Our efforts to secure funds from the people for the support of the clergy of their own blood have not been very successful. I have not complete statistics for the year, but I know that the record is not satisfactory.

NEW CHURCH.

A gift of some young ladies of Lower Merion, Pa., made some two years ago, excited the good people of Saint Alban's station, Lower Brulé Reserve, to hope that they might eventually secure a church. The Indian women of the station raised $125 by dint of unwearied effort. This year the Woman's Auxiliary of Connecticut sent $250 more. The result is a neat and well-situated church, which was opened for divine service in May last.

SUMMING UP.

Twelve years ago there was not to be found among any of these Indians a single boarding-school, though the number of children of school age was about 6,000. Our mission boarding schools were the first venture among them in this line. We have now four in successful operation. We have three commodious, substantial boarding-school buildings, and a vast and once desolate country is dotted over with twenty-five neat churches and chapels, and eighteen small but comfortable mission residences. No recess in the wilderness is so retired that you may not, perhaps, find a little chapel in it. All this has been accomplished, without Government subsidies, by the gifts of generous friends. Thirty-six congregations have been gathered; the clergy have presented for confirmation during my episcopate nearly 1,200 candidates; seven faithful Indians are now serving in the sacred ministry, four having died; and the offerings of our native Christians have increased yearly until now they amount to about $2,000 per annum.

The money for all the twenty-five churches and eighteen parsonages referred to above, except three, passed through my hands, and the buildings were put up under my supervision. I know, therefore, their condition, and am glad to report that they are all of them entirely free from incumbrance and debt of every kind, except one of the Santee chapels, on which the Western Church Building Society holds a mortgage of $350; and all of the buildings have been kept insured until lately, when want of funds has driven me to omit this wise precaution in several cases.

Whatever measure of success has attended the mission has been largely owing to the fidelity of the missionaries to their work, from which no trials have been sufficient to turn them back. The following have all been in the service for terms ranging from seven to sixteen years:

Rev. J. W. Cook, Rev. L. C. Walker, Rev. W. J. Cleveland, Rev. H. Swift, Rev. H. Burt, Rev. J. Robinson, Rev. Ed. Ashley, Rev. W. W. Fowler, Rev. David Tatiyopa, Miss Amelia Ives, Miss Mary Z. Graves, Mr. J. F. Kinney, jr., Mrs. J. F. Kinney, jr.

THE FUTURE.

Notwithstanding all this wide extension of the mission there has been no increase in our resources during the last ten years.

This has, of course, embarrassed and cramped our work. Eligible offers of services have necessarily been rejected; candidates for the sacred ministry has been rather discouraged; inviting opportunities for extending the work have been declined; annoying reductions have been forced on the missionaries, which, I fear, have sometimes made me seem contemptible.

In our sore pecuniary need the Indians can extend very little help. They have lost almost everything by the progress of civilization. The antelope, deer, and buffalo were their capital and the raw material out of which they provided for almost all their wants, whether clothing, food, tents or utensils, and these animals have almost entirely disappeared. Their acquisition of new habits and productive occupations is a slow process. Comparatively little pecuniary aid can be expected, therefore, from them. Their needs, secular and spiritual, meanwhile, are extreme. We could to-day organize twenty new congregations of heathen Indians had we chapels to gather them in, and men to make disciples of them and teach them all things whatsoever our Lord hath commanded. These chapels would cost from $300 to $1,500 each, according to size and location. The salaries of the teachers, catechists, or ministers would, as the case might be, range from ten to seventy dollars per month.

The claim which this Indian mission has upon the church seems to me altogether extraordinary. The claim of any people sitting in heathen darkness upon those who enjoy

*Our fourth boarding-school occupies a Government building.

the light is very sacred. But these Indians are heathen people right at our doors. They lie in helpless ignorance within a few hours by rail of Christians who are rich in all that makes life happy now and full of promise hereafter. Our progress and our present wealth have been secured largely by the sacrifice of all that they held dearest, their old homes, their wild game, the occupations and pleasures of the chase, and freedom to rove as they would.

In the midst of the alarm and perplexity occasioned by these losses, the church appeared among them, proffering a new mode of life here and the hope of a better life to come. A large number of them have given up their heathen superstition and received the truths and institution of the gospel.

