Condition of (Indian) Affairs - Pages 3-28



Page 3

STUDYING THE CONDITION OF AFFAIRS IN INDIAN TERRITORY AND CALIFORNIA. A 
REPORT BY PROF. C. C. PAINTER, AGENT OF THE INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.
 
At the joint request of the Executive Committee of the Indian Rights 
Association and of the Mohonk Committee on "Legal Defence of the Mission 
Indians," as general Agent of the Indian Rights Association, I made a 
third annual visit to southern California during the spring and summer of 
1887, leaving home on the second of May and returning in August, stopping 
in the Indian Territory on the way out to look into the condition of 
things at the several Agencies among the Indians west of the five 
civilized tribes. 

Calling on the President and Secretary of the Interior, and informing them 
of the scope and purpose of my visit, I was requested by them to look into 
the condition of the schools at the several points visited, and to give my 
opinion as to the advisability of removing the Indians west of Oklahoma 
into that part of the country, with a view to opening up to settlement the 
lands now occupied by them, as proposed by the Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, and urged with great pertinacity by certain Congressmen from Iowa 
and Illinois. Through General Kelton, Acting Secretary of War, I was 
kindly furnished with letters to the commandants of the several military 
posts along my route, which were of the greatest assistance to me, and I 
take this 

Page 4

opportunity to acknowledge the very great courtesy which has been shown 
me, whenever opportunity has offered, by Army officers, and the valuable 
aid given me in the prosecution of my work. With few exceptions, the 
soldiers who have been forced to fight Indians have a very cordial and 
profound respect for them as a part of the human family, and great 
sympathy for them under their oppressions and wrongs. 

The letters furnished me by the Secretary of War secured from Col. Sumner, 
of Reno; Col. Pierson, of Ft. Sill; and Gen. Miles, of Los Angeles, all 
the aid that could be given me in furtherance of the objects of my visit, 
and the hospitalities of the first two were unstinted and most generous. 

A similar letter was given me by the Secretary of the Interior, requiring 
of the officials of the several Agencies visited by me all the assistance 
they could give consistent with the discharge of their duties. Excepting 
at one Agency, this did not secure to me any very special attention, 
possibly all that could be given consistently with more urgent duties. 

Stopping at Arkansas City, in Kansas, to visit the Indian School at 
Chilocco, near that city, I found the Senate Committee appointed to 
investigate certain scandals in connection with Indian Traderships, in 
session at that point. 

A large number of traders, ex-traders, Agents, Ex-agents and others 
acquainted with the condition of things were gathered here, affording 
unusual opportunities for picking up information such as I was seeking. 

I do not know, nor will I attempt to anticipate, what report this 
Committee will make, but as the witnesses were examined, two facts seemed 
to come out very prominently: 1st, Old traders, against whom no charge was 
made of violating the intercourse laws, or rules regulating trade with 
Indians, had the option forced upon them of putting in their capital, 
including buildings, goods, experience, time and labor, as against the 
license of a new man, who, in some cases, had no capital, and dividing 
profits; or of losing capital, buildings, outstanding debts, etc., etc.; 
and 2d, That Deputy Commissioner Upshaw, even while he was only Chief 
Clerk, seems to have run the Bureau of Indian Affairs independently and, 
at times, against the will and purpose of the Commissioner. One witness 
testified that he would have, one 

Page 5

day, the permission of Mr. Atkins to open his store and continue the 
business, and the next he would be ordered by Mr. Upshaw to close it and 
get off the reservation, and that he was confident, from the promises made 
him by the Commissioner, he would have been permitted to continue in trade 
if he had not been over-ruled by his deputy. 

Whether abuses are greater under the present administration than under 
previous ones is not a question that concerns the friends of the Indians 
so much as the more pertinent and pressing one, whether the abuses of the 
system itself shall be continued? It is a great outrage that a man who has 
been encouraged to invest capital in trade which he is licensed and 
authorized by the Department to carry on under its rules and regulations, 
and has done this in such manner that no charge can be sustained against 
him of violating these, is compelled either to share his profits with a 
favorite of the Commissioner, or of his friends, personal or political, or 
go out of business, with no opportunity to settle it up or take out of it 
the capital he has invested. This is an unmitigated outrage; but it is a 
wrong no greater than the system, as it is administered, inflicts upon the 
Indian, even when the white man suffers no injustice under it. It is 
difficult to see reasons why any man, and every man, whose character is 
such that he ought to be allowed to go on an Indian Reservation as a 
trader under any circumstances, should not be licensed to do so if he 
chooses, and there is nothing in the law regulating traderships preventing 
this. The theory under which the law should be interpreted and 
administered is this: The law contemplates the best interest of the 
Indian, and was intended to protect that interest, rather than to give 
extraordinary advantages to a white trader for enriching himself. The 
whole management of Indians has been abnormal, with little or absolutely 
no opportunity for the natural laws regulating social life to operate. 
Everything is controlled by arbitrary laws and regulations, and not by 
moral, social, or economic principles. Common sense, educated by long 
experience, has taught us, long since, that the natural laws of demand and 
supply will meet the wants of a community more wisely and economically 
than can be done under the most careful arbitrary regulations. No 
commissary department, however wise and able, could supply the daily needs 
of a great city like New 

Page 6

York or Philadelphia as cheaply, safely, regularly, and with so little 
friction as does this simple law of demand and supply left free to operate 
upon the myriad agencies which, all over the world, are freely cooperating 
to this end. 

The sooner it is settled that the Indian belongs to the human family, that 
his needs must be met in the same way and under the same economic laws as 
in the case of all other human beings, the better it will be for him and 
for us who are so much perplexed with the difficulties of our problem--
difficulties we foolishly create and then by most stupid methods undertake 
to solve. 

If the abuses which Senator Platt's Committee have undertaken to 
investigate will but call their attention to the fact that they grew up 
under a system which is of itself an abuse, and shall result in its 
correction and removal, then will a result be reached which shall 
compensate for the expense of such a Commission; but if we shall reach the 
conclusion, satisfactory to one part of the Committee, that this business 
has been controlled and used by those in charge of it, as never before, to 
reward political and personal friends--or, with satisfaction to the other 
part of the Committee, that the present administration has only too 
closely followed the bad precedents of the past, this would be, in either 
case, a lame and impotent conclusion, in which few would feel an interest. 

