CHAPTER IV. INVASIONS AND SEIZURES

SECTION 31. PLOTTERS COMPLETE PLANS TO INVADE METLAKAHTLA

Plotters prepare to abandon Saxman and seek ways to finance a Government school at Metlakahtla. Fearing exposure Marsden makes plans to enter Metlakahtla stealthily. Saxman missionary and the Bureau plotters make ready for their campaign of devastation at Metlakahtla.

PLOTTER PREPARE TO ABANDON SAXMAN AND SEEK WAYS TO FINANCE A GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AT METLAKAHTLA

In a letter to Father Duncan written on September 15, 1888, shortly after he had established his mission colony in Alaska, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, who was then head of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, said:

You have had some experience of the facility with which men will sign a petition no matter how unjust or absurd it may be.

As already shown, petitions for a Government day school at Metlakahtla, which were sent to the Secretary of the Interior, were originated and faked by Marsden and his confederates.

During all these years, except for the Government aid following his settlement in Alaska, Father Duncan had maintained his mission school, and provided the funds for its support. At no time had Marsden and his clique contributed a penny.

Marsden and several of his native dupes, who were now thirsting for knowledge and clamoring for a Government school at Metlakahtla, did not even live there.

On May 24, 1913, after Saxman had served its purpose as a base from which to attack Metlakahtla, William G. Beattie, superintendent of schools of the southeastern district of Alaska, in a letter to William T. Lopp, superintendent of education of natives of Alaska, recommended the shortening of the term of the Saxman school to 4 months:

You will notice that I have recommended only 4 months at Saxman and have suggested 3 for Petersburg. The same teacher would do for the two places.

The following excerpts from a letter from Lopp to Marsden, dated September 4, 1913, seeking means to finance a Government school at Metlakahtla and to install one Charles D. Jones as its teacher, speak for themselves:

I have told Mr. Jones that if the Secretary did not see his way clear to act favorable on the offer which your people have made, I believed it possible for your people to raise the teachers' salary by subscription on a tuition basisour Bureau loaning you the books, seats, and possibly some household furniture. How would it do to start a subscription paper at once, charging $2 per month tuition for day pupils and possibly $1 per month for night pupils, collecting for at least 2 months' tuition in advance and placing it in the Ketchikan bank. If some are too poor to pay, possible those who have no children can

help them out. Fifty day pupils and twenty-five night pupils would pay this salary, and a popular subscription or entertainment would pay Mr. and Mrs. Jones' transportation.

In this connection I am sorry to inform you that our funds are so low that even if the Secretary approves our placing a teacher there, it would necessitate our discontinuing Saxman and Louden (Yukon) for a year. The average attendance was five and eight, respectively, yast year.

I suggest, therefore, that you bring this matter before the Metlakahtla people at once and, if they think favorable, start the subscription papers, commence collecting the money, and have your committee request through me the Secretary's permission for them to employ their own teacher until the Department can furnish same.

DO NOT SEND US THE VERY BEST TEACHER

So determined was Marsden to get a Government school established at Metlakahtla that he encouraged this scheme to have some of the natives contribute to the funds to pay the teacher as proposed by Lopp. Of course, any financial contributions to the school would give the impression to the Secretary of the Interior that it was the natives and not the plotters who actually were seeking it, and, of course, if the school once was established at Metlakahtla, it would be only a matter of wits to keep the plot going.

Probably fearing that the sudden closing of the Government school and the rival mission at Saxman simultaneously with the invasion of Metlakahtla would make the concerted moves of the plotters too palpable and conspicuous, Marsden requested Lopp not to close the Saxman school if he could help it but not to send there the "very best teacher." Marsden recommended to Lopp for his Saxman charges "any ordinary good girl teacher."

The following is quoted from a letter written, at Saxman, by Marsden to Lopp, dated September 17, 1913:

I received yours of the 4th instant just as I was boarding my boat for a long cruise, and only had time to call and see those of our people and explained to them, etc. I think now that they will have the money raised for the teacher's salary. To them the idea is practical and I myself will contribute. But some of the canneries are still running and the majority of our people are still out. You can depend on it that even if the required money is not raised just now the same will be surely forthcoming when the teacher presents himself at Metlakahtla. If this proposition was presented to our people much earlier than just now everything would have been in order by this time; and I wish to say to you that we had better be a little late in raising the money and go ahead with it in a sure way than to let the thing fall through this time because we cannot just yet send you a certificate of the amount deposited in the bank here.

