily association with criminals who go unwhipped of justice. They are trained in such a way that they will become criminals and a curse for generations to that and surrounding States.

Now, these evils can only be reached by the organization of a Territorial government that will establish schools. But these gentlemen stand back and point to the treaty and say, "Did not you solemnly promise that you would not establish a Territorial government without our consent?" Yes; but it was also agreed that the white men should be kept away. They have invited the white man in until there are 250,000, while there are only from 50,000 to 60,000 Indians in the five tribes. But they fall back upon the treaties and insist that those treaties protect them, and the Government ought not to violate its treaty. But there has been no attention paid to these treaties through all these years; they have disregarded them. We have disregarded them, too; there is no question about that. And the Government has the right always to repeal or abrogate a treaty when, in its judgment, it deems it desirable to do so, being answerable to its conscience in disregarding treaties to the other party.

The Secretary of the Interior has been trying to establish courts that should stop the perpetration of crime there. When we first went down, and found the situation, I wrote to a Senator from my State, suggesting changes in the judiciary for the benefit of these people, and he offered it as a memorial in the Senate, and they have been trying to drive me out ever since. Here to-day in Congress you can not get a judicial bill passed that will reach the evil. Why? The United States district courts at Fort Smith, Ark., and Paris, Tex., have jurisdiction of offenses committed in the Indian Territory, and we spend $200,000 on each of these courts. That is a rich find for the criminal lawyers of those towns, and for the saloons, and for the boarding houses. They do not want to give that $200,000 up. Now, the Government made a law long ago that there should be no intoxicants brought into the Indian Territory, but they take the Indians right to Fort Smith and to Paris, away from home and the restraints of home, and keep them idle in these towns, and the fees that they receive are poured into the saloons. Judge Culberson lives in that district, and so far as I can see, for a purely selfish purpose, fights this change in the judiciary, and he is aided by the cattlemen of Texas, who want this region as a grazing ground.

I am talking plainly, but I am talking about what I know, and what I say will be