Experience in the past does not hold out much hope that anything will come 
of this investigation. Two reports will be given, each satisfactory to the 
party to whom it is made, and the nonpartisan citizen, if he reads them, 
will strike the balance at the zero point midway between, and infer 
nothing beyond a zeal on the part of each to politically injure the other. 

There is this hope, however, which grows stronger under every exercise of 
the inherent despotism of the Indian Bureau, that as the number of white 
men increases who are crushed in their fortunes, or hindered and thwarted 
in their plans, by its arbitrary decisions, the demand will grow louder, 
stronger, and more emphatic that such an anomalous monstrosity shall cease 
to exist. Since we began to deal with the Indians it has crushed them 
under its irresponsible power, and the American people have been silent; 
but when it strikes too many free citizens down its days will be numbered. 

Page 7

To one who has protested against it, and chafed under it as he has seen it 
dealing with the Indian as with a piece of dead matter, as having no 
rights to be considered when they were opposed by the interests of white 
men, it was a great delight to see it strike the Christian Churches of 
this country a blow square in the face, as it did in the order forbidding 
them, at their own expense, and in such ways as experience has taught them 
are wise, to attempt to obey, so far as the Indians are concerned, the 
command of their Divine Master, and preach to them the gospel of Christ, 
and then treat with supreme indifference and contempt their humble 
petitions to have this order modified. So long as no one but the Indian 
was subjected to such tyranny few have found a voice to complain, but it 
is an interesting question how long those who have believed in civil and 
religious liberty will submit to such a petty despotism, when it crushes 
their own rights and liberties. 

THE CHILOCCO SCHOOL. This school is beautifully located, on elevated 
grounds several miles from Arkansas City, just over the line in the Indian 
Territory, not so far from the home of the Indians that they cannot run 
off and go home frequently, but so far that it requires considerable time 
to hunt them up and bring them back. The school was under the care of a 
most excellent Christian gentleman who lacks other very necessary 
qualifications for the highest success as superintendent of such a work. 
The school was fairly good when it ought to have been first-class. During 
the year which closed about the time of my visit, there had been five 
principal teachers for the one position; there had been seven teachers for 
the two positions, or twelve appointees for three positions, and this in 
the teaching force of the school. Five men had held the one position of 
blacksmith; five women the one position of tailoress. These changes would 
indicate a fatal inability to make good appointments, or an equally 
unfortunate inability to retain good workers when appointed; in either 
case a condition of things utterly incompatible with a high degree of 
success. 

The school is badly cramped for room and suitable accommodations. The 
dining room accommodations are poor in quality 

Page 8

and too small for the school. There ought to be a hospital. When the 
measles broke out during the past winter, and sixty of the children were 
down with them at one time, there was no place for them but in the common 
dormitory. Bath rooms for both sexes are much needed, whether from a 
sanitary or moral point of view, and a new building large enough for 
workshops and laundry is a necessity. 

The superintendents of this school have made reference in their reports to 
the small allowance of soap, and the present laundryman makes a pitiful 
plea for a larger quantity. I would that the cook also had felt the 
necessity for it, and had joined her voice with that of the laundryman. 
Certainly there was either an utter deficiency of this most necessary 
article, or an utter ignorance of its virtues. It is too bad that children 
should pass the formative period of their lives under influences which 
minimize the value of cleanliness in persons and surroundings, and should 
be fed by the exponents of our higher Christian civilization in such 
manner that they get but faint ideas of anything better than they have 
known in their old homes. 

PONCA, OTOE AND PAWNEE. From Chilocco I went to the Ponca Agency, under 
the care of Major Osborne of Tennessee. He had just killed one of his 
farmers at the Otoe sub-Agency, and had gone to Tennessee after his wife. 
The killing of this man was in defence of others, at whom the man killed, 
Smith, was shooting. His position, with reference to Smith was such that 
Osborne could have disarmed him without killing him had he seen fit to do 
it. There was no necessity for the thing, and it would not have occurred 
but for the fact that these men all go armed, and belong to a class which 
ought to have no representatives in the work of Indian civilization. I 
learned at Arkansas City that when the Agent, and his clerk from Otoe, Mr. 
Young, and another employe brought Smith's body to that place to ship it 
home, they were gambling, and acting as fast fellows "on a high old time." 
I was informed by a gentleman, also of that city, that some time ago the 
Agent came up into Kansas, to a neighboring town, fell off the train and 
lay about town until his wife came up and took him home. I had a 
conference with the Indians at Ponca, and had to listen 

Page 9

to a long list of grievances from them, in which complaints they seemed to 
be entirely harmonious. They said: "These men"--the agency employes, all 
of whom excepting the Agent were present--"seem to be very tired. They 
need rest. They are always resting. None of them do anything but rest, 
except that man (pointing to the clerk). He is always writing. We do not 
know what he writes about, but he is always at it. He don't write for us, 
we have to go up town to get our letters written, but he is always 
writing--that man is, but the rest of them just rest. We think they ought 
to go to Mr. Washington for their pay, and not take it out of our money 
when they don't do us any good." 

I rode all over the cultivated portion of their reservation and found it 
to be a magnificent body of land. I found the man who was most bitter in 
his denunciations of the employes roosting upon the top of his house, 
smoking, and doing but little for his corn, which very much needed 
attention. But I found also that the most progressive and industrious of 
the Indians shared very fully the feeling which was expressed at the 
conference as to the unrelatedness of these employes to their welfare. 

There was, especially among the better part of the Indians, a strong 
feeling that their school was not doing much for their children. This was 
manifestly a correct estimate of the school. There was and had been much 
feeling between members of the force of employes, and want of harmony. 
There had been two superintendents during the year, and five teachers 
where there should have been but two, and frequent changes throughout the 
force. 

There is great need of additional room, especially of bath rooms, water 
closets and hospital, but there is more urgent need for a change in the 
controlling and teaching force before the school can become efficient. 

