which the Secretary has in the premises is to determine the persons named in said census who have since died, or otherwise since forfeited their rights, and also the names of those who have since been born.

I am of the opinion that the Secretary of the Interior has no authority to eliminate from the rolls any name placed thereon by the commission for any cause arising before such enrollment, and that the order of November 25, 1911, approved November 27, suspending from participation in any payments, annuities, or other benefits, the parties complained of, was beyond the authority of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior.

The rules to show cause are hereby discharged, the orders of suspension are hereby rescinded, and the proceedings against the parties named are hereby dismissed. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs will take such steps as may be proper and appropriate, treating said order and rule to show cause as it never issued.

ANDRIEUS A. JONES,
First Assistant Secretary.

The CHAIRMAN. See if you can finish in 15 minutes. Mr. CASWELL. That is impossible, to do it; it is a big question. The CHAIRMAN. What the committee wants to know is your objections to the proposed legislation.

Mr. CASWELL. Yes; because it started with these people, and they are not proposing that legislation for the good of the Indians. The CHAIRMAN. What Indians?

Mr. CASWELL. The Minnesota Chippewas, is the ones I claim here. The CHAIRMAN. All of the Minnesota Chippewas, or just the Red Lake Indians?

Mr. CASWELL. All of the Minnesota.

The CHAIRMAN. All right; now you may go ahead.

STATEMENT BY BENJAMIN CASWELL-Resumed.

Mr. CASWELL. Of course, it hits the weakest and benefits the strongest ones.

The CHAIRMAN. Tell us right there where it hits the weakest ones. Mr. CASWELL. The Indians themselves are not able to compete with the white men; take this man [indicating an Indian in the room] and a lot of men that are not able to speak English and know the laws of the States, and some of them have lost their property through lack of knowledge how to protect themselves. For instance, on account of the tax; some have lost their property through tax sales.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, let me ask you, is there any way of which you know that the Red Lakes could be taken out of this and segregated entirely and make legislation for the balance of them?

Mr. CASWELL. I would rather not speak for the Red Lake Chippe

was.

The CHAIRMAN. For whom do you speak?

Mr. CASWELL. I speak for the White Earth in particular; that is where I came from, and that is where the people that control the council come from. Of course, I have set off here the things I want to say.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, you can put it in the record.

Mr. CASWELL. I make reference here to George Fairbanks. The CHAIRMAN. You can discuss George Fairbanks, if you desire. Mr. CASWELL. George Fairbanks was identified as a mixed-blood of Lake Superior, and had mixed scrip, and his wife was Margaret Fairbanks his number was 163-C-and all their children go under their status, and I will read here the view of the Indians at the time this treaty was made.

The CHAIRMAN. Which treaty are you speaking of now?
Mr. CASWELL. Eighteen hundred and fifty-four.

Here is the understanding of the Indians. James Blackbird, a chief of the Lake Superior Indians-here is a part of his testimony. He said in this testimony:

Gilbert represented Government in negotiating treaty of 1854. He gathered Indians into big council and told them that the Great Father wanted to buy remaining tribal lands in possession of Lake Superior Indians. He said Indians will reserve part of land for several reservations where Indians would receive allotments and work upon them as a white man would do, and that all who were 21 years of age or more and heads of families would be entitled to 80 acres of land. Also single persons over 21 years of age. Gilbert also stated that when an Indian woman marries a white man, the white man shall be the head of the family, and the issue of that marriage would be a mixedblood, and the mixed-blood would be given land outside of the reservation, wherever she or he choose to take it. That the half-breeds should be given a complete outfit for housekeeping, etc., and that those born of the marriage from those people who thus severed their tribal relations by taking land outside the reservation, would never be considered to have any tribal relations with the Indians thereafter. We understand that mixed-bloods who thus received allotments outside of the reservations and all their children have nothing to do with the reservations whatever.

That is the view of the Indians in that treaty; that is the understanding, and that is the families that they control. Clement H. Beaulieu and all those Indians received benefits on the Lake Superior side, and relinquished all the rights in the Minnesota side, he has stated-that came in later.

Mr. KELLY. Now, Mr. Caswell, you are making the point that there are certain names illegally on the roll?

Mr. CASWELL. Yes, sir.

Mr. KELLY. Now, is it a fact that there are court decisions and other things in the records that makes that a closed question?

