Edited by Wassaja (Dr. Montezuma's Indian name, meaning "Signaling") an Apache Indian Vol. 6, No. 3 ISSUED MONTHLY June, 1921 THE ONLY WAY TO GET THE INDIANS OUT OF THE CONTROL OF THE INDIAN BURE.\.U, IS TO GET THEM OUT OF THE CONTROL OF THE INDIAN BUREAU BRIEF HISTORY OF CAMP McDOWELL INDIAN RESERVATION WORTHILY DISCLOSED IN SWORN TESTIMONY BEFORE THE CON· GRESSIONAL COMMITTEE IN 1911 The Camp McDowell Reservation was given to the Mohave-Apache Indians (now about 240 in number) by the Government as their permanent home in accordance with the promise made by General Cooke to these Indians after they had proven their loyalty and bravery in fighting against the Apaches and finally capturing Geronimo, the famous Apache leader. They have industriously supported themselves for many years, and by building their own dams, have diverted water from the Verde River, w!1ich flows throu,h the center of the reservation, until they had some 450 acres under cultivation'. In 190? a movement, sanctioned by officials of the Indian Bureau, was started to accomplish the re­moval of the Indians so as to secure the water rights of this Verde River, which is of great value because the water is clear and pure, more so than any other river in or near the Salt River Valley. This pressure to move these Indians resulted in a persistent and an extended commission of acts of the most repre­hensible nature, and this with the full knowledge and co-operation of the lnc'ian Department, sanctioned by let.ters from Washington officials. (The sworn testi­ mony is in printed form.) The reader must keep in mind that the only le~al metho~s to be put forth to have these Indians give up their rights and domicile in Mc-Dowe!! was by their own voluntary consent (and mov­ing off the reservation would be consent) or by adopt­ing the ultra-extraordinary procedure of obtaining an order of removal by the President or an act of Congress. For two years a carefully directed correspon­ dence of protest against this action by the Indian Bureau was met only with denials, until in June, 1911, a Congressional Committee heard evidence in the matter and the outrageous conduct of the Indian Bureau was proven by letters and docu­mentary evidence taken from its own files. in Washington, D. C. After a most exhaustive review of this evidence was presented to the then Secretary of the In­terior, Walter L Fisher, and he had caused to be made an independent examination as to the cost and feasability of an irrigation dam for these In­dians. The Secretary granted and ordered that McDowell be allotted these Mohave-Apaches and that a dam should be built for them. Subsequent developments are dearly set forth in the letter published herein, addressed to the newly appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs. It has never been officially disclosed, but all parties in interest know, that the demand for the removal of these Indians without compensation or proper and sufficient relief is the desire on the part of the irrigation and other water interests of Arizona to acquire the use of this Verde River water. This is only one of many cases where the Indian Bureau created to protect the Indians, has been the agent to despoil them. How long the American people WASSAJ A WASSAJA Vol. 6, No. 3 JUNE, 1921 SUISSCRIPTIOI ONE DOLLAR PFR YEAII SINGLE COPIES, 10c 100 COflES FOIi $4.00 ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO CARLOS MONTEZUMA, M. D. 3135 South Park Ave. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS will ,anction the continued practical 1lavery in their own borders, of over 350,000 human bein11s, and their 1overnmental agents to trick them out of the little property interest, that they have left in this country, which wae once their own mi11hty do­main-God alone only knows. Rem..mber, also, that the reaervation Indian can not employ a lawyer or pay one out of money of his own to act as a representative lo plead his cause, without "tull and lbwful permi ..ion"' to spend even the cost of 1etlin1i tliis article in type, until it is obtained by from "his lawful guardian"-The ln­di.m Bureau. Only through the philanthropy and expenditure of the per,onal money of Dr. Carlos Montezuma and the help ol a Congressional Committee hae this rape of the McDowell Indians been thua far pre­vented. JOSEPH W. LATIMER. IRRIG,\nos, 67496-17, 14613-21. s. J. F. MR. THOMAS L SLOAN, 3459 Macomb Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. SLOAN,--Roceipt is acknowledged of your lellcr da\ed Fcbru!lry 15. 