Alaska, by the following statement made later in a latter written by him to the Commissioner of Education, on October 26, 1914: In past years Mr. Duncan has dominated the town of Metlakahtla, as you know. * * * The people had a wholesome respect for him and the town was probably the most law-abiding place in Alaska. * * * UNTRUE STATEMENT IN THE LOPP REPORT REFUTED BY DR. HENRY J. MINTHORN The untrue statement in the Lopp report, that Father Duncan had lost "the love and respect of his people" is, moreover, entirely refuted by a statement of Dr. Henry J. Minthorn, dated April 22, 1918, which appears in the closing pages of chapter II. Dr. Minthorn, the uncle and foster father of former President Herbert Hoover, spent many years at Metlakahtla as a medical missionary, and his statement already used in the connection mentioned will now be repeated to prove the unreliability and vicious nature of the Lopp report: And you ask in a note at the end of your letter about the feeling of the people toward Mr. Duncan. This subject of the attitude of the people might take up a large space, but after all I think it is very simple. Exclusive of Marsden, Atkinson, and one or two others who want to dominate the people themselves, and whom the people do not want to dominate them, the feeling of the people toward Mr. Duncan is not only friendly, but full of gratitude and respect. First I will say that every disrespectful or disparaging statement that I ever saw or heard about Mr. Duncan, was made by Mr. Marsden or some white person that I feel sure got it from him. I have never heard a disrespectful or disparaging statement or expression made about Mr. Duncan by any native or white person except Marsden, or those white people who are trying to help Marsden in his attempts to discredit Mr. Duncan. I say white persons, for I have never heard any native speak disrespectfully or disparagingly of Mr. Duncan except Mr. Marsden, and Mr. Marsden refers to Mr. Duncan in the correspondence I have referred to connected with Mr. Marsden's reinstatement as "old Duncan." On the other hand all of the people in Metlakahtla (and more noticeably that Mr. Marsden has made his own what he pretended he was trying to get for them), invariably speak in the kindest and most respectful manner to, of and about Mr. Duncan. The same is true of all white people so far as I know or ever have known, except not more than a half dozen people, all of whom have in some way or other been implicated in taking Mr. Duncan's property, or in trying to get him displaced in order to give his place to Mr. Marsden. LOPP'S VICIOUS SLANDERS DISPROVED The vicious slanders in the Lopp report are in pitiable contrast to the splendid appraisals of the life and work of Father Duncan recorded in almost innumerable reports to be found in practically every department of the Government, and this great missionary cannot be deposed by the Bureau of Education from the eminent place accorded to him by history. LOPP'S REAL OPINION OF FATHER DUNCAN On July 24, 1911, 6 months after Lopp had recommended that a Government school be established at Metlakahtla and that "rules, regulations, and restrictions for Metlakahtla reservation" be adopted, he issued instructions to Charles W. Hawkesworth, an agent of the Bureau of Education, to proceed to Klinquan to investigate the advisability of establishing a new Hydah village in the vicinity of Sukwan. In his letter of instruction, Lopp pointed out to Hawkesworth Father Duncan's work at Metlakahtla as a model for the successful education of natives. This letter is marked "Approved, P. P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education", and initialed "W. H." [William Hamilton?]. From this letter the following is quoted: while at Ketchikan you will, if possible, also visit Metlakahtla for the purpose of making a study of what Indians can do if properly directed. It is clearly apparent that the Lopp report is completely discredited by the evidence that the Bureau of Education was deliberately going to work to cripple and destroy a mission school which the Commissioner of Education and the Chief of the Alaska Division were recommending to their man Hawkesworth as a model for the new town of Hydaburg which the Bureau of Education was then proceeding to establish. LOPP DISMISSED, BUT HIS REPORT IS STILL UPHELD AND USED BY ADVISERS OF SECRETARY OF INTERIOR Notwithstanding the fact that Lopp was later dismissed from the Department "for the good of the service", his report is still sponsored by the advisers of the Secretary of the Interior. It was on this report made by a man whose services to the Government, in the judgment of the Secretary of the Interior, were undesirable; that the foundation was laid for the action which has illegally placed the world-famous Metlakahtla Christian Mission in the custody of those who are today executing the policies formulated and recommended by Lopp. SECTION 27. DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR FALLS INTO TRAP SET BY PLOTTERS Lopp recommends immediate departmental activity and influences an investigation by Inspector Logan. The Lopp report and the secret code used by agents of Bureau of Education. Department officials accept Lopp's recommendations without investigating the facts. Logan instructed to make investigation engineered by