of the Seizures of the Property of William Duncan and of the Metlakahtla Christian Mission, by Hon. James W. Witten, who was for 11 years an attorney in the office of the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior and for 20 years chief law officer of the General Land Office:

It will be observed from the wording and punctuation of that act that this reservation was created, as already stated, for three distinct and separate classes of beneficiaries: (1) "The Metlakahtla Indians"; (2) "those people known as Metlakahtlans"-Mr. Duncan and his white mission helpers, who were formerly residents of Metlakahtla in British Columbia and, consequently, "known as Metlakahtlans" in the same sense in which Phillips Brooks was known as a Bostonian; and (3) "Alaskan natives" who should join them.

That it was intended to make Mr. Duncan and his helpers joint beneficiaries with the Indians under that act is clearly shown by the history and purposes of its enactment and the circumstances which induced his immigration.

When Senate bill 1859, Fifty-first Congress, which resulted in section 15 of the act of March 3, 1891, supra, was originally passed by the Senate, the beneficiaries were described therein as "the Metlakahtla Indians, and those native people who have recently emigrated from British Columbia to Alaska, and such other Alaskan natives as may join them." But when the bill again came before the Senate for reenactment, after having been otherwise amended and passed by the House of Representatives, it was further amended in the Senate by eliminating the words "native people" and substituting therefor the words "people known as Metlakahtlans." [Italics supplied.]

This amendment indisputably showed an intent not to limit the benefits of that act to natives or Indians alone, to the exclusion of Mr. Duncan.

In specifying the first two classes of beneficiaries-"Metlakahtla Indians" and "those people known as Metlakahtlans"-Congress could not have had any persons other than Mr. Duncan and his mission helpers in mind as beneficiaries, because they and the Metlakahtla Indians were the only people who had "recently emigrated from British Columbia to Alaska", and those Indians had already been included in the bill as beneficiaries before it was amended to include the second class.

That Congress did have Mr. Duncan in mind, and intended to make him a beneficiary, is clearly indicated by the fact that the committee report attached to the bill at the time of the last amendment declared that-

"Probably few instances of such self-sacrifice and devotion to the natives of the continent appeals more strongly to the good offices of Congress than that of Reverend Mr. Duncan * * [Italics supplied.]

It appears from the record that during the 18 years which have elapsed since the filing of the erroneous memorandum of May 19, 1914, advisers of the Secretary of the Interior in this important matter have not discovered that the deplorable invasions of the rights of Father Duncan and the seizure of his mission are based on a misquotation of the statute which created this special reserve.

It is, therefore, apparent that any opinion or advice to the Secretary of the Interior, which is based on this mutilation of the statute, is fatally defective and misleading.

DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES OF LONG-CONTINUED ACTS OF INJUSTICE BASED ON GARBLED STATUTE

This blundering, erroneous, and unsigned alleged legal opinion had far-reaching evil results.

On June 23, 1914, shortly after this outrageous document had been filed with Secretary Lane, Commissioner of Education Claxton wrote to Lopp that

Section 15 of the act of March 3, 1891, sets apart Annette Island as a reservation for the Metlakahtla Indians and such other Alaskan natives as might join

them. The very language of the act makes the island exclusively their “until otherwise provided by law." Any others than those designated in the act are on the island only by sufferance.

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*

From the above it appears (1) that the language of the act reserves the island exclusively for the natives, making the island, and consequently the permanent fixtures upon it, theirs until other provided by law. The movable property, such as machinery, furniture, and personal belongings, not being fixtures, do not come under the provisions of the act. It also appears (2) that under the law the Secretary of the Interior can remove Mr. Duncan from the island.

One course of action would be (adopting the suggestion of the district attorney in his telegram to the Department of Justice, quoted in its letter of June 17) to remove Mr. Duncan from the island, let him institute suit, and let the whole matter of ownership be settled by legal process.

Another course of action would be to let Mr. Duncan clearly understand (1) that he is on the island by sufferance; (2) that it is futile for him to continue his opposition; also to let him know (3) that the Government desires his cooperation; and (4) that if he would consent freely in good faith to give such cooperation litigation, possibly of long duration, with consequent deterioration of the settlement, would be avoided.

The misquotation of the act of March 3, 1891, furnished Commissioner of Education Claxton an excuse for many illegal and drastic orders, such as that contained in the following telegram sent to Father Duncan on March 21, 1918:

I must call your attention to the fact that you cannot operate store or business on Annette Island without permission of the Secretary of the Interior.

On September 23, 1918, shortly after the death of Father Duncan, P. P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, without any justification in law whatever, telegraphed to William G. Beattie, agent of the Bureau of Education at Metlakahtla:

Understand fully Duncan had no rights on the island which could be transferred by will and can have no successor which we will in any way recognize.

