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America's Indian Problem · Native American Stories by Zitkala-Sa

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  Speaker 1: Section ten of American Indian Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. American
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  Speaker 1: Indian Stories by Zitkala Sah America's Indian Problem. The hospitality
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  Speaker 1: of the American Aborigine, it is told, saved the early
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  Speaker 1: settlers from starvation during the first bleak winters. In commemoration
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  Speaker 1: of having been so well received, Newport erected across as
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  Speaker 1: a sign of English dominion. With sweet words, he quieted
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  Speaker 1: the suspicions of Chief Powhatan, his friend. He quote told
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  Speaker 1: him that the arms of the cross represented Powhattan and
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  Speaker 1: himself in the middle their United League end quote. De
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  Speaker 1: Soto and his Spaniards were graciously received by the Indian
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  Speaker 1: Princess Cofachiqui in the South. While on a site's seeing tour,
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  Speaker 1: they entered the ancestral tombs of those Indians, De Soto
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  Speaker 1: quote dipped into the pearls and gave his two joined
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  Speaker 1: hands full to each cavalier to make rosaries of He said,
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  Speaker 1: to say prayers for their sins on We imagine if
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  Speaker 1: their prayers were in proportion to their sins, they must
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  Speaker 1: have spent the most of their time at their devotions.
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  Speaker 1: End quote. It was in this fashion that the old
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  Speaker 1: world snatched away the fee in the land of the New.
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  Speaker 1: It was in this fashion that America was divided between
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  Speaker 1: the powers of Europe, and the Aborigines were dispossessed of
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  Speaker 1: their country. The barbaric rule of might from which the
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  Speaker 1: pale face had fled hither for a refuge, caught up
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  Speaker 1: with him again, and in the Malay the hospitable native
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  Speaker 1: suffered legal disability. History tells that it was from the
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  Speaker 1: English and the Spanish our government inherited its legal victims,
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  Speaker 1: the American Indians, whom to this day we hold as
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  Speaker 1: wards and not as citizens of their own freedom loving land.
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  Speaker 1: Long century of dishonor followed this inheritance of somebody's lout.
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  Speaker 1: Now the time is at hand when the American Indians
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  Speaker 1: shall have his day in court. Through the help of
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  Speaker 1: the women of America, the stain upon America's fair name
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  Speaker 1: is to be removed, and the remnant of the Indian
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  Speaker 1: nation suffering from malnutrition is to number among the invited
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  Speaker 1: invisible guests at your dinner tables. In this undertaking, there
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  Speaker 1: must be co operation of head, heart and hand. We
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  Speaker 1: serve both our own government and a voiceless people within
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  Speaker 1: our midst We would open the door of American opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to the Red Man and encourage him to find his
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  Speaker 1: rightful place in our American life. We would remove the
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  Speaker 1: barriers that hinder his normal development. Wordship is no substitute
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  Speaker 1: for American citizenship. Therefore, we seek his enfranchisement. The many
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  Speaker 1: treaties made in good faith with the Indian by our
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  Speaker 1: government we would like to see equitably settled by a
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  Speaker 1: constructive program. We hope to do away with the piecemeal
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  Speaker 1: legislation affecting Indians here and there, which has proven an
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  Speaker 1: exceedingly expensive and disappointing method. Do you know what your
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  Speaker 1: Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, d c. Really is,
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  Speaker 1: how it is organized, and how it deals with wards
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  Speaker 1: of the nation. This is our first study. Let us
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  Speaker 1: be informed of facts, and then we may formulate our opinions.
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  Speaker 1: In the remaining space allowed me, I shall quote from
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  Speaker 1: the report of the Bureau of Municipal Research in their
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  Speaker 1: investigation of the Indian Bureau, published by them in the
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  Speaker 1: September issue nineteen fifteen, number sixty five Municipal Research to
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  Speaker 1: sixty one Broadway, New York City. This report is just
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  Speaker 1: as good for our use to day as when it
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  Speaker 1: was first made, for very little, if any, change has
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  Speaker 1: been made in the administration of Indian affairs since then.
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  Speaker 1: Prefatory note quote. While this report was printed for the
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  Speaker 1: information of Members of Congress, it was not made a
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  Speaker 1: part of the report of the Joint Commission of Congress,
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  Speaker 1: at whose request it was prepared, and is not available
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  Speaker 1: for distribution. Unpublished digestice statutory and treaty provisions governing Indian funds.
