Bureau of Indian Affairs

“ The necessity to see that the numerous treaties made with the various Indian tribes were faithfully adhered to, and to facilitate our business relations with them, were among the motives which prompted government to establish a bureau for the purpose, under the provisions of the Constitution. Your committee know of no instance where Congress has undertaken to legislate for the exclusive benefit of the Indians, or of any other class of people. ”

“ The United States recognizes its trust responsibility to these Indian entities and, therefore, acknowledges their eligibility for programs administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The listed entities are not necessarily eligible for programs administered by other Federal Agencies. ”

“ If such a society were formed, it would necessarily take many problems of the race under consideration, and the officials at Washington and in the field are sensitive to criticism, nor are they accustomed to allowing the Indian a voice in his own affairs. Furthermore, many of the most progressive red men are enlisted in the Government service, which would make their position a very difficult one in case of any friction with the authorities. Very few Indians are sufficiently independent of the Bureau to speak and act with absolute freedom. ”

“ The establishing a bureau on Indian affairs cannot be cited as a precedent for the introduction of the bill on freedmen's affairs. Our relations with the Indians, which caused the establishing of a bureau, differed widely from those now existing between the United States and the freedmen of African descent. ”

“ The Government has no agent residing with these Indians. In accordance with their earnestly expressed desire to be brought under the immediate change of the Government, as its wards, Congress, by law approved July 27th, 1868, directed that the Secretary of the Interior should cause the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to take the same supervisory charge of them as of other tribes of Indians ”

“ The present system of agencies, while absolutely necessary and well adapted for the management of our Indian affairs and for the ends in view when it was adopted, is in the present stage of Indian management inadequate, standing alone, for the accomplishment of an object which has become pressing in its importance--the more rapid transition from tribal organizations to citizenship of such portions of the Indians as are capable of civilized life. ”

“ If thought advisable, also, Congress may authorize the President to turn over to the military the exclusive control of such tribes as may be continually hostile or unmanageable. Under the plan which we have suggested the chief duties of the bureau will be to educate and instruct in the peaceful arts -- in other words, to civilize the Indians. The military arm of the government is not the most admirably adapted to discharge duties of this character. We have the highest possible appreciation of the officers of the army, and fully recognize their proverbial integrity and honor ”

“ The Indian Bureau, burdened as it is with their general oversight and with the details of the establishment, can hardly possess itself of the minute phases of the particular cases needing treatment; and thus the propriety of creating an instrumentality auxiliary to those already established for the care of the Indians suggests itself. ”

“ The Government's responsibility to the American Indian has been acknowledged by annual increases in appropriations to fulfill its obligations to them and to hasten the time when Federal supervision of their affairs may be properly and safely terminated. The movement in Congress and in some of the State legislatures for extending responsibility in Indian affairs to States should be encouraged. A complete participation by the Indian in our economic life is the end to be desired. ”

“ If the Indian department, as at present constituted, were given sole jurisdiction of the Indians, and the troops removed, it is certain that a better condition of things would be obtained than now exists, since the whole responsibility of Indian wars, and their results to unprotected citizens, would belong to the Indian Bureau alone, without the power of shifting the responsibility of consequences upon others. ”

“ The Indians still remain under the care of the Department of the Interior. We believe that the Administration earnestly desires the promotion of their true interests, but the grievous wrongs under which they have so long suffered still continue to be visited upon them, and will so long as an impossible policy is attempted to be carried out by an insufficient force. The question as to the legal status of the Indian is now before the courts. ”

“ Let me also say that our Native American communities are very important to us. We have more than 500 tribes across this country to whom this department has a sacred responsibility assigned to it by law. We have a trust responsibility for the Indian Tribes of America. It will be a high priority of mine and I look forward to working with those of you who work in that part of the department and with the new Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, as we move forward with that agenda. ”

“ That such a system, introduced at any early day, when it was policy for governments on this continent, foreign and domestic, to throw out a boon before wandering, hostile, and savage tribes, to display their munificence, and effect temporary interests, should have been continued to the present day, is only to be accounted for, from the accumulated duties, perpetually advancing jurisdiction, and still imperfectly organized state of that sub-department of the government, which exercises its, in some respects, anomalous administrative functions, under the name of the Indian Bureau. ”

