after they get everybody to sign then they will fix up the heading of the petition, and it will be about the church. But they are going to say in the meeting that it is about the government school." So I went to the meeting,

Then I got up and told the young men that they have got to be very careful. I said, "Boys, if you sign your name, we want to see the heading first. I am not going to sign my name unless I see the heading and know what is it, because there is something secret in this meeting. You had better be careful." ** I told Atkinson, "Now, here, this has been going on for quite a while, putting our names down for nothing, and not knowing what we put our names down for, so this time we will see what the heading is; what we are putting our names down for."

*

* * * Then Tom Hanbury got up and said: "Now, if you fellows were trying to fool the young men into going to the table and signing their names without any heading, and afterwards you would put down that nobody wants Mr. Duncan in the pulpit and that we will put Mr. Marsden in the pulpit, that is very bad business. If Guthrie hadn't made that speech maybe you would have done it, but it is a good thing that somebody told him what was going to be done this evening.

*

Statement of Thomas Hanbury, a native of Metlakahtla (August 14, 1926):

It was the underground work and the fake letters and petitions got up by Marsden and his gang that started and kept up the troubles here at Metlakahtla; these things fooled the high Government officials in Washington.

Marsden had the "mask" on. He was the one doing the writing and giving lots of bad advice to the people and telling them what to do against Mr. Duncan. He told them many wrong things and fooled a good many of them. He thought he had a lot of law in his head, and he invented and told the people a lot of wild things against Mr. Duncan that were not true. He was sly in his ways, but all the time he was trying to get the people to put Mr. Duncan out of Metlakahtla and put him in Duncan's place, and then he would be the "Big Chief."

Edmund Verney is Marsden's brother-in-law and these two and Alfred Atkinson and some others of the Kitlan Tribe were in it together pretty deepalways intriguing. (See this chapter-sec. 19, Clandestine Organization to Create Disconsent at Metlakahtla.) I know they were working secretly on this game 4 or 5 years before it got known outside. Mark Hamilton was one of this gang, and they had some others with them who had been in trouble for doing something wrong. They were all planning about taking the church and doing other bad things.

Marsden, Mark Hamilton, and Ed. Verney had not lived in Metlakahtla for many years, and that makes it look funny that they could be so much interested in stirring up trouble about the education in Metlakahtla, and about taking Duncan's mission and church away from him.

Mr. Duncan always supported the mission and schools and paid all the expenses. The people did not pay anything for the schools.

Marsden was living at Saxman as Presbyterion preacher ever since 1898 and for 29 years-that is, from 1887 to 1916 he did not live in Metlakahtla. Mark Hamilton and Verney had been living at Gravina, Saxman, and other places for many years. They did not trouble themselves to interfere and try to improve the native schools in those places, although their schools could not be compared with Mr. Duncan's school. We never knew of any good that come from Marsden's example or his preaching to the people. Everybody knows that his mission work and the schools at Saxman and other places where he was leader failed and went to pieces.

*

Marsden was all the time working up trouble, and he and his gang and the agents of the Bureau of Education had a lot of secret meetings in Ketchikan for something they didn't want other people to know.

Marsden and Verney dropped in with the Bureau agents, Lopp. Beattic, and others, when they came around here. Marsden always took them in his missionary boat, and they begun to talk a lot about the school at Metlakahtlathe way Duncan carried on his school. They say: "We people get no chance, and it is no way to get education; and we are behind all the rest of the Indians in Alaska." That is what Marsden and Ed. Verney told these agents. Lopp and Beattie got lots of interest in that.

I know there was more than 4 years these fellows were making secret plans before anybody knows of it; talking it over every time they came here, which was pretty often; and Marsden would make many wild speeches. After a while they begun to get hold of some of the people and make them believe foolish things.

Then they got to working up some letters and petitions to send to Washington; and that is how they started the troubles.

A petition was made for a boarding school.

Nothing was said against Mr. Duncan on the papers the people were asked to sign for the petitions. If the people had known of anything being said against Mr. Duncan in the petitions, most of them would not have signed. Everybody was surprised a few years ago when they found out the plots to drive Mr. Duncan out; the people never dreamed they were going to try to do that. At first they were very secret and said nothing about taking Duncan's cannery or sawmill; it was only the school at first.

FAKED SO-CALLED NATIVE PETITIONS MADE A PART OF THE DEPARTMENTAL FILE ON METLAKAHTLA

With all their forgeries, misstatements, and slanders, the faked so-called native petitions concocted by Marsden and his Bureau confederates were made a part of the departmental file on Metlakahtla and were used to deceive and mislead the Secretary of the Interior in regard to conditions on Annette Islands Reserve.