The superintendent is reputed to be an infidel, of the blatant kind. 
However this may be, he is not, otherwise, fitted for his position, 
neither is his wife qualified to teach. The school was very poor inded. In 
fact, among the whole Agency force the clerk is the only one I found there 
regularly connected with the work whom I thought qualified for his duties, 
and he is not the kind of man to entrust with any part in a civilizing 
work, for he 

Page 10

is aggressively out of sympathy with the fundamental principles of a 
permanent civilization. The most utterly homesick and hopeless person I 
have ever seen was the lady missionary who was here under the auspices of 
the Women's Missionary Association of the Methodist Church. She had 
neither sympathy nor opportunity, except as she found it in the Indians' 
homes; none whatever from any employe of the government. 

Things were much better at Otoe Sub-agency. The clerk who had been in 
charge, and who was in the recent shooting scrape, and his wife, who had 
been matron, were just leaving when I got there. Both, from all I could 
learn, were notoriously unfit for their positions. Mr. Hutchinson, the 
Superintendent of the school, and his wife, the matron, and Miss DeNight, 
the teacher, are all first class. The Doctor, who lives there also, I 
judge to be pretty good; also the cook and laundress. 

This is one of the very best schools I have ever found on an Indian 
Reservation. Unfortunately it is very small, there being room for only 
twenty-five boarding pupils. The building, as being inadequate and 
unfortunately located too near the Agency buildings, ought to be turned 
over to the Agency, being much needed, and a new and complete school for 
125 or 150 pupils should be erected about a mile from the present site. If 
this should be done and the present Superintendent put in charge, and the 
present superb teacher, Miss DeNight, who was removed from the Chilocco 
school to make room for the Superintendent's sister-in-law, given charge 
of the teaching force, a long step would be taken in the direction of 
civilizing the Indians. In fact, this would be the point at which to build 
an adequate school of the highest grade for this whole Agency, being 
central for the Poncas and Pawnees. 

At Pawnee I found a bad state of things. The clerk in charge, McKenzie, so 
far as I could learn, does nothing. His brother, the farmer, clerks for 
him. Barker, the additional farmer, a tall, gawky boy, knows nothing of 
farming and does nothing. Prof. Gordon is superintendent of the school, 
which is detached from Agency control, and, though a very nice man, is 
wholly unfit for his position. He sent the children home with the measles 
broken out on them, and many of them, the clerk says 40 out of 85; the 
doctor says 30; Gordon says 23, died, 

Page 11

some of them on their mother's backs before they could be gotten home. 
Mrs. McKenzie, the clerk's wife, has been forced (as I was informed by one 
in position to know), upon three successive superintendents, by Mr. 
Atkins, as teacher, though utterly unqualified for the place. The Agent's 
sister is matron and fairly good, though she informed me that she came 
there not for her health, but for what can be made of the business. The 
school has been detached from Agency control and put under a bonded 
officer. When its superintendent came to take an inventory of the 
property, on assuming charge of it, he had to strip the clerk's house of 
almost all the furniture it contained, he having appropriated school 
furniture for his own use. This has caused a bitterness of feeling between 
the two officials which prevents any very cordial cooperation in the good 
work, so dear to each, of Indian civilization. 

Excepting the dining room, everything about the school premises was in a 
fearful condition. The privies scented the whole place; the stores and 
school goods were in bad order, and much of them spoiling, this largely 
because there was no suitable room in which to store them. The doctor was 
about the only one connected with the government work that amounted to 
anything at all. The Indians threatened to gather up the whole force and 
dump them off the reservation. As at Ponca, so here, the Missionary finds 
no sympathy, and but little opportunity for her work. 

OKLAHOMA. Owing to the impassable condition of the streams, my plan for 
visiting the Sac and Fox people, and the Shawnees and Pottawatomies, had 
to be abandoned. From Pawnee I went down through the Oklahoma country to 
Oklahoma station, (on the A. T. and Sante Fe Branch Road, which now 
connects through to Galveston, Texas) where stages connect for Darlington 
and Ft. Reno. This gave opportunity to see the character of this famous, 
much-coveted country. It is better timbered and watered than any other 
portion of the Indian Territory I have seen, and grass is abundant; but I 
do not believe the soil is so good as either east or west of it. It would 
not better the Wichitas, and the other Indians whom it is proposed to 
remove into it, so far as the quality of the land is concerned. It is not, 
as many seem to 

Page 12

suppose, the original site of the Garden of Eden, but is far too good a 
country to be suffered to lie unused when so many of our citizens are 
seeking homes. 

I was asked, both by the President and Mr. Lamar, to give an opinion as to 
the advisability of removing the Indians west of Oklahoma into this 
district, so that the reservations now occupied by them might be opened to 
settlement. After an extended tour and inspection of their reservations, 
and inquiries into their condition and prospects, I reported that in my 
estimation it would be unjust, cruel and disastrous to do so. 

The theory on which this is proposed is that no treaty stands in the way 
of their removal, or of the opening of their reservations, since they are 
on executive order reservations, while there are treaty and other 
difficulties in the way of throwing open Oklahoma to white settlement. 

These reasons are valid in appearance only, but not in reality, while 
there are very real and urgent reasons why it should not be done. A treaty 
was made with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, for instance, giving them a 
reservation north of the one now occupied, but we had no right to give 
them this land, it being in part embraced in the Cherokee outlet, and the 
Indians did not understand that it was the land for which they were 
treating, but supposed they were getting the land which is now occupied by 
them. They refused to move upon it, and we had no right to remove them to 
it. After correspondence, the President set apart, by "Executive order," 
their present reservation, in lieu of that given them by the treaty. Of 
course he had no power to annul, by Executive order, their treaty rights, 
among which was the right of any individual Indian, head of a family, to 
have allotted to him 320 acres of land to be secured by a patent. If the 
President could rightfully give them this land in lieu of the other, their 
possession of it carried with it all the rights they had on the other 
tract. 