“ While the Indians are officially at peace, according to treaties negotiated with them by the civil officers of the Indian Bureau, the military forces stationed in the Indian country have no jurisdiction over the Indians, and of consequence no certain knowledge of their feelings or purposes, and no power to take any action, either of a precautionary or aggressive character. ”

“ They admit that:
“If responsible government is to be established in India there will be a far greater need than is even dreamt of at present for persons to take part in public affairs in the legislative assemblies and elsewhere; and for this reason the more Indians we can employ in the public services the better. Moreover, it would lessen the burden of Imperial responsibilities if a body of capable Indian administrators could be produced. We regard it as necessary, therefore, that recruitment of a largely increased proportion of Indians should be begun at once.” ”

“ So rapid is the change that is now making a nation out of what was ten years ago but a continent inhabited by an agglomeration of distinct tribes, that no Anglo-Indian who has left India for ten years is competent even to advise the rulers, much less himself to share in the ruling, of Hindostan. The objection to the government of India by the Secretary of State is, that the tenant of the office changes frequently, and is generally ignorant of native feelings and of Indian affairs. ”

“ To determine this properly we must first know what is to be the future treatment of the Indians. If we intend to have war with them, the bureau should go to the Secretary of War. If we intend to have peace, it should be in the civil department. In our judgment, such wars are wholly unnecessary, and hoping that the government and the country will agree with us, we cannot now advise the change. It is possible, however, that, despite our efforts to maintain peace, war may be forced on us by some tribe or tribes of Indians. ”

“ With us, the Indian Department must take its chances with others, and he who ought to give it his entire attention is “Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.” In British Columbia, the Minister of the Interior is the actual superintendent of Indian affairs, and directly responsible for them as the most important part of his official duties. With us, in our Indian, as in our civil, service, which is as vicious as any system can be, officers are continued only during party supremacy. ”

“ Their own high sense of honor makes many of them feel as if they had been laid upon the shelf as being no longer useful, and they would be but too happy to prove that their capacity to serve their country in this line is quite as great as it ever was in their former field of operations. By appointing such men, and merging the Indian Bureau into the War Department, a regular, systematic policy would be pursued, upon which our savage tribes could place reliance, and which would ultimately gain their confidence and respect. ”

“ It is proper to observe, that all the affairs of the Indians, in their connexion and intercourse and official transactions with the Government of the United States, are in charge of the War Department. ”

“ You go even so far as to add: “Indeed, the whole thing has been so in accordance with the ordinary mode of transacting Indian affairs, or the life of an Indian is counted of so little consequence, that when inquired about concerning it by the Senate of the United States, the Interior Department forgot for nearly a year to answer the inquiry at all, and did not think it worth while to express an opinion upon its character.” ”

“ The Government having attempted to support the Indians until such time as they shall become selfsupporting, the interest of the Government as well as that of the Indians demands that every possible effort should be made to induce them to become self-supporting at as early a day as possible. ”

“ One of the things that they contend for more than anything else is that the Federal Government, in supervising and administering the affairs of the Indians should, before they put into operation any policy for their uplift and their advancement, have the consent of the Indians. What an absurd proposition! When you contemplate sending your boy to some educational institution, are you going to permit him to dictate and say to you what you shall do, or, when he selects a certain institution and tries it for a few weeks, say that he does not like it and is going to try some other institution? ”

“ The flowery and elaborate speeches which different representatives of savage tribes have made to the Great Father at Washington, through their interpreters, may seem to have a good deal of nonsense in them, but the Indian Bureau knows that they also contain a great deal of admirable diplomacy. It may be because the Indian has very little to think of and can give his whole mind to the subject under consideration ”

“ We cannot take the Indians out of the hands of the National Government; we cannot take the National Government into our own hands. Therefore we must work with the National Government in any large plan for the betterment of Indian conditions. ”

“ Congress is constitutionally competent to extend the laws of the United States at once over every Indian tribe within the Territories, if not within the States of the Union, even though treaties may guarantee to individual tribes complete and perpetual political independence ”

“ The last one hundred years tend to show that the Indian Office has not within itself the power to initiate any movement for the relief of Indians. The spirit that compels redress has not resided in the Indian Office. The Indian Office has received at all times sufficient reports from the field and may be presumed to have had knowledge of conditions at all times and yet every movement for relief has come from the outside, from individuals, or more often from associations who have compelled an unwilling bureau to act, or, often an unwilling Congress to act. ”