On July 10, 1920, 6 years after this erroneous and unsigned alleged legal opinion was accepted as law by the Department of the Interior, S. G. Hopkins, Acting Secretary of the Interior, in a letter to Mr. H. C. Strong, a trustee of the Duncan estate, repeated this statute in the same garbled form as the ground for his declaration that—

it is evident that the trustees of the will of the late William Duncan can have no legal rights within the reservation.

Thus it appears that an opinion by someone unknown to the Secretary of the Interior, based on a misquotation of the statute, misled high officials of the Government into believing that Father Duncan neither had, nor could acquire, rights on Annette Islands, which Congress had set apart for him and his mission colony.

As we shall see later, although Assistant Attorney General West had warned the Department of the Interior that "nothing has been found on which to base a conclusion as to the actual ownership of the pipe line and other property on the island" and that "If the Metlakahtlans or any one of them has an interest in these enterprises or the property appertaining thereto the courts will protect that interest", yet the Department of the Interior, after appealing to the Attorney General in the matter, finally acted without his sanction and took the matter into its own hands and seized the property of Father Duncan and his mission without the authority of any court.

SECRETARY OF INTERIOR DECEIVED AND MISLED BY OTHER MISSTATEMENTS IN ERRONEOUS AND UNSIGNED ALLEGED LEGAL OPINION

This erroneous and unsigned alleged legal opinion contains a number of false and slanderous statements such as were commonly circulated by the Bureau plotters to destroy confidence in Father Duncan.

In addition to misquoting and miscontruing the act of March 3, 1891, which created Annette Islands Reserve, this unsigned document contains other erroneous and misleading conclusions of law.

The following is quoted from a brief by Hon. James W. Witten, formerly for many years a lawyer in the office of the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, refuting the erroneous legal conclusions of this unsigned memorandum:

On May 22, 1914, Assistant Attorney General Knaebel sent a draft of a proposed letter, from which he withheld his signature, to the Secretary of the Inte rior, with the statement that he believed "it may be of value to your Department as a memorandum"; and the Secretary, on May 28, 1914, wrote to Knaebel that the draft "will be of value to this Department as a memorandum." This unsigned letter contained the following statements and suggestions, which will form the bases of the present consideration :

(1) "It seems clear from the foregoing that the aborigines of Alaska are Indians within the intent of the Constitution and laws of the United States.

(2) "Whatever may have been the status of the Alaskan Indians prior to the date of the approval of this act [of Aug. 24, 1912], there can be no question that since that date the laws of the United States as to Indian tribes and Indian lands have been in force in that Territory 'as elsewhere' in the United States unless locally inapplicable.

(3) "I am convinced that the Metlakahtlas [Metlakahtlans] on Annette Island are Indians within the purview of that word as used in the statutes of the United States.

(4) "Annette Island is, I think, a tribal reservation."

Upon these conclusions the writer of the letter suggested the issuance of needful "rules and regulations" for the government of the Metlakahtlans; and that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs assume the management of the [Annette Islands] reservation if, in your judgment, the law so requires."

CONCLUSIONS

First. The general laws relating to Indians and Indian reservations within the States of the United States are not in force in, and were not extended to, Alaska by the act of August 24, 1912, or any other statute, for the reasons that those laws are "inapplicable" to the peculiar conditions existing in that Territory; and Congress did not intend to so extend them,

Second. The Metlakahtlans are not Indians, "within the purview of that word as used in the statutes of the United States", because, as was said by President Roosevelt, they are civilized, competent, and entitled to be treated as white men; and have never been treated as Indians by Congress or administrative officers, except in the matter of occasional allowances for schools.

Third. The Annette Islands Reserve is not "a tribal reservation”, but an area set apart as a special reserve, as is shown by the history of its creation, the objects for which it was set apart, the wording of the statute creating it, and the treatment it and the Metlakahtans have received from Congress and the administrative officers of the Government.

In harmony with the views expressed by Hon. James W. Witten, the statement was made by the Honorable John Barton Payne in the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920, page 143, that the natives of Metlakahtla "can in no way be classed as reservation Indians.”

