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Mr. BALLINGER. That was followed the following day by a letter from the commissioner giving positive instructions in detail to every superintendent in the Chippewa country as to the elections. The elections were regularly held in that country at the appointed time. No contest was made by that alleged fullblood faction on any reservation except the White Earth Reservation. The election was there held under the supervision of Indian Agent Dickens, and I want to ask Mr. Meritt if they ever had a man in the Indian Service who stood higher than Agent Dickens.

Mr. MERITT. He was a very capable superintendent.

Mr. BALLINGER. Wasn't he an honest superintendent?
Mr. MERITT. I think so.

Mr. BALLINGER. The elections were held under their supervision, and at the elections held on the White Earth Reservation the regular general council prevailed about 3 to 1. The delegates elected to the general council received credentials certified to by the Government officials. The general council was thereafter held in July, at Cass Lake, and present at that council there were Agent Dickens, and Dr. Michael, an inspector representing the Secretary's office. The council was regularly held at that time. This man Coffey came to the council with what he calls a contesting delegation, and the officials of the United States refused to seat him. Then he proceeded to go off and hold what he called another general council. Following that he applied to the secretary of state of the State of Minnesota for the incorporation of their council, and the papers were isuued. Thereupon suit was filed by the regular general council to enjoin this man, and I have here a copy of the injunction of the court, enjoining this man Coffey and each and every other person connected with that general council from holding themselves out, themselves or their servants or their agents, as a representative of the general council of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota. The following is the injunctive order:

[State of Minnesota, County of Itasca. In the District Court, Fifteenth Judicial District.] John G. Morrison, jr., et al., plaintiffs, v. The General Council of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota (Inc.), a body corporate, Benjamin Caswell, John Broker, William Morrell, Louis R. Caswell, William Potter, John S. Smith, Joseph Goggleeye, Frank Pequette, Wah De Shah Go Bay, David Boyd, and James I. Coffey, defendants.

Upon consideration of the verified complaint of the plaintiff in the aboveentitled cause, and on motion of Frank D. Beaulieu, one of the attorneys for said plaintiff,

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It is further ordered that until the determination of said application for said injunction the defendants, The General Council of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota (Inc.), a body corporate, Benjamin Caswell, John Broker, William Morrell, Louis R. Caswell, William Potter, John S. Smith, Joseph Goggleeye, Frank Pequette, Wah De Shay Sheence, George Shah Go Bay, David Boyd, and James I. Coffey, its or their officers, agents, servants, attorneys, and any and all persons acting by, through, or under it or them and each of them are hereby restrained and enjoined from using the name of the general council of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, or the seal, or facsimile of the seal of the general council of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, or from in anywise or in any manner exercising or attempting to exercise any function as an officer, committeeman, agent, or representative of said corporation or doing or performing any act or thing in its name, or from holding themselves out as officers, agents, or representatives of "the general council of all the Chippewas of Minnesota."

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The above temporary restraining order remains in full force and virtue to-day. The defendants have prevented the case from being finally heard. When James I. Coffey appeared before this committee and held himself out as the attorney for the general council he did so in violation of the injunctive order of the court.

He was never president of any general council among the Chippewas, and when he stated that he was he stated a pure fiction.

I want to put in the record also the letter of Commissioner Sells after the report made by Supt. Dickens and by Special Inspector Michael, acknowledging the regular general council to be the general council of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota.

The letter of the commissioner to Morrison, is as follows:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,
Washington, August 28, 1919.

Mr. JOHN G. MORRISON, Jr.,

Red Lake, Minn.

DEAR MR. MORRISON: I am in receipt of a copy of the minutes of the meeting of the general council of Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, held at Cass Lake, Minn., July 8, 1919; also reports from Supt. Walter F. Dickens and Supervisor L. F. Michael, who attended this council at my request. I have given this matter very careful consideration and hereby recognize your election as president of the council, Paul H. Beaulieu as secretary thereof, and the organization effected thereby, under the constitution and by-laws of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota.

I exceedingly regret, however, to note from the record that the factional differences among the Chippewa Indians were not adjusted at this council and a compromise effected so that this election would be an expression of the entire Chippewa Tribe.

Sincerely, yours,

CATO SELLS, Commissioner.