Lopp. Logan entrapped by letters of introduction to plotters assisting Lopp in his efforts to undermine Father Duncan. Marsden personally conducts Inspector Logan and acts as his interpreter. While acting as interpreter Marsden addresses Logan's meetings and also serves as a hostile witness. Logan report relies on misleading statements of Arctander and Marsden and conveys false impression that Father Duncan was present at Logan's meetings. Excerpts from Logan's secret report showing use made of Arctander and Marsden and the false representation that Father Duncan was present. Father Duncan not present at Inspector Logan's meetings. The Logan report withheld from Father Duncan and the natives. Marsden acknowledges receipt of letters from Lopp and indicates nature of report to be made by Logan. Logan's real opinion of Father Duncan's work. "The New York Times, Mar. 2, 1925. LOPP RECOMMENDS IMMEDIATE DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITY AND INFLUENCES AN INVESTIGATION BY INSPECTOR LOGAN In Lopp's report to the Commissioner of Education, dated January 14, 1911, were the following, among other audacious and presumptuous recommendations, interfering with the private affairs of Father Duncan and the Metlakahtla Christian Mission. 2. That you recommend to the Honorable Secretary of the Interior that a special agent of the Interior Department be sent to Metlakahtla to investigate the needs of the people, ownership, and management of the present industrial plant, and possible plans for its continuation and extension after Mr. Duncan's retirement or death. * * 4. That plans for departmental activity be decided upon at once. THE LOPP REPORT AND THE SECRET CODE USED BY AGENTS OF BUREAU OF EDUCATION A reason for Lopp's desire to hasten "departmental activity" in carrying out the recommendations made in his report may be seen in the fear of the plotters that Father Duncan would proceed to Washington, D. C., to fight the intrusion by the Bureau of Education of a Government school at Metlakahtla.12 On January 16, 1911, 2 days after the Lopp report was written, Fred J. Waldron, superintendent of schools of the southeastern district of Alaska, telegraphed the following secret-code message from Juneau, Alaska, to William T. Lopp, Chief of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, at Washington, D. C.: Infesting gimtum coming infesting fuhyambdem to infesting sabyd scalent infesting htyeerh. This secret-code message bears the impression of an official rubber stamp, showing it to have been officially filed in the Bureau of Education on January 17, 1911, and the following is the text of this secret message when translated: Duncan coming Washington to fight Government schools. However, Father Duncan did not make the trip to Washington, which the Bureau agents evidently feared he would do. The records disclose that the Bureau plotters not only concealed their schemes by means of a secret code but the Lopp report was withheld from Father Duncan and he was afforded no opportunity to answer its false and vicious statements. DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS ACCEPT LOPP'S RECOMMENDATIONS WITHOUT INVESTIGATING THE FACTS On January 20, 1911, Hon. Elmer E. Brown, Commissioner of Education, approved the recommendations contained in the Lopp report and transmitted that document to the Secretary of the Interior. 12 As has been revealed in the preceding section. Lopp, Waldron, and Arctander, while the Lopp report was being concocted, were in communication through secret code messages. On Jan. 11, 1911, 3 days before the Lopp report was filed. Waldron wrote to Lopp that he had on that day sent a message to Arctander and had "worded his telegram so that he (Arctander) only could tell what it meant.' That the purpose of these secret code messages was not to save expense in transmission is shown by the fact that, in some cases, more words were used in transmitting the secret code message than appeared in the text of the telegram when translated. This action was taken by Commissioner Brown without affording Father Duncan any hearing whatever; and, as this momentous step followed within less than a week from the time the Lopp report was written, it is evident that Commissioner Brown accepted the false and misleading statements contained in that document without due investigation or impartial consideration. On February 1, 1911, the Honorable R. A. Ballinger, then Secretary of the Interior, wrote the following to the town council of Metlakahtla: I have considered the report of Mr. W. T. Lopp, Superintendent of Education of Natives of Alaska, which the Commissioner of Education forwarded to me, and I have decided to direct the establishment in Metlakahtla of a United States public school, under the Bureau of Education of this Department, during the coming fiscal year. This letter from Secretary Ballinger to the town council of Metlakahtla, among other things, also stated: I intend, in the near future, to send to Metlakahtla a special agent of this Department who will spend some time with you and who will confer with you fully with a view to preparing such rules and regulations [recommended by Lopp] as will enable you to use to the best advantage the resources of the Annette Islands. LOGAN INSTRUCTED TO MAKE INVESTIGATION ENGINEERED BY LOPP In the meantime