To show that Lopp and Hawkesworth, who were attempting to transfer from themselves and place the blame for this serious blunder on Waldron, were the ones who actually selected the site of the new village of Hydaburg, the following is quoted from a letter written by Hawkesworth to the Commissioner of Education, dated August 7, 1911:

In accordance with the instructions issued me by Mr. W. T. Lopp, Chief of Alaska Division, I left Seattle on the 24th of July in order to make investigations regarding the proposed new Hydah village, which would be a combination of the villages of Howkan and Klinquan, at a place in Sugwan narrows on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. It was my pleasure to have the company of Mr. Lopp from Seattle to Ketchikan.

* * *

*

I secured the Metlakahtla native, Mark Hamilton, to take me in his launch to Hunter's Bay and from there on to the fishing streams and the new town site. Johnnie Wallace came as pilot * *

* When I finished talking, an old man from Howkan spoke up and said that he was chief of the Howkan people, and he did not want the people to leave the old place. It had long been their home and he did not want the people to move away from it. He therefore would not consent to move, and since he, as chief, would not go, then the others must not *

*

*

Which is, without doubt better than Metlakahtla,

We then went on to inspect the new town site. the best of any that we saw, in our travels, even in that the soil is dry and will make good gardens. It has a sandy beach sloping to the west, with a sandbar reaching out to deep water making it easy to build a wharf. The land on which the village will stand can easily be cleared as most of the timber is young spruce with here and there a giant spruce or hemlock * *

As it happened our engine broke down as we were leaving the town site for Fish Egg, and as we were getting it into running order again Mr. Lopp, Superintendent Beattie, and Dr. Foster came along in their launch from Juneau. They towed us back to the site and we all looked it over together

*

*

When we had finished at the town site we all went down to the fishing camp at Hetta and spent the night

* *

I recommend, therefore, that in consideration of the interest the Hydah Indians are taking to make a permanent home for themselves and their children that the Government set aside the tract of land already recommended by Mr. Lopp and give them control of all salmon streams therein.

It is far too much to think that there could be other than a low morale among the subordinates in the Bureau of Education when their directing superiors countenanced without rebuke such a contemptible attempt as that of Hawkesworth to cover up his own and Lopp's blunders by besmirching one of their former associates who was in no way responsible, and being "out of the service" could not "answer for himself."

This is especially true when we remember that the unreprimanded Hawkesworth who gave utterance to that suggestion was not only at that time receiving "a salary considerably higher than other southeastern Alaska teachers", but was later promoted to be Acting Chief of the Alaska Division, effective July 1930.

For the misrepresentations and misuse of funds collected from the natives by representatives of the Bureau of Education under the false pretense of establishing a cooperative cannery at Hydaburg, see, supra, pages 80-83.

Notwithstanding Hawkesworth's unsatisfactory record in these and in other particulars, he has been entrusted with the selection

of the teachers in the Bureau's Alaskan school service, as shown by the following testimony in the hearings before the subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations on the Interior Department appropriation bill for 1933, page 565:

Mr. TAYLOR. Who has the selection of these teachers?

Dr. HAMILTON. Mr. Hawkesworth, the acting chief, at Juneau.

A TARDY REPRIMAND FOR LOPP

Enough has been said to show that Lopp's conduct as Chief of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, and next in command under the Commissioner of Education, was not, to say the least, such as to inspire a high morale among his subordinates who looked to him for exemplary guidance and for expected favors in the way of promotions and continuance in the service.

It is indisputably shown by the Bureau's own records that Lopp did not at all times strive to elevate the morale of the service under his immediate control, because we find that in the exercise of his powers to select and appoint subordinates he went so far as to ignore and disobey the positive commands of the Commissioner of Education by sanctioning the employment of a man with a known criminal record.

The following letter written by the Commissioner of Education (Tigert) to Lopp on August 26, 1922, casts a very significant and condemning light on Lopp's conduct:

DEAR MR. LOPP: I have your letter of August 17 enclosing contract made by Mrs. of Tyonek, Alaska, with her husband, "to act as superintendent of construction of buildings and carpenter at the United States Government orphanage at Tyonek, Alaska, beginning August 27, 1921, and continuing for a period of 4 months", at a salary of $125 per month.

I am surprised to receive this contract from you in view of my repeated statement that I would not approve the appointment of Mr. to any position in the Alaskan service.