The Wichitas are said to be on a reservation by unratified treaty, and 
since the treaty has never been ratified by the Senate there could be no 
legal obstacle to their being removed. The fact is, these Indians claim 
always to have been the owners of this land, not only of what they occupy, 
but of a large body occupied in part by the Kiowas and Comanches, 
Delawares and 

Page 13

Caddoes, and also that which was procured from the Quapaws for the 
Chickasaws, we treating with those Kansas Indians for land owned by them. 
Their title to it has never been extinguished. So there are virtual legal 
and treaty obligations in the way of this removal, fully as sacred as 
those which prevent us from opening Oklahoma, and certainly the moral 
obligations are even greater. These people, especially the Wichitas, have 
taken deep root in these lands, have built them homes, and opened up 
farms. This is being done with most encouraging rapidity by the Cheyennes, 
Arapahoes and Comanches. It would be a cruel outrage to force them to 
remove; it would be a disastrous step backward to induce them to go. The 
lands to which they would remove are not so good as those now occupied; 
they are bitterly opposed to the plan and it ought not to be attempted. 
Oklahoma ought to be opened up. It is not needed by the Indians, it cannot 
be kept empty and ought not to be so kept; but if treaty and moral 
obligations must be violated, it is better to do so with reference to 
vacant lands than with reference to established homes. Steps ought to be 
taken at once to gain the consent of the Seminoles and Creeks to throw 
this land open to settlement, and it could doubtless be done if a fair 
price above the thirty cents per acre which we paid for it, for the 
settlement of Indians upon it, was offered for it. 

We know from good authority that an empty house, though swept and 
furnished, cannot be guarded against demoniacal possession. The only way 
to keep it clean is to occupy it. But we ought to have learned something 
from past experience in regard to the removal of Indians from their homes 
to satisfy the convenience or the greed of the white man. Much and bitter 
complaint has been made that the President has failed to appoint a 
Commission, which he was authorized to do, to treat with the Indians of 
the territory for a surrender of their treaty rights in regard to land. 
The appointment of such a Commission, simply to treat with them for their 
consent, is seemingly a very innocent and proper thing to do, but it is 
very much like the act of March 1st, 1883, empowering the President to 
consolidate agencies and tribes, at his discretion, "with the consent of 
the tribes to be affected thereby, expressed in the usual way," which J. 
P. Dunn, Jr., interprets to mean "The President is authorized and 

Page 14

empowered to drive the Indians from their native homes, and place them on 
unhealthy and uncongenial reservations, whenever sufficient political 
influence has been brought to bear upon the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 
or the Secretary of the Interior, by men who desire the lands of any 
tribe, to induce a recommendation for their removal. Provided , that 
before any tribe shall be removed the members thereof shall be bullied, 
cajoled or defrauded into consenting to the removal." Mr. Dunn reminds us 
that the Modoc war was caused by attempting to force these Indians to stay 
on a reservation with the hostile Klamaths, who would give them no peace, 
nor allow them to raise food. The Sioux war of 1876 resulted from an 
enforcement of an order for that nation to abandon the Powder River 
country, which we had guaranteed them as a hunting ground, and to limit 
them to their reservation, where there was no game. 

The Nez Perce war of 1877 was caused by an attempt to force Joseph's band 
of Lower Nez Perces to abandon their own home, their title to which had 
never been extinguished, and go upon the Lapwai Reserve. 

All our troubles with the Chiracahua Apaches since 1876 have come from our 
attempts to remove them from their native mountains to an unhealthy and 
intolerable place for mountain Indians, to live with a band unfriendly to 
them. The wars with Victorio's Apaches resulted from the discontinuance of 
their reservation, and an order for their removal to San Carlos. The war 
with the northern Cheyennes came from an attempt to make them stay in the 
Indian Territory, which proved unhealthy for them. The shame and disgrace 
of the Ponca removal is yet fresh in mind, and a war, which would have 
marked the path hewn by them from the Indian Territory back to their old 
home in Nebraska, would have been a legitimate outcome of this outrage had 
Standing Bear's band been stronger. 

The Hualapais, removed to the Colorado River, escaped extermination, so 
unhealthy was the new home, only by fleeing from it in a body. The list 
might be indefinitely extended, but those who make our laws touching 
Indian affairs, and those entrusted with their administration, seem 
incapable of learning anything from the history of the past. 

The present Commissioner of Indian Affairs returns, in his last 

Page 15

report, to his recommendations in regard to the removal of the Cheyennes 
and Arapahoes, Wichitas and associated tribes, so that the clamor about 
Oklahoma may be hushed, and politicians, urged forward by their 
constituents who want these lands, are unwearied in their efforts to have 
this outrage committed. The friends of the Indian ought to take tenable 
ground in their opposition to this, lest in mistaken efforts to maintain, 
pro forma , the exact proportions of the treaty, or other rights of these 
people, they shall lose all. We may as well settle it first as last, and 
better now than later, that such an immense territory as now lies vacant 
and worse than useless under the shadow of old treaties, can never, as a 
matter of fact, be held for such time as the Indian, left to himself, may 
be able to utilize it and cause it to contribute what it is capable of 
doing to meet the world's cry for food. But a successful appeal may be 
hopefully made to the American people as against essential and absolute 
injustice and cruel wrong, and this appeal should be promptly and 
distinctly made. 

It is already apparent that the time of the land-grabber is short, and 
that what he does to rob the Indian of his land must be done quickly, 
before the severalty law gives it to him by an inalienable title. Efforts 
in this direction will be earnest and unremitting; the vigilance and 
efforts of the Indians' friends must not be less so. 

THE CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHOE RESERVATION. My letter from the Secretary of War 
to Col. Sumner, Commandant at Ft. Reno, was considered by him as an 
equivalent to an order which he was quite ready to honor to the fullest 
extent. He insisted on my making his house my headquarters, and was ready 
to send me anywhere within his bailiwick I chose to go; put his 
interpreter and guide, Ben. Clarke, at my service, and after carrying me 
over the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation around Darlington, sent me out 
in four-mule grandeur to visit the Seger Colony on the Washita, and to the 
Kiowa and Comanche and Wichita Agency at Anadarko, with an escort, wagon, 
tents, cook, guide and interpreter, rations, scouts, etc., under command 
of Lieut. Keene. 

I thus had unusual opportunities to learn the condition of things. I sent 
the outfit back from Anadarko, and spent a week 

Page 16

with Capt. Hall, the Agent, who took me to Reno when I had concluded my 
visit to his reservation. 

