Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-19
SAYS INDIANS
ARE DESPOILED
FRIENDS OF DEPENDENTS IN
CONFERENCE
Dr.. Lyamn Abbott Points Out Evils
of System In Vogue Where the
Whites Exploit Thrifty
Tribes
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
LAKE MOHONK-, N. Y, Oct. 1S.-The
Lake Mohonk conference Of Friends OF
Indians and other dependent peoples
was opened today by Alfred K. Smiley
1t was on Mr.. Smiley's invitation that
persons particularly interested in the
Filipinos, the Hawaiians and the Porto
Ricans joined with those especially in
terested in the Indians in the yearly
meetings at Lake Mohonk
The Rev. DR.. Lyman Abbott, editor
Of the Outlook was introduced as the
presiding officer. He delivered the prln-
cipal address, saying In part:
''It is the American conscience that
creates the Indian problem. The Amer
lean conscience asks not What shall
we do?' but What ought we to dor
"How shall sixty millions of people,
themselves imperfectly civilized, civ
ilize three hundred thousand men,
women and children, foreign in race,
in language, in custom and in religion?
az received last week from Miss An
ME Beecher Scoville a letter describing
certain conditions, as she found them,
at the Winnebago agency in Nebraska.
1t said:
"'This tribe fifteen or twenty years
ago was considered one of the thrifttest,
hardest worked tribes in the country, SO
we got their land allotted and the Dawes
Dill gave lUGIl ClIlACllSlllp. AZ OlASC q
system Of leasing and buying their vote
began to grow and the people were
weakened by worse system than ra-
tions.
"Ten years ago an order went into
effect that heirship land could be sold,
and since that all work ceased. Drink
and gambling run riot
Sell Liquor to Indians
"The evils here described are aggra-
waited as a result of the direction OF the
United States supreme court that the
Indian who has received his allotment
of land and becomes a citizen can no
longer be prevented from purchasing
liquor under reservation regulations.
This triple process, essential to civil
ization and to free institutions, re-
ceives an illustration in our own deal
ings with the negro race. The country
is beginning to see that to make the
negro safe to his neighbor and to him
self to make him civilized human be-
ing, moral development must keep pace
with the intellectual culture and with
the political emancipation.
DIR. Abbott was followed by Miss
Emily S. Cooke of the Indian office, who
spoke on the Resume of the Years
Work of the Indian Bureaus"
Ready to Rob Indians
Miss Cooke said in part:
"The enrolment of Indian pupils in
schools during the year ended June 30
1905, exclusive of the New York In
dians and the five cixilized tribes, has
aggregated 30,1O6, about 600 more than
during 1904. OF the 24OO persons en-
ployed in Indian schools one-third are
Indians.
From the sale of inherited lands the
Indians continue to gain large revenues,
of which their white neighbors stand
ready to despoil them forthwith. The
leasing of Indian lands, allotted and
unallotted, assumes larger proportions
each year. This gives money to the
Indians and work to the agents, but
has little tendency to forward the In
dians' civilization.
1.-THE decision of the supreme court
of the United States in the Heff case
that it is not Illegal to sell liquor to an
Indian allottee when he is off a reserva-
ton has added vastly to the difficulty
of keeping Indians away from liquor,
and a fund to be used in obtaining
evidence and prosecuting those who
sell liquor to Indians is more seri-
ously needed than ever"