Let me take this opportunity to review this case.

on the ground that the alone. Dr. Claxton, who

*

On August 25, 1920, you sent a telegram addressed to the Commissioner of Education asking for the appointment of duties at Akhiok were too heavy for Mrs. was at that time Commissioner, telegraphed you on August 26 as follows: "In view of --'s confession 1914 and having no further information about his character I cannot approve appointment * Notwithstanding this ruling of the former Commisisoner of Education, last August you sent to this office for my approval an appointment of Mr. — as teacher in Tyonek at a salary of $80 per month. When the appointment came to my desk my attention was called to the fact that Mr. been convicted and imprisoned in 1914 either for rape or seduction. I thereupon wired you on August 24, 1921, as follows:

"Objection to reappointment alternative recommendation."

had

for same reason as in 1914. Moke

Following this telegram considerable correspondence passed between your office and this relative to the appointment of Mr. but I wired the Seattle Office again on August 29 that my decision regarding him stood and that the recommendation for his appointment should have been sent me in ample time for consideration prior to his going to Tyonek. There were further telegraphic communications between this office and the Seattle office on this subject on the same day, but I definitely refused to approve the appointment. Shortly thereafter I visited the Seattle office, but you were then absent in Alaska notwithstanding the notification I was coming to visit your office. While there I talked with your Secretary, Mr. Helwig, about this matter and told him about as emphatically as I knew how that under no circumstances would I permit the reappointment of Mr. to the Alaskan service.

I also discussed the matter with Mr. Sinclair and on my return to Washington I sent him, on September 22, 1921, a letter of which the following is a copy: "Referring to our conversation regarding the appointment of to the school at Tyonek, I regret that I cannot see my way clear to appoint him. Neither can I consent to his remaining at Tyonek, though not appointed. some place other than Tyonek can be found for Mrs. care to remain at Tyonek without Mr. I shall be glad to change her present appointment to read for some place where she might be able to have her husband with her."

If

should she not

On July 22 of this year you wrote to Mr. Kalbach enclosing appointment for Mr. -, as supervisor of construction and carpenter on the Tyonek orphanage building. As a justification for this appointment you state "Since his appointment as teacher was disapproved on moral grounds there certainly cannot be the same reasons for disapproving his appointment as a workman." You further state in this letter that poor has brooded over his rejec

tion so many months that he is now at times deranged and his poor wife is almost in the same state of mind. In my absence Mr. Kalbach wired you on July 29 stating that it was impossible to secure the approval of the appointment.

SO

In spite of my unqualified objection to the appointment of Mr. often repeated in correspondence and so emphatically expressed orally while in Seattle, I cannot understand why you now send this contract to me for approval. It is obvious that an effort has been made to appoint Mr. and to use him in spite of my refusal to approve such appointment. I cannot consider the action of the Alaskan office in any other light than a failure to cooperate with this office. There have been a number of instances in which such an attitude has appeared, when our instructions seem to be either disregarded or reluctantly accepted. Before Mr.'s first appointment was submitted to me, you certainly should have informed me of all the facts in this case. This, however, is not the only time in which information should have been furnished this office has been withheld. Another recent instance was in the case of subsistence for the officers of the Borer.

Let me say emphatically that I refuse to endorse the proposed contract with Mr. as entered into with his wife for a number of reasons. In the first place, it is an obvious subterfuge; in the second place, it is an ex post facto contract made after the service was rendered; and in the third place, the contract should not have been entered into without the approval of the proper officials, especially in the light of the history of Mr.'s case. I would like to have an explanation of the actions of your office in this matter.

I wish to say that I do not desire and will not approve the employment in the future of either Mr. or his wife in the Alaskan service.

Cordially yours,

JNO. J. TIGERT, Commissioner.

SUPERIOR OFFICERS FAIL TO UNDO WRONGS ILLEGALLY COMMITTED BY

SUBORDINATES

The facts disclosed elsewhere in this independent report conclusively show that the representatives of the Bureau of Education, having supervision of the education of the natives of Alaska, were led so far astray by the self-seeking and grasping spirit of bureaucracy that they lost sight of the high principles of morality and rectitude which always should control the actions of public officials. Many of them sought to gain their selfish desires for control and domination by wicked, vicious, and wholly unwarranted attacks on Father Duncan and his unparalleled mission. They and their coconspirators caused him to be despoiled and robbed of his property, threatened him with exclusion from his pulpit and with banishment from his home and the people with whom he had lived and labored for more than six decades while uplifting them from savagery to a high state of Christian civilization.

26465-39-pt. 35- 74

When it is remembered that this was all brought about by the maliciously false reports, misleading representations, and forged and faked petitions made or inspired by these conniving plotters, it is evident that these representatives of the Bureau of Education were not actuated by high moral principles, or even by an ordinary sense of justice and right.

Furthermore, the acts of vandalism and frightfulness at Metlakahtla, and the evidences of inefficiency, negligence, failure and demoralization mentioned in the preceding section as having existed elsewhere in Alaska, all go to show the low morale exhibited in the maladministration of Indian affairs in Alaska.

