The daily progressive-miner., 1916-03-27

] tOuutluueu IIOHl iaSt 1SSut.l On account of the lack of funds
 at the disposal of the Bureau of
 Education, the Indians paid for the
 salaries of the first two teachers
 appointed for Metlakatla in the fall
 of 1913, provided large hall at
 their own expense for the daily
 use of the school work, gave the
 teachers the free use of an In- dian dwelling house, and in every possible way helped in the begin ming of the work.
 The Government therefore did not come into Metlakatla for the sake Of opposing Father Duncan, or op- posing his work. It was convinced after full, complete and impart- ial investigations, of the justice of the demands of the Indians Then it granted to the Metlakatla ln- dians the school and it's privileges that they themselves had asked for; and later on, when they asked for them again, the rights of local self government.
 The matter of industrial enter prises at Metlakatla, of which the Indians have been deprived of for many years, is at the present time being arranged for by the Indians themselves under the advlce and supervision of the proper officials of the Interior Department These enterprises principally consist of the salmon cannery, the saw mill and the trading store.
 The Council wishes to state that the Indians themselves have sub scribed an amount, are still putting their small savings together and are at the same time borrowing a sum of money so that some of these enterprises can be operated this year for the benefit of the whole community after many years of uncertainty and hardship. These acts of the Metlakatla Indians to- day establish the fact that Father Duncan failed to do the right thing with his Indian converts between tSe years 1887 and 1910.
 The friction" of which Mr. Car penter speaks that exists at Met lakatla is between Father Duncan and his ten male followers with their families, on the one hand, and about six hundred and fifty Indian people, who have asked for the ad- vice and aid of the Government, on the other hand.
 The former party believes, as Father Duncan did in 1857, that We should be treated more like child 1en"-a false, selfish and inhunnan assertion-;while the latter party holds to the fact that as far back as 1882, when they asked Father Duncan to become their leader soon after he was dismissed from the service of the Church Missionary Society, they then already outgrew their primitive life and had reason ed and acted as full grown men. The theory of Father Duncan that the Metlakatla Indians are still mere children, and can only be treated as such without their ever saying single word about their own selves and affairs, is certainly we'll contradicted by MT. Carpenter himself who speaks of the same Indians as attaining to an advanced state of civilization and intelli- gence," "are now aspiring to higher education and to full Unit ed States citizenship"
 The Council of Metlakatla fur ther wishes to Say that if the proper authorities did not step in- to the present affairs of Metlakat- la as they did, and as they were asked to do so by the Metlakatla people, Father Duncan would have been busted from this community by the Indians themselves over 2 years ago. The entrance of the Government here saved him, and at the same time calmed down and controlled the growing indignant