MARSDEN ACKNOWLEDGES RECEIPT OF LETTERS FROM LOPP AND INDICATES NATURE OF REPORT TO BE MADE BY LOGAN Although Father Duncan and the natives of Metlakahtla were not permitted to see a copy of the Logan report which would have enabled them to expose the duplicity of Marsden and his confederates, on March 3, 1911, Marsden wrote to Lopp, informing him that he had taken this inspector over on his launch, that he "was with him during the conferences with the people", and in that letter he, with apparent foreknowledge, forecast the results of the Logan investigation. The following is a copy of the letter in which Marsden made a report to Lopp of Logan's visit to Metlakahtla, containing the false allegation that Father Duncan had turned over his cannery, sawmill, and store to the Government: SAXMAN, KETCHIKAN P. O., ALASKA, MY DEAR MR. LOPP: I have but a brief time in which to let you know that I have received your kind letters of the 9th and 10th ultimo, one through Major Logan, etc. 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 believe that he has done a good work for the Metlakahtla people. I took him over there on my launch and was with him during his conferences with the people. Mr. Duncan has voluntarily turned over the full management of the cannery, sawmill, and store, for the sake of the people to some superintendent to be appointed by the Government. He will hereafter attend only to the church work. The people have approved of all this, and more than ever they have again pleaded for a school. Thus you see that, as you say, the British kingdom is tottering to pieces, a thing for which we have been praying during the last over 20 years. The more intelligent of the people think that you are a true friend to them in bringing about the action of the authorities for their good. When will you be up here again? With many good wishes, I am, 17 Yours very sincerely, EDWARD MARSDEN. As already stated, in the foregoing letter from Marsden to Lopp, dated March 3, 1911, Marsden acknowledged the receipt of two letters from Lopp, dated, respectively. February 9 and February 10, 1911. The letter of February 10, 1911, was the one which came through Major Logan, introducing him to Marsden. The other letter, written by Lopp to Marsden on the previous day (Feb. 9, 1911), and evidently containing information of special significance, has not been furnished by the Department of the Interior to the friends of Father Duncan, although a request for a copy of that letter was made. Thus we see how the tentacles of bureaucracy were coiled around the Secretary of the Interior and how this so-called investigation made at his direction, was manipulated and controlled by plotters. Under such astounding and shocking conditions, the Logan report is necessarily a compendium of incompetent, unsupported, unverified, and untrue statements concocted or inspired by Arctander, Marsden, and their Bureau confederates to deceive and mislead the Secretary of the Interior. Father Duncan took out his first naturalization papers for American citizenship on July 28, 1887, before setting foot upon Alaskan soil, and received his final papers on May 1, 1895. LOGAN'S REAL OPINION OF FATHER DUNCAN'S WORK Although Inspector Logan fell into the trap laid for him by the plotters, the false information furnished to him and incorporated in his report is discredited and disproved by conclusions stated from his independent personal investigations and observations. The Logan report stated, on page 20: ** I consider that they [the Metlakahtlans] are the most advanced and progressive Indians that I have ever met, and my experience with Indians extends from one end of the continent to the other. * * 2 The following is also quoted from the Logan report, pages 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, and 21: In the year of 1887, he [William Duncan] went to Washington and conferred with the President of the United States and the Secretary of the Interior. He was told by them that there was no objection to starting a colony in southeastern Alaska, and that he would be protected in his work. Upon this assurance, Mr. Duncan and his followers moved from British Columbia to Annette Island, where they located at what is now the town of Metlakahtla ** Mr. Duncan established a salmon packing cannery, a sawmill, and a general store. All of these industries have thrived wonderfully, and Mr. Duncan has undoubtedly made considerable profits through this enterprise. It is also true that Mr. Duncan has been very liberal in his donations to the town of Metlakahtla. He has built a splendid church of a seating capacity of 800, also a school building capable of taking care of possibly 100 pupils.18 He has laid out a good townsite, placing four houses to a block, each house being on a corner lot. Through each street he has built heavy plank sidewalks. On Front Street, which is the main thoroughfare of the town, he has put up a gasoline lighting system costing in the neighborhood of $400. The town of Metlakahtla is beautifully located upon gently sloping ground from the mountains in the background to the bay. The ground on which the town is built is cleared of timber, the timber being used to build the first log houses for the Indians. The sawmill was put up later; the log houses torn down and frame houses erected in their place, and as a result, today, there is not a log house in the town of Metlakahtla. (See exhibit A. Photo cf the town.) The Indians have built fairly good houses. Externally some of them are really handsome in their architectural designs. * The people of Metlakahtla are very thrifty. They dress well, in fact even better than the poorer white people in the United States. They seem to be healthy and prosperous to a fair degree, considering the limited revenue obtained in fishing during the few months in the summer. While I was in Metlakahtla a great many of them were engaged in boat building, repairing old