Reserve and has declined to permit such operation until authority therefor has been secured from the Congress. * This Department is of the opinion that mining operations by white men on the reserve is not only unauthorized by law but may prove detrimental to the welfare of the inhabitants of Annette Islands Reserve. You are accordingly requested to direct the United States attorney for southeastern Alaska to take such steps as may be necessary to restrain trespassers from attempting to locate mining claims and from carrying on mining operations on Annette Islands Reserve. SECTION 69. DESPOILERS BRING DECADENCE TO METLAKAHTLA Metlakahtla before the invasion. Harmful consequences followed the invasions. Natives deprived of employment, robbed of earnings, and subjected to profiteering. Bureau neglect brought decay and threatens to make Metlakahtla "a village of ramshackles." Adequate medical service not furnished. Ailing and distressed natives forced to relay on Father Duncan's trustees. Despoilers and wreckers contribute to moral degeneration. New rules and regulations cause demoralization. A striking contrast The result of the invasion of Metlakahtla by representatives of the Bureau of Education may best be measured by what has been taken away from the lives, the welfare, and the happiness of these people and their village. METLAKAHTLA BEFORE THE INVASION Prior to the invasion these natives were a God-loving, united, and progressive people, living under a government of their own, "suited to their needs" in a village of which Hon. A. P. Swineford, a former Governor of Alaska, said: 6 A neater, more orderly, or better contented Christian community cannot be found in any State or Territory in the Union. As early as 1895, Rev. Henry M. Field, the distinguished divine and author, who was for 40 years editor of the Presbyterian publication The Evangelist, said of Metlakahtla in his book, Our Western Archipelago, pages 159-160: * I will venture to say that there is not within 100 miles of Plymouth Rock a village in which the Sabbath is more strictly observed; where there is less of drunkenness or immorality of any kind; where the people are more sober, temperate, orderly, and Christian than in this community of reclaimed savages and cannibals. And as late as 1911, and shortly before the invasion, Maj. W. R. Logan, an inspector of the Interior Department, declared in his official report: 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. In a letter to Father Duncan, dated October 13, 1917, Rev. Harlan P. Beach, D. D., F. R. G. S., professor of the theory and practice of missions at Yale University, and one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject of missions, said: * * * * Few men in all the history of missions have been enabled to accomplish what you have done in these years. I am writing this in a library having in it the biographies of some 600 missionaries, and your own allures me as almost no other. •Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States (248 U. 8. 78, 88). Surely God has been in your life, and your life in consequence has been so fruitful. After the death of Father Duncan, the Rev. James L. Hill, D. D., said, in The Congregationalist of August 2, 1923: Here are "many infallible proofs" for a new chapter of the acts. Here are "things pertaining to the Kingdom of God" for a fresh volume of the evidences of Christianity. Here was wrought a modern miracle. Metlakahtla, the wonder of visitors, sets out in high relief what our holy religion is endowed with power to do. Frank G. Carpenter, in his book Alaska Our Northern Wonderland, published in 1923, said: * What it has taken ages to accomplish with other uncivilized peoples these Indians, under Father Duncan, achieved in less than 30 years. In an address before the Ecumenical Conference at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, in New York, Bishop J. Taylor Hamilton, then secretary of the mission board of the Moravian Church, said: * * * And who can forget Duncan of Metlakahtla? What a wonderful, self-organized, and self-supporting thrifty Tsimpsean community he has created upon Annette Island by his Christian generalship. As emphasized in other connections, the extraordinary character of Father Duncan's work appears in the fact that tributes similar to those just quoted have come from Presidents, Vice Presidents, Cabinet officers, heads of Government bureaus, Government agents and investigators, naval and military officers, Justices of the United States Supreme Court, members and committees of both Houses of Congress, men of science, editors and authors, historians, business, and professional men, prospectors and miners, associates and friends, and from the natives themselves who speak of Father Duncan from a lifetime of intimate knowledge, gained from close association and observation. Father Duncan's place in the history of missions amongst the North American Indians is thus noted in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Thirteenth edition, volume 14, page 478, already quoted: * The martyrdom of the Jesuits among the fierce Iroquois, the zeal of Duncan at Metlakahtla, the fate of the Spanish friars in the Pueblos rebellion of 1680 under Popé, the destruction of the Huron missions in 1641-49 and of those of the Apalachee in 1703, the death of Whitman at the hands of the Cayuse in 1847, are but a few of the notable events of mission history. * * Appraisers of Father Duncan's work, which made Metlakahtla "the full realization of the missionaries' dream of aboriginal