The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-10-02

the Indians in the Territory that could be devised
 being set up by the Secretary of the Interior of the United States.
 Of all the injuries that an otherwise free people could be called upon to suffer the policy of the De- partment of the Interior in setting up Indian Reserva tons in Alaska is the worst How it can be shown to be excusabe indeed lawful is beyond the ken of most Alaskans.
 Can anyone possibly understand why for instance, million and one-half of land in the Chandelar district should in this day and age be aside for
 group of Indian citizens of the United States which includes only seventeen adults? Or why after being open to development by whites and Indians alike for eighty years, of 273000 of waterfront land blocking to several hundred thousand ad- ditional Hydaburg, Rake, and Kawock, should be turned into for some twelve hundred Indians? And this against the wishes of practically all white people in Alaska and of the Indians, themselves?
 The Indians do not want to be put on reservations. They citizens, and want to be treated other citizens treated. If in settlement of aboriginal rights, the Indians given individual title to certain parcels of land, paid cash for their claims the Government, neither whites Indians would have any complaint. But to place men who have been citizens of the United States with all the freedom of action incident thereto, under the thumb of the Secretary of the Interior, is crime against liberty which cries to the high heavens.
 Before Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes started setting up additional Indian reservations last year. the Annette Island Reserve the only Indian Reservation in Alaska This island of 133 square miles, with it's exclusive Indian rights to fish, minerals timber all other Subject to the yes of the Secretary of the Interior) is large that it could provide homeses for all the 30000 Indians, Eskmos, and Aleuts in Alaska However, although they all have right to join the other natives this reservation and participate in the questionable joys of
 living under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, only TOO Indians live Annette Island. Some 300 Tsimpheans who originally made their home at Metlakatla value their liberty that they have moved to Ketchikan and other places and chosen to compete freely with the whites.
 The record will show that Father William Duncan the great missionary of the Metakatlans himself opposed Annette Islands being set aside as reserva- tion, preferring to purchase the land outright or depend on "squatters rights rather than place his followers under the rule of the Department of the Interior He encountered his greatest difficulties in governmental interference and even arrested and falsely charged with threatened assault by conspring potters of the Bureau of Education who despoed his property and tried to take over the settlement!
 The Indians need the leadership of white men working without the restraint of bureaucratic rule This proved by the works of Father Duncan. Even the Metakatla Indians make their greatest eco- homie progress while working under efficient white operator of their cannery. The Indians who have left Metlakata and gone elsewhere have done so because they value their freedom and feel that they can do better economically while working unrestraned in the white mans enterprises To understand the educated Indians attitude to reserves white man has only to ask himself how he would feel if placed on a reservation"
 The same obstructive forces which prevented Father Duncan and his Indians from getting free title to lands Annette Island are working to pre- vent both Indians and whites from getting patents to lands in Alaska today Circumventing even the wishes of Congress which is supposed to be sovereign in these United States, Secretary Harold Ickes is now holding up ALL applications for patents to lands in Alaska!