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  Speaker 1: When in nineteen thirteen inquiry was made into the accounting
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  Speaker 1: and reporting methods of the Indian Office by the President's
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  Speaker 1: Commission on Economy and Efficiency, it was found that there
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  Speaker 1: was no digest of the provisions of statutes and treaties
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  Speaker 1: with Indian tribes governing Indian funds and the trust obligations
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  Speaker 1: of the government. Such a digest was therefore prepared. It
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  Speaker 1: was not completed, however, until after Congress adjourned March fourth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen. Then, instead of being published, it found its
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  Speaker 1: way into the pigeonholes in the Interior Department and the
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  Speaker 1: Civil Service Commission, where the working papers and unpublished reports
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  Speaker 1: of the Commission were ordered stored. The digest itself would
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  Speaker 1: make a document of about three hundred pages unpublished outline
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  Speaker 1: of organization. By order of the President, the Commission, in
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  Speaker 1: cooperation with various persons assigned to this work, also prepared
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  Speaker 1: at great pains, a complete analysis of the organization of
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  Speaker 1: every department, office, and commission of the Federal Government as
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  Speaker 1: of July one, nineteen twelve. This represented a complete picture
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  Speaker 1: of the government as a whole in summary outline. It
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  Speaker 1: also represented an accurate picture of every administrative bureau office,
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  Speaker 1: and of every operative or field station, and showed in
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  Speaker 1: his working relation each of the five hundred thousand officers
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  Speaker 1: and employees in the public service. The report, in typewritten form,
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  Speaker 1: was one of the working documents used in the preparation
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  Speaker 1: of the budget submitted by President Taft to Congress in
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  Speaker 1: February nineteen thirteen. The budget was ordered printed by Congress,
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  Speaker 1: but the cost thereof was to be charged against the
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  Speaker 1: President's appropriation. There was not enough money remaining in this
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  Speaker 1: appropriation to warrant the printing of the report on organization.
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  Speaker 1: It therefore also found repose in a dark closet too
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  Speaker 1: voluminous to be made part of this series. Congress alone
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  Speaker 1: could make the necessary provision for the publication of these materials.
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  Speaker 1: The documents are too voluminous to be printed as part
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  Speaker 1: of this series even if official permission were granted. It
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  Speaker 1: is again suggested, however, that the data might be made
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  Speaker 1: readily accessible and available to students by placing in manuscript
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  Speaker 1: division of the Library of Congress one copy of the
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  Speaker 1: unpublished reports and working papers of the President's Commission on
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  Speaker 1: Economy and Efficiency. This action was recommended by the Commission,
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  Speaker 1: but the only official action taken was to order that
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  Speaker 1: the materials be placed under lock and key in the
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  Speaker 1: Civil Service Commission. Need for special care in management. The
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  Speaker 1: need for special care in the management of Indian affairs
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  Speaker 1: lies in the fact that, in theory of law, the
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  Speaker 1: Indian has not the rights of a citizen. He has
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  Speaker 1: not even the rights of a foreign resident. The Indian
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  Speaker 1: individually does not have access to the courts. He cannot
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  Speaker 1: indivate vidually appeal to the administrative in judicial branches of
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  Speaker 1: the public service for the enforcement of his rights. He
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  Speaker 1: himself is considered as a ward of the United States.
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  Speaker 1: His property and funds are held in trust. The Indian
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  Speaker 1: Office is the agency of the government for administering both
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  Speaker 1: the guardianship of the Indian and the trusteeship of his properties,
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  Speaker 1: conditions adverse to good administration. The legal status of the
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  Speaker 1: Indian and his property is the condition which makes it
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  Speaker 1: incumbent on the government to assume the obligation of protector.
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  Speaker 1: What is of special interest in this inquiry is to
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  Speaker 1: note the conditions under which the Indian Office has been
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  Speaker 1: required to conduct its business. In no other relation are
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  Speaker 1: the agents of the government under conditions more adverse to
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  Speaker 1: efficient administration. The influence which make for the infidelity to trusteeship,
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  Speaker 1: for subversion of properties and funds for the violation of
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  Speaker 1: physical and moral welfare have been powerful. The opportunities and
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  Speaker 1: inducements are much greater than those which which have operated
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  Speaker 1: with ruinous effect on other branches of public service and
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  Speaker 1: on the trustees and officers of our great private corporations.
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  Speaker 1: In many instances the integrity of these have been broken down.
