(1) The trust funds were being encroached upon annually to the extent of about $200,000 per annum for "support and civilization." Out of this money was being defrayed all the expenses of the agencies. This was, in my judgment, a plain violation of the terms of the trust, as the trust made no provision for the use of a dollar of the money in defraying the expenses of any agency. There had been no classification of the Indians, and these appropriations were being annually made upon the assumption that the entire membership of the tribe needed support and civilization, when, as a matter of fact, nearly one-half of the membership of the tribe had been emancipated.

(m) The State was illegally taxing the allotted lands of the Indians.

(n) Some of the Government employees were receiving rations at the expense of the tribe, their names appearing upon the Indian ration rolls, which rolls were supposed to contain the names of only old and indigent Indians. Upon those rolls appeared also the names of persons who were receiving as high as $36 per month from the United States in the form of pensions.

The above is only a part of what I found.

These matters were brought to the attention of the department in many communications, particularly the communications dated January 2, 1917; February 18, 1918; March 18, 1918; and April, 1919. They were brought to the attention of the committees of Congress many times between 1916 and 1920 and fully presented to the House Committee on Indian Affairs at the hearings on Chippewas of Minnesota conducted from January 21 to March 22, 1920. Some of them were the subject of litigation in the courts in Minnesota, the District of Columbia, and before the department.

It was not until I submitted the result of my investigations that either the Indians, the department, or the committees of Congress had any real conception of the confused condition existing.

As the result of my work the following has been accomplished:

(a) Three of the agencies illegally maintained have been abolished.

(b) The State of Minnesota has stopped the imposition of taxes upon Indian allotments and the taxes previously illegally assessed have been canceled. (c) The Indians were saved at least $75,000 in the redemption of their Liberty bonds.

(d) The appropriations for "support and civilization," that formerly reached nearly $200,000, were in 1920 reduced to $60,000.

(e) The minor Indian children have been reinstated in property rights of the approximate value of more than $2,000,000.

(f) The tribal rolls have been preserved from attack.

(g) The school situation has been immeasurably improved.

(h) The Indians are receiving to-day the best administration through the agencies they have ever known.

(i) The swamp-land controversy is on its way to the courts.

(j) It is now conceded that the Red Lake situation must go to the courts for decision.

(k) The necessity of abolishing the forest reserves and the sale of the lands in conformity with the terms of the trust is now practically conceded.

REBUTTAL STATEMENT CONTINUED.

3. Real cause of opposition from Minnesota and the department to the general council and to this bill:

For about two years after the council was organized, in May, 1913, it atcomplished little of value. It was without information relative to the condition of the estate and could not obtain it. As long as the council did nothing it encountered no opposition. There was no opposition from the department for appropriations for its support. When the council commenced to function and brought to light the swamp-land situation and insisted upon restitution being made by the State, it incurred the opposition of the State authorities and the large property owners who would be compelled by taxation to reimburse the Indians for the property illegally obtained and sold by the State. When it insisted upon restitution for the timber fraudulently acquired by the big lumbering interests it aroused the opposition of those interests, which did not de sire their past transactions aired in a court. When it insisted upon the cancellation of fraudulent double allotments that had been mortgaged and the mortgages held by the banking and loan interests of the State, and when it insisted upon the paying out of the thousands of accounts representing money

to which the individual Indians were lawfully entitled, it incurred the opposttion of the banking interests.

When it insisted upon the abolition of the forest reserves it incurred the opposition of wealthy people who have summer homes, or spend a part of their summer in those reserves along the lake fronts. When it insisted upon restitution of the lands within the Red Lake Reservation it incurred the opposition of the Red Lake Band, who claimed the entire reservation. When it insisted upon every child contiguous to a public school being taken out of the boarding and mission schools and placed in the public schools it incurred the opposition of the Government employees who would lose their jobs, and a large number of Indians who could, by sending their children to the boarding schools, have them supported for nine months during the year at the expense of the tribe and thus escape their duties and responsibilities to their own children. When they sought to restrict the ration lists to the old and indigent Indians in actual need they incurred the opposition of many indolent Indians, fully capable of maintaining themselves and families, but who preferred to accept hand-outs in the form of meal and pork paid for at the expense of the tribe. When they sought to confine the appropriations from their trust funds to the economic needs of the services they encountered the bitter opposition of the department. These interests, either directly or indirectly, have successfully prevented the enactment of any legislation by Congress that would clean up this estate. They will continue to do so unless the committees of Congress take the matter into their own hands. It is these interests that are secretly or openly behind the opposition to this bill. I want to exempt the present Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the present officials of the Secretary's office from the above charge.

