USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume I > Part 22
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The policy of President Grant became known as the "peace policy," and in it he was aided by the representatives of various religious denon1- inations. The entire Indian population was apportioned out, and a large number of Indian Agents having been named by eleven different relig- ious bodies were duly appointed by the President.
In January, 1882, Gen. W. T. Sherman wrote as follows to Col. R. I. Dodge :
"In the treatment by the National Government of the Indians, the military and civil officers of the Government have generally been diametrically opposed. The fornier (the military) believing the Indians to be as children, needing counsel, advice and example, coupled with a force which commands respect and obedience from a sense of fear. The latter (the civilian), trusting mostly to moral suasion and religious instruction. The absolute proof produced by you that the Indian has a strong religious bias, but is absolutely devoid of a moral sense as connected with religion, more than ever convinces me that the military authorities of the United States are better qualified to guide the
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steps of the Indian towards that conclusion which we all desire-self-support and peace- ful relations with his neighbors-than the civilian agents, most of whom are members of some one of our Christian Churches."*
Time demonstrated that the civilizing of the Indian is one thing, the christianizing another, and that civilization and christianization did not seem to work well when taught and enforced by the denominational Agents. Therefore, after a few years of trial this policy was abandoned, and since then Agents have been appointed by the President without regard to the recommendations of religious bodies.
According to a decision of a Judge of the United States District Court for Nebraska, rendered in 1879, the "Indian is a person within the meaning of the laws of the United States ; * * and Indians possess the inherent right of expatriation as well as the more fortunate white race, and have the inalienable right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' so long as they obey the laws." This decision was never reversed, but still by law and Government practice the Indian continued to be looked upon as "a ward of the Nation" and so treated. The United States Courts early decided that the Indian was not the owner of the soil he occupied, and that he was incompetent to transfer any rights to that soil.
When the reservation system was first introduced, and for some years thereafter, each of the reservations was for the exclusive use, in common, of the members of the particular tribe or tribes assigned to it; or, in other words, definite areas of the lands comprising the reservation were not allotted to the Indians in severalty. From time to time, however- particularly in very recent years-millions of acres lying within the bounds of various reservations have been allotted to the Indians occupy- ing the same ; and when further allotments, for which arrangements are now under way, shall have been made, about two-thirds of the Indians in the United States (exclusive of Alaska) will have been provided for in this manner.
Under the reservation system nothing on the reservation is the subject of taxation, and the nonallotted Indians are not citizens ; but Congress can at any time, by an Act, declare all Indians in the United States citizens of the country. In 1891 the Indians who were not citizens were the nonallotted reservation Indians, the Six Nations of New York and the "Five Civilized Tribes" of Indian Territory-to whom further reference will be made later. Since 1891 many of these Indians have become citizens by operation of law, as previously noted. The allotting of definite areas of reservation lands wipes out the reservation, of course, and confers upon the Indian allottees citizenship in the par- ticular State or Territory in which the lands lie.
For many years rations and clothing were gratuitously and indis- criminately issued by the Government at regular stated times to the Indians on the reservations-with few exceptions; but this system is being gradually abolished. By those who have given attention to the subject it has been realized for some years that, in the Indian's progress towards self-support, the first, and perhaps the principal, obstacle has been the prevailing ration system. It has been justly condemned as encouraging idleness, with its attendant vices, and as foreign in its results to the very purpose for which it was designed. At the same
* See "Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1885," Part II, page 740.
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time, while an evil, it was admitted to be a necessary evil, but to be endured only while the Indian was learning the art of self-support, or was being put in a way where, by the exercise of ordinary industry, he could support himself. The continuance of the practice of indiscrim- inately issuing rations to all alike, without regard to their worldly condi- tions, was earnestly opposed about four years ago, and it was then determined by the Government authorities "that only the old and help- less should be supported, while the able-bodied, if not already self- supporting, should be given the opportunity to work and should then be required to take care of themselves."
