Second. The State laws as to education, health and morals should be made operative on the Menominee Reservation and should be enforced diligently. Third. Allotment should be made with a diminished trust period. This period should be the time of intensive social service work and concluding the tribal business.

Fourth. At the end of the trust period all the tribal business of the Menomi-. nees should be wound up and a complete accounting made. When a patent in fee is issued it should be accompanied by the due share of all other tribal possessions, and the Menominee Indian should assume complete responsibility for his own life and property.

Commissioner Seymour found all Menominee Indians living in houses, either of logs or of ordinary frame construction, and that outside of Keshena, where the agency is located, and Neopit, where the sawmill is, the tendency was toward unpainted cabins "with the huddle of outbuildings characteristic of Indian life." She reported that only the Indians of advanced age are unacquainted with the English language, though most adults use the tribal tongue in conversation with each other. Of 20 marriages during the preceding year, 11 were of Indians and 9 of Indians with white partners. The young people in dress and manners are little different from the white boys and girls of that section. Every home had its little garden, and, in most cases, chickens were raised, but the keeping of cows was unusual.

Education.-Commissioner Seymour's report gives the following information about the educational situation of this jurisdiction: Practically all Menominees under 50 years of age have had some degree of schooling. The children have parents, and often grandparents, who are school-bred. The Government boarding school at Keshena, with its substantial and well-located buildings, takes care of 130 children through the grammar grades. At Neopit, the sawmill town, there are two day schools, one Government and the other a mission school. Superintendent Donner, of the reservation, was in communication with the Wisconsin State authorities with the intent of having a public school established at this place. St. Joseph's Industrial School (Catholic), has an attendance of 220 and receives an appropriation from the tribal funds of $125 for each pupil each year, a total of $27,500.

In her comments on the Government school farm at Keshena, Commissioner Seymour said:

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'The general purpose of the farming done for the school seems to be to provide feed for the cattle which supply the milk for the pupils during the school season. This purpose is served to some extent, but the original purpose of a school farm, the instruction of Indian boys in agriculture, seems to have been overlooked. In the school year the boys, I am told, m.lk one cow apiece and consider that they have done all that could possibly be required. I saw no cows at the Indian homes visited.

"The economy program of two or three years ago resulted in cutting from the school salary list the position of carpenter. The boys, therefore, are without instruction in carpentry. This is rather a questionable economy. Here again the underlying purpose of Indian education has been overlooked. If instruction is to be merely in the ordinary branches of the public school, there can be no particular reason for maintaining Government schools at all.

"The elementary school opportunities of the Menominee are certainly ample. In spite of this fact the proportion of boys and girls who go on to higher schools is small. Among the older people there were some who had been to distant Government schools; but the younger generation seems reluctant to avail themselves of its opportunity. A few had been to Tomah and one or two, among those I saw, to Haskell; but ambitions in general seemed to point in other directions than education."

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Health.-Concerning the health situation, Commissioner Seymour stated that the health needs of the Menominee are cared for by a hospital at Keshena and a smaller one at Neopit with a physician stationed at each. "In general," she observed, 'I should say that in health matters the Menominee seem to be well above the average of the tribes I have visited. The children seem larger and sturdier and certainly the families are larger than is usual among Indian tribes." She found that no indication of the old Indian aversion to the white man's medical ideas was apparent; that the women practically without exception come to the hospital for accouchement. A number of old couples, blind, or helpless through some other cause, live regularly at the hospital at Keshena, which has a capacity of 30 beds. This building itself is in that

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unfortunate condition of being too good to be discarded, yet not good enough to justify the extensive repairs and improvements necessary to put it into first-class condition. In general, the attitude of the Menominee toward matters of medicine seemed to be that of any community of average enlightenment. Sanitation, however, is a different matter."

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Law and order." Although the Menominee Indians are citizens of the United States and voters in the State of Wisconsin, they are not amenable to the laws of the State and the Shawano County authorities are unacquainted with them except on election day," observed Commissioner Seymour in her report. All offenses, except those of so serious a nature as to call for the action of the Federal court at Milwaukee, must be handled by the agency force of three or four Indian policemen and the Indian court of two native judges." Commissioner Seymour attended a session of the Indian court, the proceeding of which, she said, "Were informal and rather jolly, as a whole. The two Indian judges, Jerome Lowe and Charlie Chickeny, took their situation with due seriousness and rather more impartiality than one might expect considering the close relations which the members of an Indian tribe bear to one another."

Most of the cases were "drunk and disorderly," the result of a per capita payment of $100 which had been made a few days before. Each of the defendants had already served a few days in jail, or at least working around the grounds and returning to the jail to sleep and for the good meals provided by the wife of the chief of police.