Lopp, after conferences with Marsden and other plotters in Alaska, had hurriedly crossed the continent and was in Washington, where he was actively engaged in the schemes for the invasion of Metlakahtla. As will be shown later, the events then transpiring were contemporaneous with other official acts, which soon thereafter compelled the retirement of Mr. Ballinger from his position as Secretary of the Interior. On February 10, 1911, a few weeks after the filing of the Lopp report. Secretary Ballinger ordered W. R. Logan, an inspector of the Department of the Interior, to proceed to Metlakahtla and make the investigation recommended by Lopp. Not only was Logan ordered to make his investigation as a result of the Lopp report, but it is also a fact that, together with his instructions to Inspector Logan for the conduct of his investigation, Secretary Ballinger transmitted to him a copy of the Lopp report for his guidance. When reference is made to these instructions from Secretary Ballinger to Inspector Logan, based on recommendations by Commissioner Brown, it will be seen that Secretary Ballinger, in effect, approvingly cited to Logan statements in the Lopp report that were unwarranted and grossly misleading. It is also important to recall that when Logan received his instructions to proceed to Metlakahtla, Secretary Ballinger, acting upon the recommendation of Commissioner Brown, had already approved the Lopp report to the extent of ordering the intrusion of a Government school at Metlakahtla. On February 10, 1911, the day Logan received instructions from Secretary Ballinger to proceed with the investigation recommended by Lopp, the latter wrote the following from Washington, D. C., in a letter to F. C. Churchill: Before its arrival the send Major Logan to * When I wrote * I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of Feb. 4. Secretary had gone ahead and made arrangements to Metlakahtla at once. He leaves for Seattle tonight. * you with regard to taking this assignment I suggested May or June, thinking that you would not care to risk the boisterous and inclement weather which they have up there during this month and next. * * * * * Since I have met Major Logan and talked with him and, knowing the situation there as I do, I have no doubts as to the outcome of the investigation. LOGAN ENTRAPPED BY LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION TO PLOTTERS ASSISTING LOPP IN HIS EFFORTS TO UNDERMINE FATHER DUNCAN Immediately Lopp began the execution of plans to influence this investigation by bringing Logan into contact with plotters in Alaska, who intercepted him on his way to Metlakahtla, personally conducted him, and deceived and misled him during his investigation to suit their purposes. On February 9, 1911, the day before Secretary Ballinger ordered Inspector Logan to proceed to Metlakahtla, William T. Lopp, Chief of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, wrote Marsden a letter which has apparently disappeared from the files of the Department of the Interior.18 On February 10, 1911, the same day Logan received his instructions from Secretary Ballinger to conduct the investigation at Metlakahtla, Lopp wrote the following letter, introducing Inspector Logan to Marsden: I take pleasure in introducing to you Maj. W. R. Logan, special agent of the Secretary of the Interior, who is visiting your country for the purpose of investigating the needs of your people of Annette Island. I have assured him that he can count on your cooperation and assistance in this investigation, which means so much for the future of your people. A similar letter was written by Lopp, introducing Major Logan to John W. Arctander, who, as already shown, had been suspended from practice of the law for falsifying public documents (In re Arctander, 26 Minn. 25-28), and later was disbarred from practice of the law by the Supreme Court of the State of Washington for unpatriotic, unethical, and unprofessional conduct during the World War (In re Arctander, 110 Wash. 296–306). A similar letter was also written by Lopp introducing Major Logan to an individual who previously had been arrested and fined for violation of the fishery laws on a complaint made by Father Duncan.1* On February 11, 1911, Lopp wrote to Fred J. Waldron, superintendent of schools of the southeastern district of Alaska, as follows: * * * but I have some news to tell you with regard to Metlakahtla. Major Logan, special inspector for the Secretary * * leaves tonight for Metlakahtla, via Seattle. Possibly it will suit your convenience to visit that part of your district during their sojourn in Ketchikan. I think they will spend 10 days or 2 weeks in that region. 13 Letter from Marsden to William T. Lopp, Chief of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, Mar. 3, 1911: "I have but a brief time in which to let you know that I have received your kind letters of the 9th and 10th ult., one through Major Logan, and so forth. When Major Logan's report is made known in Washington not before long, I am very sure you will then have a clear knowledge of his mission. I took him over there [Metlakahtlal on my launch and was with him during his conferences with the people." 14 See report of M. E. Fagin, assistant inspector of fisheries, to George R. Tingle, Inspector of Fisheries, Washington, 1897. |