In 1894 an intelligent, educated, Christian Apache Indian of full- blood delivered an address in Wilkes-Barré on the present-day Indians. He argued that the reservation idea was all wrong. "Do not waste time and money on reservations," he said, "which only multiply and perpetuate pauperism. Give the Indian freely of your civilization, and the problem is solved. The reservation idea is not common sense ; it is a theory, and you cannot solve the Indian question on theory. The Indian should not be treated as a different being from the white man, but just like the white man and along side of him. The reservation is a promoter of idleness, and it fosters beggary and ruin." Ten years later, in March, 1904, the President of the United States received a delegation of Oglala Sioux Indians, visiting Washington from their reservation in South Dakota. The Indians on this reservation own about 40,000 ponies, and it is said that they are more addicted to horse-racing and gambling than they are to agriculture. The President informed the delegation that it is now the determined policy of the Government to take care of the older Indians, but that the younger members of all the tribes soon would have to look out for themselves, as other citizens of the United States do. Idleness and laziness would not be tolerated, and they must learn to cultivate industry and self-reliance. Tribal relations are to be broken up and each Indian made independent in the same way as white citizens.
In 1890 there were on various reservations 133,417 Indians actually under the charge of the Indian Office ; and to 57,960 of these subsist- ence was regularly issued by the Government. Rations are now drawn regularly by probably 40,000 Indians-among them being a large number who are too old or too feeble to work, and who have been deserted by their young relatives. The reservation system and the ration scheme are doomed !
From the first settlement of this country much zeal and dis- interested philanthropy have been exercised in attempts to convert the Indians to Christianity, and induce them to adopt the manners and customs of civilized men. Also, at an early day, efforts were begun here and there in the different Colonies to educate the Indians in schools and colleges. The work, both of christianizing and educat- ing the Indians, has been continued up to the present time, and has gradually and constantly grown in extent and importance. It must be admitted, however, that the results desired and expected in the earlier days of this work by its supporters and laborers were not reached, except in a small proportion of cases. Only here and there, in the long line of Indians who received the benefits of religious and scholastic training in those days, could be found one who-like Samp-
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son Occum, for instance-made good use of his acquirements and was of benefit to his fellow men.
Apaumet was a Mohegan, who was carefully educated at Princeton College, where he was named John Calvin. He acquired a good knowledge of the classics and of English literature, of which, as he had a retentive memory, he was on occasions not a little vain. He returned to his tribe on the Housatonic and accompanied them to the banks of the Oneida in western New York, where, as he was neither a hunter nor a fisherman, he becaine a schoolmaster. Being disappointed with civiliza- tion and disheartened by the life he led, he attempted to drown his sor- rows in the intoxicating bowl. Often, while inebriated, he would recite some of the finest passages of Homer. He said that his knowledge was useless to him because he had no letters to write and no accounts to keep ; and that his study of history had taught him that his people were savages and he himself a lettered savage, alike unfit for Indian or civilized life.
In July, 1787, John Ledyard *- then in far-off Siberia-wrote in his journal as follows : "In the United States of America, as in Russia, we have made an effort to convert our Tartars to think and act like us ; but to what effect ? Among us Sampson Occum was pushed the farthest within the pale of civilization. *
* The Marquis de Lafayette had a young American Tartar, of the Onondaga tribe, who came to see him, and the Marquis at much expense equipped him in rich Indian dresses. After staying some time he fled, and sought his own elysium in the bosom of his native forests. When I was at school at Mount Ida [Dartmouth College] many Indians were there, most of whom gave promise of being civilized, and some were sent forth to preach; but as far as I myself observed, and have been since informed, they all returned to the homes and customs of their fathers, and followed the inclinations which Nature had so deeply enstamped on their characters."
Only a few weeks before Ledyard wrote the foregoing lines, the following stanzas were printed in The Pennsylvania Packet, a Phila- delphia newspaper. So far as the present writer is aware, they have never been republished until now.
"THE INDIAN STUDENT ; OR, FORCE OF NATURE."
"From Susquehanna's utmost springs (Where savage tribes pursue their game), His blanket tied with yellow strings, A shepherd of the forest came.