boats, painting, and generally getting ready for the coming fishing season. In fact, everyone seemed to be busy in attending to their own personal work. They take pride in their personal appearance and are a clean, welldressed, and nice appearing people, as you will notice from the exhibits J. K. L. hereto attached, showing the view of Front Street and the interior view of the town, also the picture of the two Indian women in their flower garden in front of their house. This is the best illustration that I can give of the general degree of enlightenment and civilization on the island. The Indians are great lovers of music and are musicians above the average. They have a fine band, a good orchestra, and a number of pianos and organs in their houses. Away out in Metlakahtla, I have heard played in the houses of the natives, some of the latest pieces of music published. I honestly believe that the home and moral conditions of the settlement of Metlakahtla are on a par with any white community of the same size and existing under the same conditions. 18 The capacity of this school building was more than 200. SECTION 28. PLOTTERS LAY SNARE FOR SECRETARY OF INTERIOR Lopp and Logan reports prepare way for invasion of Metlakahtla by Bureau of Education. A native Metlakahtlan warns inspector against snare set by plotters. Bureau of Education accepts and uses fictitious statements of Arctander and Marsden. Pretext for illegal seizure of Father Duncan's water-power pipe line traced to Arctander's false statements in Logan report. Arctander misrepresents sanitary conditions at Metlakahtla. Ground being covered with snow Arctander tricks Logan into accepting false statements regarding sanitation. Arctander's false statements refuted by personal observations recorded by Logan. Father Duncan's scrupulous care for health of natives. Statement by Dr. Henry J. Minthorn regarding wholesome water supply at Metlakahtla. President Harding's visit to Alaska reveals failure of Bureau of Education to care for health of natives. Motives of the Bureau plotters for their malicious attack on the sanitary conditions at Metlakahtla. Marsden deceives Government officials by false and misleading affidavit attached to Logan report. Father Duncan made no unconditional proposal to turn over his property to Government as falsely alleged by Marsden. High officials of Government deceived and prejudiced against Father Duncan by Marsden's false and misleading affidavit. Marsden's false statements refuted by letter of Father Duncan. Statement of Adolphus Calvert, a native of Metlakahtla. Marsden's false and misleading affidavit only sworn statement produced by Department in Metlakahtla case LOPP AND LOGAN REPORTS PREPARE WAY FOR INVASION OF METLAKAHTLA BY BUREAU OF EDUCATION The departmental reports used by the Bureau plotters to deceive and mislead the Secretary of the Interior in their attacks on Father Duncan and the Metlakatla Christian Mission are dealt with in chapter X: Slanders Refuted [p. 19331]; section 80. Secretary of Interior Deceived by Unreliable and Fictitious Departmental Reports. Two of these departmental reports-the Lopp report, dated January 14, 1911, and the Logan report, dated March 4, 1911-preceded the first invasions at Metlakahtla, which consisted of the intrusion of a Government school into Father Duncan's mission village on November 18, 1913, and the unlawful seizure, on June 22, 1914, of his water-power pipe line with which he operated his industries that supported the mission. For an understanding of events in their proper sequence, it is necessary at this time to call attention to certain false statements contained in the Lopp and Logan reports, which were used by the Bureau plotters as a snare to entrap the Secretary of the Interior and to deceive and induce him to permit the Bureau of Education to begin its invasions and inaugurate its regime of lawlessness at Metlakahtla, As will be recalled from preceding sections, the Lopp report, containing false and misleading statements by plotters, recommended the intrusion of a Government school at Metlakahtla; the sending of a special agent to Metlakahtla; the prescribing of "rules, regulations, and restrictions for Metlakahtla reservation"; and that "plans for departmental activity be decided upon at once." A NATIVE METLAKAHTLAN WARNS INSPECTOR AGAINST SNARE SET BY PLOTTERS The faked so-called native petitions for a Government school at Metlakahtla, concocted by Marsden and his fellow conspirators, have been dealt with in chapter II: Intrigues; section 20, Government Handwriting Experts Disclose Forgery in So-called Native Petitions. That Inspector Logan was put on notice that the allegations of the plotters reflecting on Father Duncan's world-famous mission. school were untrue, and that he was warned against the spurious nature of the so-called native petitions for a Government school at Metlakahtla, is shown by the following statement of Moses A. Hewson, a native of Metlakahtla, recorded in the Logan report, pages 90-91: I am very glad to see you Major Logan and I wish to tell you a few things. I have never signed my name to any petition, because I am satisfied with the school that we have here at present. I am glad to recognize that the Department are wise men to have sent such an experienced man as yourself here to look and see for himself the condition of things. In British Columbia they believed reports instead of sending a man to find out. They sent men of war instead of an investigator. I wish that you would in my name express my gratification to the Secretary of the Interior for sending such an experienced man to look into matters. When they circulated the petition they kept it secret from me so that I knew there must be something wrong. I never put my name to it. I do not stand in the way of further light or knowledge and therefore am pleased that you have come here to see what is going on. I have never found out anything to condemn