Now as to the observations at Darlington, and the Cheyenne and Arapahoe 
Reservation. 

The Agent of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, Mr. Williams, was clerk 
for Capt. Lee, who was Agent in charge after Dyer was removed, and was his 
choice for successor to himself. He impressed me as a very pleasant, 
gentlemanly fellow--a good and accurate clerk; good for indoor, routine 
work, but with no push or great force. He was said to be fond of his toddy 
when he was clerk, and perhaps it is true that he has not been a total 
abstainer since he became Agent, but I could not learn that his habits had 
interfered with his duties. He has no inclination to drive out and look 
after his people, and when driving about with me, even in the immediate 
vicinity of the Agency, had to rely upon the interpreter to tell who and 
what Indians were cultivating the various farms. It was evident that he 
had no personal knowledge of the men and what they were doing. It was also 
manifest here, as at some other places, under the policy which is in 
vogue, of sending clerks from Washington, that his duties in the office 
would not allow him to give attention to outside affairs. His clerk, a 
very nice, good man, is utterly incompetent to do the work of the office, 
and the Agent had to be clerk. I think Capt. Lee's assertion in his report 
that "in two out of three of the appointments made at this Agency the 
department was evidently misled as to qualifications and fitness," was not 
far from true, at least it is charitable to believe so. 

The largest salaries are usually paid to incompetent favorites, and the 
work is done by those who have the smallest salaries. This is true of the 
farmers especially. In the carpenter and blacksmith shops, where there are 
a number of employes, the Agent remarked, as we went away after visiting 
them, that the only man who was at work was the one man he had been 
allowed to appoint. 

The Indians are scattered out over a vast territory. Two colonies have 
gone out; one to the Cantonment, sixty miles away to the north, where the 
Mennonites have a school, and where there is a good, active farmer in 
charge, named Potter. Another, under Mr. Seger, has gone some sixty miles 
west-of-south, on the 

Page 17

Washita. These last are chiefly "Coffee Coolers." Mr. Seger is one of the 
very best men for such work that I have ever seen. I give a fuller report 
of his work, further on, from himself. 

If Mr. Williams will only do what he can for this enterprise, Mr. Seger 
will make it a great success. He is placing his Indians on superb lands, 
with reference to allotments of 320 acres, and is now ready to begin this 
work with his people, under the Severalty bill. The Indians, I think, have 
been benefited both by the leasing of their lands and also more especially 
by the abrogation of these leases. They received money from the leases 
which enabled them to buy unaccustomed luxuries, for which they acquired a 
taste. They now are learning that they can get more from the cultivation 
of their own lands than from the cattle-men, and a most encouraging 
activity has characterized them this season, and they had been favored, up 
to the time of my visit, by unusually fine weather and good rains, but, 
unfortunately, a drought during the later season blasted their hopes. With 
wise and earnest teachers, the outlook for them, especially the Cheyennes, 
would be most hopeful. It is a great pity that it cannot be said that the 
employes are all of this character. They are better on the average than 
those at Ponca and Pawnee, but not what they ought to be. 

A member of the Senate Committee asked me to find out, if I could, whether 
or not there was gambling at this Agency, among the employes. If common 
report can be trusted, there is no doubt of it. I did not learn that the 
Agent is involved in it, but some of the other employes and persons 
licensed to be there are. The impression is strong among the officers at 
the post, and in the minds of others whom I am not at liberty to mention, 
that the store of one of the traders is a gambling place, and that in many 
ways his presence is not helpful to the Indians. 

While there I witnessed a beef issue of ninety-six head. The beef were 
small; the Lieutenant who officially witnessed the issue says unusually 
small. A number of the steers were of ancient date, and exceedingly thin 
and scrawny, quite unlike the beef furnished by the same contractor at 
Anadarko. The manner of issue is heathenish and cruel, and should be 
stopped, if not for these reasons, because dangerous. They are issued on 
foot and 

Page 18

chased down by the Indians on their ponies and shot many times, in many 
cases. 

I visited the Cheyenne School at the Caddo Spring, some two or three miles 
from the Agency. The location is a fine one, near a large and excellent 
spring. The natural drainage is good, and when the sewer and drainage 
pipes are put in all refuse water will be thoroughly disposed of. The 
privies were the cleanest I have ever seen in connection with a public 
institution. 

The Superintendent, R. P. Collins, I believe to be well fitted for his 
place, and anxious to do his full duty. The school is in pretty good 
shape--the dormitories clean as could be expected, well ventilated, but 
too much crowded; the bathing facilities very deficient; no place to care 
for the sick. 

Mr. Collins was drawing stone for the windmill with which to force the 
water from the spring into the school buildings, which will be a great 
improvement. 

Mrs. Collins and Mrs. Hoag, an excellent Quaker lady, were doing good, 
conscientious and intelligent work in the school room. The classes are 
much broken up by details of boys to work the garden and corn, and of 
girls for the laundry and other work. Mr. and Mrs. Collins were dropped 
from the roll of employes at the close of the year, and so are lost to the 
service. This is unfortunate, as they were about the only efficient 
members of the Agency force at that point. 

I visited also the Arapahoe school, under the care of the third 
Superintendent appointed to it during the year, C. H. Steibolt, and, 
judging from appearances, it would be charitable to suppose each 
succeeding appointment had been worse than the preceding, for it would be 
difficult to believe there could have been a worse than the last. There 
had been four different industrial teachers during the year, four matrons, 
four assistant matrons, four seamstresses. Miss Lamond, the only teacher 
in the school who knew how to teach, had been twice teacher and once 
matron during the year. The larger children in the principal room were 
under the charge of Miss Lamond; the room was clean, the children prompt 
and in good shape, the work done above the average of school work in 
Indian Reservation schools. The next room, under the care of Miss 
Penington, was nasty--the children slovenly in manner. She is what would 
be called in 

Page 19

the West a "regular bull-whacker," with no idea of teaching. She had a 
long strip of board, or lath, in her hand, with which she whacked the 
desk, making her visitors jump when she struck it; the children were 
evidently used to it. 