"From long debate the Council rose, And, viewing Shalum's tricks with joy, To Harvard's Hall-o'er wastes of snows- They sent the tawny-colored boy.
"Awhile he writ, awhile he read, Awhile he learned their grammar rules- An Indian savage, so well bred, Great credit promis'd to the schools.
"Some thought he would in law excel, Some said in physic he would shine, And one, that knew him passing well, Beheld in him a sound divine.
"The tedious hours of study spent, The heavy-moulded lecture done, He to the woods a-hunting went, But sighed to see the setting sun.
* See page 86.
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"'And why,' he cried, 'did I forsake My native wood for gloomy walls ; The silver stream, the limpid lake, For musty books and college halls !'
" 'Where Nature's ancient forests grow, And mingled laurel never fades, My heart is fixed, and I must go To die among my native shades.'
"He spoke, and to the western springs (His gown discharg'd, his money spent, His blanket tied with yellow strings) The shepherd of the forest went ! "
In 1775 the Continental Congress made a spasmodic effort in the direction of the education of Indian children. Treaty agreements with the various Indian tribes, relative to the education of their children, began to be made as early as 1794, and continued to be mnade down to only a few years ago. The actual work of Indian education, however, was practically in the hands of various religious denominations until July, 1870, when Congress appropriated $100,000. for Indian schools. Since then the work of education has been conducted by means of schools located on and off the various Indian reservations, and known as (1) nonreservation boarding-schools, (2) reservation boarding-schools and (3) day-schools. The first class, not being on the reservations, are usually located near the centers of civilization, and are, as a rule, large institutions. Reservation boarding-schools are the home schools of the Indians, in which their children are collected from the reservations. Day-schools are near the camps of the Indians, and within easy reach of their homes. Various Churches also maintain in the Indian country denominational schools whose educational methods are valuable aids to the work done by the Government.
Prior to 1878, when a contract was made with Hampton Institute, Virginia, for the education of certain Indian pupils, all the efforts of the Government were directed to the education of Indians on their reserva- tions. In 1879 the old United States Army barracks at Carlisle, Penn- sylvania, were turned over for Indian school purposes, and the first non- reservation school was established. There are now twenty-five of these schools, the one at Carlisle being the largest. The latter is admirably equipped, and from 1,000 to 1,200 boys and girls, representing more than eighty Indian tribes, are enrolled in the school and receive practical instruction in farming, gardening, dairying and the everyday affairs of life (by means of the outing system), in addition to instruction in the school-room and shops. At Hampton the average number of Indian youth enrolled as students is from 140 to 150, representing more than twenty tribes. The literary training and the industrial work at this school are well correlated, and both are of the most practical and effective character. Of the second class of schools-reservation board- ing-schools-there are ninety now being conducted, only five of which were in operation prior to 1870. The number of day-schools now in operation is 134-making the total number of Indian schools in the country 249, with an average enrolment of 24,757 pupils. The cost of maintaining these schools for the year ended June 30, 1902, was $3,437,785.
While many of the students who return from the schools to their homes seemingly relapse into their old ways, the majority profit by the
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training they have received. There are some Indian Agents, however, who seem to be of the opinion that all "Indian education is a failure." Representative of those who thus believe is the Agent of Ponca Agency in Oklahoma, who, in his annual report for 1902 to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said :
"Under the rules governing the management of Indian schools we are compelled to send many of the children to the higher or nonreservation schools, which is, in my opinion, in most cases useless, as very few Indians possess the necessary receptive facul- ties to be benefited by higher education. The children should and can receive sufficient education, both literary and industrial, at the reservation boarding-school to serve them for all practical purposes. To continue the education further is, in about nine cases out of every ten, a waste of effort and money. I have yet to see a single Indian educated for any profession or trade who is able to compete with white people in his line. As he can- not compete, he must of necessity return to his reservation on completion of his school life ; and as his education has tended rather to unfit than to fit him for making a living on his allotment, he must inevitably become an idler and so degenerate.
