belonging to the Red Lake Reservation"-of the tribes or bands. They came from all the bands of the Chippewas of the Mississippi. Now, Mr. Chairman, just a bird's-eye view of this Red Lake Reservation, because if there is one thing that general council is determined to do, if it can, is to do something for these Red Lake Indians. It is conceded and has been conceded throughout that the Indians residing on the Red Lake Reservation are the most backward of all the Indians in all that country. They have been the pampered pets of the Indian Bureau, and it is conceded that they are less capable to-day of attending to their affairs than any other Indians in that country. Mr. Chairman, they have had paid to them under that act of 1904 and other acts nearly two millions of dollars from the sale of lands, timber, and other property. That to-day constitutes a claim against the United States on the part of the Chippewas of Minnesota. The department originated that legislation; they transmitted it to Congress, and the Indian Bureau by so doing created a claim against the United States to-day of nearly $2,000,000 which, in my judgment, the United States must eventually pay out of the Public Treasury.

Now, what are they proposing to do here? I was amazed to learn that the Indian Bureau is behind this drainage proposition. They propose now to hold the funds derived from the sale of timber on the Red Lake Reservation and to use those funds in draining the rest of the Red Lake Reservation and handing over to the Indians, I presume, an allotment ready to stick the plow into. No other Indian had his land handed to him in that condition.

Mr. Chairman, they propose to denude the land of the timber and hand him a stump allotment, so that when he gets it it will cost him fifty to one hundred dollars an acre to grub the stumps and clear it. Do they propose to use these funds in clearing the stumps and hand him an allotment ready for cultivation? if they do not do that, they are skinning the Red Lake Indians, because they will hand him an allotment which, instead of being worth from two thousand to six or seven thousand dollars with the timber on it, will be worth from three hundred dollars to eight hundred, with the timber removed, and that is the way they propose to protect the Red Lake Indians.

Mr. Chairman, if they use these funds as they propose to do they are going to create another claim against the United States, because those funds belong to the Chippewas of Minnesota and not to the Red Lake Band.

Now, a bird's-eye view of that reservation. There are, I believe, 460,000 acres within that Red Lake Reservation. There are about 1,500 Indians residing on it. I hold in my hand the official report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the last fiscal year. Out of the 460,000 acres on the Red Lake Reservation there was in cultivation, including the agency farm, last year 1,850 acres. The rest of that land has laid idle since the commencement of man. That reservation laid idle and the grass rotted upon it when the cattle were dying in the greater portion of the northwestern area last year, and not a dollar of revenue came in to any Indian from it, and yet the department proposes to continue that kind of administration. If it had conducted this as a business proposition, it should have realized from grazing and other permits alone an annual revenue of from $300,000 to $600,000 a year, and that is what they say they are doing for these Red Lake Indians and for the Indians in Minnesota.

Mr. Chairman, they have referred to the beautiful little homes on the Red Lake Reservation. I had heard about them. Last July I was on the Red Lake Reservation and went over it to see these beautiful homes. You will find little cabins with one and two rooms, log shacks, in which these people are living, notwithstanding that since 1904 they have been receiving annually per capita payments. through this department of from $38 to $100 for every man, woman, and child. No other Chippewa received it, and yet they are to-day living in a state which you gentlemen would not tolerate if you could see it. There is no agriculture, no development. The very man who appeared before you to-day, Peter Graves, a grandfather, doesn't spend his time in useful industry. He is not a farmer, he spends his time in idleness, and he would have you continue this condition. Why? Because if you continue it they hope to take the proceeds and divide them per capita among the Red Lakes of the funds received from the sale of future property, which will amount to some four or five million dollars, and create another claim against the United States, just as they created it under the act of 1904.

Now, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Meritt told you that when an Indian left the reservation he did not lose his rights, nor did his children lose their rights. I propose to give you the names of some of them that lost property rights by removing from that reservation. The Indian Bureau has held that where an Indian left the reservation and moved off and a child was thereafter born to that Indian, the child was not entitled to share in the property of the reservation, because it was born off the reservation.

Mr. RHODES. Is that an exceptional case, or is that the rule?

Mr. BALLINGER. That has been the rule, and I am going to give you the names of the parents of children who have lost their payments during these years. Mrs. Foy, an enrolled member of the Red Lake band, some years ago moved to a point about 4 or 5 miles east of the east boundary of the reservation. The Indian Bureau has refused to enroll her children born since her removal.

