The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1926-01-14

romcers. Our property mas oeen
taken from us and we haye not
even been allowed to go to the
courts to obtain justice. Govern
ment agents have connived with
powerful lumber interests to OBJ.
tain our valuable timber lands
guaranteed to US by solemn treaties
and we have been powerless to Sc
cure any redress. The situation
has become so bad that the State
of Minnesota has appointed a com.
mission to negotiate with the Gov
ernment for the transfer of the In.
dians and their property to State
control, so as to effect a speedy
emancipation of my people.
An Alien Institution.
Ninety per cent of the children
OF my tribe have been educated by
the taxpayers of Minnesota and
yet the Indian Bureau is supposed
to be using Indian funds to edu
cate US. 1t is costing the people
of the United States $4,000. 900
annually t. maintain this Indian
Bureau at Washington. There are
less than 163,OOO souls, native oorn
Americans, under its Jurisdiction.
TO look after the property and
affairs of this small number of
people the bureau maintains a
force greater than that maintained
by the great State Department,
which department deals with every
kind of world activity. There are
$500 employees of the Indian Bu-
reau. while the State Department
has less than 1000. Under the
Department of Labor there are
only 2 744 employees. Yet this
department has one bureau, the
Bureau of Immigration, which
deals with 100000 alieLs every
year. The Bureau of Naturaliza
ton has made citizens out of 15,-
900, 900 aliens during the time the
Indian Bureau has been assiduosly
keeping the American Indians in
corrals like cattle. Hon. Clyde
Kelley, Congressman from Penn
sylvania, never said truer words
than when he exclaimed forcefully
in a speech in the House on Janu
ary 1, 1924: The Indian Bureau
is an alien thing in American gov
ernment. 1t is a bureaucracy that
has grown insidiously like a can
GER, throught its own sinister lust
for power. 1t has multiplied EN-
ployes and expenses to a stagger-
ing total. 1t has repreSsed pro
tests with an iron hand, violating
the constitutional rights of men
whose only crime was an honest
desire to help a people in bondage.
1t has robbed the Indians of in
dustrial rights by claiming them
to reservations where they cannot
choose their own occupation or
engage in productive industry. 1t
has robbed them of educational
rights which belong to every being
God ever mrde, that of becoming
through development all that it is
possible for him TO become. The
bureau is Staying the life of a peo
pie and burying the hope OF, race.
The Indian Bureau today is the
old man of the sea, 80 years old,
and still riding on the Indiac's
back. 1t will teach the Indian
obedience to itself and hand out
plenty of advice. 1t will do
everything for the Indian but get
off his back"
Cause Of Condition.
Q. How did this condition arise9
A.-President Washington said
to the Six Nations in 1870: The
government will never consent to
your being defrarded, but will
protect you in your rights" The
Indian Bureau was created in 1882.
Like all other bureaus of the Gov
ernment, its officers wanted to en-.
large its importance, and it soon
became a political institution. AS
tie white population increased the
demand of the white man for the