Henry M. Teller

“ I am satisfied that in the management of our Indian affairs we have found, as many have found in the management of their private affairs, that the policy which, for the time being, seemed the cheapest, in the end has proved the most expensive. ”

“ Our whole Indian policy, in my judgment, has been characterized by a parsimony which has borne the more respectable but undeserved name of economy. We have acted very much as does the man, who, burdened with a heavy debt, contents himself with paying the interest without diminishing the principal. ”

“ When the Indian shall have learned to speak and write our language, to earn his own living by his own labor, to obey the law and aid in making and administering it, the Indian problem will be solved, and not until then. ”

“ As the country grows rich the tendency is to aggregate the lands in the hands of a less number of people; this is an evil with which the General Government is not called to deal after it has parted with the title to its land, but as the owner of the public land, held for the people of the United States, it becomes the duty of the Government to see that the laws intended to secure a fair distribution of these lands are strictly enforced. ”

“ We know that polygamy prevails among most if not all the Indian tribes, and all history shows the degrading influence of that system wherever it prevails. We are endeavoring to civilize the Indians; should we not take measures to remove this obstacle to their civilization? ”

“ In a few cases the Indians are sufficiently advanced to appreciate the advantages of land in severalty, but the great mass of the Indians are not only not ready for land in severalty, but violently opposed to it, and incapable of taking care of such title if given to them. A title in severalty to or individual ownership of land is unknown in Indian polity, and they cannot understand why one man should have a claim on or title to land that he does not occupy, any more than they can understand how one man can become the owner of more air than he needs. ”

“ Our people, in their march westward, have surrounded these reservations, and seeing in them large tracts of fertile land withheld from the purpose for which they believe it was intended—cultivation—have called upon the executive and legislative departments to make new treaties, new laws, and new orders, and these calls have generally been heeded. Now, it is clear that no Indian will with good heart engage in making and improving a farm with the knowledge or the prospect that after he has so done he may at any time be required to leave it and "move on." ”

“ All who have studied the question unite in the opinion that the end to be attained is the civilization of the Indians and their final absorption into the mass of our citizens, clothed with all the rights and instructed in and performing all the duties of citizenship. ”

“ They will not become law-abiding citizens until they shall so learn. In my judgment it would be well to select some tribe or tribes among those most advanced in civilization, and establish therein a form of local government as nearly like, as may be, to the system of county government prevailing in the State or Territory in which the reservations are located, allowing the Indians to elect corresponding county officers having corresponding power and authority to enforce such laws of the State or Territory as Congress may deem proper to declare in force on each reservation for local purposes. ”

“ The failure of Congress to appropriate last winter sufficient funds to pay outstanding indebtedness for transportation costs the government in increased price of transportation for the present fiscal year more than the interest on the money due, and while there are such large sums lying idle in the United States Treasury, the policy of not paying debts lawfully due appears to me very short-sighted. ”

“ The work required of an Indian agent is of the highest order, and can only be performed by men of large capacity and business experience. He is charged with the distribution of a large amount of property among the Indians. He submits estimates for the necessary appropriations for his agency, has the general oversight of the affairs of the agency, and directly represents the Government in its efforts to care for, protect, and advance the Indians. Work of this character ought not to be left to men of doubtful financial probity or of questionable morals. ”

“ It is not probable that much can be done in the way of teaching our language to adult Indians, but much may be done and is being done in the direction of so teaching those of school age, and our efforts to maintain and extend Indian schools should be earnest and constant. The civilization fund, which has been devoted largely to educational purposes, will be exhausted before the end of this fiscal year if the schools already established shall be continued. ”

“ Their attachment to kin and tribe is stronger than among civilized men, and I would so arrange that the Indian father of to-day might have assurance that his children as well as himself could have a home. I would also provide in the patent for the reservations that so long as the title to any portion of the reservation remained in the tribe, adult Indians of the tribe who would locate upon and improve particular parcels of the reservation, should have an absolute title to the parcels so improved by them ”

“ I am satisfied that some of the reservations now occupied by Indians are not well adapted to farming purposes, for the reason that the rainfall is not sufficient to make the raising of good crops reasonably certain. This is the case, in my opinion, in that portion of the Indian Territory occupied by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes near Fort Reno, and by the Kiowas and Comanches near Fort Sill. The soil is fertile but cannot be farmed profitably, as I am informed, without irrigation, the necessary works for which the Indians have neither the knowledge nor the means to establish. ”

“ The government, recognizing this situation, has undertaken to and does furnish a large portion of our Indians food and clothing, and at the same time has been endeavoring to teach them to become self-supporting by assigning to them land for cultivation, furnishing them with farming tools, horses and harness, and encouraging them to work. But two difficulties have attended this system, although it has met with considerable success. The first is that adult Indians, thoroughly grounded in the faith that labor is degrading, prefer pauperism to independence ”

“ It cannot be expected that contractors will wait years for money due and honestly earned without attempting to get even with the government by charging increased rates of transportation, and for this reason it is urged that sufficient means be furnished this office to liquidate these debts. This would certainly be true economy.
The right of this office to incur this indebtedness above the amount appropriated cannot be questioned. Congress appropriates a certain amount of money to be used in the purchase of clothing and supplies, mostly due the Indians under treaty stipulation. ”