Mrs. Leslin and Mrs. Brown, both enrolled members of the Red Lake band, removed from the Red Lake Resrvation in order to better their condition--I overlooked Mrs. Leslin. Her children are in exactly the same fix.

Here are the names of the minor children of the Browns, born in 1906, 1910, 1912, and 1913, that have failed to participate in these payments because they were born off the reservation, and I want that list inserted in the record.

The paper referred to follows:

Melvina A. Brown, born November 15, 1906.
Earl C. Brown, born January 23, 1910.
Eva I. Brown, born January 9, 1912.
Ruth L. Brown, born January 13, 1913.

Now, Mr. Chairman, that statement was made here the other day, without an opportunity for me to check it back on the local office at Red Lake. Had I the time I could produce before this committee, I have no doubt, a long list of Indians who have lost their rights because they dared to go off of the reservation, and the Indian Office ought to know these facts, and it ought to be square and fair enough with this committee to come forward and admit it. I hate subterfuge.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I want to deal for just a moment with this question of the rights of the Beaulieus and Fairbanks and the other mixed bloods to participate in the distribution of the property of the Chippewa Indians. That seems to be the main grudge. It is an old controversy, as old as the hill, but like Banquo's ghost it will not down. They are still harping, "On, me daughter. The shrewd individual, and you have seen some of them before this committeeuse that argument to appeal to the old and ignorant. That is their weapon. They can find no valid fault with anything the general council does, but they dig up these old things to stir up the ignorant and poor Indian-that is, the ration Indian--and that class--and it is these shrewd, ambitious men that the general council has been compelled to fight to a finish.

Now, let us take the propositions that they have handed down to you on which they base their claim that these parties gave up their rights under article 2, section 7 of the treaty of 1854, 10 Statutes, 1109. Now, under that article I will state it so as to save my time that article provided that any mixed blood of the Lake Superiors who desired to take an allotment could take 80 acres of land. That is the provision. I will insert the exact provision in my

remarks.

The matter referred to follows:

ART. 2. Seventh. Each head of a family, or single person over twenty-one years of age at the present time of the mixed bloods, belonging to the Chippewas of Lake Superior, shall be entitled to eighty acres of land, to be selected by them under the direction of the President, and which shall be secured to them by patent in the usual form.

It will be observed that there was no provision in the above article excluding any person who took an allotment from further participation in the tribal property or from membership.

Instead of making allotments to the Indians, the department made a mistake, like many mistakes have been made, and they issued scrip, land scrip, in lieu of allotments. That land scrip was passed indiscriminately out by their own agents and by the agents of the land office in that country to such an extent that it became a public and national scandal, a commissioner of the General Land Office being involved in the transaction. Instead of them handing the scrip to the Indian it was issued in the name of the Indian and passed out to white men, and in many instances scrip was issued in the name of the Indian and neither the Indian nor any person connected with the Indian ever saw or heard or knew of it.

Now, what happened? In 1889, when they came to negotiate the agreement with the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, the rolls were made by the commission and then submitted to the Indians themselves, to their chiefs, and by their chiefs and their head men in council ratified. I read now-for this matter has been adjudicated both by the Court of Claims and by the department-and I read now from the statement of fact appearing in the statement of fact of the Court of Claims, dated December 21, 1914, in the case known as Departmental No. 158, in the matter of the petition of Charles P. Wright et al., for the purification of the White Earth rolls. The court went into this matter exhaustively. I am the man who filed the motion to dismiss, and the court sustained my motion. Neither the court had jurisdication nor was there equity in the complaint

filed. I read now from the finding of fact by the court. quoted from the record of the commission as follows:

The court

Mr. RICE. We must meet again as soon as we can to look over the rolls and see that they are correct, to enable you to go home. There will be to-night a double issue of flour, but we hope that before you leave you will come in to compare the roll, as that is very important. The chiefs should be here for that purpose. (P. 116 of the record of this commission.)

Mr. RICE. This act covers that point as well as all others that could possibly be foreseen. If there are names on this roll which should not be there, please let us know, and if there are any names which should be there and are not, please inform us so that the roll may be corrected.

The census rolls were then carefully read over to the Indians present at the council, which was largely attended.

Mr. RICE. The census rolls have been carefully read to you and corrected, and we wish to know whether as so corrected they are satisfactory to you.

To this question the Indians responded. “Yes, yes," and all expressed themselves as perfectly satisfied.