Mr. CASWELL. I do not so understand it. There was a question taken in the Court of Claims-I will read here somewhere

Mr. MERITT (interposing). The Court of Claims held, in substance, that the question of striking these names from the roll was not a matter for that court, but was a question for the Interior Department to decide, and I have placed in the record the decision of the department on that subject. The department has decided that these nomes should not be stricken from the rolls.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Caswell, of course, has his time to use in his own way, and he can put in whatever he pleases.

Mr. CASWELL. In submitting that question to the courts we understand this to be the case: The Secretary of the Interior transmitted the matter and resubmitted it under date of June 16, in order that this court might make findings and draw conclusions of law for its guidance and action. We know that this matter was submitted to the Court of Claims, but as we understand it, it was not judicially disposed of; that is, it was not a decision of the court as other decisions are made by courts.

Now, in the treaty of 1867, keeping that in view, that these people, which was provided in Article IV, one of these old chiefs handed me this paper, and protested against these people, and he went over and asked for it, and he was wondering why these people still remained on the rolls, and that is the print that was given him; that is the law, as I have given it, to Chief Bowen Watts, as regards the mixed-bloods who lived off the reservation, Article IV, treaty of 1867, that no member of any units provided for in this or any former treaty of the

Chippewas of Minnesota shall be paid, under half or mixed blood, except those who live with their people upon one of the reservations. Now, other people means here, as the Indians understood it, that is, the Mississippi Chippewas, and other people of the Mississippi, not the Chippewas of the tribe of any other State, because there were a lot of other Indians in Wisconsin and North Dakota and some in Minnesota; that is the one that these people intended to go on the White Earth Reservation, that belongs to the Mississippi tribe, as designated in the treaty of 1854; and in the treaty of 1889, we come as one band again

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). That is, all the Chippewas one band? Mr. CASWELL. All the Chippewas. Mr. Ballinger has read the act. And then there is always a turning point on which we center the whole thing, and in the first part of the act, in section 1, it represents that the commission was to go and treat with the Indians about the title and interest in these several reservations in the State of Minnesota. We contend that these people did not have any rights to sign this treaty, because they had no title; they had relinquished it already; and they did not have any interest; they did not have anything to relinquish. They were on the rolls, but that is not our fault; we protested against these people, but they got on the rolls somewhere, and it is not our will as a tribe. Some chief may have added a few names while he was under the influence of fire water. We are not responsible for this.

Now, this is our contention why we do not have a peaceful time. Now, there are about 2,000 of such people, and as you remember there were 417 selected, this council, which governs the whole State of Minnesota, control the Chippewa matters, and I will come to that, how that happened.

The CHAIRMAN. You want to get to it pretty promptly now.

Mr. CASWELL. All right; thank you. The other mixed bloods that belonged to our tribe never did take great interest in the councils, but they know that the Indians are liberal and kindly. They always give them what comes to them because they regard the mixed bloods as their own children. They always provide for them as they provide for themselves. The election on which this general council was recognized took place at Twin Lakes. The designated place was not there. It was provided that there should be a Government official. It was not really an Indian council as provided by the constitution of the general council, and they brought in some officers in there to make the agent's ruling or the superintendent's ruling effective, and then when we voted-he appointed me to collect, so I could not marshal my forces or help to marshal them.

The CHAIRMAN. Let us see about that. was to be an election?

Mr. CASWELL. Yes, sir.

You were advised there

The CHAIRMAN. How long before the election?

Mr. CASWELL. I could not say; about a couple of weeks.

The CHAIRMAN. And that was not time enough for you to marshal your forces?

Mr. CASWELL. Not to marshal my forces, but I was about 110 miles away from the reservation; I couldn't do it. I simply went there the day before the election took place. We were scattered. And then the Indians, the full-blood faction, are not rich people.

The other side, the other people, had amassed wealth, and can afford to have automobiles to carry their people. I counted about 80 different automobiles there that brought their people for them. The CHAIRMAN. You did finally get to an election?

Mr. CASWELL. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And you voted on the question?
Mr. CASWELL. We voted on the question.

The CHAIRMAN. What was the vote?

Mr. CASWELL. If I remember right there was 417 in their favor and ours about 256.

Mr. KELLY. Every Indian had the same notice, didn't he?

Mr. CASWELL. Not every Indian, because every Indian can not read.

Mr. KELLY. But the word was conveyed to every Indian, full blood and mixed blood alike, that there was to be an election on a certain date?

Mr. CASWELL. I couldn't say.

The CHAIRMAN. Notices were sent out and posted in the regular way?

Mr. CASWELL. There was a notice sent to me, and if a notice was posted on a wall, a hundred Indians may pass and not notice it. Mr. RHODES. Do you mean to say, Mr. Caswell, on account of the full bloods living so far away and being poor people and scattered they were not able to attend this meeting?