There was another small room with a few desks, in which the 
Superintendent's wife is supposed to hear classes, but no one was in it. 

The dormitories were close, nasty, and unbearable as to smell. I was in 
time to see the children at dinner. The dining room was under care of 
Minnie Yellow Bear, just home from Carlisle, who was said to be an 
excellent Assistant Matron (since made laundress) and Miss Fager, 
Assistant Matron, and was in good condition. The tables were neat, the 
food well prepared, the children well behaved. The cook is a part Indian, 
and her kitchen was up in good shape. I was told that when the present 
Superintendent took charge of the school there were ten milk cows, and the 
children had plenty of milk--that now he sends to the Mennonite school to 
get what he needs for his own family use. 

Miss Lamond, Minnie Yellow Bear, and Miss Mudeater, the cook, are about 
the only redeeming elements in the school; what the others might be under 
a decent and efficient Superintendent of course I cannot tell, but the 
school can never be anything under his management. 

I also visited the Mennonite Mission School, under charge of Rev. H. R. 
Voth. I spent a large part of the Sabbath with him, the day before this 
visit to his school. He has some forty-nine children; all live together as 
a family, eating at the same table. His school, I think, is doing very 
good work. The children are taught to do all kinds of household and 
farming work, under kind supervision and wise instruction. The house was 
clean, and evidently the work done is honest and sensible. 

The Agent seemed very chary of me at first, and reticent, and hard to get 
at, but gradually became more free and communicative. He had a letter, 
while I was there, from the second Comptroller of the Treasury, saying 
that he would commence proceedings against him, civil and criminal, 
because of the condition of his reports, and failure to comply with the 
law. I said that I would watch with interest a case brought to trial 
against 

Page 20

an Agent under the policy of the Bureau which takes an Agent's affairs out 
of his hands and puts them in the hands of a clerk of their own 
appointment. It was manifest that I had his full sympathy in this view of 
the case, and that he could be added to the long list of Agents who are 
writhing under the burden of incompetent clerks. 

I think there will be no serious trouble about beginning the work of 
allotment among the Indians on this reservation; especially if Mr. Seger 
were empowered to commence among the people of his colony, and the Indians 
were aided by the Government to the extent they are entitled under their 
treaty. 

It is a question whether or not they are entitled to 320 acres. The treaty 
which gave them a Reservation farther north, on lands occupied by others, 
allowed them to take land in severalty--320 acres--and when so selected 
they were to have $100 the first year to purchase farming implements, 
seed, etc., and $25 per annum after that for three years. 

It was found, as I have said, that the land described in their treaty was 
not the land they supposed they were getting, which was occupied in part 
by other Indians, and so after correspondence and recommendations by the 
Secretary and Commissioner, the President, by Executive Order, set apart 
this reserve in lieu of their treaty reserve. If he had power to do this, 
it would follow that the provisions of the treaty would attach also to 
this reservation, and they should have their 320 acres instead of 160, and 
Mr. Seger is locating the Indians in his colony with reference to this 
larger amount. This is a matter that may give rise to delicate 
complications. 

THE SEGER COLONY. My visit to the Seger Colony was the most interesting 
and instructive part of my whole journey, and Mr. Seger impresses me as, 
on the whole, the most successful man I have ever met in the Indian 
Service. If such men as he could be put in charge of the Indians it would 
matter little what the faults of the system under which they work, 
provided it did not absolutely tie them up and prevent altogether any 
effort; the work would go forward in spite of obstacles. 

Mr. Seger has undoubtedly a genius for inspiring and 

Page 21

impelling such men as the Indians are, and has more good, hard common 
sense as to the means and methods by which they can be moved along the 
lines we wish them to go than I have found elsewhere in any and all other 
Agencies. 

The statement he gave me, at my request, of the origin and progress of his 
colony is in itself so admirable, and so full of encouragement, and so 
illustrative of what might be, and ought to be done, that I give it in 
full. Mr. Seger is not an educated man: his writing, spelling and grammar 
are about as poor as I have encountered, and so I have ventured to correct 
these to some extent, but otherwise his letters are as he wrote them, for 
it would be impossible, to me, to improve them. His language is that of an 
educated man, and his style as direct, manly and vigorous as is his method 
of doing business. He does not give in this history of his enterprise a 
history of the difficulties which have beset him on every hand. We can 
infer some of the delays, discouragements and defeats which have hindered 
his progress, but not one tithe of these are even hinted in his story. One 
who learns something of them and then sees, with his own eyes, what he is 
really doing in spite of all this, will feel, as I do, a boundless 
admiration for the man. Many of these difficulties are inevitable under a 
system of infinite red tape and restriction, and cannot be remedied under 
the system, however loud the complaints; some of them come, and most 
provokingly, from administration, and cannot be complained of without 
endangering the head of those who make complaints. This and much more 
should be kept in mind by those who would understand the real value of Mr. 
Seger's work. 

The pluck of these Indians has been put to a very severe test by the 
unfortunate occurrences of two very dry summers, which have destroyed 
their crops; and by the delay, and so far complete failure, of the 
Government to pay them the price promised for breaking land. Up to the 
latest date, in spite of all these drawbacks, they are able to foot up 
about $4120 as the net increased value of their stock and improvements in 
the way of fencing and plowing. 

I give also Mr. Seger's account of a previous experience in dealing with 
the problem of Indian Education, which ought to throw some light on the 
question whether the Indian could be 

Page 22

made to support himself, and the civilizing influences by which he is to 
be lifted up. The success of his experiment and the means by which it was 
brought to disaster might well be pondered by those who are called to 
solve the problem on which this brief account throws not a little light. 


MR. SEGER'S ACCOUNT OF HIS COLONY. 

SEGER COLONY, May 28th, 1887. 
PROF. C. C. PAINTER-- 

DEAR SIR:--As you wished to know something of the history of this work, in 
which I am engaged, and how this colony came to be established, I will 
say:-- 

In the fall of 1885--Captain J. M. Lee was then acting Indian Agent over 
the Cheyennes and Arapahoes--I was one of the unlucky number that was 
living on the Cheyenne and Arapahoe leased lands, and in obedience to the 
executive order was moving my family and effects off the reservation. As I 
passed through the Agency I met Captain Lee for the first time, and we 
discussed the Indian problem sufficiently to find out that our ideas of 
the way to deal with the Indians were very much alike; and after probably 
one hour's talk, and before I left the office, the project of starting 
this Colony was hatched. This was in October. By hard work and a great 
deal of writing Captain Lee succeeded in getting the final arrangements 
made, and permission granted for starting an Indian Colony. Though it was 
the next June before I was placed on the rolls as a Government employe, I 
began operations on the 23d of February, and from this time until June, 
when I was placed on the rolls as a Government employe, I cleared my wages 
by building wire fences around a pasture that was to be used for the 
Colony. I used Indians for this work, and in six weeks' time had twelve 
miles of new fence, and had stretched the wire on twelve miles more, and 
done $150 worth of repairing on other fences. From the money I received 
for this work I kept $75 per month for myself, and the remainder I paid to 
the Indians for their work, which placed in the hands of the Indians about 
$700 as the result of six weeks' work. 

We had then a pasture for the beef cattle and one for stock 

Page 23

cattle. In gathering up my Indians for the Colony I was not to take any 
that had previously begun to improve a farm in any other place. This meant 
that I should take those that had resisted all the appeals of the 
Government. For ten years of their lives they had been invited to engage 
in farming each spring, and had remained idle. No, not that, they had been 
engaged in gambling, dancing, making medicine, listening for the sound of 
a coffee mill in a neighboring lodge, studying how to induce the traders 
to give them a feast--from this class I had to draw largely. The 
inducements I had to offer them were that where the Colony was to be 
located there was good land, plenty of water, a fine amount of timber, and 
I would go with them and live with them, and show them how to cultivate 
the ground and build houses and raise stock, and if they would pledge 
themselves to follow my instructions and example they would in a few years 
be comfortable and prosperous. Among the first that said they would go 
were a number of my old scholars that had been with me when I had charge 
of the school. They had grown up, gone to camp, got into bad company and 
got to be gamblers. Sixteen of these old scholars joined the band, and on 
the 5th of May I arrived at the present location with 120 persons. We 
began breaking up ground and planting. In nine days the ground became too 
dry to plough, and a severe drought set in. The first of June found us 
without rain and no hope of raising a crop. I succeeded in getting some 
wire fence to take down for cattle men, and in this way my Indians earned 
four hundred dollars. We went to the Agency and put in 3500 feet of logs 
in the mill. In August the Government issued some stock cattle to the 
Indians. My Indians received 88 head. There had been additions to the 
Colony until they numbered 250 persons. In the fall the Indians began 
house building, making picket houses with dirt roofs. There were fourteen 
houses begun, and five completed, when the Indians heard there was a 
quantity of flooring and shingles at the Agency to build houses for 
Indians, and some of it was already being used for Indian houses. Of 
course, my Indians wanted shingles and flooring, like others were having. 
I went to the Agency and found that the portion that could be turned over 
to this Colony would be shingles for three small houses and floors for 
probably eight. I could not well decide to 

Page 24

whom to give the shingles, as each one had done all he could toward 
building, and stood ready to do anything I asked him to do toward his own 
house. Of course, I could not ask some to build with dirt roofs and some 
with shingles. While I was deciding what to do about it, I had those that 
had teams and wagons go to the Agency and haul logs to the mill to furnish 
rafters and sheathing and joists for their houses. Since then I have been 
unable to get the logs sawed, consequently we have not built any more 
houses, yet we have not been idle, by any means. I have located to date 60 
Indians, heads of families. We have got improvements on 50 houses or 
farms, have got 350 acres of ground planted to corn and vegetables, have 
got nearly 400 broken up. All of this was broken up by Indians, except 77 
acres. The Indians, since the first of January, have got out the posts and 
hauled them, and built 33 miles of fence, enclosing 44 different farms. 
Six farms have the posts set around them but have no wire to put on. Had 
these Indians had wire furnished them then, in the proper time, and tools 
to use, they could have had their farms all fenced, which would have 
enclosed 1000 acres of the choicest land in this country. Then, could they 
have had the ground broken up for them in season, they could have had to-
day, instead of 350 acres of corn, 1000 acres, and this fall, instead of 
the probable four thousand bushels of corn, they could have had ten 
thousand bushels. Now why was not this done? The promise made these 
Indians was that the Government would furnish the wire for the three-
strand fence, and break the ground, or pay for having it done, all the 
Indians would plant and cultivate. 

The first of January found us with 60 farms measured off ready to have the 
posts set around them. There were at least 60 men ready to begin work who 
applied to me for spades. As I only had four on hand, I went to the Agency 
and asked for a supply. The Agent informed me that he had none on hand, 
but would apply at once for permission to buy some, which he did. I knew 
this meant that we would not get them in time to use this season, so I 
stepped in at the trader's and bought four more, which, with the four we 
had, and one I borrowed, and one post auger I got hold of, I was able to 
put 10 implements in the hands of the 60 men for them to work with, and as 
there was no other work for 

Page 25

them at this time, they could work only one day out of six. Locations were 
scattered over a territory 15 miles by 10; it was not convenient to pass 
the tools from one to the other. The next time I went to the Agency the 
Agent told me that he had heard from the Commissioner in regard to spades 
and he had written to the Agent and inquired what he wanted to do with so 
many spades. I found a letter in the office from a lady in Boston, 
enclosing five dollars with which to buy spades. As the Indians had got 
along so well with their work, I only bought three additional spades. I 
thus found that we had over 600 acres with the posts set around, but no 
wire. Finally, when it came there was so little that I could only give the 
Indians two wires, instead of three, as was promised them. They soon had 
this on the posts, and were ready to plant, if they could get the breaking 
done. Their own teams were poor, having wintered on grass without corn. 
When nearly a month of the breaking season had passed, two teams were sent 
out to break. They broke two weeks and then it became too dry and they 
went back to the Agency, after breaking 47 acres. I proposed to break 200 
acres, with my Indians, and asked that 450 acres might be broke for them, 
which, with 150 acres broke last year, would make the 800 acres I wished 
these Indians to cultivate this year. When the two teams went back to the 
Agency and no more came to break, I made arrangements to break all I could 
with the Indian teams. As we had only seven breaking ploughs, while we 
could use twice that number, I sent to Caldwell and bought three ploughs 
with money sent to me to use as a contingent fund. I also bought two span 
of mules and one work horse, one set plow harness, with which I fitted up 
three teams to put on the three ploughs. The Indians have already broke 
the 200 acres I proposed breaking with them, and we are yet keeping the 
ploughs all going. We have stopped planting, but shall keep right on 
breaking ground for next year's crop, as the Government proposes to pay 
the Indians for breaking up a limited amount of ground. I am getting them 
to invest the money they earn in this way in better teams, harness and 
cattle, as far as possible. They are generally willing to do so. As we 
raised nothing last year, we had to depend on the Government to buy our 
seed, which came late. The seed potatoes, which should have been here 
ready to plant the first of March, 