Now, Mr. Chairman, if prior to the agreement of 1889 there had been a question as to right of the Fairbanks, of the Beaulieus, and of these other mixed bloods to be on the rolls, the assent of the Indians at that time forever foreclosed anyone from making an objection. That is fundamental law. Notwithstanding the Court of Claims has decided the question in favor of both the Beaulieus and the Fairbanks and the department, the Court of Claims twice decided it, the first time in their favor, again upon a motion for rehearing or re-reference they decided in their favor, and then they took it back into the department and tried to get the department to assume jurisdiction, and the department decided it against them and in favor of the Fairbanks and Beaulieus, yet they come in here, and a good part of the time of this committee has been taken up by such men as Caswell, and others, telling you about how these people were improperly on the roll and how they were attempting to dominate and control the Chippewas, the real Chippewas in that country. Why, these men are of Chippewa blood. The only difference between them and many of the others is that they come from distinguished ancestry on their father's side. Ben Fairbanks is from the same Fairbanks family from whence came Vice President Fairbanks. The Beaulieus come from a distinguished French-Canadian family. They are men of courage; they are men of ability; they are men of brains; they are men of integrity. As a business proposition, Mr. Chairman, those men are not personally interested in this estate from a financial standpoint. Every one of them are losing more from being here at this session of Congress than they will ever get out of the estate. They are all men of business affairs, but they have come here for the purpose, if possible, of doing something for their own blood-a laudable undertaking. That is their object.

Mr. Chairman, the other day when I was before this committee, I submitted to you certain statements taken from the official figures contained in that book [indicating], the annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919. When Mr. Meritt came to reply he referred to the misstatements that I have made, but when he came to give you figures he did not deal with those figures; he brought in a new set of figures and presented them to the committee. That was not fair, Mr. Meritt, to say that I had made misstatements of fact when that book contains exactly what I told you. Those are the figures upon which you have been

coming to Congress and getting your annual appropriations, and God knows if they were good enough for the bureau to come here and get annual appropriations on out of trust funds, they ought to be good enough for me to cite at this hearing. When you take a look at the Indian Bureau it is like looking into a kaleidescope; now you see one. scene and then instantly the scenes are shifted on you.

I reaffirm, Mr. Chairman, every statement of fact that I made to this committee in my opening statement. I have no objection in deceiving you. The very life of a lawyer is his reputation for honesty and accurate statement. When that is gone there is nothing left, and I pity the man who goes before the court or comes before a tribunal and undertakes to resort to camouflage and to covering up. If he has got a case, let him state it; if he has not, let him like a man

say so.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I notice that my time has almost expired. The CHAIRMAN. It has expired.

Mr. BALLINGER. I haven't had an opportunity to cover a lot of stuff that has been put into this record that has no relation, Mr. Chairman, in my judgment, to the matters that you have under consideration; but, Mr. Chairman, this record will be sent out to the Chippewa country; appeals will be made to the Indians out there based on statements appearing in this record, and I ask the privilege when these statements are filed, of looking over them and filing such reply, based upon the official records, as may appear proper.

The CHAIRMAN. You will have that right unless there is objection. Mr. MERITT. Mr. Chairman, may we have served upon us any statement that Mr. Ballinger proposes to incorporate in the record? Mr. BALLINGER. I would not file one with the committee without doing it.

Mr. MERITT. So that we may have an opportunity to file an

answer?

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Ballinger says he will file a copy of it.

Mr. BALLINGER. I will serve it upon them or anyone else in this room who desires it.

Mr. RHODES. Mr. Chairman, just one question. Mr. Ballinger made a statement here in the form of a challenge with regard to certain matters with which Mr. Meritt and Mr. McDonald both took issue but Mr. Henderson remained silent. I want to ask Mr. Henderson if he acquiesces-if his silence indicates that he acquieses in. what Mr. Ballinger has said?

Mr. HENDERSON, It does not at all, Mr. Chairman. On the contrary, I take exactly the opposite view from Mr. Ballinger as to the rights of the Red Lake Indians.

(Mr. Ballinger's written statement follows:)

RECAPITULATION BY WEBSTER BALLINGER, ATTORNEY FOR THE GENERAL COUNCIL. OF THE CHIPPEWA INI IANS OF MINNESOTA.

THE NECESSITY FOR THE LEGISLATION.

Thirty-one years have now passed since the United States entered into agreements with the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota under the act of January 14, 1889 (25 Stats., 642), for the allotment as soon as practicable" of lands to each member of the tribe, the cession of all reservations, except suficient lands on the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations to make the allotments to the Indians entitled thereto, to the United States in trust to be sold and disposed of and the proceeds derived therefrom to be placed in the Treasury of the United States to the "credit of all the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota."