There can be no more flagrant case of high-handed lawlessness than the seizure and present custody of the property of Father Duncan and his mission and the using of that property for the gain of private individuals. As was said by Hon. James W. Witten, for many years a law officer of the Department of the Interior and an authority on the general land law: It would be difficult, indeed, to find an instance showing a more flagrant violation of the absolute prohibition of our Constitution which solemnly declares that no person can "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" than the Secretary's action in this case, or a precedent more dangerous to the liberties and property of our people. Surely such actions can never be upheld where justice is justly administered. We would here also recall the following statement by Hon. James M. Beck, formerly Solicitor General of the United States, in his legal analysis of this astounding case: It would be difficult for any fair-minded man to justify in the forum of conscience the act of the Interior Department in forcibly depriving a missionary and his converts of valuable property, to the construction of which the Government had not contributed a penny and which was, in all respects, the lawful property of those who had expended their money and labor upon it. The great commandment, "Thou shalt not steal", the most famous moral statement of property rights, fairly implies that that which a man has constructed with his own money and labor is his property and remains his property until he in some way voluntarily divests himself of it. The only lawful door of approach to the sheep fold that Father Duncan built on Annette Island is his last will and testament, which directed how and by whom the mission and the industries established by him should be administered. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.John 10: 1. CHAPTER VIII. ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY THE RESERVE SECTION 70. ATTEMPTS TO THROW OPEN AND DESTROY THE SPECIAL RESERVE CREATED BY CONGRESS FOR THE METLA KAHTLANS Mercenary interests seek to destroy Annette Islands Reserve. Indians entitled to protection from exploitation and debauchery. Reserve invaded by outside fishing interests. Destruction of Reserve sought through extension of mining rights. Regulations permitting mining unsuccessfully urged. Abolition and extinction of Reserve unsuccessfully urged by departmental committee. Destruction of Reserve sought through legislation. History of bills to abridge rights of Metlakahtlans to use of Annette Islands Reserve. Metlakahtlans self-supporting and special Reserve created for their exclusive use and protection. Defeat of first attempt to destroy reserve by legislation established procedent consistently followed by Congress. Renewed attempts to destroy reserve by legislation meet with defeat. Sixth, seventh, and eighth bills to destroy Reserve meet with defeat. Settled policy of Congress to protect Metlakahtlans. Annette Islands Reserve was created by section 15 of the act of March 3, 1891, 26 Statute 1101, which reads as follows: That until otherwise provided by law the body of lands known as Annette Islands, situated in Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska, on the north side of Dixon 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 immigrated from British Columbia to Alaska, and such other Alaskan natives as may join them, 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. This reserve consists of a small group of islands in southeastern Alaska, only a few square miles of which are suitable for habitation. The principal means of support of the people are the salmon fisheries in the surrounding waters.1 MERCENARY INTERESTS SEEK TO DESTROY ANNETTE ISLANDS RESERVE The existence of Annette Islands Reserve, Alaska, created by the act of March 3, 1891, as a special reserve for the exclusive use of the Metlakahtlans, has from time to time encountered disfavor and opposition from persons actuated by desires to invade and use these islands and their resources for personal advancement and gain. Regardless of the long-established policy of Congress to protect the Metlakahtlans in their occupancy and use of these islands, these deserving people are still threatened and harassed by attempts of mercenary interests to destroy their reserve through legislation. Exaggerated rumors concerning the natural resources of Annette Islands Reserve have been propagated, exciting the cupidity of adventures, which, together with the avarice of sordid and selfish in 1 See Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States (248 U. S. 78, supra). 19231 terests, has resulted in various attempts to invade Annette Islands. and exploit the alleged mineral deposits and in repeated efforts to induce Congress to throw open the islands and thus deprive the Metlakahtlans of their long-established rights. One of the principal reasons for choosing the desolate, uninhabited and isolated Annette Islands as the site of the mission, was to keep the colony free from the contaminating influence of dissolute white men, such as commonly flock to mining camps, where they introduce rum, demoralization, and disease. In 1894, a few years after Father Duncan had established his mission on Annette Islands, efforts were made to start a mining camp on the reserve but, upon complaint of Father Duncan, the prospectors were driven from the islands by the authorities of the United States. On December 19, 1895, a few years after the reserve was created, Burton E. Bennett, the United States attorney for Alaska, wrote to Father Duncan : The Department of Justice has instructed me to take such steps as are necessary to protect you and your people in their reservation rights under the law against mining trespassers. This I will do and shall prosecute all persons unlawfully infringing upon your rights. * you may rest assured that you and your people will be fully protected as by law provided against any and all trespassers. Father Duncan, with the support of the Government, was successful in compelling rum runners, poachers, and other lawless elements to respect the law or leave the reserve, and he thereby incurred the enmity of some of these lawless elements, who sought to have the reserve thrown open to the public. Particularly trying to Father Duncan was the time when adventurers and the worst elements of humanity drifted to and attempted to establish themselves on Annette Islands during the days of the Klondike rush. Influential mining, fishing, and canning interests, under various pretexts, have for years demanded that Annette Islands Reserve be thrown open in order that its resources might be exploited, to the detriment of the Metlakahtlans. On June 11, 1912, the Attorney General ordered the United States attorney (Rustgard) at Juneau to institute suit against J. L. Smiley (later president of the Annette Island Packing Co.) and Perry G. Jenkins, his associate, to restrain them from establishing a fish trap in the reserved waters. During the more than 40 years since Annette Islands Reserve was created by the act of March 3, 1891, eight bills have been introduced in Congress with the intention of throwing open to the public the whole or a part of Annette Islands. The established policy of Congress to preserve this special reserve for the exclusive use and benefit of Father Duncan and his followers, is shown by the fact that none of these bills was favorably reported from the committees to which they were referred. Persons envious of the rights of the Metlakahtlans, having failed to accomplish their purposes through legislation, have employed various schemes to induce the Secretary of the Interior illegally to extend the mining and fishing rights of the reserve to outsiders. Timely warnings by the press, distinguished citizens, and eminent statesmen that attempts would be made to despoil the Metlakahtlans and drive them from these islands are cited in Chapter V: Vandalism and frightfulness; section 57, Prophecies fulfilled. INDIANS ENTITLED TO PROTECTION FROM EXPLOITATION AND Father Duncan, with his great insight into and understanding of the primitive mind, had often pointed out that when the Indian mingled with the white man he was more apt to adopt the white man's vices than his virtues. The late Frank G. Carpenter, an experienced traveler and distinguished journalist, in his book Alaska Our Northern Wonderland (1923), declared that Metlakahtla, developed under Father Duncan's policies and methods, was "the seat of one of the most remarkable experiments in the civilization of the red man" and that— What it has taken ages to accomplish with other uncivilized peoples these Indians, under Father Duncan, achieved in less than 30 years. Dr. Henry J. Minthorn, with his wide experience and understanding of the fundamental problems of the Indians, said in a letter to Dr. Henry S. Wellcome, on June 9, 1919: Indians as a race succumb to the white man's vices much more readily than white people themselves, and should be shielded from them rather than exposed to them; and especially is it folly to expend large sums of money in the education of Indians and at the same time expose them to the very worst conditions of white society, which will almost inevitably render futile all of the educational work. The Honorable Ray Lyman Wilbur, Secretary of the Interior, in an article entitled "A New Day for the Indian", published in the Sunday Star (Washington, D. C.) on May 24, 1931, declared in regard to Government boarding schools for the Indians: We know from our experience of decades that the Indian education of the past has failed-not that the children and older Indians did not learn what was in the books, but that this kind of education did not fit them to go out into the world about the reservation and become self-supporting. Thousands and thousands of Indians have been educated-then gone back to a primitive, tribal existence, because they were still strangers to the white civilization that surrounded the reservation. While the legislation creating Annette Islands Reserve was pending in Congress, the late Senator Henry L. Dawes, chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, called attention to the fact that the desolate island which the Metlakahtlans sought for a home was then "good for nothing except for the wild beasts that are in the mountains", and he added the prophetic words: 2 Nobody wants it now except there may turn up at some time somebody who desires to plunder them [the Metlakahtlans]. At the time the first bill to destroy Annette Islands Reserve was introduced in Congress, the late Judge Thomas N. Strong of Portland, Oreg., the legal adviser of William Duncan and his mission, on February 22, 1898, wrote to Father Duncan: I have had a lifetime here in which to observe the effect of Indian reservations and have seen thousands of Indians cheated out of their rights. Congressional Record, Sept. 16, 1890, p. 10092. The little Indians with whom I used to play with as a baby have now only the 6 feet of ground that we are all at the last entitled to; and they have never owned any more. This attempt to take the island may fail but it will be renewed again and again * * In speaking of the attempts to throw open and destroy Annette Islands Reserve, Maj. Gen. A. W. Greely, the famous Arctic explorer, said in his Handbook of Alaska-Its Resources, Products, and Attractions (1914), pages 181–182: Repeated efforts to reduce the size of the reservation and open it to whites have so far failed, and should fail. Their isolation has been a most favorable factor in the prosperity of the Metlakahtlans, and complete success can only be expected in Alaskan missionary work through rigid separation of whites and natives. Missionaries recognize almost universally that the white men seek intercourse with Alaskan natives only for exploitation or debauchery. RESERVE INVADED BY OUTSIDE FISHING INTERESTS The illegal invasion of the reserve by outside fishing interests and its far-reaching and injurious effects have been disclosed in Chapter IV: Invasions and Seizures; section 47, confiscation of fisheries for benefit of outside commercial interests. Francis E. Leupp, a former Commissioner of Indian Affairs and for some time Secretary of the Indian Rights Association, in his book, In Redman's Land, published in 1914, page 124, speaking of Annette Islands Reserve, said * * ** It must be borne in mind, however, in estimating the success of this enterprise, that one of its chief factors has been the barring of Aunette Island from invasion by white miners. About 15 years ago, some prospectors believed that they had discovered traces of valuable mineral deposits there, and tried to obtain permission from the United States Government to file claims and explore the leads; but Mr. Duncan visited Washington, and, presenting his protest in person and enlisting the aid of many influential men and women, managed to stave off what he regarded as the evil day for Metlakahtla. * But one day-and let the younger generation who read this prophecy mark it for future reference-there will come a clash between the natives and the whites over the fisheries. When the full value of these is realized, the whites will insist on regulating them by law; and the natives, owing to their lack of acquaintance with such methods, will fail to get their fair share of the privileges dispensed by lease, license, or otherwise. * * The fulfillment of this prophecy came far earlier than Mr. Leupp anticipated, through the illegal surrender of the cannery and fishing privileges to an outside corporation, as will be seen from section 47, supra. DESTRUCTION OF RESERVE SOUGHT THROUGH EXTENSION OF MINING RIGHTS In his letter to Senator Jonathan Bourne, Jr., on February 20, 1908, First Assistant Secretary Pierce, in speaking for the Interior Department as to Annette Islands Reserve, recognized as well settled law that neither the Secretary of the Interior, nor any other executive officer of the Government, has power, without the consent of Congress, to authorize or permit the acquisition of mining rights on lands withdrawn and reserved for Indian occupancy. |