4. The charge that the general council sought the reduction of annual appropriations to the detriment of the poorer class is unfounded in fact:

There is no basis for the claim that the general council in seeking the reduction of the anual appropriations from the trust funds sought to deprive any poor Indian of protection and benefits. This is clearly shown by the record. The Indian appropriation bill approved April 4, 1910 (36 Stat., p. 276), contained the following provision:

66

66 CHIPPEWAS OF MINNESOTA, REIMBURSABLE (TREATY).

To enable the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to carry out an act entitled 'An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota,' approved January 14, 1889, namely, the purchase of material and employment of labor for the erection of houses for Indians; for the purchase of agricultural implements, stock, and seeds, breaking and fencing land; for payment of expenses of delegations of Chippewa Indians to visit the White Earth Reservation; for the erection and maintenance of day and industrial schools; for subsistence and for pay of employees; for pay of commissioners and their expenses, and for removal of Indians and for their allotments, to be reimbursed to the United States out of the proceeds of sale of their lands, $150,000.”

The agreement of 1889, section 7, provided that the costs of administering the estate should be advanced by the United States, and when the fund reached the sum of $3,000,000, exclusive of the advances, the Government was to be reimbursed for the costs it had advanced. The word " reimbursable" appearing at the head of the above item indicates that there had been no settlement in 1910. In that year the $150,000 defrayed all the expenses enumerated in the act, which covered all expenses in connection with the estate, including assistance to the Indians.

In 1911 the Government was reimbursed for all expenses in connection with the administration of the estate. In Chippewas of Minnesota hearings before this committee, 1920, page 428, appears a statement of the receipts and disbursements. The appropriations made prior to 1911 for administration were all reimbursable. The reimbursable items shown in this statement are as follows:

Negotiating with and civilization of Chippewas in Minnesota (re-
imbursable)

Advance interest to Chippewas in Minnesota (reimbursable).
Relief and civilization of Chippewas in Minnesota (reimbursable)

$60, 000, 00

1, 890, 000. 00

2, 350, 559. 00

Surveying and allotting to Chippewas in Minnesota (reimburs-
able) __

Indian school buildings, Leech Lake, Minn. (reimbursable).
Indian school buildings, Red Lake, Minn. (reimbursable)
Drainage survey, Chippewas in Minnesota (reimbursable).
Indian school buildings, Chippewas in Minnesota (reimbursable) –
Expenses of agreement with Chippewas and Christian Indians
(reimbursable).

Payment of drainage assessments, Fond du Lac Reservation (re-
imbursable) –

Total

$567,936. 55 20,000.00 35, 000, 00 35,000.00 20, 000, 00

600.00

13, 080.00

4, 992, 175, 55

In 1911 all the allotment work had been completed except a few allotments made to scattering Indians since that time. No allotments had then nor have they since been made to the little band on the Red Lake Reservation, although the law directed the allotments to be made as soon as practicable after 1889. No houses have since been built for the Indians except some few in the Fond du Lac section as the result of the great fire in 1918, for which a specific appropriation was made. In 1911 more than 50 per cent of the 7,000 Indians allotted on the White Earth Reservation had been emancipated. The only work remaining was the handling of funds, looking after a few schools maintained by the Government, and general agency work, which latter would require only a few clerks. Notwithstanding the greater portion of the work of administering upon the estate had ceased, the appropriation for the fiscal year commencing June 30, 1914, was increased to $205,000 for support and civilization. The appropriation in the Indian appropriation bill approved August 1, 1914 (38 Stat., p. 590), was as follows:

66 MINNESOTA.

"SEC. 8. * * The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to withdraw from the Treasury of the United States, at his discretion, the sum of $205,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, of the principal sum on de posit to the credit of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesta, arising under section 7 of the act of January 14, 1889, entitled 'An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota,' and to use the same for the purpose of promoting civilization and self-support among the said Indians in manner and for purposes provided for in said act: Provided, That not to exceed $40,000 of this amount may be used in the purchase of lands for homeless nonremoval Mille Lac Indians, to whom allotments have not heretofore been made, to be immediately available and to remain available until expended, said lands to be held in trust and may be allotted to said Indians, in the discretion of the Secretry of the Interior, subject to the provisions of the act of February 8, 1887 (24 Stat. L., p. 388, as amended): Provided further, That not to exceed $5,000 of the amount herein appropriated may be expended in the removal of Chippewa Indian bodies from the burial grounds in the vicinity of Wisconsin Point, Wis., and their reinterment in an established cemetery in the city of Superior; said amount to cover markers for each grave or one monument, as may be found most suitable; and for the removal and suitable burial and marking of the graves of Indian bodies at Mille Lacs, Gull Lake, and Sandy Lake, Minn."

Also item page 592, $50,000 for construction of three hospitals.

In addition to this $205,000 there was available for school purposes that year about $75,000, representing one-fourth of the interest on the principal fund, This money did not have to be appropriated by Congress, but automatically became available. Thus, in 1914, although more than one-half of the cost of administration had been eliminated, the expense for support and civilization was $130,000 more than in 1910. These large increases alarmed the Indians who were receiving no compensatory benefits. In 1917 the commissioner submitted to the House committee an explanation of the expenditure of $175,227.14 for support and civilization during the preceding year. This did not include the above $80,000 available from the interest money for school purposes that year. The explanation was as follows:

Regular employees.

Irregular labor

Repairs and improvements to buildings..
Traveling expenses

$56, 512. 43 7,979.29 1, 130. 40 3, 624. 62

In a communication to the offices of the general council, dated March 12, 1918, and signed by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, in answer to the complaints of the officers of the general council with reference to the appropriations, the above statement was furnished them (pp. 8, 9, 10). Under date of March 18, 1918, the general council, in a communication to the Assistant Secretary, analyzed each item appearing in the above statement, as follows: "Let us analyze the principal items of expenses paid out of the $185,000 appropriated for the fiscal year 1917 as set out in your letter (pp. 8-9).

66

66

Of the first item, 'Regular employees, $56,512.43,' all went to the employees. Of the second item, Irregular labor, $7,979.29,' all was paid to employees. "Of the third item, 'Repairs and improvements to buildings, $1,130.40,' practically all was spent on houses occupied by employees.

“Of the fourth item, Traveling expenses, $3,624.62,' all was spent on employees.

66

Of the fifth item, Wagon transportation of supplies, $4,575.58,' it does not appear whether these supplies were for employees or the Indians, but we know of our own personal knowledge that a considerable portion of them was for the employees.

66

Of the sixth item, Stationery, printing, and schoolroom supplies, $724.85,' a considerable portion was spent for supplies for the agencies, which are under the Superintendents of the training schools.' It is very doubtful whether a dollar of this money was spent for the purchase of a single school book or actual school supply.

"All of the seventh item, Telegraph and telephone service, $844.31,' was expended on the employees in the Indian Bureau. Every Indian who uses a telephone maintained by the department must pay the usual toll charges.

"The eighth item, 'Heat, light, and power (including fuel), $19,176.75,' was expended for heat, light, and power for the agency buildings and the houses occupied by the employees. No Indian, except children in the boarding schools and the hospitals, derived any benefit therefrom, and they were so few that it can scarcely be said that the Indians actually derived any benefit therefrom. In every house of every employee is a separate heating plant, which renders the heating system very expensive.

"The ninth item, Dry goods, subsistence, forage, and medical supplies, $57,818.10,' does not state how much, if any, goes to the Indians. We know of our own personal knowledge that a considerable portion of the dry goods included in this item goes to the employees; that all of the forage goes to the live stock which is maintanned, in part at least, for the benefit of the employees; from this live stock our people derive only incidental benefits; and that a part of the medical supplies goes to the employees.