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  Speaker 1: Government machinery inadequate Behind the sham protection, which operated largely
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  Speaker 1: as a blind to publicity, have been at all times
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  Speaker 1: great wealth in the form of Indian funds to be subverted,
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  Speaker 1: valuable lands, mines, oil fields and other natural resources to
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  Speaker 1: be despoiled or appropriated to the use of the trader,
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  Speaker 1: and large profits to be made by those dealing with
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  Speaker 1: trustees who were animated by motives of gain. This has
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  Speaker 1: been the situation in which the Indian service has been
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  Speaker 1: for more than a century. The Indian during all this
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  Speaker 1: time having his rights and properties, to greater or less
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  Speaker 1: extent neglected. The Guardian the government in many instances passive
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  Speaker 1: to conditions which have contributed to his undoing opportunities still present,
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  Speaker 1: and still due to the increasing value of his remaining estate,
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  Speaker 1: there is left an inducement to fraud, corruption, and institutional
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  Speaker 1: incompetence almost beyond the possibility of comprehension. The properties and
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  Speaker 1: funds of the Indians to day are estimated at not
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  Speaker 1: less than one thousand millions of dollars. There is still
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  Speaker 1: a great obligation to be discharged, which must be run
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  Speaker 1: through many years. The government itself owes many millions of
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  Speaker 1: dollars for Indian moneys, which it has converted to its
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  Speaker 1: own use. And it is of interest to note that
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  Speaker 1: it does not know and the officers do not know,
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  Speaker 1: what is the present condition of the Indian funds in
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  Speaker 1: their keeping primary defects. The story of the mismanagement of
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  Speaker 1: Indian affairs is only a chapter in the history of
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  Speaker 1: the mismanagement of corporate trusts. The Indian has been the
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  Speaker 1: victim of the same kind of neglect, the same aboardive processes,
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  Speaker 1: the same malpractices, as have the life insurance policy holders,
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  Speaker 1: the bank depositor, the industrial and transportation shareholder. The form
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  Speaker 1: of organization of the trusteeship has been one which does
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  Speaker 1: not provide for independent audit and supervision. The institutional methods
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  Speaker 1: and practices have been such that they do not provide
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  Speaker 1: either a fact basis for official judgment or publicity of
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  Speaker 1: facts which, if made available, would supply evidence of infidelity.
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  Speaker 1: In the operation of this machinery, there has not been
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  Speaker 1: the means provided for effective official scrutiny, and the public
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  Speaker 1: conscience could not be reached. Ample precedents to be followed.
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  Speaker 1: Precedents to be followed are ample in private corporate trusts
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  Speaker 1: that have been mismanaged. A basis of appeal has been
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  Speaker 1: found only when some favorable circumstance has brought to light
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  Speaker 1: conditions so shocking as to cause those people who have
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  Speaker 1: possessed political power as a matter of self protection to
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  Speaker 1: demand a thorough reorganization and revision of methods. The same
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  Speaker 1: motive has lain back of legislation for the Indian, but
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  Speaker 1: the motive to political action has been less effective for
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  Speaker 1: the reason that in the past, the Indians who have
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  Speaker 1: acted in self protection have either been killed or placed
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  Speaker 1: in confinement. All the machinery of government has been set
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  Speaker 1: to work to repress, rather than to provide adequate means
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  Speaker 1: for justly dealing with a large population which had no
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  Speaker 1: political rights. End from Edict Magazine. This book should be
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  Speaker 1: in every home. Old Indian Legends twenty five Seminole, Avenue,
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  Speaker 1: Forest Hill, Long Island, New York, August twenty fifth, nineteen nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: Dear Zitkala sah, I thank you for your book on
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  Speaker 1: Indian legends. I have read them with exquisite pleasure. Like
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  Speaker 1: all folk tales, they mirror the child life of the world.
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  Speaker 1: There is in them a note of wild, strange music.
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  Speaker 1: You have translated them into our language in a way
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  Speaker 1: that will keep them alive in the hearts of men.
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  Speaker 1: They are so young, so fresh, so full of the
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  Speaker 1: odors of the virgin forest. Untrod by the foot of
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  Speaker 1: white Man. The thoughts of your people seem dipped in
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  Speaker 1: the colors of the rainbow, palpitant with the play of winds, eerie,
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  Speaker 1: with the thrill of a spirit world unseen but felt
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  Speaker 1: and feared. Your tales of birds, beast, tree, and spirit
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  Speaker 1: cannot but hold captive the hearts of all children. They
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  Speaker 1: will kindle in their young minds that eternal wonder which
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  Speaker 1: creates poetry and keeps life fresh and eager. I wish
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  Speaker 1: you and your little book of Indian Tales all success.
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  Speaker 1: I am always sincerely your friend, Helen Keller. End of
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  Speaker 1: section ten read by Sandra Near, Montreal, twenty twenty two,
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  Speaker 1: and of American Indian Stories by Sitkala sa