Statement of expenditures from the sum of $6,000 appropriated by the act approved May 18, 1916, etc.-Continued. Statement of expenditures from the sum of $6,000 appropriated by the Indian act for 1918, approved Mar. 2, 1917 (39 Stat. L., 979), for council expense, etc., of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota. Wm. O. Coffey. Wm. O. Coffey. .do. 6.96 304318. 304317. 303697. 304824. 304819. 304820. 304821. 304822. 304823. 304835. 304836. 304399. 304837. 305245. 305292. 305291. 306864. 305359. 298755. 306422. 306420. 304834. 306421. 308502. 308506. 308522. 309830. 308519. 305354. 317596. 298362. 298750. 296622 296623. A. Cordee.. L. Gratz.. Foley's garage. Alexia Bushman. Bemidji Pioneer Pub J. G. Morrison, jr.. Kathan J. Head. Paul H. Beaulieu. Mrs. W. E. Fink. National Hotel.. ..do.. .do..... Pullman Co.. Wm. Hawes. Various delegates.. J. G. Montferrand. Various delegates. .do. General council .do.. Various delegates.. Paul H. Beaulieu. C. H. Beaulieu, Gus H. Joe Corbao, George Da- .do... F. H. Paquette. John Warren, John Lin- Reed. John Warren.. Wm. Hawes. 302076. C. & O. Ry. .do.. 298197. Hotel Gratz. ..do.. 298363 National Hotel. ..do.... Traveling expenses.. 40. 84 .do.. 40.84 Mr. ROACH. I want to inquire if these are the same items given us by Mr. Meritt? Mr. STEENERSON. No; he only gave those sums paid to Mr. Ballinger. Mr. BURTNESS. Have you any idea how they happened to overlook a few dollars in each year's appropriation? Mr. STEENERSON. I assume there might be some few contingent expenses waiting. Mr. JEFFERIS. Are these supposed council men getting this money? Mr. STEENERSON. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. These are the men running the council? Mr. STEENERSON. These are the men running the council, and there is the expense of the annual meeting. Mr. ROACH. I wish to ask a question on these particular figures. The CHAIRMAN. We will go back to that. Let him finish his statement. Mr. STEENERSON. These figures I have read are here in detail and represent the amount paid out of these appropriations for each year to Mr. Ballinger and to Mr. Fairbanks, who is the president of the general council, and to Mr. Beaulieu, who was also acting as sort of attorney. Now, I have extracts here from the testimony that is on file here, first on page 1645, volume 2, report of an investigation of the White Earth Band, and so on, with reference to the pages there; instead of taking these volumes over from the Library, I simply had them copied. This simply shows the position of these men who assume to be the guardians of these Indians and what their position was toward the Indians. One gentleman here the other day inquired about the lumber interests and fraud by lumber companies. Here is Mr. Beaulieu's testimony: EXCERPTS OF TESTIMONY. Examination of Gus Beaulieu. Mr. GRAHAM. Have you, Mr. Beaulieu, at any time beeh in the employ of the Commonwealth Lumber Co.? Mr. BEAULIEU. Yes, sir. Mr. GRAHAM. That is a Minnesota organization? Mr. BEAULIEU. Yes, sir. Mr. GRAHAM. That company evolved or was changed into the Nichols-Chisholm Lumber Co. ? Mr. BEAULIEU. Did you ask me if I had been employed by the Commonwealth Lumber Co. ? Mr. GRAHAM. Yes. Mr. BEAULIEU. No; I never was employed by the Commonwealth Lumber Co. Mr. GRAHAM. Were you ever employed by the Nichols-Chisholm Lumber Co. ? Mr. BEAULIEU. Yes, sir. Mr. GRAHAM. Are you still so employed? Mr. BEAULIEU. Well, I don't know as I could say I am really employed now. Mr. GRAHAM. Do you draw a salary or compensation from them for any purpose? Mr. BEAULIEU. Well, I have been drawing a salary this year; a small salary. Mr. GRAHAM. How much is it? Mr. BEAULIEU. $100 a month. Mr. GRAHAM. How far back does your employment with the Nichols-Chisholm Lumber Co., or its members-stockholders-date? Mr. BEAULIEU. Well, I can't Mr. GRAHAM. When did it begin, in 1904 or 1903? Mr. BEAULIEU. I can't recall now just how far back. Mr. GRAHAM. Well, you were interested in obtaining contracts for them somewhat in advance of the appropriation or passage of the Clapp rider of 1906, were you not? Mr. BEAULIEU. No, sir. Mr. GRAHAM. You were not in their employ at the time you were in Washington in 1906? Mr. BEAULIEU. In 1906? Mr. GRAHAM. Well, yes; in the winter and spring of 1906. Mr. BEAULIEU. Well, I had been looking after some matters for them