Ever since that time this man has been around here making indiscriminate charges of bad faith against the officers of the general council, some of whom are dead. Even the Indian Office is sick and tired of him. They know him to be a man utterly unworthy of belief. He was enrolled as a member of the Fond du Lac Reservation. The Indians up there will not let him come back to his reservation. He then moved to the White Earth Reservation and lived there and the Indians there repudiated him and practically drove him from that country. He is now in the city of Washington.

The CHAIRMAN. I am sorry to have to advise you that your time has expired. I think we ought to call the matter closed now so far as you are concerned. I think you have had a splendid opportunity to represent the principal points at issue.

Mr. BALLINGER. There are some matters particularly with reference to my services on the swamp land and other matters.

The CHAIRMAN. I think the committee would have no objection to your filing a brief with regard to the matter.

Please do not go over anything you have already testified to in the evidence. The record is going to be very voluminous in this matter up to the present time.

Mr. SEARS. I just notice in this case he referred to that the name of John G. Morrison appears to run throughout all of the cases as president of the general council.

Mr. BALLINGER. He was and is president of the regular general council. When I first filed the suit I filed it in the name of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, by John G. Morrison, their president, and a demurrer was filed to the bill on the ground that the tribe had no suable status. Therefore, I changed it so that the su't was brought in the name of John G. Morrison, for and on behalf of himself and all other persons similarly situated.

Mr. SEARS. The reason I mention that is you cite that as a case that the general council was back of.

Mr. BALLINGER. The original bill shows that it was filed in the name of the general council.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection, Mr. Ballinger is permitted to present, to be filed in the record, a brief covering the case to the extent of rebuttal he desires to make in addition to what he has already put in the record this morning.

Mr. BURTNESS. It is understood to be limited to rebuttal.

The CHAIRMAN. Limited to points he has not covered this morning.

(The brief referred to is as follows:)

MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY WEBSTER BALLINGER, Covering REBUTTAL MATTERS NOT COVERED IN ORAL ARGUMENT.

For convenient reference in my reply to the various matters that have been raised, I desire to here recapitulate briefly some of the matters heretofore covered. I do this so that in my reply I can refer to them and thus save constant repetition.

RECAPITULATION.

1. The cause of the present complicated conditions of the Chippewa estate: By the agreements entered into in 1889 with all the different bands of Chippewa Indians in Minnesota (H. R. Ex. Doc. 247, 51st Cong., 1st sess.), pursuant to the act of January 14, 1889 (25 Stat., 642), all of the reservations were ceded to the United States in trust, except so much of the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations, as were necessary to make and fill the allotments authorized by the agreements. The lands ceded were to be classified. All lands containing stands of pine timber were to be classified as "pine lands," and all the remaining land was to be classified as "agricultural lands.” The pine lands, including their timber, were to be appraised at their true value and sold at public auction at the highest price obtainable, but in no event at less than their appraised value. The agricultural lands were to be disposed of under the homestead law at $1.25 per acre. The net proceeds received from the ceded property were to be deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of all the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, and was to bear interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum. Three-fourths of the interest annually accruing was to be paid in cash to the Indians and onefourth was to be used for establishment and maintenance of a system of free schools in and amongst the Indians. At the expiration of the trust period the principal fund was to be divided and paid in cash to all of said Chippewa Indians and their issue, then living, in equal shares."

The Government accepted the ceded lands under an express trust. (Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 185 U. S., 373, 394-5; United States v. Mille Lac Indians 229 U. S., 498, 509-10.) The United States, the trustee, was not at liberty to make any other disposition of the land than that authorized by the trust.

Ea.iy in my investigation of the Chippewa situation, and in the fall of 1916, I discovered that the department in administering upon this estate had dealt with it as though it were an ordinary Indian estate free from any restrictions or limitations, and that Congress had enacted many laws disposing of large areas of the lands as though they were the property of the United States and it possessed unrestricted power over them. I found that under two resolutions of Congress a large body of the pine lands on ceded Mille Lac Reservation had been taken and opened to homestead entry in violation of the terms of the cession. The validity of these two resolutions of Congress was determined in the case of the Mille Lac Indians v. the United States. The court held, in a decision rendered June 9, 1913, that the acts of Congress were in violation of the terms of the cession, and gave judgment against the United States and in favor of the Indians for about $800,000. (United States v. Mille Lac Indians, 299 U. S., 498.) That decision, in my opinion, taken in connection with the decision of the Supreme Court in Minnesota . Hitchcock (185 U. S., 373) established the right of the Indians to recover for every acre of the ceded lands disposed of to the loss of the Indians and other than as the trust provided.

2. The illegal disposition of the estate:

I found that the trust estate had been illegally disposed of in the following respects:

(a) Approximately 600.000 acres, largely valuable pine lands, had been conveyed to the State of Minnesota mistakenly under the swamp land donation acts, and applications were then pending for a large additional acreage. Not a dollar had been paid the Indians for this land.

(b) Approximately 500,000 acres had been taken and included in the Minnesota National Forest Reserve under the acts of June 27, 1902 (32 Stat., 402403), and May 23, 1908 (35 Stat., 268). Under these acts the Indians were to receive compensation for the timber as cut, 5 and 10 per cent to be left stand

ing, for which the Indians were to be paid at its estimated value, and the land was to be paid for at $1.25 per acre. Not a dollar had been paid the Indians for the timber left standing, and the $1.25 per acre to be paid for the land, which had not been paid, represented only a fractional part of the market value of the land. Under the agreement of 1889 this land was to be sold at its market value and in no event at less than its appraised value.

(c) There was reserved in the diminished Red Lake Reservation approximately 700,000 acres, in order that about 1,200 members of the band might select the best land therefrom for allotments, the residue, after allotments were made, to pass to the United States under the terms of the trust. The allotments to the Red Lakes were to be made as soon after the surveys were completed as practicable. Not an allotment has been made on that reservation down to this time. Under a law of Congress approved February 20, 1904 (33 Stat., 48-50), 256,152 acres of the more valuable lands on this reservation were opened to settlement at not less than $4 per acre. The Indians residing upon this tract were removed from their homes back into the timber and swamps. All of the proceeds derived from the sale of this land was paid to the members of the Red Lake Band exclusively, which was a plain violation of the terms of the trust. The act further declared the members of the Red Lake Band to be the exclusive owners of all the remainder of the Red Lake Reservation, which was in plain violation of the terms of the trust. By the act of May 18, 1916 (39 Stat., 137), over the protest of the Indians (see Congressional Record, vol. 53, pt. 14, p. 1101–1104), Congress created the Red Lake Forest Reserve and provided that the proceeds received from the sale of the timber should be placed to the credit of the Red Lake Band. This was in plain disregard of the terms of the cession in 1889.

(d) I found that under the agreement of 1889 the timber had been fraudulently underestimated, resulting in heavy losses to the Indians. This had been established by investigations made by the departmental officers. (S. Doc. No. 85, 55th Cong., 1st sess., report submitted Jan. 26, 1897.) The beneficiaries of these fraudulent estimates had been the lumber companies. The fraud was further established during an investigation by a select committee of the Senate in 1899. Not a suit had ever been instituted by the Government to recover from the timber companies the value of the timber fraudulently obtained by them.

(e) By the act of May 23, 1908 (35 Stat., 268), all of the cut-over "pine lands" were authorized to be disposed of at $1.25 per acre, only a fractional part of their true value. Under the agreement of 1889 these lands were to be sold at their true value.

(f) Under the act approved May 20, 1908 (35 Stat., 169), large areas of the ceded lands had been taken and included in drainage districts, with primary benefits to the drainage districts of Minnesota and incidental benefits to the Indians.

(g) By the act of May 17, 1900 (31 Stat., 179), known as the free homestead act, the settlers on the agricultural lands were relieved of the payment of $1.25 per acre for the lands entered. The United States was to pay for these lands. No settlement had been made with the Indians, although 16 years had passed, and the money when placed in their trust fund was to draw 5 per cent interest. If this money had been paid in when it should have been, the interest would have amounted to nearly as much as the principal.

(h) A substantial element of the newborn children had been disinherited of their tribal inheritance by erroneous ruling of the department.

(i) Six reservations and agencies were in full operation, the entire cost of maintaining the reservations and agencies being defrayed out of the tribal funds. By the agreement of 1889 all reservations except the Red Lake and White Earth Reservations were abolished. The reservations and agencies being maintained, and which had been maintained for 27 years in violation of law, were Fond du Lac, Grand Portage. Leech Lake, and Nett Lake. There had been an act of Congress authorizing the establishment of an agency at Leech Lake, but this was in disregard of the agreement of 1889.

(j) Thousands of accounts of funds belonging to individual Indians were being kept in the various agencies of moneys to which the Indians were by law entitled, thus necessitating heavy administrative expenses.

(k) The school situation was deplorable. I covered this situation in my opening statement.

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(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 accomplished 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 desire 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

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