The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1950-04-29

other property owned or held by any
native outside of a native reserva-
ton, unless otherwise prohibited by
Congress"
Everybody, Indian or white, is in
favor of escaping taxes whenever
possible. The statehood bill, then
offers the Indians of Alaska a clear
cut proposition: Get on reserva-
ton and escape taxes, or stay Oft
the reservations and pay taxes.
This could lead from the pre-
sently deplored taxation without
representation to the absurdity OF
representation without taxation,
provided, of course. that the re-
servation Indians are allowed tc
vote.
Status Question
The status of Alaska Indians on
reservations will be determined
partly by the Indian Bureau and
partly by the constitution OF the
proposed state Whether they could
vote for state officials and for rep
resentatives in the state legislature
would be decided first by those who
draft the state constitution and then
by the people of Alaska as whole
when they vote on the constitution.
In Washington, Idaho, and New
Mexico the Indians on reservations
cannot vote because of constitu-
tional provisions forbidding suff-
rage to Indians not taxed. They can
not vote in Arizona because OF a
law denying the ballot to persons
under guardianship" What the out
come will be in the proposed State
of Alaska it is impossible to say,
but it is easy to forsee that there
will be a great deal of bitterness and
hard feeling on both sides before
the question is finally settled.
The handling of Indian affairs
in the states has been a national
disgrace and a blot upon our his
tory from September II. 1778, when
the first Indian Treaty was made,
to the present day. One erroneous
policy has been followed by another
that was worse and the result has
been discrimination against and
hardship for the Indians. enormous
burdens for the taxpayers and q
legal muddle that will perhaps
never be entirely clered up.
The Indian problem in Alaska
has heretofore been of relatively
minor proportions. The government
never made treaty with any tribe
of Alaska Indians, so we are clear
Of the legal tangle created by the
hundreds of Indian Treaties thai
were made throughout the states.
Few people doubt that Alaska's
Indians have just claims and rights
to some of the lands of this country.
A high United States court has
declared that any aboriginal
rights" they may once have had
were extinguished by the treaty
with Russia when we purchased the
country, but that they do have
rights, equal to those OF the whites,
to any lands in their use and pos
session when the Act OF May II,
1884, was passed by Congress.
Up to Claims Court
If they have been deprived Of
any of their rights and OF any
property to which they are entitled,
the us. Court of Claims is the
proper agency to determine a fair
and Just compensation for those
losses. They should be fully COM
pensated, either in cash or in lands,
or partly in each. If they elect to
take lands. the lands should not be
in the form of reservations but in
grants to individuals with full title
thereto, so they can hold it individ-
ually, sell it, bequeath it to their
children or other heirs or otherwise
dispose Of it as they see fit.
The Alaska Indians will be able
to do none of these things with the
land being set aside for them as
reservations by the Secretary OF the
Interior.
If the handling of Indian affairs
in the state has been a national
scandal, it will be national crime
to impose the same tangled and
sorry pattern upon Alaska, either as
territory or state. 1t will Ger
tainly not be a good thing for the
proposed state and l do not believe
it will be good for the Indians.
Alaska's Indian problems, such as
they are, were well on the way to
settling themselves before the In
terror Department moved into the
picture. and the program OF that
department can only set back the
eventual settlement by fifty or a
hundred years.
It is widely doubted that the
Alaska Indian groups which vote
for reservations are fully aware OF
what they are getting into. and
there appears to be no provision
for them to get out Of it once they
are in. Once having voted to accept
a reservation, it is probable that