In the Cragin report, on the basis of which the Secretary of the Interior ordered the seizure of the property of Father Duncan and his mission, the following admission appears as to the use of the false and surreptitious "Office file on Metlakahtla" built up by the Bureau of Education:

SEC. 2. Sources of information: I have gotten my information from the office file on Metlakahtla, and from the biography of Father Duncan by John W. Arctander

*22

For further references to the use of these faked so-called native petitions in attempts made by the plotters to undermine Father Duncan and to deceive and mislead the Secretary of the Interior into authorizing the illegal invasions and seizures at Metlakahtla.

COMMITTEE ON ANNETTE ISLANDS RESERVE APPOINTED BY SECRETARY OF INTERIOR SPONSORS AND USES FAKED SO-CALLED NATIVE PETITIONS

Notwithstanding the fraudulent nature of the faked so-called native petitions exposed by Government handwriting experts in the Bureau of Standards, the Report to the Secretary of the Interior by Committee on Matters Pertaining to Annette Islands Reserve, Alaska, dated May 3, 1927, not only failed to disclose the reprehensible character of these fraudulent documents but made use of them to vilify Father Duncan and to further the work of the conspirators in their schemes to despoil the Metlakahtla Christian Mission and to destroy the special reserve set apart by Congress for the exclusive use of the Metlakahtlans (report of committee, pp. 46, 47, 51a, 110, 111, and 438).

John W. Arctander, one of the plotters against the Metlakahtlans, was suspended from the practice of the law by the Supreme Court of Minnesota on Mar. 28, 1879, for "willful misconduct in his profession" in falsifying public records (in re Arctander, 26 Minn. 25-28) and on Mar. 19, 1920, he was disbarred from the practice of the law by the Supreme Court of the State of Washington for "disloyal, mercenary, unethical, and unprofessional" conduct (in re Arctander, 110 Wash. 296-305).

SECTION 21. BUREAU AGENTS COOPERATE IN USE OF FAKED NATIVE PETITIONS TO DECEIVE GOVERNMENT

Bureau official unfolds plan for Marsden to take Father Duncan's place at Metlakahtla. Marsden encouraged by Bureau plan to invade Metlakahtla and usurp Father Duncan's place as leader. Marsden appointed missionary at Saxman and placed on pay roll of Bureau of Education. The campaign of defamation against Father Duncan through faked so-called native petitions. Marsden a nonresident of Metlakahtla for many years at the time faked so-called native petitions were concocted. Knowledge and cooperation of Bureau agents in use of faked so-called native petitions. Examples of cooperation by agents of Bureau of Education in use of faked so-called native petitions. The faked so-called native petition dated January 2, 1914. The faked so-called native petition dated July 2, 1914. Petitions concocted by Marsden and his confederates did not express sentiment of representative natives of Metlakahtla. Marsden rewarded for cooperation with Bureau plotters. Marsden illegally made secretary of Annette Islands Reserve and bogus church elders illegally elected through machinations of Bureau agents. Outrageous official misconduct and usurpations by Marsden as secretary of Annette Islands Reserve permitted and allowed to continue by Bureau officials The proselyting of Marsden and the plan of the plotters to use him in the politico-sectarian intrigues in the Bureau of Education to invade Metlakahtla have been dealt with in this chapter, sections 13-19.

To give a clear understanding of the vicious activities of the Bureau plotters in using Marsden and his faked so-called native petitions to undermine Father Duncan at Metlakahtla, it is here necessary to recall several important documents previously cited.

BUREAU OFFICIAL UNFOLDS PLAN FOR MARSDEN TO TAKE FATHER DUNCAN'S PLACE AT METLAKAHTLA

On February 23, 1892, more than 20 years before the Bureau plotters invaded Metlakahtla by intruding a Government school into the mission village, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, head of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, wrote to Marsden, at Marietta College:

I have great thing in store for you, which will not be realized if you return home before you get a good education.

I notice what you say with regard to Mr. Duncan's increasing age and work, but he is still strong and will probably live at least 10 or 15 years longer, and can get along better without you now that he can when he is several years older. You could go back and help him a year from now, but unless you take a full and liberal education you can never expect to take his place when he dies and make a success of it.

MARSDEN ENCOURAGED BY BUREAU PLAN TO INVADE METLAKAHTLA AND USURP FATHER DUNCAN'S PLACE AS LEADER

On February 13, 1897, 5 years later and shortly before he was sent to Saxman as head of the joint Government school and missionary enterprise established by the Bureau plotters about 12 miles from Metlakahtla, Marsden wrote the following to Dr. Jackson, the head of the Bureau's Alaska division:

Although the time of my final graduation from my theological and law work here in Ohio is some distance ahead, yet I want to know, as soon as it is convenient for you to do so, what you have in mind for me to do in Alaska.

Will it be possible for me to take charge of the educational affairs of New Metlakahtla under the Government, or is this wholly a matter belonging to Mr. Duncan?