With a record of such unusual conditions existing in the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Education, we can more readily understand the methods resorted to by the plotters when they untiringly devoted their energies to undermine Father Duncan and to deceive and mislead the Secretary of the Interior into seizing his mission and his property.

Although Lopp was dismissed from the Bureau of Education by the Honorable Hubert Work, Secretary of the Interior, "for the good of the service", unfortunately, there still remained in the Department of the Interior persons who would have the Secretary of the Interior accept the unproved and unprovable allegations of Arctander, Lopp, Mitchell, Marsden, and their confederates, notwithstanding the fact that all of their statements which reflected upon Father Duncan are flatly contradicted by a host of reliable witnesses and by documentary evidence.

Instead of attempting to undo the grevious wrongs done to Father Duncan, to his mission, to the Metlakahtlans, and to the Government, we find an intention to destroy evidence of these wrongs in the following statement in a letter written by H. C. Sinclair, an agent of the Bureau of Education, to John J. Tigert, Commissioner of Education, December 21, 1922: 2

Replying to your letter of December 14 in reference to the disposition of old and useless records in this office, I would appreciate a suggestion from you as to what papers and up to what date these papers be destroyed, before this office takes action in clearing the files and wrapping into packages, as instructed in your letter.

I would suggest that all papers and correspondence other than memorandum copies of paid vouchers, up to and including December 31, 1917, be destroyed. I assume, of course, that the destruction of the papers up to such date as may be decided upon gives this office a clean "bill of health."

*

I would suggest that memorandum bills of lading purchase orders, inventory and requisitions, invoices, both original and receipted by the teacher at the station to which the supplies were sent, all accepted and rejected proposals, all correspondence, and in fact all papers except appointments, contracts, and memorandum paid vouchers on file up to December 31, 1917, be destroyed. SECTION 89. METLAKAHTLA DEMORALIZED BY BUREAU OF EDUCATION The despoiling of the Metlakahtlans. The blighting influence of the Bureau of Education. The noxious cloud which hangs over Metlakahtla THE DESPOILING OF THE METLA KAHTLANS

When the Bureau of Education stood face to face with its dismal failure at Saxman and the sickening collapse of its educational pro

2 See Ch. XIII: Vicious Misrule Continues; sec. 97, Attempts to Suppress Evidence and Destroy Documents, infra, p. 19636.

gram throughout Alaska, the minions of this powerful agency of The Government turned their greedy eyes to the successful, prosperous, and happy Acadian village which, after years of struggle and self-sacrifice, Father Duncan had built up for his people at Metlakahtla.

In a letter dated May 6, 1909, A. N. Thompson, then superintendent of schools of the southeastern district of Alaska, reported to Commissioner of Education Brown:

* the people at Metlakahtla have reached a stage in their development when something of importance can be and should be done for them, I most respectfully recommend the establishment of a Government school at Metlakahtla.

Hon. Elmer E. Brown, then Commissioner of Education, wrote to Harlan Updegraff, then Chief of the Alaska Division, on September 17, 1909, that

* ** *

you will not think it best to press the matter of the establishment of a government school at Metlakahtla at least until a public sentiment in that direction is somewhat developed in southeastern Alaska.

* ** *

In the attempt of the plotters to build up a sentiment in southeastern Alaska for the establishment of a Government school at Metlakahtla, we have seen that Marsden, stationed at Saxman and aided by his fellow plotters, began his campaign of vilification against Father Duncan for the purpose of deceiving and misleading both the native people and the high officials of the United States Government.

Beginning with the administration of Philander P. Claxton, as Commissioner of Education, the policy was finally adopted of closing schools elsewhere in Alaska where they were so sadly needed, to provide funds and equipment for establishing a Government school in Father Duncan's world famous mission village.

We have seen how the establishment of the Government school at Metlakahtla was followed by the illegal and high-handed seizure by Commissioner Claxton of Father Duncan's mission school buildings and his other mission buildings and industrial plants, with accompanying shocking acts of vandalism and frightfulness.

We have also seen how the invasion of Metlakahtla by the Bureau of Education was followed by the illegal and high-handed wresting of the fisheries of the reserve from the Metlakahtlans for the benefit of private interests.

To show the long continued activities of the Bureau agents in centralizing their work at Metlakahtla, the following is quoted from a letter written on June 13, 1917, to Lopp by Hawkesworth, after the latter became superintendent of schools of the southeastern district. of Alaska:

I feel that even though the Bureau should take over the SheldonJackson School, we would still want the Metlakatla school to go through, as we already have it in mind and as Mr. Beattie has recommended for the last 3 years.

Immediately upon receipt of your telegram that "Beattie accepts", I wired him "a most hearty welcome home", and am glad that the one most important field [Metlakahtla] will be covered by a man whose experience is such as to make his success assured before he begins.