On my return home yesterday I had long talks with men in the fishing boats on Prince of Wales Island and they one and all heartily approved of the idea of paying for the teacher's salary till Congress steps in later on. This is the feeling now at Metlakahtla and elsewhere. I am doing all I can to help and I fear Duncan not a single bit. I have clashed with him many times now to conclude that of all human beings he is foxy, dishonest, tyrannical, and a hopelessly bigotted preacher. He looks after William Duncan's affairs very carefully but is unmercifully sacrificing the welfare of my own people.

Do not close the Saxman School if you can help it, and do not send us the very best teacher with a high pay. I think that for 6 or 7 months any ordinary good girl teacher would be glad to come here. With the compulsory law there ought to be good attendance here this year.

I am writing in a hurry, but I shall again write to you fully of the Metlakahtla situation.

Some of the natives of Metlakahtla were thus induced by Marsden and the Bureau agents to contribute the sum of $250 to aid the plotters in intruding an unneeded Government school into the village; and that amount was the first and only contribution they ever made to pay the cost of the education of their children, that cost having been borne for many years by Father Duncan alone.

This money was turned over to Charles D. Jones, who was rushed from the States to Metlakahtla to take charge of the Bureau school in advance of orders from the Secretary of the Interior for its establishment.

The providing of this fund was no doubt intended as propaganda to supplement that of the faked so-called native petitions for a Bureau school to convince the Secretary of the Interior that the natives were thirsting for knowledge.

After the Saxman missionary had been scheming for more than 16 years to usurp Father Duncan's place as leader of the Metlakahtlans,1 and within a few days from the time the Bureau of Education school was started at Metlakahtla, Marsden, on November 20, 1913, wrote to Dr. Charles L. Thompson, an official of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, as follows:

Dr. Young has intimated to me to go slow, or else we offend either Mr. Duncan or the Episcopalians. This is very well, but I believe that we have been going a little bit too slow all these years. I cannot help but feel that through this overcautiousness on our part, we are somewhat responsible for the sad conditions of many of my people at Ketchikan.

When I first went to college in Ohio in 1891 my purpose was to return home to Metlakahtla to help my people. That same thought in burning in me now, and I am very anxious to preach to my own people. I do not have enough work here and the rest of my large field, and my hardest trial is lack of work. Metlakahtla has plenty of work for me, and I am praying that God may soon lead me there to help my poor people. My residence at Metlakahtla will not interfere with my looking after the work at Saxman, Ketchikan, Kasaan, and other places.

FEARING EXPOSURE, MARSDEN MAKES PLANS TO ENTER METLAKAHTLA

STEALTHILY

Marsden's long-continued propaganda and publicity campaign having served its purpose, he temporarily changed his tactics. On January 15, 1914, shortly after the Government school was established, he wrote to Charles D. Jones the following:

If Mr. Duncan only keeps quiet about himself, all would be be well. My fear is that some influential men would believe his side of the matter, and that would go hard with us. *

1 Letter from Marsden to Dr. Sheldon Jackson, United States general agent of education for Alaska and general Presbyterian missionary for Alaska. Feb. 13, 1897: 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. DunLetter from Dr. Seldon Jackson to Marsden, Fb. 23 1897:

can?

*

*

with

* The board of missions will appoint you their missionary headquarters at Saxman, where 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." Letter from Marsden to William Hamilton, Assistant Chief of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, Dec. 10, 1898 :

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

On February 12, 1915, Marsden, referring to the designs of the plotters to seize Father Duncan's world-famous mission church, wrote the following to Dr. J. H. Condit:

There need be no formal entry at Metlakahtla. trumpets blown.

We do not want any

True to the instincts of the untamed savage, after all these years of stoical waiting, Marsden knew that if the final spring on his victim were made stealthily there would be less danger of an outcry that would bring rescue.

SAXMAN MISSIONARY AND THE BUREAU PLOTTERS MAKE READY FOR THEIR CAMPAIGN OF DEVASTATION AT METLAKAHTLA

As will be shown in proper sequence, the conspirators misused and violated the act of Congress which created this special reserve to pave their way into forbidden territory and to place Marsden in an official position as Secretary of Annette Islands Reserve.

In that position, from January 1, 1916, until his death in May 1932, Marsden was permitted to usurp the powers of the native council, to exercise functions belonging to the Secretary of the Interior, to commit financial irregularities, and in other ways, except adorning himself with paint and feathers, to carry out his cherished scheme of acting in the role of "big chief" at Metlakahtla.