Mr. CASWELL. Yes, sir.

Mr. RHODES. Mr. Chairman, inasmuch as this gentleman seems to be a well-meaning man and is hurried a little more than he ought to be, and his time is about up, I suggest that he be given an opportunity to file a statement; in other words, complete a statement of what he would like to say this morning and let it be printed in the record in connection with what he said at this time.

The CHAIRMAN. He has a couple minutes left yet.

Mr. CASWELL. If that is the case, I would be willing to do that. The CHAIRMAN. How soon would you be ready to file a statement? Mr. CASWELL. Why, I have a great deal to say.

The CHAIRMAN. I understand, but we don't want to give permission to print a book on the subject. It ought to be condensed to

some extent.

Mr. CASWELL. Yes; I would.

Mr. HERNANDEZ. It seems to me Mr. Caswell should not go back over 1889 anyway.

The CHAIRMAN. No.

Mr. CASWELL. I want to show the methods of the election. We never could get justice from these people the way they run the council. Now, these 417, we, of course, protested the way they elected these people. They elected them at wholesale. I will describe, as I was one of the committee appointed. Somebody made a motion that the Chair appoint a committee to select the delegates. The Chair has already been instructed who to select, and the motion was carried, and they hurried through. Some of those Indians did not know what was going on. They are like some of these fellows here [indicating]. They do not understand English, and it is passed and the Chair gets up and appoints certain people. Now, it looks pretty

fair. We say we appoint six committeemen, three will be full bloods and three will be mixed bloods.

That looks very fair and all that, but the Chair appoints a full blood as chairman, and the vote stands 3 to 2. The chairman did not usually vote except on a tie vote, at least on the committee that I belonged to, and then when we got to the committee room-of course, I intended to be on the full bloods, so the representation would be equal-and the printed list was already given us of the 62 delegates to be named, and there were 57 already selected on a typewritten paper presented to us. We objected to it, and, of course, we And of the six or seven remaining we selected

were outvoted 3 to 2.

three, and those delegates control the whole State.

Mr. KELLY. Let me stop to say this: The conflict between you and the testimony we heard the other day is this: You claim the full bloods did not get a fair chance at that election, and yet it was testified the other day that the superintendent said that he made an effort, issued rations, and had dances and powwows, and everything was done to get them there. Is that true or not?

Mr. CASWELL. I think they had powwows, but none before the election.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, Mr. Caswell, your time has expired, and I would like to suggest to Mr. Rhodes that in connection with his offer to have a statement filed in the record that previous to the filing of that statement that he submit it and let us see whether it is too voluminous to put in. It is perfectly agreeable to me to have him file a statement, but I think that it ought to be submitted before we put it in.

Mr. RHODES. I do not know that he wants to file any, but I thought it was apparent that he would not get through.

The CHAIRMAN. Would you like to file a statement?

Mr. CASWELL. Certainly I do, because I am not half through. The CHAIRMAN. I suggest that he get his statement ready to file and submit it to the committee, and we will examine it, and if there is not anything in it that is not entirely foreign or immaterial we will print it. Make it as brief and concise as possible.

(Mr. Caswell's written statement follows:)

Mr. Chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs of the House, and members of the committee, you have granted me permission to make a written statement in addition to my verbal statements, for which I thank you most profoundly for whom I speak-the real Minnesota Chippewas.

Four hundred and seventeen votes on the White Earth Reservation alone could not reasonably be expected to dominate about 12,000 people, if majority rules. The demand of the Indians of White Earth Reservation was to be granted by the BeaulieuFairbanks faction a partial representation in their demand of one-half of the 66 delegates to the last council held at Cass Lake, Minn., July 8, 1919. This demand was made to test the Beaulieu-Fairbanks faction that if they really mean to be just to the tribe they will grant the request, as this would have proven to the real Indians that the Beaulieu-Fairbanks faction incline to be fair. They flatly refused and resorted to their old machine methods of selecting the 66 delegates who do control the general council of the Chippewa Indians. The methods used are substantially as follows: "Mr. Chairman, I move that a committee be appointed by the chair to select the delegates who will attend the general council."

"Mr. Chairman, I second the motion."

The chairman then appoints the committee, the majority being the men of their choice, if equal in number of each faction, the chairman who has no vote, is that of the full-blood faction. When this committee brings in its report, it is then moved to approve the selection of the committee (after reading the names hurriedly), seconded,