The proximity of Christianity has undermined the old religion even of those among whom we have not had the means as yet to introduce the truth. That old religion was a great fact and a great power in their lives. It had its sacred stories which fed the religious instinct. The changes of the seasons and the events of individual and social life were marked by holy rites, made attractive by singing, processions, and dances. But the whole system is going to pieces because of the proximity of civilization and the mission. The people are disconcerted and perplexed. They know not which way to turn. They are helpless. They will soon become hopeless. Then they will become, I fear, reckless and do desperate deeds, or they will become broken-hearted and sink into pauperism, loathsome disease, and death. Among the Ogalalas, who number about 7,500 souls, no other Christian body is at work. Among the Upper Brulés, who number about as many, no other body but the Roman Catholics. We could gather twenty congregations among these two tribes alone, within a year, had we the men and means to undertake the work. Every sentiment of honor and of Christian duty demands, I conceive, that we shall fulfill the expectations which our presence and past work have excited, and that we shall give of our abundance to those from whom we have directly and indirectly taken so much. In the presence of a juncture like this the feeling, which I fear is growing, that the Indian work is receiving an undue share of the gifts of the church seems to me to be preposterous.

If the general board cannot increase its appropriations to this work consistently with its other obligations, then I trust that individual sense of duty and private gifts will enable the mission to enter every 66 open door" and adequately meet the growing need.

L

D.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE MOHONK LAKE CONFERENCE.

I.

FIRST DAY-MORNING SESSION.

At 10 o'clock on the morning of October 13, 1886, the Hon. A. K. Smiley rapped to order, in the parlor of the Mohonk Lake Mountain House, and, after a few words of cordial welcome, opened the fourth annual "Lake Mohonk Conference" by nomiuating Gen. Clinton B. Fisk as chairman, a motion which was unanimously indorsed by the conference.

General FISK, on accepting the office, said:

"It is a very grateful thing to an ambitious man in these heated times to be unanimously elected. It is no slight honor to preside over the Mohonk Conference, which has been yearly growing stronger in its general make-up and, its influence in behalf of the Indians. We thought our last year's conference the best we had ever had; and it was, no doubt, but we are promised a better one this year.

"Last year you appointed a committee to wait upon the President of the United States to consult him in regard to Indian affairs. That committee visited the President early in November. We were kindly received and patiently heard, the President entering into the discussion with earnestness. His utterances were all in the right direction. He was grateful for our visit, and wanted a committee to prepare and place in his hands such suggestions as the Mohonk Conference wanted carried out, pledging his influence, both in and out of Congress, in behalf of our measures. Those with us that morning will remember how earnestly the President discussed the question of Indian education, and the benefit of schools for the Indian. He discussed it in its broadest sense with reference to the Indian attaining citizenship and becoming self-supporting. We were greatly delighted to hear the President express himself so earnestly. I can recall almost his exact words. He said: 'No matter what we may do in Congress; no matter what I may do; no matter what may be done for the education of the Indian, there is nothing like the gospel after all to elevate the race,' and the tears stole out on his cheeks. No doubt his mind was running back to the words of his good father. We next called upon the Secretary of the Interior, and found him anxious to help us. He said the triumphant and militant Democracy had taken up his attention to the exclusion of much else, but he promised to do what he could for us further on. The document the President had suggested was prepared by Dr. Abbott and Mr. Brooks, and he used it in his message. He carried out the idea, though perhaps a little differently from what we had supposed he would.

"We were asked to use our influence for the passage of the Dawes bill, for lands in severalty on some basis of justice, and we did work diligently-some by personal attention and others by correspondence. All the legislation we asked for was obtaned in the Senate, thanks to our friend, the Massachusetts Senator, who has been the friend of the Indian from the beginning. When we reached the lower House we had more difficulty, but even there the committees reported our legislation, but simply from want of tact on the part of the managers we failed of the passage of the bill. Oleomargarine came in and occupied the time, but we have great hope that the measures we have been fighting for the past four years will be passed in the coming short session. I believe all those great measures had birth here in this Mohonk Conference. The influence that has gone out from this conference has been very great, perhaps greater than from any other source. We can never be 500 grateful to Mr. Smiley for his hospitality in bringing us here, and insisting, in his mild Quaker way, in keeping us here till Saturday." Mr. J. C. Kinney, of Hartford, Conn., Mr. Joshua W. Davis, of Boston, and Miss Allice Robertson, of the Indian Territory, were appointed secretaries. The appointment of a business committee was left to the chair.

