Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-06-27
BY HAVEN EMERSON,
Distinguished Physician and Public Health
Authority.

" HE long down.hill road of the
American Indians has become
an uphill road leading to sun
Il light. All Indians became full
citizens in 1924 But they re-
manned wards of the Government, and
the Indian Bureau has even tried to
increase its arbitrary power over their
lives and lands. Until this session of
Congress, few white people realized
that the Indian reservations, 10000
square miles in area, were similar to
ill-conducted prison compounds. ruled
and virtually owned by bureaucracy
appropriate to the dark ages, whose
actions are not accountable even to
the courts.
At this writing the following is
still true:
Indians cannot make legally bind
ing contracts.
They are forbidden to make legally
binding wills, disposing of their prop
erty to their children.
When covetous white men want an
Indians farm lands the Indian Bureau
is free to declare the Indian "1ncapa-
BILE" and thereupon to eviot the In
dian and rent the land to white men
secretly. without competition ana even
without collecting rent.
The Indian parents are not free 10
insist what religion their children
shall be taught.
Have No Trial Rights.
Indians have not the right of jury
trial or any form of due process or
law except where eight crimes men,
toned in certain Federal statutes are
charged. For all other matters they
may be seized, Jailed, placed IN man
acles. worked on the roads as convlcts
or worked as virtual slaves to the In
dian Bureau employees. They nave no
appeal and no court review and are
essentially slaves.
Today 24,5O0 Indian children are
crowded into boarding schools whose
capacity is 14,5O0. Medical neglect is
extreme and infections rage. More
than $4,000 Indians suffer from ira
choma, an infectious disease produc-
ing blindness, and the boarding school
trachoma rate is much higher than
that of the general Indian population.
ANY missionary or scientist, social
Investigator or journalist who goes on
the reservations may be seized, 1orcl-
bly, evicted and, If he returns, is liable
to a heavy penalty and a jail SEN
tence. He has no court review OF the
Indian Bureaus ruling, Wnlch de-
clares him undesirable.
These are some of the facts sur
rounding the extravagant, even melo-
dramatic Indian administration, and
though the Indians are full citizens
thew have no escape from what is, to
all practical purposes, peonage, even
I a slavery. Meantime, the Indian Blu
reau, absolute master over their prop
erty, worth $1,000, 100000, and their
funds of $9O,000,000, empowered to
defy the courts and able to control
Congress through the use OF Indian
funds among the constituencies, con-
tinues to destroy the physical tissue
of the Indians, to stamp out their ra-
cial life and spirit and to support it.
seIf to the amount Of millions yearly
out of the dwindling principal of the
Indian estate.
No Denial Made.
In the session just closing all of
these facts were proclaimed by mem
hers of Congress, as well as by the
Indian welfare bodies, and the Indian
Bureau made no effort to deny the
more serious charges. Indeed, the
bureau was busy trying to force
through Congress a bill giving 1t re-
newed legal authority to Jail Indians
without trial, and was engaged in a
huge maneuver intended to make the
Indians pay a 37h per cent income
tax from their oil and to destroy their
claim of ownership to, about three
fifths of all their undivided lands.
The oil bill was defeated and the
Senate has now passed bill drafted
bv the friends Of the Indians leaving
all oil revenue with the Indians and
permanently safeguarding their claim
of ownership to their lands. No such
sweepiug defeat Of any Indian Bureau