The Tomahawk., 1920-10-07
INDIANS THEIR PROBLEMS.
Continued from 1st Page. l..

matter.
During the month of March,
1910, the same story of the Bass
land was repeated to- the House
Committee of Indian Affairs in the
presence of Supt Asbury and the
Asst. Commissioner of Indian
Affrirs. The promises made by
both of them to the Senate Com
mittee, together with, that made by
Supt. AsbuPy to VIM. Bass, were
still unexecuted. The official prom
Use of the guardians of VIM. Bass in
reference to his property over
which they were the active trustees
was worth nothing. In fact under
the agreement of Thomas D Camp
bell and the Secretary of the In.
terror the Indian Bureau was the
agent of the Corporation at the
time it was the guardian of the In
dams. It was, and is, a dishonest
position. When the Secretary of
the Interiors attention was called
by the Indian Committee, to the
manner of making this lease of the
land in question, he said, there was
legal right or authority to do 50.
Still the officials upon whom the
Inoian is forced to depend, under
the law, are acting as the agents
and protectors of the Montana
Farming Corporation, who hold the
land which came to their possession
by force and by fraud, wrong and
tie oppression of the owner.
In this instance the Indian made
three requests directly to his sup
erintendent; three times it has
come up before committees of Con-
gress without the rig hts of the In.
dian being adjusted. "A full blood
non English speaking Indian, IN
what is designated as the non COM
petent class, has the possession OF
his land forcib!y taken from him
by a corporation upon a lease ad
mitted by the Secretary of the In
terror to be without legal authority
and, under the law, cannot get any
aid from the Indian Bureau. :
In fact the Indian Bureau aud It's
officials are active parties to fraud,
force and imposition against him.
Under similar circumstances per.
mission is given cattlemen to go
upon the Pine Ridge Sioux Reser
walton. Asst. Commissioner of In
dian Affairs, E. B. Merit5, said:
THE department approved the
policy to lease the reservation. !"
Every foot of land to which this
policy applied was owned, and
most of it is in the actual occu
pancy Of tue indians. Congress
man Elston said about it as fol
lows: 1T seems obvious from what
Mr.. Merritt said, that as SOON as a
general system had been been APP
proved, and before they got all the
signatures, they turned in the cat
tie IS if they owned the whole
thing, and in the meantime went
along as they pleased.
James Red Cloud, Pine Ridge
Reservation Sioux and grandson
of the old Chief Red Cloud, came to
Washington and said to the House
Indian Committee: THE reserva
ton is covered with cattle. like a
whole lot of worms on it. l cannot
raise a garden and cannot do any,
thing. The superintendent went so
far as to try ard ppt some Indians
| in Jail for driving cattle away from
their gardens. There is lot of
trouble like that on our reserva-
ton and that is one Of the reasons
why we want this lease to be abol
ishcd and the superintendent re-
moved, and in this way we will get
along better"
Joseph Horn Cloud from the
same reservation said to the Com
mittee: The superintendent out
there tells the Indians when they
refuse to lease their lands, that
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