Through the crafty pretense and unholy scheming employed in furtherance of the conspiracy, with representatives of the Bureau of Education accessories before and after the fact, Marsden became the dictator of Annette Islands, exercising powers which the Attorney General of the Nation or the Supreme Court of the United States would not dare to claim.

Since the invasion of Metlakahtla, the plotters have been making the edifices on Annette Islands, dedicated in the name of Almighty God, the home of owls and bats.

Marsden and agents of the Bureau of Education could not make a Metlakahtla out of Saxman, but, through their flagitious schemes, permitted by responsible officials of the Department of the Interior, they have done much toward making a Saxman out of Metlakahtla.

SECTION 32. INTRUSION OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AT METLA KAHTLA Commissioner Claxton induces Secretary Lane to revive Ballinger's suspended order. Exposure of fictitious allegations in letter of Commissioner of Education recommending intrusion of Government school at Metlakahtla. Secretary Lane orders establishment of Government school at Metlakahtla. Beginning of the rival Government school at Metlakahtla and the employment of its first teacher. Installation of first Bureau teacher. Bureau teacher who was rushed to Metlakahtla finds natives full of gratitude to Father Duncan. Commissioner of Education announces to Father Duncan the establishment of Bureau school at Metlakahtla. Father Duncan replies to letter from Commissioner of Education. Bureau teacher plans to drive Father Duncan from Metlakahtla and warns fellow plotters to bulwark action with "all manner of precaution"

COMMISSIONER CLAXTON INDUCES SECRETARY LANE TO REVIVE BALLINGER'S

SUSPENDED ORDER

It will be recalled that on April 24, 1911, Secretary Fisher suspended the order signed by Secretary Ballinger for the intrusion of a Government school at Metlakahtla.

It was about the time the plotters were thus thwarted in their scheme to invade Metlakahtla, that William T. Lopp, the Chief of the Bureau of Education, Alaska Division, wrote to Fred J. Waldron, the district superintendent of schools, on April 6, 1911:

* * We can and must keep mum on the subject for the time being. I hope you will be careful to refrain from discussing it.

It has also been shown that, notwithstanding the suspension of Secretary Ballinger's order, the Bureau plotters continued their untiring efforts to deceive, mislead, and thereby induce the Secretary of the Interior to authorize this invasion of Father Duncan's mission village.

After two years and a half of continued intriguing, the revival of Secretary's Ballinger's order was eventually accomplished by means of a letter written by Commissioner Claxton to Secretary Lane, dated October 11, 1913.

EXPOSURE OF FICTITIOUS ALLEGATIONS IN LETTER OF COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION RECOMMENDING INTRUSION OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AT METLAKAHTLA

This letter of P. P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, to Secretary Lane, dated October 11, 1913, after showing a knowledge of and admitting Father Duncan's great work in raising the Tsimshean Indians "from a state of savagery to civilization", made a number of untrue and grossly misleading statements.

The text of this letter written by Commissioner Claxton, accompanied by refutatory notes, exposing his false, misleading, fictitious, and slanderous statements against Father Duncan, is as follows:

TEXT OF CLAXTON'S LETTER

During August 1913, in the course of my tour of inspection of the work of the Bureau of Education in southeastern Alaska, I visited the village of Metlakahtla, on Annette Island, a short distance north of the international boundary line.

The history of this settlement is unique. In 1857 Mr William Duncan was sent by the Church Missionary Society of London, England, as a lay missionary to the Tsimpsean tribe of natives of British Columbia.

Through his efforts this tribe was, in course of time, raised from a state of savagery to civilization. Troubles with the Canadian Government regarding the ownership of land, also disagreement with the bishop of the Church of England who had been sent to preside over the religious activities of the colony, caused the natives under Mr. Duncan's guidance to consider the question of emigrating from British Columbia into Alaska.

Accordingly Mr. Duncan visited Washington, where he conferred with the President and with the Secretary of the Interior regarding the proposed migration. The result of Mr. Duncan's visit to Washington was that in 1887 the colony moved from British Columbia to Annette Island in Alaska.

Congress, in the fifteenth section of the act approved March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1101), provided that-

"Until otherwise provided by law, the body of lands known as Annette Islands, situated in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska, on the north side of Dixon's Entrance, be, and the same is hereby, set apart as a reservation for the use of the Metlakahtla Indians, and those people known as Metlakahtlans, who have recently emigrated from British Columbia to Alaska, and such other Alaskan natives as may join them, to be held and used by them in common, under such rules and regulations and subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed from time to time by the Secretary of the Interior."