Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the United States

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, in room 424, Senate Office Building, at 10:30 a. m., Senator Burton K. Wheeler, chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, presiding.

Present: Senators Wheeler (chairman), Frazier, and Thomas of Oklahoma.

Also present: Albert A. Grorud, special assistant to the committee; Hon. Anthony J. Dimond, Delegate from Alaska to the House of Representatives; Hon. William Zimmerman, Jr., Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Mr. Paul Gordon, Chief Director of Education and Indian Affairs in Alaska; Mr. David E. Thomas, Chief of the Alaska Section of the Office of Indian Affairs; Mr. James W. Witten, trustee of the William Duncan estate; Dr. Henry S. Wellcome, a friend of William Duncan and his Metlakahtla Christian Mission; and Dr. Mark A. Matthews, pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Wash.

The CHAIRMAN. This hearing is held under authority of Resolution 79 and subsequent resolutions adopted by the United States Senate authorizing a subcommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate to investigate conditions among the Indians of the United States.

Pursuant to notice heretofore given, the subcommittee will consider the matters pertaining to the Metlakahtla Indians of Alaska. I understand that witnesses have come here from long distances and desire to be heard this morning.

Judge Witten, have you a list of the witnesses and the order in which you want to call them?

Mr. WITTEN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Who is the first one?

Mr. WITTEN. This hour has been set apart by your committee for the ascertainment of facts which may be found to have resulted in serious injuries to the Metlakahtla Indians of Alaska through official interference with their affairs and the seizure, confiscation, and destruction of properties belonging to their Christian Mission and to Mr. William Duncan, now deceased, who for more than 60 years devoted his life as a Christian missionary to their redemption.

By his last will Mr. Duncan bequeathed all his property in trust for the benefit of these Indians and for the perpetuation of his mission; and I come as a trustee under that will for the purpose of introducing

to you Rev. Mark A. Matthews, D. D., LL. D., a preeminent religious leader, and moderator of the 1912 Presbyterian General Assembly. He has for many years been, and is now, the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, Wash., which has a membership of over 9,000—the largest congregation of that denomination in the world.

Dr. Matthews long knew and very greatly admired Mr. Duncan and his wonderful missionary work, and so great was his interest in these Indians and their mission that he, at his own cost and expense, sent an investigator to Alaska to inquire into matters which possibly threatened to adversely affect them.

In that manner, and in other ways, Dr. Matthews gained great familiarity with the controlling facts in this case, and has disclosed them in detail in an exhaustive independent report, which he will submit for your consideration. In addition, he has crossed the continent at great personal inconvenience and sacrifice to present the case you in person at this time.

I have very great pleasure in presenting the Reverend Dr. Mark A. Matthews, who will now address you.

STATEMENT OF REV. DR. MARK A. MATTHEWS, PASTOR, FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, SEATTLE, WASH.

The CHAIRMAN. You may either stand up or be seated, Doctor, just as it suits your own convenience.

Dr. MATTHEWS. Thank you, I prefer to stand.

Mr. William Duncan, in order to lay a missionary foundation, left England in 1856, when he was not yet 25 years of age. He had resigned remunerative employment and put aside a business career of great promise to answer the call of his Divine Master that he might carry the light of the gospel to those that sat in darkness, and in preparation for this work he entered Highbury College under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society.

Before completing the course a distinguished naval officer offered the Church Missionary Society free passage for a missionary to the ferocious and degraded Indians on the north Pacific coast of America, and young Duncan volunteered to go. He sailed for that territory, and after a voyage of about 18,000 miles landed at Victoria, British Columbia, in June of the following year. There he remained 3 months, when he embarked for Fort Simpson, one of the Hudson's Bay Co.'s most northern trading posts.

When he reached Fort Simpson he found a condition among those Indians which was indescribable. They were savages. Some of them practiced cannibalism. He was very anxious to go immediately into the midst of these Indians. The Hudson's Bay people refused to permit him to do this because of the danger of his being assassinated by them.

While he was thus compelled to remain within the stockaded fort he learned the language of the Indians. They had no language which the outside world knew, but with the aid of an intelligent native, who was admitted into the fort for that purpose, he in about 9 months learned to speak enough of their language to enable him to begin the delivery of his message to the Indians in their own tongue. Then he began to deal with them personally and to preach the Gospel to them.

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Survey of Conditions of the Indians in the United States ..., Parts 17-18