* * "Hardly any of the young Indians-those who have graduated from the non- reservation schools, as well as those who have attended for a number of years-do any work at all. It can be set down as a perfectly safe rule that, as a class, the young edu- cated Indians are the most worthless ones in the whole tribe. Nearly all of the work done by these tribes [at the Ponca Agency] is that performed by the middle-aged, able-bodied ones, who cannot write or speak English. When an educated Indian, after coming from the schools, is urged to strike out for himself and work his own land, he usually gives the excuse that he has nothing with which to work-neither money, implements nor stock of any kind, and therefore cannot accomplish anything."
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in an official letter to Indian Agents early in 1902, wrote :
"The returned male student far too frequently goes back to the reservation and falls into the old custom of letting his hair grow long. He also paints profusely and adopts all the old habits and customs which his education in our industrial schools has tried to eradicate. The fault does not lie so much with the schools as with the conditions found on the reservations. * *
* On many of the reservations the Indians of both sexes paint, claiming that it keeps the skin warm in Winter and cool in Summer, but instead this paint melts when the Indian perspires and runs down into the eyes. The use of this paint leads to many diseases of the eyes among those Indians who paint. * * * You are therefore directed to induce your male Indians to cut their hair, and botli sexes to stop painting. * The wearing of citizens' clothing, instead of the Indian costume * and blanket, should be encouraged. Indian dances and so-called Indian feasts should be prohibited. In many cases these dances and feasts are simply subterfuges to cover degrading acts and to disguise immoral purposes."
In February, 1902, in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs wrote :
"Dances that are degrading and so-called religious rites that are immoral, though gradually disappearing, still prevail. It is these and similar practices, and the customs that are incident to them, that the Indian must relinquish if he is to succeed. * * * The Indian must work out his own salvation. To do that he must learn to labor. He must put aside all savage ways that are inimical to that. He must adapt himself to the ways of the civilization around him, and cease to be a mere curiosity and a show. * It is not that long hair, paint, blankets, etc., are objectionable in themselves-that is largely a question of taste-but that they are a badge of servitude to savage ways and traditions which are effectual barriers to the uplifting of the race. * *
* It is a familiar saying that error lies at two extremes and truth in the middle, and a striking illustration of the truth of this is found in the Indian question. At one extreme there is a cold brutality which recognizes the dead Indian as the only good Indian, and at the other a sickly sentimentalism that crowns the Indian with a halo and looks up to him as a persecuted saint. Between the two will be found the true friends of the Indian, who, look- ing upon him as he really is and recognizing his inevitable absorption by a stronger race, are endeavoring in a practical way to fit him under new conditions for the struggle of life."
In October, 1680, a great comet appeared in the heavens, and a sachem of one of the New Jersey tribes of Indians, who was observed to be looking with solemn attention at the wonderful object, was asked what he thought it portended. He gravely answered : "It signifies that we Indians shall melt away like the snow in Spring, and this country be inhabited by another people."
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In the judgment of the best authorities* "it is not probable that the present [1890] area of the United States since the white man came has contained at one time more than 500,000 Indians. High estimates were made in early days, but the average even then was about 1,000,000." In the Summer of 1774 Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts, who was supposed to be well informned as to the condition of affairs in the American Colonies, was in London, where, in an audience with the King, he stated that it looked "as if in a few years the Indians would be extinct in all parts of the Continent-owing in part to their being dispirited at their low, despicable condition among the Europeans, who have taken possession of their country and treat them as an inferior race of beings; but [owing] more to their immoderate use of spirituous liquors."
In June, 1822, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, Special Indian Commis- sioner of the United States, made a detailed report relative to the Indians then within the limits of the United States together with what is now the State of Texas. The report gives the names of 230 tribes, with a total population of 471,417. The censuses prior to 1850 did not include Indians, and they were not stated in the total of population. In 1853, under the Seventh Census (1850), it was reported that there were 400,764 Indians in the country-but accuracy was not claimed by the framers of this report, as, confessedly, there were a good many "estimates" included in the report. The census of 1870 showed a total of 313,712 civilized and uncivilized Indians, exclusive of those in Alaska; and that of 1890 a total of 248,253. Both of these totals in- cluded the "Five Civilized Tribes" of Indian Territory-the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles, numbering 50,055 souls in 1890.