previous to that time; that is, inherited lands. Mr. GRAHAM. Yes, exactly; on the reservation. Mr. BEAULIEU. Yes. (P. 669, vol. 1, report in the matter of the investigation of the White Earth Reservation in the State of Minnesota. H. Rept. No. 1336, 62d Cong., 3d sess., 1913.) Mr. BEAULIEU. Another thing I wish to say: I understand that the NicholsChisholm Lumber Co. had organized in 1903 or 1904. A short time after it was organized I was employed. (P. 1663, id.) Examination of Benjamine L. Fairbanks. Mr. FAIRBANKS. Benjamine L. Fairbanks. Mr. GRAHAM. Well, are you interested in any real estate on the reservation? Mr. FAIRBANKS. Yes, sir. Mr. GRAHAM. How much do you own? Mr. FAIRBANKS. About 20,000 acres, I guess, anyhow. Mr. GRAHAM. That was allotted land at one time? Mr. FAIRBANKS. Yes. (P. 1645, vol. 2, report in the matter of the investigation of the White Earth Reservation, in the State of Minnesota. H. Rept. No. 1336, 62d Cong., 3d sess.) Now I call attention to the fact that these men had been buying Indian allotments under the Clapp Act. That was an act that removed all restricions on mixed bloods, so that if a man was ever so incompetent-he might not know enough to charge more than a few dollars for 80 acres of pine land worth $13 or $15 a thousand, and they were absolutely incompetent, a great many of them, and as you perhaps all recall there was the worst scandal ever known in the history of Indian affairs, and these lumber companies employed-now, Mr. Fairbanks claimed to be a mixed blood; I suppose he had some Indian blood in him, but a good many years ago—I do not know just when he was entirely emancipated; he had been allotted land which made him a citizen, and in fact all these Indians are citizens of the United States, but because of the property rights they have in these funds in the United States they claim to be tribal Indians, and they organized this general council of tribal Indians, whereas 90 per cent of all Indians are citizens of the United States, and it has been the aim of this Government for years to wipe out the tribal organization, but lo and behold they come here, as you will see when you examine those articles of incorporation, it is a self-perpetuated organization. A majority are wealthy; a great many of them are well-to-do people and well educated and competent to attend to any business matter, and they controlled out of 100 delegates the majority, and, as you will see by these expenses here, when they have a council they pay the expenses of those Indians from White Earth or any other reservation who come and attend out of the funds appropriated for this general council. One council meeting was held at Bemidji, which is quite a distance, and the amount paid for expenses of delegates was quite large. Mr. MCCORMICK. Does this amount come out of the general tribal fund? Mr. STEENERSON. Certainly. So we have this Mr. Morrison, who is a trader at Red Lake, but a citizen of the United States, the president of the council; Mr. Fairbanks was also an officer of the council. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Fairbanks is now dead. Mr. STEENERSON. Yes; I think he died recently. The officers have been the same, so far as I know, from the very start, and notwithstanding the fact these full bloods have been down here to Congress and appealing to the department to pay their expenses, they come down here to protest against this. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. Mr. Steenerson, may I ask you a question, if you don't mind? Mr. STEENERSON. Surely. Mr. LEATHERWOOD. What is there before this committee to show the individuals you have named were trafficking in the allotted lands? Mr. STEENERSON. This is the evidence; no question about that. The lands were bought for less than they are worth. Here is the Assistant Attorney General who looked up the records. There were eleven hundred law suits brought to recover lands that were bought for less than they should have been bought for, and Mr. Beaulieu was one of them, and Mr. Fairbanks's 20,000 acres. He paid this money to settle the suits the United States brought gainst him for defrauding the Indians. Mr. BURTNESS. There were a lot of whites, were there not? Mr. STEENERSON. Yes; most of them. Mr. BURTNESS. The reason you picked out these is that these men were members of the general council? Mr. STEENERSON. Yes. My