"This fact was taken into account," said Commisisoner Seymour, "in assessing fines, which were paid in each instance with a cheeerful grin. 'Sure they like to be in jail,' said one Menominee, Its right in town on the main road and they see every one go by, and their friends come and talk with them "."

The commissioner found the Menominee rather lax in their domestic relations, from the standpoint of white people. "Girls and boys barely in the twenties are married, unmarried, remarried for the second, third, or fourth time. How many of these changes are of any legal validity, it would require a court of inquiry to determine.

Enough has been said to show the utter lack of comprehension of the white man's system of moral rule and scruples. Centuries of racial contact and intermixture, and practically a century of educational and religious training, have brought about a pro forma acceptance of certain ceremonies, but nothing seems to have penetrated below the surface. It would be folly to interpret this as a deliberate wickedness. As well expect the blind to recognize tints or the deaf to enjoy a symphony. Let us say, rather, that the Menominee are tonedeaf so far as the white man's ideas of marital relations are concerned, and that his teaching so far has not tended to correct the deficiency.

"There seems little reason why the Menominee should not be amenable to the usual laws of the State in which they live. The undesirable results of the present lack of jurisdiction are evident, and it seems probable that this undesirability will increase rather than diminish.

"But law is not the first nor even the best answer to the types of problems presented by these people. If there were ever a ripe field for social service work of a high order, this is the place. The economy program removed a field matron from the list of Government employees and cut down by one the agency farmers, whose work on some reservations has a distinct social service aspect. Another employee or two, however, would do little toward filling the need. It is a matter for outside groups and for groups of the Menominee them selves."

Industries. Commissioner Seymour is of the opinion that industrially the Menominee are in a transition stage, and that impermanency of effort characterizes any industrial efforts of these Indians. Before the days of the sawmill it was the custom to issue seed in the spring; the Indians then cleared land and planted it. But with the inauguration of the sawmill the issue of seed was given up, and, apparently, the need of farming has not taken deep enough hold to make the Indians realize the advantage of saving his own seed for next year's crop, or of saving enough of the proceeds of one year's work to carry him through the winter. Consequently farming operations have diminished.

The native occupations include the making of reed mats by the older people; the making of birch bark baskets to sell to tourists; the manufacture of maple sugar, the gathering and sale of wild berries and ferns and other native

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produce. The increase of tourist travel over the main roads has led to the Menominee to build little candy and pop stands, which seem to be clean and well managed.

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"All of these different occupations," said Commissioner Seymour in her report, casual and intermittent in their nature, have a great deal more appeal to the Menominee than steady work, day after day, at cutting down trees and sawing them into lumber, or than regular employment supervised by others."

Timber operations.—About a year and a half ago the large sawmill on this reservation constructed from tribal funds was burned and a new one has replaced it. Commissioner Seymour noted that the Menominee attitude toward the mill is not an enthusiastic one, many Indians preferring the old plan under which a Menominee could get out logs when and where he chose, a certain proportion of the price being kept for the tribe, the balance going to the Indian himself. She expressed the opinion that it was probably this feeling that led in the successful agitation against making this a two-band sawmill.

Concerning this sawmill, her report reads:

"The mill operation, however, brings up the question of its purpose. Is it a business undertaking to make money for the Menominee, or is it, primarily, a place where they may be educated in this type of labor? Naturally it will serve both purposes in a measure; but its actual workings depend largely on the decision as to which purpose should predominate.

"One of the complaints most frequently made is that they (the Indians) were promised, when the mill was first built, that as the Menominee learned to become foremen and headworkers in the mill they should be placed in such positions. And now they point to the fact that the Menominee have learned and have not been promoted as a result of their labors. The factor that they fail to admit to the calculation is the irregularity of Menominee efforts. They work in the mill for a few days, get their money and lay off for a few days.

"With Menominee labor alone the mill could not operate. Yet there is a distinct feeling in the tribe that they should manage it. 'We Menominees want a voice in our own affairs,' was the complaint heard from many sources. It is obvious that a sawmill requires technical management and continual effort, which the Menominee has not yet learned to supply; but the slogan is a good one and wins many adherents.

The

"It is easy to see that the complaints of the Menominee gain support from people outside the reservat.on. It would be quite to the interests of business men in surrounding towns if there were no competition from within. resources of the reservation are too rich not to have longing eyes directed toward them, and to this fact many manifestations on the part of the Indians and the r self-styled friends outside may be attributed."