SECTION 38. SEIZURE OF FATHER DUNCAN'S WATER-POWER PIPE LINE A comprehensive statement of facts regarding seizure of Father Duncan's waterpower pipe line. The Saxman missionary instigates seizure. Marsden misrepresents ownership of water-power pipe line. Father Duncan's precaution to prevent pipe line from freezing. Objections to shutting off pipe line belated. Secretary of Interior deceived into ordering restoration of "water service." Secretary's order forced Father Duncan to assert his property rights. Water-power pipe line not a public utility. Danger to health a fictitious claim. Plotters seek to divert blame. Metlakahtlans not dependent on water-power pipe-line supply. Father Duncan's letter to Secretary of Interior fully reveals true water situation. Competent testimony discloses charges of danger to health to be false. Bureau delays repairing its own dainage to pipe line. Documentary evidence further refuting false allegations in regard to water supply at Metlakahtla. Statement by Dr. Henry J. Minthorn. Statement by Dr. Benjamin L. Myers. Statement by Mrs. Matilda W. Minthorn. Seizure violates Constitution.

Not content with securing the intrusion of the unneeded Government school into Metlakahtla, and having failed to accomplish Father Duncan's elimination, his enemies sought to arouse against him in the mind of the Secretary of the Interior further prejudice. which they hoped would result in the seizure and confiscation of all his properties and give them larger control of the affairs of the community, through his banishment from the special reserve, as they had already vigorously and repeatedly recommended.

From the time Metlakahtla was established, a healthful and abundant supply of water for the village was obtained from several springs and three running perennial streams in the immediate vicinity.

One of the first steps of the plotters, after the intrusion of the Bureau school at Metlakahtla, was to deceive and mislead the Secretary of the Interior into believing that this water supply was causing sickness among the natives, the purpose of this deception being to induce the Secretary of the Interior into ordering the seizure of Father Duncan's water-power pipe line constructed by him to operate the industries with which he supported the mission.

A COMPREHENSIVE STATEMENT OF FACTS REGARDING SEIZURE OF FATHER DUNCAN'S WATER-POWER PIPE LINE

Following the filing of the false and unsigned alleged legal opinion exposed in the preceding section, the Bureau of Education, without legal authority or the order of any court, was authorized by the Secretary of the Interior to seize Father Duncan's privately owner water-power pipe line extending from Chester Lake to Metlakahtla, a distance of about 21⁄2 miles, and constructed by him at a cost of approximately $10,000.

This seizure made it impossible for Father Duncan further to operate the industries with which he supported the mission, constructed buildings, made village improvements, maintained the church and school, furnished medicines and medical attention to the natives, cared for the infirm and unfortunate, and provided in-dustrial training; and from which he had, since he came to Annette, Islands, paid to the natives more than half a million dollars in wages.

As was the case with respect to all his industrial plants and equipment, in the purchase and construction of this water-power pipe line Father Duncan had used his personal funds, without a penny being contributed by the Government, the natives, or any other

person.

The records disclose that the Secretary of the Interior was deceived and misled by agents of the Bureau of Education and their abettors into believing that this water-power pipe line was intended as a system of water supply for the village; that it had been dedicated to public use; that there was no other source of water fit to be used by the natives; and that the health of the community was impaired and menaced when Father Duncan, as had been his custom, cut off the water during the winter of 1913-14 to prevent damage by freezing.

The evidence shows that this information furnished to the Secretary of the Interior was reprehensibly false; that one of the reasons for the selection of Metlakahtla as a site for the mission village was the ample supply of good water available without development for domestic use and the natural conditions that would contribute to sanitation; that the pipe line was constructed by Father Duncan some years after the village was established; and that the purpose of the pipe line was to provide means for cheap and efficient operation of the industrial plants, to furnish ample water for the cannery, and to reduce hazard of fire by using water power instead of steam. The water was piped directly to Father Duncan's industrial plants, and the only water taken from the pipe line for domestic use was from a small tap, incidentally placed near the cannery, from which a few of the natives found it more convenient to get water than from the streams and springs in the vicinity.

The seizure of Father Duncan's water-power pipe line, authorized by the Secretary of the Interior on June 19, 1914, was made by agents of the Bureau of Education, assisted by Edward Marsden, the missionary in charge of the mission village of Saxman, Alaska, the joint school and missionary enterprise established by the head of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education.

After the water-power pipe line was seized, paralyzing the mission and preventing Father Ducan from giving the natives employment, the failure of the Bureau of Education to turn off the water during winters that followed resulted in repeated damage by freezing. Through this wanton neglect by the Bureau agents the waterpower pipe line was damaged to such an extent that the Commissioner of Education authorized an expenditure of $6,000 for repairs when the water-power line and the industrial plants, seized later, were turned over to outside private interests to be operated for their own profit.

The placing of this private property in the hands of commercial interests shows the false pretense of the claim that the pipe line was necessary to furnish the village with water for domestic use and that it had been dedicated as a public utility for that purpose.

THE SAXMAN MISSIONARY INSTIGATES SEIZURE

As the first step toward the accomplishment of the desire of the plotters to confiscate the property of Father Duncan, the schemers