purpose was this: That their interest was not the interest of the ordinary Indian; that their interest has always been the interest of getting the property away from the real Indians, and, of course, whenever you diminish the general fund, why, every Indian loses. Now, here is a bill that asks for the appropriation of $22,000 to the general council. Now, recently, because of the emergency, you passed a bill that I introduced, giving each Indian $100 out of the trust fund, because they were threatened with starvation, and perhaps one-half or two-thirds of these Indians are perfectly able to take care of themselves, and perhaps 3,000 or 4,000 of them are practically paupers that have been taken care of largely on the White Earth Reservation, as Mr. Meritt knows. They had a hospital there and an old peoples' home, etc., but they have not now. So this general council came down here, and I supposed it was duly accredited and a bona fide organization representing the Indians, and I was busy on other matters, and never questioned it. They came down here and lobbied before this committee, and the first thing they did was to attack everything that had been done. They wanted the Indians released from all supervision; they wanted to wipe out the Indian reservations; the Indian Bureau should be wiped out and the general council should handle it; but they did not want any appropriations. Now, it is very easy to reduce appropriations, even if they come from trust funds. I think in 1915 the relief of Chippewas that was taken out of this trust fund by Congress was $205,000. After this council had been down here for several sessions it was reduced. Here are the figures: For the fiscal year 1915 the appropriation was $205,000; 1916 there was only a resolution that appropriated the same amount; 1917 it was reduced to $185,000; in 1917 the appropriation for the general council was $6,000, and the appropriation for poor and sick and helpless Indians was $185,000; in 1918 the relief for poor and sick and helpless Indians was $185,000 and $6,000 for this general council, but they got more influence, so in 1919 they reduced the appropriation to $175,000, and their own appropriation for the services in getting this appropriation reduced was raised to $10,000. As there are only 10,000 Chippewa Indians in Minnesota, a $10.000 appropriation means $1 out of every man's, woman's, and child's pocket, and many of these Indians are on the verge of starvation. They only get about $18 annuity out of millions of dollars in the Treasury. So they took $1 apiece by reducing the appropriation for these Indians out of this fund that belonged to them all, and there being 10,000 Indians, a $10,000 appropriation just takes from these poor fellows $1 each, for doing what? Reducing the appropriation for the poor, sick, and helpless Indian. Then, in 1920, it was reduced to $100,000, but for the services Mr. Ballinger claimed the credit for it got another appropriation of $10,000, and in 1921 they got Congress to reduce the appropriation to $60,000, and their own payment for lobbying was $10,000. Now, I presume that is the one they have not got, and that is what this bill is to pay. They were more successful at that time. They want to tax every Indian a dollar apiece for reducing this appropriation for the relief of Indians from $100,000 in the previous year to $60,000. Now, the result of that reduction was this: The medical service of doctors and nurses was discontinued. Mr. Meritt can tell the details. And the old peoples' home was abandoned, the hospital was closed, and I think you have now before you a bill to turn the hospital over to the State of Minnesota, because the appropriation is not sufficient to pay these expenses. Now, the health conditions-I have a communication I can submit from the board of health of the State of Minnesota The CHAIRMAN (interposing). Mr. Steenerson, permit me to ask right here just wherein this fits in this proposition we have here? What we are trying to determine is not a question between the White Earth and Red Lake Indians Mr. STEENERSON (interposing). I am not talking about that. The CHAIRMAN. Just a moment, if you please. What we are trying to determine is whether or not Mr. Ballinger has been properly compensated for the service he has rendered or whether he is entitled to more compensation. |