restoration", will be found in communications from distinguished men and women received by him on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the beginning of his mission work amongst the Indians of the North Pacific Coast of America in the account and appraisals of his life and work in a letter from Rev. Mark A. Matthews, D. D., LL. D., to the Secretary of the Interior. HARMFUL CONSEQUENCES FOLLOWED THE INVASIONS With the coming of the despoilers came discontent, bickerings, strife, and contentions, which divided this formerly harmonious people into hostile factions, lowered the standards of morality, checked the progress of the people, and led to the deterioration of the village. As has already been shown, the invaders deprived these people of their former liberties and freedom of independent action by taking away their form of self-government and substituting in its place a form of so-called government ill suited to their needs and requirements, and which, in effect, made them vassals of self-seeking bureaucratic overlords. This new form of government went further and released the Metlakahtlans from fundamental moral and religious restraints and removed essential and wholesome obligations to take the Bible as their guide, revere the Sabbath, attend divine worship, be truthful, honest, industrious, and refrain from gambling and the use of intoxicants; and opened the doors of the colony to the degrading influence of godless, debased, and licentious intruders. Father Duncan's adversaries and antagonists not only failed to make helpful contributions to the welfare of his followers but, as will be seen from what has already been said, they laid heavy hands upon them and the mission by putting an end to his school, by the seizure and destruction of properties which had enabled him so generously to contribute to both their spiritual and their material needs, and by urging his banishment sought to deprive them of their unmatched shepherd, who had brought them up from savagery. They went so far as to induce his arrest on a baseless criminal charge and threatened to shut him out from his pulpit. After his death the keys of the church were taken from his loyal followers, its doors were locked against them, and these enemies of righteousness then forbade them unrestricted religious assembly, even in the privacy of their own homes. NATIVES DEPRIVED OF EMPLOYMENT, ROBBED OF EARNINGS, AND SUBJECTED TO PROFITEERING Nor was this all. These struggling natives were, through the schemes of representatives of the Government, forced to remain idle, blacklisted, and discriminated against when they sought employment, "sweated" through onerous labor contracts by which they were robbed of large portions of the wages they earned, and compelled to purchase their food and other supplies at profiteering prices. BUREAU NEGLECT BROUGHT DECAY AND THREATENS TO MAKE METLA KAHTLA "A VILLAGE OF RAMSHACKLES" Ample evidence that the coming of the representatives of the Bureau of Education and their domination at Metlakahtla did not contribute to the welfare of the people, but resulted in lack of employment and the deterioration of the village, is shown by the following quotations from that Bureau's own records. In his letter of March 14, 1923, the Bureau's Industrial Director at Metlakahtla said to George L. Boyle: It seems to me, and not to me only, but to others with whom I have talked, that the Bureau of Education is falling down, in that they have not supplied some industry that will give these natives work. It is absolutely useless to spend $20,000 a year of the Government's money, as we are now doing, telling them how to live, teaching them to work, and not supplying any means of labor. In a report filed in August 1923, with the Commissioner of Education, by his own secretary, Theodore Honour, who was detailed to make a thorough inspection at Metlakahtla, we find the following admission of failure. The statement has been made that property at Metlakahtla is deteriorating. This, unfortunately, seems to be true in a very general sense. All the houses and buildings bear evidence of having once been taken care of; there are still many traces of gardens that were once well kept; but it is plain that there is not today, generally speaking, the same desire or power to keep the property up to the level of 15 or 20 years ago. Most of the residences are well conceived and well built, and many of them still require only a little paint and minor repairs to make the community what it undoubtedly once was, a model community; but in a few more years at the present rate of deterioration the place will become largely a village of ramshackles. A similar statement in the Annual Report of W. F. Parish, industrial director, for the following year, 1924, reads as follows: The population of the village has been slowly but steadily decreasing during several years past. The chief cause of the decline is the lack of occupations to give employment during the winter season. The sawmill has long been closed and after the end of the cannery season there is no work to be had until the following spring * * One evil result of the condition noted above is that there are a large number of ruined houses standing in the various parts of the village which greatly mar its beauty. Several times during the past year I have urged on the council the advisability of having these dwellings which are beyond repair torn down, and I believe some action may be obtained during the coming year. In contrasting conditions before and after the invasion, it