Hydroelectric power.-One of the features most interesting to outside business is the possibilities of hydroelectric power that lie in enlarging to a height of 75 feet the dam at Keshena Falls. The Wiscons n Central Power Co. has applied to the Federal Power Commission for a permit to undertake the development of this project, and a bill authorizing construction of a dam was introduced in the last Congress, so that this issue is before the Menominee people. In her report on th s feature of the reservation Commissioner Seymour wrote: "Such a dam would mean the flooding of a large area of land along the Wolf River, the submergence of the entire valley for a considerable distance. It would mean also huge bodies of workmen and the creation of an industrial center of magnitude. The result of all this upon the social and industrial life of the Menominee is difficult to foresee. Aside from the question of profit, and even aside from the social change inseparable from so great a project, it seems to me that if this enterprise were to involve a lease that would mean a perpetual trust fund for the Menominee, it would be a very bad thing. To maintain the tribe forever as wards of the Government is to abandon at the outset the whole purpose of Ind.an education which is to prepare them for independence and self-support."

Allotment. As pointed out by Commissioner Seymour in her report, "Allotment is, of course, the fundamental question with the Menominee people." In anticipation of this possibility there now is a great pressure of applicants to be admitted to the Menominee rolls. The rolls now number more than 1,900, and there are 500 more who are seeking to be added. This matter is complicated by the contention raised by applicants who claimed rights under 11097-26-4

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the half-breed roll which was made up for the "Half-breed payment of 1849." The tribe is divided on the question of adding such applicants to the tribal roll for the purpose of an allotment. The following are excerpts from Commissioner Seymour's report that are pertinent to the question of allotting the reservation lands to the Menominee Indians:

"When allotment is made, undeniably the rights of certain Indians to certain lands which they cleared and improved will have to receive due consideration. So will the fact of the buying and selling of houses which goes on among them. Each year in which the present state continues means greater confusion and difficulty when settlement of claims is finally brought about.

"The sentiment of the Menominee at present seems strongly in favor of allotment but with many reservations as to the manner in which it is to be made. An impression seems to prevail that the allotment of land is to be accompanied by a payment of $500, an amount deemed pitifully inadequate in making use of the land. The reservation of the timber rights to the tribe as a whole brought out this comment: You have the land, but you don't have it. The old way a man could clear his land and get enough money from the timber to build his house and buy stock. But if he can't have the timber the land is no use to him.' This is an argument which may well give food for thought.

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"So far as their intelligence and ability are concerned, it seems as if the Menominee are as fitted to receive allotments as they ever will be. Certainly, if they are not ready, no Indians are ever ready.

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The Menominee Indian has virtually passed through the preparation or trust stage. That is, he is as far advanced, at least outwardly, in the ways of civilization as it was assumed by the framers of the Dawes Act the Indians would become at the end of the 25 years of wardship. He still has something to learn of white ways, of obedience to the law; but these are things he will learn only when the complete end of the trust period brings him greater responsibility, amenability to the laws and closer contact with white neighbors. "This being the case, it seems undeniable that allotment of the Menominee should be made with reference to their present development. First, the period of trust ownership should be shortened, and second, when patents in fee are issued to the land there should also be an end of Government wardship of all sorts. Competency should mean actual responsibility in every

sense.

"The first of these stipulations, reducing the trust period, possibly from 25 to 10 years, recognizes the fact that the Menominee is well advanced on the road to ordinary life and that the next steps must await greater responsibility. No doubt the proposition will meet with disfavor from those who picture our duty to the Indian as involving greater care of his property than of his development. The Menominee will be richer if he never receives allotment and is kept for all time under guardianship. But wealth is not the only aim of human life, and the comfort of a canary fits him for nothing better than a cage. We assume that the Indian is to be fitted sooner or later for a normal human life with all its responsibilities, even though some of them are possibilities of loss.

"The second stipulation will bring up some rather difficult problems. While I saw many Menominee whose intelligence is comparable to the white man of that or any other section, I would scarcely hope to find a sufficient number who could handle the mechanical or business problems connected with the running of a sawmill or a large power plant. These are special activities which require not only a high type of intelligence but a long special training which so far the Menominee has not received. No matter how long the duration of the trust period, it is not highly probable that its close would see the Menominee as a whole in a position to administer wisely and competently these large interests. Nor even if some measue of competence should in some way be developed would it be desirable to have tribal ownership and control continue, if that were to mean also the continuance of tribal relations, the superiority to laws and courts, and the lack of responsibility that exists at present.

"The solution would seem to lie in such a disposition of tribal interests as would make it possible, at the close of the trust period, to have a clean, complete accounting and a dismissal from wardship of the tribe as a whole and of each individual member. This would mean the sale of the sawmill and

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power rights. The Menominee should then be amenable in every respect to the laws of county, State, and Nation; they should assume the responsibility for their own actions that help to make men and women of other citizens of our land. They will differ from other citizens slightly in blood, and considerably in fortune, for there is a large estate to divide among them. "But when the division is made they should be wards and infants no longer. They are in the midst of a prosperous, intelligent, far-sighted state; a state that offers abundant care and health to its citizens of all degree. The Menominee should not suffier when they attain actual citizenship, with its opportunities and responsibilities, in addition to the formal grant of citizenship status given by the act of June, 1924."