The Indians of the "Five Civilized Tribes," or Nations, are not taxed and are not under the control of the Indian Office. They are fairly indus- trious, entirely self-supporting, and a law-abiding people, living on pat- ented lands, with a large surplus of cash each year from payments inade by the United States Government, and the results from an almost primi- tive system of agriculture. They have large herds of cattle, horses and some sheep. They have several large towns and villages, composed of substantially-built brick, frame and log houses. No liquor is allowed to be sold in the Territory. Ninety per cent. of the "Five Tribes" prac- tise the white man's ways and have his customs. They wear citizens' clothing. Now and then a man can be found with an Indian pipe, and sometimes one wears moccasins, and shawls as well as blankets are worn. Some individuals of the tribes are still classed as "old-time" Indians and maintain a sturdy adherence to the old Indian faith. Medicine men are still to be found among them. The number of Church communicants among the "Five Tribes" is large, although there are still some pagans remaining. As a whole their condition is not the civilization of the Anglo-Saxon. A large number of each Nation are quarter and half-breeds-in fact, are white inen in features- and the majority of them still use the Indian language. Each Nation is governed by a "Principal Chief," and has an elective legislature, elective courts, officers and police.
According to the Eleventh Census (1890) there were then in the State of New York 726 civilized and self-supporting Indians of various
* See "Report on Indians in the United States at the Eleventh Census," page 57.
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tribes, living off reservations, taxed, and counted in the general census; also, 5,309 Indians of the Six Nations occupying seven reservations, comprehending 87,327 acres of the lands they originally occupied. In 1902 these last-mentioned Indians numbered 5,272. Many of them are pagans-that is, they hold to the beliefs of their fathers and are opposed to the white man and his methods. They are self-sustaining and much farther advanced in civilization than any other reservation Indians in the United States, and as much as an average number of white people in inany localities. On all their reservations crimes are few, and quarrel- ing, resulting in personal assault, is infrequent.
At the Eleventh Census there were living in various parts of Pennsylvania 983 civilized, self-supporting and taxed Indians (not including the pupils in the Carlisle school or in Lincoln Institution, Philadelphia, who were enumerated with the populations of the respect- ive reservations to which they belonged); also, eleven Onondaga Indians and eighty-seven Senecas-representing twenty-four families- residing on the Cornplanter Reservation in Warren County. This reservation is the property of the heirs of Chief "Cornplanter"* (referred
* JOHN O'BAIL, or Gy-ant-wa-hia ("The Cornplanter"), the half-breed son of an old Indian trader named Abiel, or O'Bail, and a woman of the Seneca tribe, was born in New York about the year 1733. Before the age of nineteen or twenty he began to evince superior sagacity and unusual bravery, and in 1753 was selected by Sir William Johnson to serve as his orderly. In the Summer of 1760, in the cam- paign against the French, resulting in the surrender of Montreal, Sir William Johnson commanded a "'brigade" of Indians. The "western regiment" of this "brigade" was composed of 700 Iroquois-mainly Senecas and Cayugas-led by the redoubtable chief of the Senecas, Hi-o-ka-to, aided by Capt. Jean Montour and the young "Cornplanter." In 1765 "Cornplanter," already acknowledged to be a "great war-chief," dwelt at Old Castle Town, at the foot of Seneca Lake, near the present site of Geneva, New York. Ezra Buell, a surveyor, visited this town in 1765, and in his "Narrative" (see Buell's "Sir William Johnson," page 239) thus refers to the Seneca chief: "Cornplanter's wife is a white woman, young and neat. He does not allow her to work, but keeps two or three squaws to be servants for her. He is a fine, stalwart fellow, very sensible; keeps open house for his friends, and is true to the King as steel."
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