Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1906-05-10
The Methods Of the Indian Office.

D~ErAnrMENT OF THE lNr.uon. OrrIcE
COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
Washington. April IS. 1905
My DEAR bIsIIor SArrEmMEE:-
In response to your recent com
m%unication | wish to express my
appreciation of the courtesy of
your committee i'm frankly invit-
inc me to make clear the methods
of the Indian office in executing
the Presidents orders as to the
S OF the trust and treaty funds
toward the support of sundry mis-
sion schools.
The rules ] formulated for han
ding this matter were laid down
in my annual report for 1905. pub
Iishcd last November. The only
digrrssions from those rules were
made ON the written Instructions
of the President. On maturrr
thought he decided TO change the
mode of determining the ''p,o
,ut0" share which each Indian
should be at liberty to sign away.
My plan provided for first taking
out of the tribal income the
amount needed for the support of
the Government schools, and then
dividing the balance. His plan,
which was substituted for this.
provided for the division without
first taking out the amount needed
for the support of the Govcrnmc't
schools, and then giving each In
dian the privilege of saying
whether his share should be drawn
upon for Il mission school or the
government schools.
The other divergence consisted
in the Presidents deciding himself
the question of the use of the
treaty funds as we'll as the trust
funds. This use had been made
heretofore, and | had raised Il
question on it, and asked for an
opinion by the Acknowledgement.
passed the summer and part of
the fall on the reservations; and,
no opinion being vet at hand on
my return to my desk, and the
mission schools having got nearly
half through their years work on
the faith of an opinion favorable
to them, the President decided that
the treaty funds should be used
for the rest of the current fiscal
year, but cease absolutely after
June 30, 1905.
In all other respects the rules,
as | framed them, are undisturbed
and in full operation. My in
structions to the various Agencies
Interested in this matter were as
explicit as l know how to make
them, and publicity and candor
with everybody were their funda-
mental principles. When, early
in February, one Of our Agents
telegraplnd in an inquiry on a
point which seemed to him uncer-
tain, my sole thought in wiring
back my answer was to make sure
that no possible excuse should ever
be afforded anyone to say that he
had been misled. In other words.
! insisted that the existing plan
should put its least attractive face
to the front. My dispatch, crude
in form and prepared in the midst
of an almost maddening rush OF
work, read as follows:
"Washington, ID. c. Feb.2, 1906
payment for contract will be
made out of all trust and treaty
funds named in petition to the ex.
tent of the shares of the petition
ers and petitioners children, the
total of which will be deducted
from the total amount of sale
funds whenever a distribution i.
made, thus reducing by sucl
amount the shares of all Indians.
"LEUPp.
commissioner
This message, read in the light
of all the records and correspon
dence which had preceded it
would, l supposed, be Ineligible
Read by itself, even, l cannot con
ceive how the last part could hav,
been Inexperienced when join
ed to the first part. Construed il
popular language, this dispatch
made plain three things:
~ That the treaty as we'll a
the trust funds would be used.
(2) That no petitioner would By
permitted to sign away more thar
his own shares and the shares o
his children; and
(3) That under the existing s.ys
tenn the shares of all the member
of the tribe would suffer som
diminution.
The first Of these points l hay
already explained; the second j
included in the rules laid down il
my report. Now let me make tn
third point clear by an illustra
ton.
49, " ~