"The principal portion of the tenth item, Equipment, $8,367.62,' is expended largely for the benefit of the employees. Out of this item is paid the cost of automobiles, buggies, harness, etc., and some portion thereof spent for farming implements for the use of the property.”

Similar statements and protests against these exorbitant appropriations out of which the Indians were getting no substantial benefits were filed with the committees of Congress in 1916, 1917, and 1918, and with the department. Recourse was made to the courts to stop them.

In 1918 an investigation by two departmental inspectors was made, as a result of which large reductions in force, in boarding schools, and other branches of the service were made. When the facts became known the appropriation for support and civilization" in 1920 was reduced to $60,000. The following is an exact copy of the item appearing in the Indian appropriation bill approved February 14, 1920, Public No. 141:

66

"SEC. 8. The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to withdraw from the Treasury of the United States, at his discretion, the sum of $60,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary of the principal sum on deposit to the credit of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota, arising under section 7 of the act of January 14, 1889, entitled 'An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota,' and to use the same for promoting civilization and self-support among the said Indians in manner and for purposes provided for in said act: Provided, That not to exceed $5,000 of the above amount shall be used to aid the public schools in the Chippewa country: Provided, That Indian children shall at all times be admitted to said schools on the same terms and conditions as white children."

In the fall of 1920 it was claimed by the department that the appropriation for support and civilization had been reduced to too low a figure to permit of good administration. In December, 1920, and January, 1921, the then chairman of the subcommittee of the Budget Committee having charge of the Indian appropriation bill insisted that the department should go into the question of appropriations with the officers of the general council and reach an agreement. The officers of the general council insisted that the appropriation from the trust funds should be divided and definite amounts appropriated for specific activities. The officers of the council reached a complete agreement with the department after going into the necessity for each appropriation, and the appropriation carried in the act approved March 3, 1921, was for $100,000, $20,000 of which was for extraordinary work, namely, for the construction, equipment, and maintenance of additional public schools to be operated under the publicschool system of the State. The appropriation that year for aiding indigent Indians was increased by the council about $8,000 more than had previously been used. The appropriation for the hospitals was all that was asked by the department. Thus the regular appropriations this year for the Chippewas out of their principal fund are only $80,000.

The appropriation for the service next year requested by the department as shown by the Budget is $95,000, of which amount $20,000 is appropriated for the construction, equipment, and maintenance of additional public schools, which can not be used for that purpose unless provision is made whereby the necessary land upon which to construct the schoolhouses is conveyed to the State, the general council having asked for the inclusion of such a provision. The appropriation of $20,000 made last year could not be expended for the purpose for which it was appropriated. The department would never have sanctioned the employment of an attorney to bring about these reductions in its appropriations. Thus the appropriations now being made for “support and civilization" are more than $100,000 less than when the council commenced operation. This saving of more than $100,000 per annum has not deprived any indigent Indian of any benefits he previously received. It has been in the interests of both the indigent Indian and the competent Indian. These services were of great value, and the result was accomplished after years of hard and industrious work. Under the agreement of 1889 the department had no authority to use a dollar of the trust funds of the Chippewa Indians for general agency purposes. The council has repeatedly endeavored to induce the department to refer the question to its own legal officers, which requests have been refused.

5. The charge that the general council and its attorney have endeavored to take from the Red Lake band property to which the members of that band were legally entitled is without foundation:

It was charged by Congressman Steenerson and by Congressman Knutson that the general council and its attorney had endeavored to take from the Red Lake Band a part of the property on the Red Lake Reservation, to which that band alone was entitled, for the benefit of all the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota. The charge was that this property legally belonged to the members of the Red Lake Band, and that the general council was attempting to take from them their property and confer it upon all the members of the Chippewa tribe. The statement is fallacious when the facts are inquired into. In Chippewa hearings before this committee, 1920, commencing at page 65, this matter is fully covered. The facts are succinctly stated under paragraph "2. The illegal disposition of the estate; subheading (c)" of this reply, to which reference is here made. The Red Lake Band has no shadow of title to the entire Red Lake Reservation, and when the matter goes to the court the courts will so hold.