in Mr. Duncan's treatment or work. We should have grown to a very large town in British Columbia but the Government opposed us. I am a witness of it myself that we have grown in many ways under Mr. Duncan's teaching and I wish to have you tell the Secretary of the Interior what I have said. I don't wish to tell what we once were, but I want you to say that we are much better Indians than we were when Mr. Duncan first came among us. You can see for yourself what we are and you cannot find another village in Alaska like us. The gentlemen that come here in the summer can testify that this is so. The Word of God is the cause of our being different. The Indians were very low down a long time ago. I am going to use an illustration. (He showed a petrified clamshell.) This was born in the mud of the sea. Once it was a living creature and now it is a rock. There is as great a difference between what the Indian once was and what he now is. The Indians were once right down in the mud and now they are a rock. Of course, I appreciate a school for I see what has taken place with the one we had. Our children were running naked when Mr. Duncan first came. I have seen them benefit from the school we had. Since the Government has given us this island we have had peace and quiet. This is why I feel pleased that the Government has given us such a quiet and peaceful home. We are now using the island that the Government has given us and we want to show you that we appreciate it by our methods of living. I am a Government man myself. I tend the lighthouse out here. The foregoing statement by a reliable and intelligent native of Metlakahtla and the appraisals of Father Duncan's educational work by high Government officials and eminent scholars furnish a scathing rebuke to the vicious slanders against Father Duncan's mission school contained in the Lopp report. The Logan report made no recommendation in regard to the establishment of a Government school at Metlakahtla, but it concluded with the following paragraph: Inasmuch as the Honorable the Secretary of the Interior has already ordered that a school be established at Metlakahtla, I do not feel that it is necessary for me to make any further recommendation in the matter. BUREAU OF EDUCATION ACCEPTS AND USES FICTITIOUS STATEMENTS OF ARCTANDER AND MARSDEN The outstanding allegations in the Lopp and Logan reports, paving the way for the invasion of Metlakahtla by the Bureau of Education, are the misrepresentations and false statements by Arctander and Marsden which were used to entrap and to deceive and mislead the Secretary of the Interior into 1. Authorizing the intrusion of a school of the Bureau of Education into Metlakahtla, thereby permitting the Bureau plotters to obtain a foothold in their scheme to dominate the affairs of Annette Islands Reserve. 2. Authorizing the unlawful seizure of Father Duncan's water power pipe line, and thereby preventing him from operating his industries with which he furnished the natives employment, supported his school and mission, and provided a fund for the perpetuation of his benevolent life work. As will be seen later, the intrusion of the school of the Bureau of Education into the Mission village of Metlakahtla and the seizure of Father Duncan's water power pipe line were followed by the Bureau's seizure of all of Father Duncan's industrial plants, the mission and school buildings, the wrecking of the school buildings and the destruction of his libraries and eventually by the seizure of the keys of the Metlakahtla Christian Church, in none of which had the Government any property rights and to the creation of which it had never contributed a penny. As will also be seen later, after the property of Father Duncan and his mission had been unlawfully seized by the Bureau of Education, without any process of law whatever, his water power pipe line, his salmon cannery, and the fisheries of Annette Islands Reserve set apart by Congress for the exclusive use of the Metlakahtlans,19 have been unlawfully operated by outside commercial interests. In this section facts will be presented proving the falsity of— 1. Statements by Arctander in the Logan report, pages 43-47, misrepresenting the sanitary conditions at Metlakahtla and thereby starting the fiction, later utilized by the Bureau agents to deceive the Secretary of the Interior, that Father Duncan's industrial water power pipe line, constructed entirely at his expense, was a public utility and should be seized to furnish water for the domestic use of the village, which was supplied with an abundance of good water from other sources. 2. Statements by Marsden in the Logan report, page 30, in which Marsden, under oath, grossly misrepresented the facts when he alleged that Father Duncan had stated to him that "he, Duncan, had made up his mind fully and without reserve to turn over to the United States Government, all of the industries that he was interested in at Metlakahtla, viz, one cannery, boats, seine, sawmill, mercantile establishment, and all public buildings." The vicious slanders originated by Marsden and his fellow conspirators, and used in departmental reports to deceive the Secretary of the Interior, falsely alleging that Father Duncan had wronged the natives in his financial relations with them, are completely disproved. 19 Letter from William T. Lopp, Chief of Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, to William G. Beattie, superintendent of schools of the southeastern district of Alaska, Feb. 13, 1916: * before taking the responsibility of delaying further the decision to lease to Harris (the attorney said we should call it a 'contract) I wanted to get additional information regarding our exclusive fishing rights in those waters. It is our present intention, if successful in securing exclusive fishing rights to the bays and 1,500 feet of the shore waters for Metlakahtla, to try to secure the same for Hydaburg, Mowquakie, and others." |