The chairman suggested that the opening session be devoted to a general outlook over the field as to what has been done with our schools, and what is being done for

44

the Indians generally ; and brief adresses were solicited from several present who had been in the field, Mr. Joshua W. Davis, of Boston, being first called upon.

Mr. DAVIS said:

"Purposing to visit some of the reservations, I received from Dr. Rhoads the names of several west of the Rocky Mountains that had not yet been reached by any representative of the Indian Rights Association; and it was my privilege to meet in California, Mr. Painter, the agent of the association, and to unite plans with him for a

tour.

"As his report is before you in print it will hardly be necessary for me to add much, and I would simply say that by these visits to the Indians in their homes, and by direct contact with them, we are saved from that sanguine feeling some would gladly indulge as to the rapidity of results in efforts to civilize them. But we have no right to expect that the Indian should instantly adopt new ideas and habits, and grasp immediately the help extended to them, when, as a nation, we are at the same time placing most grievous hindrances and discouragements in their way. Still there is solid ground for encouragement and hope in the progress made by many towards self-support; and looking broadly over the field, there is a marked increase during the last two years in their willingness to settle down to unaccustomed labor.

"The case of the Mission Indians, whom we first visited, will doubtless be presented by Mr. Painter, and I solicit that interest which they sorely need.

"Among those next visited, the Piutes, at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, there is a mingled poverty and slowness to adopt higher modes of life that gives an unfavorable first impression, but under continued encouragement, such as they are receiving from the present agent, increasing progress is to be expected in their farming, in which some have made good beginnings. The school at Pyramid Lake is under the care of the agent's wife, and is a marked success. There is no special religious teaching there. "We found the most encouragement in Idaho. Although there are many there who hold to their blankets and beads, and scorn those who have turned to the plow and to cutting hay for sale, it was evident that the $5 a ton secured by the industrious ones was proving an irresistible argument, one after another of the blanket Indians dropping his pride and blanket, getting a team, and going to work.

"One named Whiskey Joe, formerly noted for hard drinking and gambling, had stopped both, and, with other work, had cut and stacked about 80 tons of hay.

"One encouraging fact was their eagerness to extend their fences in the higher valleys, where they had raised some small crops, and the agent had given them permission to inclose more laud.

"The agent drove out with us some 18 miles to one of these valleys, and, finding himself stopped by a fence remarked, 'Here is a fence not here before.' Turning aside, he found the fences still extending before him, preventing his crossing the valley and forcing him to drive nearly 2 miles before making the circuit of the farms. "It seems that on his permit they had, during the winter, gone to the mountains and cut poles enough to fence in all the center of the valley, and without leaving space for roads. Each one had inclosed more sage-brush desert than he could subdue

for years to come.

"In this we see the stimulus to them of the little crops of their own raising, which have proved with others also, and will increasingly prove, a powerful motive if we make their land sure to them.

"This was on the Ross Fork Reservation."

THE MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA.

Mr. Painter spoke briefly of the same visit, and of the encouragements it gave. But he said, "I wish more particularly to speak of the mission Indians. I made a report in regard to them at the last conference, and will not repeat that. In Washington last winter I went to the President and stated their case fully. I said that in my estimation the one thing to do was to settle the question whether or not they had any right to the land upon which they had always lived, and from which they were being driven to-day. If they had rights they should be established-a question to be settled by the courts. If they have no such right, then let them understand it. The President said that was sensible, and asked me to see the Attorney-General, and ask him to take up their case. The Attorney-General said he could act only at the request of the Secretary of the Interior. After long delay and much consultation it was finally decided that as there was a case already in court, they would let it be decided, and by it settle the cases of all the other Indians in Southern Cali fornia. I said I was aware of the fact that this case was pending but, as the attorney in charge of it had not been allowed even his expenses, he had retired from it, and if they were going to let this matter be settled in this way then I hoped counsel could be appointed. They said they would appoint some one, aud after a time I was informed that counsel had been appointed. I wrote tohim of our