MARSDEN APPOINTED MISSIONARY AT SAXMAN AND PLACED ON PAY ROLL OF BUREAU OF EDUCATION

In reply to this communication, Dr. Jackson said in a letter to Marsden, dated February 23, 1897:

The board of missions will appoint you their missionary to the Tongas, Cape Fox, and Simptsimpsheans (Tsimsheans) people in southeast Alaska (this will not include the Simptsimpsheans in British Columbia), with headquarters at Saxman, where we would like to have you organize and develop a community on the same general line as at Metlakahtla. * You

*

*

can, however, arrange for a council of the natives and a government similar to that at Metlakahtla of which you would be head.

*

Under the circumstances we think that this will be better than for you to live at Metlakahtla. but if you have headquarters at Saxman you will be near enough to keep in touch and sympathy with your people and then when Mr. Duncan dies I have no doubt that they will turn to you as their leader and unanimously elect you to take Mr. Duncan's place.

It should be understood that at that time the only Tsimshean people "in southeast Alaska" were those belonging to Metlakahtla, and here we find a deliberate plan on the part of the head of the Bureau of Education in Alaska and Marsden to invade Father Duncan's Mission field.

After he was stationed at Saxman, and placed on the pay roll of the Bureau of Education, Marsden, in his eagerness to cooperate with the Bureau agents in the attack then about to begin on Father Duncan, wrote the following to his friend, William Hamilton, Assistant Chief of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, in a letter dated December 10, 1898: 23

1. What contract or arrangement has the Bureau with Mr. Duncan concerning the school work at Metlakahtla?

2. What allowance a month or year from the Government has the Metlakahtla School and how many teachers required?

Thus we see, more than 15 years before the Government day school was intruded into Metlakahtla, how the subtle and insidious attack was begun, and later was continued through the Bureau of Education, to supplant and destroy Father Duncan's educational system and to undermine his mission.

THE CAMPAIGN OF DEFAMATION AGAINST FATHER DUNCAN THROUGH FAKED SO-CALLED NATIVE PETITIONS

The evidence of the pernicious activities of Marsden in the Bureau plot in the initiation and concoction of faked so-called native petitions for a Government school at Metlakahtla, is overwhelming and, as has been conclusively shown in section 20 of this chapter, a number of these documents are in his handwriting.

Encouraged and supported by the Bureau agents, Marsden sought to discredit Father Duncan by means of these faked so-called native

Father Duncan's school was conducted at his own expense and he declined to receive any Government aid therefor except during a short period following the settlement of his mission colony in Alaska, when, in common with other mission schools, he assisted the Government's educational work and was paid therefor on a contract basis.

petitions, and, thereby, to further the vainglorious ambition, so long cherished by this cunning and cruel Saxman missionary, to usurp Father Duncan's place as leader of the Metlakahtlans.

In connection with the fictitious petitions concocted by the Saxman missionary to create discord in Father Duncan's church at Metlakahtla, the following is quoted from a letter of Marsden to the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, written on or about February 1, 1913:

Eight times during this term I was called over to Metlakahtla by the elders (referring to certain ones who were incited to disloyalty by the Bureau plotters) of the Metlakahtla Church.

These conferences were very informal and somewhat confidential.

In the opinion of those intimate with Mr. Duncan and his work, the time is fast approaching when I shall be wanted as a minister of the gospel over there.

MARSDEN A NONRESIDENT OF METLAKAHTLA FOR MANY YEARS AT THE TIME FAKED SO-CALLED NATIVE PETITIONS WERE CONCOCTED

It should be borne in mind that these faked so-called native petitions were persistently fabricated by Marsden during the seventeen years he was a resident of Saxman, where the plotters maintained their joint Bureau of Education school and missionary enterprises. Marsden had already left Metlakahtla when Annette Islands Reserve was created on March 3, 1891.

At the time the two so-called native petitions were written by Marsden, seeking to oust his great benefactor as missionary pastor of the Metlakahtla Christian Church and to have him removed from the special reserve set apart by Congress for the use of Father DunIcan and his Mission colony. Marsden had not been a resident of Metlakahtla for more than 25 years.24

KNOWLEDGE AND COOPERATION OF BUREAU AGENTS IN USE OF FAKED SO-CALLED NATIVE PETITIONS

Proof of the cooperation of agents of the Bureau of Education in the scheme to deceive Government officials by means of faked socalled native petitions will not be presented.

That the Bureau of Education could have known the fictitious character and the wicked purpose of these faked so-called native petitions is shown by the fact that the first of these petitions for a Government school at Metlakahtla, concocted by Marsden and exposed in the preceding section, was addressed to the Bureau's General Agent of Education for Alaska, who had previously written to Marsden that he had "great things in store" for him and had incited Marsden's egotism by the suggestion of his taking Father Duncan's place at Metlakahtla.

24 Letter from Marsden to Dr. James H. Condit, a representative of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, Dec. 7, 1916.

"I will say officially that I do not live at Metlakatla as it has been represented to the Board. *

For documents relating to Marsden's nonresidence at Metlakahtla at the time he wrote these so-called native petitions, and when he was made secretary of Annette Islands Reserve through the intrigues of the Bureau plotters.