United States Indian Office

“ I recommend to the earnest consideration of the American people the Commission idea, as the only means of salvation of the American Indian. It will be said by critics that many of the tribes are making satisfactory progress and need no Commission; that the present organization of the Indian Office is sufficient. ”

“ Our Nation, under the law of the United States, in accordance with treaties, statutes, Executive Orders, and judicial decisions, has recognized the right of Indian tribes to self-government. As domestic dependent nations, Indian tribes exercise inherent sovereign powers over their members and territory. The United States continues to work with Indian tribes on a government-to-government basis to address issues concerning Indian tribal self-government, tribal trust resources, and Indian tribal treaty and other rights. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In a Report for the protection of the Western Frontier, submitted to Congress by the Secretary of War, we have a very fair exposé of the conduct and intentions of the American Government towards the Indians. Although the Indians continue to style the President of the United States as their Great Father, yet, in this report, the Indian feeling which really exists towards the American people is honestly avowed ”

“ There is no such thing as the Indian frontier. Civilization, with the busy hum of industry and the influences of Christianity, surrounds these people at every point. None of the tribes are outside of the bounds of organized government and society, except that the Territorial system has not been extended over that portion of the country known as the Indian Territory. As a race the Indians are no longer hostile, but may be considered as submissive to the control of the Government. ”

“ The Constitution, treaties, laws, and court decisions have consistently recognized a unique political relationship between tribal elected governments and the United States. We look to a future of increasing economic independence and self-sufficiency on Indian reservations, and we support efforts to foster greater Indian control of Indian resources.
May our national observance of this truly special week in tribute to American Indians inspire us to seek a deeper understanding of our past and a wider hope for the future we must walk together in this great and bounteous land. ”

“ In my judgment the time has arrived when we should definitely make up our minds to recognize the Indian as an individual and not as a member of a tribe. The General Allotment Act is a mighty pulverizing engine to break up the tribal mass. It acts directly upon the family and the individual. Under its provisions some sixty thousand Indians have already become citizens of the United States. ”

“ The purchase of their lands does not alter in the least their personal relations with the State government. No act of the General Government has ever been deemed necessary to give the States jurisdiction over the persons of the Indians. That they possess by virtue of their sovereign power within their own limits in as full a manner before as after the purchase of the Indian lands ”

“ Not only does the Constitution expressly authorize Congress to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes, but long continued legislative and executive usage and an unbroken current of judicial decisions have attributed to the United States as a superior and civilized nation the power and the duty of exercising a fostering care and protection over all dependent Indian communities within its borders, whether within its original territory or territory subsequently acquired, and whether within or without the limits of a state. ”

“ The Secretary of the Interior reports that leading Indians have absorbed great tracts of land to the exclusion of the common people, and government by an Indian aristocracy has been practically established, to the detriment of the people. It has been found impossible for the United States to keep its citizens out of the Territory, and the executory conditions contained in the treaties with these Nations have for the most part become impossible of execution. ”

“ The relation of the Five Civilized Tribes now occupying the Indian Territory to the United States is not, I believe, that best calculated to promote the highest advancement of these Indians. That there should be within our borders five independent states having no relations, except those growing out of treaties, with the Government of the United States, no representation in the National Legislature, its people not citizens, is a startling anomaly. ”

“ Congress has regarded their members of the half Indian blood or more, whether enrolled or not, as restricted tribal Indians subject to federal control. The fact that these Indians are citizens is not inconsistent with their restricted status or the exercise of federal supervision over them. ”

“ Every year from 1000 to 2000 Indians signify their desire of becoming citizens by taking allotments. The right of Indians to sue and be sued in both Federal and State courts is well recognized, and they are frequently given the right of suffrage by the States in which they reside. At the present time there are estimated to be over 20,000 Indian voters in the United States. The Constitution confers upon Congress the power to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes, and until the year 1871 the common method of dealing with them was by treaty through the agency of special commissioners. ”

“ XIII. “I believe the administration is taking every possible step to safeguard the interests of the Indians within the limits allowed by the laws governing and the funds at its disposal, hampered as it is by the political intriguers who now, as always, seek to control the management of Indian Affairs for their personal benefit and gain. Your true reformer is first, and always an extremist; to him a thing is either black or white, good or evil, a crime or a virtue. ”

“ To say in the face of the experience of the past eight years that this supervision of the Indian is an unwarranted, unreasonable interference with the rights of citizens of a sovereign State, is the shallowest sophistry. Under the wise policy of the Interior Department the consideration paid for lands of a restricted Indian is received by the Department and expended in the construction of improvements on his homestead and for farm implements, livestock and other necessities of life. ”

“ If the United States must exercise its right of eminent domain over the Indian Territories for the general welfare of the whole country, it should be done cautiously, with due regard for the interests of the Indians, and to no greater extent than the exigencies of the public service require.
Bills tending somewhat in the direction of this general character of legislation, affecting the rights of the Indians reserved to them by treaty stipulations, have been presented to me during the present session of Congress. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Superintendents, agents, commissioners, secretaries, all reiteratedly recommending this one simple and necessary step toward civilization—the Indians themselves by hundreds imploring for titles to their farms, or at least “hoes”—why did the United States Government keep on and on in its obstinate way, feeding the Indian in gross and reckless improvidence with one hand, plundering him with the other, and holding him steadily down at the level of his own barbarism? ”

“ The policy has been to collect the Indians as rapidly as possible on reservations, and as far as practicable within what is known as the Indian Territory, and to teach them the arts of civilization and self-support. Where found off their reservations, and endangering the peace and safety of the whites, they have been punished, and will continue to be for like offenses. ”

“ Those who answer by saying, ‘Give the Indians immediate citizenship and full control of their property and thus keep down the appropriations for Indian administration,’ offer a correct solution only for that class of Indians who are sufficiently educated and advanced in civilization to accept the full responsibility for handling their property. ”

“ If the United States Government does not take steps to avert this danger, to give them lands and protect them in their rights, the chapter of the history of the Mission Indians will be the blackest one in the black record of our dealings with the Indian race. ”

“ Nothing seems to us more appropriate than due regard for local institutions and local interests. We are concerned with the interplay between the rights of Indians under federal guardianship and the local repercussion of those rights. Congress has not been heedless of the interests of the states in which Indian lands were situated, as reflected by their local laws. ”

“ Everything else--rations, annuities, and tribal negotiations, with the agents, inspectors, and commissioners who distribute and conduct them--must pass away when the Indian has become a citizen, secure in the individual ownership of a farm from which he derives his subsistence by his own labor, protected by and subordinate to the laws which govern the white man, and provided by the General Government or by the local communities in which he lives with the means of educating his children. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For fifty years the Indian has followed a devious and uncertain trail, in the fond hope that he might reach his journey’s end. If men and women, who through unintentional ignorance have given no heed to the welfare of our red Americans, will interest their Representatives in Congress, and also help to crystallize public opinion against further harmful legislation, it is quite possible that the National Commission plan may be carried into effect. ”