Page 26

came the first of May. The 20 bushels of seed potatoes, which, if we had 
received them in time, might have produced 10,000 lbs. of food, will, as 
it is, yield scarcely anything. Notwithstanding the many discouragements 
and drawbacks, these Indians are trying to do what they can. I don't know 
that there is an Indian out here but what will work enough to support 
himself if he knew what to do and how to do it. When I started from the 
Agency one year ago with these Indians, a man said to me: "you have one 
Indian that is going with you that won't work. I will bet one hundred 
dollars you don't get him to plant one acre of corn." That Indian to-day 
has got 20 acres enclosed with fence, has got his corn ploughed in good 
shape, has got his logs in the mill to furnish the rafters, joists and 
sheathing for a house, has got stone quarried and hauled for foundation to 
a house, and I have no doubt but inside of three months he will be living 
in a house. In one day's ride I can show you many Indians that have borne 
the name of beats and bummers and coffee coolers for years, that now have 
their fields and can point with their fingers and truthfully say "There is 
my farm." One of the old "set fasts," in talking with me not long since, 
speaking of his improved condition since he came to this Colony, 
straightened up and said "I don't beg." As I ride around among these 
people and hear them talk of their prospects of a crop, and where they are 
going to build their houses, and where is the best place for a stable, do 
I need to ask "Are these Indians interested in their farms?" "From the 
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." When I was gathering up my 
band to come out here, one year ago, I talked with Mad Wolf, who had been 
to Washington, and he said he thought my plan was a good one, that he was 
satisfied that in course of time the Indians would have to civilize and do 
as the white man is doing, but he said the time I set to bring this about 
was altogether too short; that when he was in Washington the chiefs there 
told him that it would take twenty-five years to bring this about, while I 
wished to bring it about in five years. Now, he said, while my talk 
sounded plausible and he believed I meant well, yet it was natural for him 
to believe that the Washington chiefs knew more about this than I did, and 
when he was there he promised that he would remember what the Great Father 
said and follow his counsel; therefore it would not be right for him to 

Page 27

advocate civilizing under twenty-five years; and he further said that as 
he was getting old and would probably not live much over twenty-five 
years, he did not think it worth while for him to start on this new road. 
I said to him: "Mad Wolf, since I think more about it, I don't want you to 
go with me; I want you to remain as you are." He asked, "Why, are we not 
friends?" I said "Yes, we are friends, but you can help me and your people 
more by remaining as you are." He said "How do you expect me to help you?" 
I told him in five years, when the most of my people have good houses and 
good clothes and plenty to eat as the result of their labor, I will say to 
them "Look at Mad Wolf, with his old dirty blanket and long hair, with the 
paint smeared on his face, and his hungry looks." I will say to them "Five 
years ago you used to look like that." I left him with a puzzled look on 
his face. I wonder if he ever regrets that Washington set the time for 
these Indians to civilize at twenty-five years. We cannot expect these 
people to work for what they can get given to them; they are too much like 
white people for that. I have seen white men, who were married to Indian 
women, bring their Indian families to the Agency to draw their rations and 
annuities with as much regularity as the most confirmed coffee cooler. I 
have seen white men using government ploughs and implements instead of 
buying them. I never saw a white man who was married to an Indian woman 
proudly spurn the aid from the Government. We therefore cannot expect the 
Indians to do so. These Indians are poor; they need houses to shelter 
them, implements to work with, teams to draw the plough, seed to plant. 
They need to own their land; they need some one to instruct them and 
encourage them in this new and untried way of living. As farming is rather 
uncertain in this country, they need a start in stock, so when their crops 
are short they will have their cattle to fall back on. 

If the Government would furnish this aid to the Colony, it need be but a 
very few years before they could take care of themselves. 

Before bringing this letter to a close, I would ask to call your attention 
to the following facts:-- 

1st. In a little over one year sixty Indians have chosen the place where 
they wished to live and own a farm. 

Page 28

2d. That fifty of these farms have improvements made on them. 

3d. Four young Indians bought wire for their fence, and built their fence, 
last fall, though they understood that if they waited until spring the 
Government would buy it for them. Doing this saved the Government $90. 

4th. Have built five houses, and got out material for ten more. 

5th. They have taken good care of the cattle given them by the Government 
and bought, from money earned by themselves, five more head, and have 
pledged themselves to buy four milk cows as soon as we can find them for 
sale. The increase of the herd is twenty calves. 

6th. They have bought eight head of horses and four mules more than they 
have sold. Bought three wagons, three sets of harness, two cook stoves. 

7th. That we are located fifty miles from the base of supply and it takes 
one-fifth of the time to go after rations. This interferes with farming to 
some extent. 

8th. Have bought no guns, to my knowledge. 

9th. The population of this Colony is 305 persons. In the past year we 
have had no lawlessness of any kind. 

If you can gather from this rambling sketch anything, it is at your 
disposal. 

Yours very Respectfully, 
J. H. SEGER. 

At my request Mr. Seger gave me, for my own information, an account of his 
experiment, under Agent Miles, in getting Indian school children to 
support themselves. I publish it, as also the history of his Colony, 
though it was not written by him with the least expectation that it would 
be so used. I hope no one who would solve the Indian problem will fail to 
read these letters.