“ As an additional inducement for heads of families to take land in severalty and engage in farming, provision should be made to aid such of them as do so in building houses thereon. The sum of $50, carefully expended by a judicious agent, will enable an Indian on many of the reservations, with his own labor, to build a house as comfortable as those occupied by many of our frontier settlers, and much more comfortable than the lodges in which they have been accustomed to live ”

“ During the last fifteen months, quite a number of railroad corporations have made application to the department for permission to construct their railroads through Indian reservations, urging the necessity of supplying the needs of the white people on our frontier, and the civilizing influence of railroads on the Indians, as reasons why their requests should be granted. ”

“ Misunderstandings must continue to arise in the future, as they have arisen in the past, between the government and the Indians, under this condition of affairs, and so long as it shall continue, the Indians, unable to carry on in person ordinary business transactions with our citizens generally or even with their agents, are completely isolated, and are compelled to adhere to that tribal relation which so greatly stands in the way of their advancement. ”

“ If it is the intention of Congress to allow the railroad companies to complete their roads after the expiration of the term fixed in the grant, and thus claim the benefit of the grant, it should be so declared at an early day. Large tracts of land are not available for settlement because the settler cannot determine whether the title is in the Government or in the railroad company. ”

“ If surveyors-general and district land officers were aware that an agent of the government might at any time visit their respective offices, with authority to examine their books and papers, and by personal examination to ascertain their condition, it seems that great benefit would thereby result to the public service. ”

“ The reservation is a large one, and might perhaps be so lessened without injury to the Indians as to exclude the deposits of coal, or, if this cannot be done, it may be enlarged to a corresponding extent elsewhere, and the coal bearing portion withdrawn from the reservation. The coal is and will be needed for the proper development of Arizona, but in providing for the sale of the land care should be taken that the coal is not monopolized by a single or a few parties to the injury of the Territory. ”

“ It has been the policy of the Government heretofore to distribute the public land among the people in such quantities as would enable all desiring to engage in agriculture to do so as land-owners, and not as renters. ”

“ The Indians do not speak and do not wish to learn to speak our language; hence all business with them by the government and by individuals has been and must be transacted through the medium of interpreters. ”

“ I understand that the railroad has been constructed and is now in operation through that part of the Ute Reservation which is still occupied by Indians. I beg to recommend that suitable action be taken by Congress looking to an adjustment of the rights of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and the Indians in this transaction. It cannot be expected that the Indians will remain satisfied so long as the railroad company shall continue to make use of their lands without suitable compensation. ”

“ In several instances agents have found the labor so great and the compensation so small that they have surrendered their positions to accept a larger salary, with less labor and responsibility, in other fields. ”

“ Individual claimants declare themselves outraged because the Commis- sioner of the General Land Office refuses to allow filings on the odd sections of land within the unforfeited railroad grants. The Govern- ment is derided as the Government of the rich and opposed to the poor, because the executive department of the Government does not do what the courts have repeatedly declared could be done only by the legisla- tive branch of the Government, that is, declare a forfeiture of a grant. ”

“ It is impossible for the Land Office with the means now provided to keep careful supervision over their offices, situated so far from the seat of government. The information received concerning them is usually ex parte and often contradictory, and in many cases is not received until it is too late to prevent much maladministration. ”

“ If permitting the work to fall in arrears dispensed with doing it altogether, we might congratulate ourselves that we had saved the expense of doing it, although our failure to do it had worked great injury to those whose work the office was created to do and who share in the cost of maintaining it. ”

“ The ballot and trial by jury are tools to which Indian hands are not accustomed, and would doubtless be used by them awkwardly for a time, but if the Indian is to become in truth a citizen, he must learn to use them, and he cannot so learn until they are placed within his reach. ”

“ Men who can properly perform the work assigned to them as Indian agents can make more money, with less labor and privation, in other pursuits.
I earnestly recommend that the salaries of agents be increased sufficiently to secure good men and retain them in the service. ”

“ Thus the settler is sometimes compelled to pay a double price for the privilege of owning lands near a railroad which is never constructed.
It is difficult to make the people understand that the executive depart- ment of the Government cannot declare a grant forfeited when the corporation for whose benefit it was made has failed to comply with the conditions thereof. ”

“ They do not cultivate land in common, but each Indian has a separate patch or piece of ground which he tills year after year if he desires. When he neglects to cultivate it, any other person may do so. ”

“ The necessity for additional room for the Patent Office is becoming more urgent every year. With the present limited space at the disposal of the office, rooms are overcrowded, and proper disposition cannot be made of the files and records which are yearly accumulating. ”

“ While he cannot comprehend individual ownership, he does know what title to his tribe means. He has been accustomed to hear the claim made that his tribe owns a section of the country. The invasion by one tribe of the region claimed by another has been the cause of innumerable wars. ”

“ On July 18,1881, by authority of the President, on the application of the Utah and Northern Railroad Company, an officer of the government obtained an agreement from the Shoshones and Bannocks living on the Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho, by which the right of way and the necessary lands for railroad purposes east and west across the reservation were granted on the payment of suitable compensation; the agreement, however, to be ratified by Congress. The treaty with these Indians makes no provisions for railroads. ”

“ If he purchase from the railroad company and it fails to complete its road and secure the title, he takes nothing by such purchase, and he cannot secure the land under the settlement laws, for the Department is not authorized to treat such lands as public lands. ”