If a water power project, with or without a related irrigation system, should be planned as a minor, local reservation enterprise solely for the interested Indians, there would be justification for the Federal Government to construct the project, advancing the funds on a reimbursable basis, and to operate it. But there are several reservations whose power resources are so large that if only the minimum development, solely for the use of the tribe, should be effected, the future maximum development, not only for the Indians but also for the surrounding country, would be seriously embarrassed if not entirely prevented. Where this kind of a situation is found, and it is decided to develop power, sound business principles would seem to demand that the maximum development should be utilized. In such cases we are of the opinion that the enterprise should not be undertaken by the Federal Government as an Indian Service function but that the water power should be sold or leased to public utility corporations under contracts so carefully drawn that the interests of the Indians, and also of the white people, who, through existing laws, became the owners of Indian lands within reservations, should be completely safeguarded. The revenues accruing to the Indians from such enterprises would be deposited in the National Treasury to the credit of the Indians subject to disposal by Congress if the usual order of procedure should be followed. In connection with this matter we respectfully refer you to a report on the Menominee Indian Reservation, dated June 30, 1926, by Commissioner Seymour, and to a report on the Flathead Reservation, dated November 7, 1925, by Commissioner Knox. WARM SPRINGS BOUNDARY DISPUTE During July, 1926, Commissioner Sullivan visited the Warm Springs Reservation, Oreg., which is the home of a thousand Wasco, Tenino, and Paiute Indians. They told him that their chief problem concerned the adjustment of the reservation boundaries and he conducted an all-day hearing on the question. In his report, dated September 1, 1926, Commissioner Sullivan outlined the situation as follows: They (the Indians) complain that on all four sides of the reservation some of their land has been taken from them. While perhaps this complaint is unfounded with respect to the southern and eastern boundaries, it seems clear that they are in the right with respect to the northern and western boundaries. On several occasions the lines have been gone over by surveyors acting under instructions from Washington. The most recent official study of these lines was made by Fred Mensch, deputy United States surveyor for Oregon. His report plainly shows that on the northern and on the western boundaries of the reservation the Indians have lost great tracts of land which ought to be restored to them, or at least be compensated for, immediately. Unfortunately some of the land which ought to be included in the northern part of the reservation was turned over many years ago to white settlers and it would be impracticable to restore all this land to the reservation. Certainly, however, full pecuniary compensation should be made to the Indians for this land. About six years ago it was suggested to the Indians that they consider accepting $54,880 for this portion of the ground which ought to be included in the reservation. They carefully considered this suggestion, but rejected it, for they allege that this part of their land is worth at least $100,000. They contend that very valuable timber has been cut from some of this land for which they should receive payment. Of the value of this land I have no knowledge, but it is obvious that a gross injustice is being done the Warm Springs Indians by the continued failure to straighten out this matter. Mr. Mortsolf (the reservation superintendent) has made a careful study of the boundary question. He believes that the Indians are entitled to much more land on the west and on the north of their reservation than is now included within the reservation lines. My own investigation convinces me that this is correct. Happily, a large part of the ground of which the Indians have been deprived is now included in the national-forest reserve, so that on the western and on much of the northern part of the reservation the adjustment of the boundary lines need present little difficulty. I can not urge too strongly that this matter shall receive the immediate attention of the Board of Indian Commissioners and the Department of the Interior through Commissioner Burke. We heartily concur in Commissioner Sullivan's recommendation and respectfully urge that this justifiable complaint of the Warm Springs Indians receive the immediate attention of Congress and the department and that suitable action be taken which will bring to a quick end the long delay in the adjustment of the reservation boundary lines. MISSIONS ON RESERVATIONS The missions maintained on Indian reservations by the Protestant and Catholic churches have long been regarded as cooperating units with the board and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Federal Government's effort to aid and qualify Indians to take their places as selfsupporting, independent men and women in the general citizenry of the Nation. The Congress of the United States, the successive Secretaries of the Interior and Commissioners of Indian Affairs, and the school and reservation superintendents have again and again testified by legislation, Executive orders, and official statements to the value of the missionary work. The Federal officers have recognized the missionaries as influential members of the authorized personnel on the reservations. The Government as the guardian and trustee of some 240,000 Indians desires and welcomes the cooperation of the mission boards in all endeavors to promote the welfare of the Indians. About three years ago the Board of Indian Commissioners began a study of the Christian missions among the American Indians with the purpose of ascertainting the extent and results of missionary endeavors and the degree of interest which the supporting churches were taking in Indian mission work. Letters were sent to a number of missionaries for the man on the job, the reservation missionary, knows more about his task than any one else. The replies received from the reservation missionaries constrain us to feel that the members of the Christian churches are not sufficiently informed on matters concerning our American Indians, and because of this there seems to be a lack of interest in the Indian mission activities. Information is the mother of interest and interest is the mother of generosity. There appears, also, to be room for greater efficiency in the Indian mission field, for larger appropriations for Indian mission work, for more appreciation of the manifold problems faced by Indian missionaries and a stronger recognition of their 65428-27- -2 value as a Christianizing and civilizing influence among the Indian people. The results of the inquiry concerning the work of the missions made by the board were presented in a bulletin which contained certain facts about the history, progress, present distribution and needs of the Christian missions among the American Indians. A limited number of copies of the bulletin was mimeographed and the issue was quickly exhausted. Some of the statistical information in the bulletin is included in the appendix of this annual report. RESERVATION BOARDING SCHOOLS Some fear has been expressed that the nonreservation schools were receiving a disproportionate amount of the attention of the officials in charge of Indian education at the expense of the reservation boarding schools. This feeling of apprehension is not altogether well founded, for the Indian Bureau now is giving the smaller institutions special consideration. We are informed that it is the purpose of the bureau to so arrange the reservation boarding-school program that all of the pupils, from the beginners' class to the sixth grade, inclusive, will be kept in the academic rooms all of the school day. During the past few years the children in the three lower grades in most of these schools have been kept in the schoolroom all day and now this privilege is to be extended, as rapidly as possible, to the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Under these conditions it will be possible for the children to complete the six grades by the time they are 12 and 13 years old. Up to a few years ago it was not uncommon to find a considerable number of pupils in these schools from 16 to 20 years of age. But to-day, in most of the schools, there are but a few pupils older than 15 years; the Indian children now are nearer the ages of white children in the same grades. Obviously, children of 13 years and younger are too immature to attempt to give them much of what is generally called vocational training. They are in the prevocational grades, and prevocational work might well be called home work, or chores. We have observed in some of these schools that those in charge seemed to regard prevocational work simply as necessary routine, apparently with no thought that it might be used as a method of education. In well-organized rural community schools white children are taught to do chores systematically, under direction, with the purpose of teaching the girls to help care for the home, assist in the kitchen, mend clothing, darn stockings, etc. The boys are taught to do the things which will tend to inculcate habits of industry and give them some degree of skill in garden work, milking, caring for the work animals and poultry. In these schools prevocational work is made an important part of the schooling. Many Indian children, through stress of circumstances, end their school days in the reservation boarding schools. Consequently, they are deprived of the opportunities for real vocational or industrial training which is emphasized in the nonreservation schools. Such children, in our opinion, are entitled to special consideration. These also are children living on reservations where they are likely to find themselves landless and with no revenues from tribal resources by the time they reach their majorities. Many of these children will leave school when they have finished the course in the reservation boarding school. We beg to suggest that the situation we have outlined calls for the best thought of the Indian Bureau officials who are responsible for Indian education and that prevocational work in reservation boarding schools be given the importance in the general school scheme which, we believe, it should have. Respectfully submitted. GEORGE VAUX, Jr. WARREN K. MOOREHEAD. SAMUEL A. ELIOT. FRANK KNOX. DANIEL SMILEY. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. MALCOLM MCDOWELL. FLORA WARREN SEYMOUR. |