is important to recall that although these people were forced to abandon their property in British Columbia, and came to Alaska almost empty handed, they were enabled, through Father Duncan's wise guidance and the remunerative employment he furnished them, to build up "a model community" with "well conceived and well built" homes, which, within a few years after the invasion was becoming "a village of ramshackles" because the "Bureau of Education is falling down", and failed to give these natives proper direction or opportunities to earn wages to enable them to make even necessary repairs. ADEQUATE MEDICAL SERVICE NOT FURNISHED While Father Duncan at his own expense furnished the natives with care and treatment by his well qualified and efficient missionary medical assistants, who lived among them, and at all times kept on hand a complete stock of medical supplies and up-to-date equipment for free use, the Government, for many years after its intrusion in the affairs of the mission, did not supply the natives with a resident doctor to treat their ills, until, in December 1931. in conjunction with the trustees of the Duncan estate, a resident physician was furnished them. Further proof as to the extent to which Father Duncan solicitously cared for the health of his people, as well as evidence regarding the attitude and vandalism of the representatives of the Bureau of Education, is found in the following excerpts from written statements by Dr. Henry J. Minthorn, who was long Father Duncan's helpful missionary medical assistant and coworker. In his statement, dated November 20, 1915, Dr. Minthorn said: Mr. Duncan paid me and furnished medical and surgical supplies, paid consultation fees, and for surgical operations and hospital expenses, when necessary, in addition to my salary, for every one needing them, sometimes amounting to large sums. He considered this part of his duty as a missionary, and did it cheerfully. He visited the sick and poor, and assisted them financially, freely, when they were in need, and still continues to do all these things. In another statement, this efficient and devoted physician declared that In September 1915, the superintendent [of the Government school at Metlakahtla] took possession of the doctor's office and residence, removed all the medicine from the dispensary-about 350 bottles, surgical, dental, and optical instruments, surgical dressings, battery, medical books and journals, bottles, corks, paper and tin boxes, stove, cupboards, tables, chairs, and other furniture, throwing them promiscuously in boxes in an unused, leaky building, and proceeded to overhaul, change, and fit it up for his own use. The extent to which the Government failed to furnish these natives with competent medical assistance and medicines is told in the annual report to the Commissioner of Education, made June 30, 1915, by Charles D. Jones, the Bureau's own representative in charge at Metlakahtla. In that report Jones made the following admissions: ** * * * As to the amount of good the Bureau's representatives did in checking the ravages of desease [disease], I am inclined to feel that it deserves very little credit. This is not because they failed to do their duty but because of their lack of utensils and special training for this work. We all took a hand in doping out pills and Belladona plasters whenever there was a call for them-which was very often. It is a big question, however, whether we did any real good or the patients got well in spite of our treatment. * * * * There are some drugs on the shelves in my office, but who is here to properly prescribe the use of them *. It is insinuated by some parties that because of our proximity to this white settlement [Ketchikan] we do not need a hospital or a permanent physician. I wonder if these parties know all the facts in the case. Depending on the weather and the disposition of the doctor, so the natives inform me, is his fee regulated. In nice weather and under favorable conditions, he may make the run over to Metlakahtla and back for $15, but ordinarily his price is $25 and he may go as high as $50. The price of an examination fee in Ketchikan is usually $5, and the native pays for the filling of the subscription [prescription] at the drug store. There is one hospital at Ketchikan, but it is closed to the native and anyone with a strain of native blood in him. A Hotentot, Greek, or whatnot may go there and receive, if he has the money, all the courtesies and services of the place. Not so with the poor native. He may be operated upon there, but quick as scat thereafter-before anything can be contaminated-he must be trucked out to a cabin on the flats where there is neither trained skill nor sanitary surroundings to further his convalescence. * Concerning the deplorable lack of medical care of the natives of Alaska by the Bureau of Education, the New York Times of March 2, 1925, in recording the dismissal of Lopp "for the good of the service", said: In an announcement made at the Interior Department on September 8, 1923, it was stated that these changes had been made "as a direct result of the trip of the late President Harding with members of his Cabinet, to Alaska." * The explanation was offered that the Alaskan service was inefficient in many respects, and the statement was made that the "Presidential party was rarticularly impressed with the lack of medical supplies for the natives." * The deplorable lack of medical care of the natives of Alaska by the Bureau of Education is detailed elsewhere in this report. |