1

interest in the cases intrusted to him, and promised him such support as we could give; that probably necessary expenses would not be allowed, and that if the Government failed to support him, we would be responsible for such expenses; that we wished him to go ahead. He wrote back that he had been appointed to serve without any compensation whatever. I went to see the Attorney-General, and he said he had, in appointing him to serve without compensation, done just what the Bureau had asked him to do. This lawyer wrote me that the Indians from two or three other grants had just been ordered off and would be removed unless some obstacles were interposed. I wrote back that such obstacle must be interposed, and that I felt sure that money to the extent of $500 would be allowed for his fees, and told him to push forward the work. The Indian Association assumed this responsibility and stated the case to the country. This case came to trial a few months ago and was decided against the Indians, as I expected it would be, in the lower court. We had to give an indemnity bond for the protection of the plaintiff, who would be deprived of his property pending the appeal. I went to Washington to get the Government to do this. The Attorney-General said no bond would be required as he would have the Indian agent associated as defendant. It was in the discretion of the court to accept such security as this, but it refused to allow the agent's name as defendant in the case, so it was necessary that a bond should be given. Mr. Welsh, secretary of our association, sent his check for $3,300, which is in the keeping of the court. I have had a letter saying that 200 Indians have thus been prevented from being ejected from their homes.

I have been asked to say something here with regard to the legislation of the past year, but our chairman has told about all that has been done in the way of legislation. The Indian appropriation bill, of course, passed both Houses. It made an increase in the amount appropriated for education, which is encouraging. The bill also provided for the appointment of the commission now visiting the Chippewa and White Earth Indians, and others in Northern Montana. The appropriation for education this year is $1,236,415. The first appropriation for education was in 1876, and was $20,000; in 1877 it was $30,000; in 1878, $60,000; in 1879, $75,000; in 1880, $75,000; in 1881, $85,000; in 1882, $150,000; in 1883, $680,000; in 1884, $992,000; in 1885, $1,107,000; in 1886, $1,236,415. These figures are very encouraging. The civilization fund, created by the sale of Osage lands, has been used up, a part of it going for education, and a part for many things, including tobacco. The late superintendent of Indian schools speaking of it said the facts were so shameful he would not put them in print. There was also a bill for a railroad through the Indian Territory, and these two are the only bills passed this year. On the Senate docket there are about 150 bills relating to Indian matters; in the House twice as many. Out of the whole we passed the appropriation bill, and the one for the right of way for the railroad. The three bills in which we are interested passed the Senate and came to the House, where the oleomargerine bill took the day assigned for them.

General WHITTLESEY. It certainly was no fault of the committee on legislation of this conference that the bills recommended were not passed. Earnest friends met to secure proper legislation. It went through the Senate and was reported by the House committee. One measure we urged upon the President, and that was for the relief of the Mission Indians in Southern California. It is very hard to speak or think without indignation of the failure on the part of Congress to afford relief to those suffering Indians of Southern California. It was from no want of information. That noble and lamented woman, Helen Hunt Jackson, had placed all the facts in the case before Congress. They were sufficiently strong, we should suppose, to move any body of men, but it was not till late in the session that the committee agreed to report, and then there was no time on account of the pressure of other matters to bring it up for action. There was no want of earnestness on the part of the Department. I have copies of letters written by the Secretary of the Interior first to the President, and by him sent to the House.

[Reads letters from the Department of the Interior, under date of December 15, 1885, and February 16, 1886, and March 6, 1886.]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
December 15, 1885.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith copy of a report of 30th ultimo from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, with inclosures, relating to proposed legislation for the relief of the Mission Indians in California, and recommending that action be had on their behalf.

Accompanying the report of the Commissioner is the draft of a bill for the purpose indicated, which has before been presented to Congress, passed the Senate on the 3d of July, 1884, but failed to pass the House.

In reference to this bill the Commissioner states that it seems to meet the requirements in the case, except in relation to the restriction as to title. He thinks that the period of time for which the lands are to be held in trust by the United States for these