1921. with rcga1d lo the McDowell Indians ot Arizona Un£ortunatcly, for some time P~•t, inAuencca h11ve bscn at work among these In· dians, grcAth· to their d ~trimcnt, advising them not to ac­cept all:,tment• of irrigable land at Salt River, n·hid1, to my mind, pre11ents an opportunity of obtaining the highest pouibl:: b~nefit from their W,'\tcr righta. The McDowell Indians have be~n repeated! i edvis~d where their beet in~ te:-ests Jay, b.1t they h we b~cn ffi!t with this countcr­inAucnce which has misled the m into the belief thnt the G lVernment has some ulterior motive in allc..tting them at Salt Hiver. The question of allotment is more fully taken up later on The letter referred to you by you from former Secrt>lnry Fisher, under date of June 21. 1911, did contemplate the irtigation of a p~rt of the lands e t McDowell and the allotment of such lands to th~se Indians, but aubscqucntly a more thorough investigation from an engineerini: atand­point was m11.de of the situ:ltion which disclosed that the turbulent nature of the Ye,de River, bcln1: subjc-ct to viole nt and unexpecte d Roods, is such that a diversion d"'m across this !ltream would cost upward• of $70,000, under the prices of labor and material then prevail· ing. Adding to 1hi.s the cost of the neceuary canala and distribllting systems, l'lnd dividing the reaultant cost by the limited number of ac(es susceptible of irrigation, made the coat of the project prohibitive. There i, no ob· jection, of course, to the McDowell Indians diver·ing such water •• may be a.-ailable from the Verde River and utilizina: auch water for irrigation purpose on th.cir •razing allotment• on the McDawell Reaervation. the only limita­tion bcin1r that those Indian,; who so use water at Mc­Dowell cannot also receive water for their irrigable lands at Salt R,.-~r. foutther, for the reasons given, the office doe• not sec its way clear to expend appropriation• made by Con&ress in aHiatinc the Indians to install irrigation facilities at McDowell. Concr"rning the qucetion of sweet water which it is stated the McDowell Indians are •ccuatomed to and which it is not believed they will receive on the Salt River R"ser­vation, you are advi!!led that the wat•r supply on that Hcs­crvation is received from the Verde River. which the Mc ­Dowell lndurns designated aa a "awt"et water''•river, the:: Salt Ri•er and w 1teo impounded in the Roosevelt Reser~ voir. While it is true that this water may be a little s'!l!ty, there haa never been any complaint made by the Indians ueing it on the Salt River Rer.ervation, and the office ia not aware of any case where the w11,ter proved detrimen tal to the Indiana uaing the eamt". Aa a w'"'olc it is simi­lar in character to the w•ter. available in that country. "The office i• not aware of any infringement on the In· diana" ri1:ht11 by rcaaon of granting a pipe line through the McDowf"'II R'!servation. The Act of F~bruary J5, i901, (31 Stats, 760.) ft11tl10rizea the Sccretn,y of the Interior; under general rre-ulatio"ls to be fixed by him. to permit the uae of right, of way through the rrs..rvations of the United States, including Indian Reservations, for canah, di1cbes, pipes and pipe lines, flumes, tunnrl•. or other water conduits, and for wnt~r plants, dcms, and re11ervoirs used to promote irrii::ation or mining or quartyine-or the manufacturing or cutting of timber or lumber or the sun­plyina: of wa•er for doineslic, public or any other beneficial uses. Said act providea further, that •uch permits shall be allowed only upon the aoproval of tlie chief officer of the department under whose IUpcrvis•on euch rescrvalicn falle and that any permi,.aion given by the Secretary of 1he Interior under the provisions of a11 id act may be fevoked by him or his aucccssor tn hi• discretion." In addition to thi1 it may be pointed out that the lands irrignble within thi1 reserv ,tion lie adj~cent to the Verde River which. owing to the tmbulent nature of the stream, suhjecta the h,nds to rapid er.,sion. Hence, even iE an expensive inigation s_ntem ift installed, in ord'er to supply these l11nds with water, no ddi,ite assurunce ,.,~­iats that the irri11a!ed are"• mi11ht ""t be entirely de,tro,·ed by erosion within a few years. ~~n!ur­nlly, the•e conditions indicated the ndvisability of pursuing some other course. Accordin::ly, after a thorou~h consideration of the entire situP.tion, it was concluded that the intere•ts of these In­dians could be,t be protect..cl by pror,.ting the entire ,uea of the McDowell Rea,rvation among the members of this band a• •grazing land•" and in additicn thereto allotting to e~ch lnrlinn five a.cres of irrigable land on the Si1!t River Reserva­tion, Arizon;i. where a more permanent delivery of water can be assured. nnd where there is no dnnger of lo,s to the Indians of their irrigable land by erosion. · Arrangement8 have since been made for a trimsf-,,r of the w •. ter rights of the McDr wdl In­diana to the J.,nds to be 11iven them at S11lt Rver, and in,tructions have recently been is.ued to :m alloiting agent t" proratft and allot th..., <>nt:re Camp McDowell Reserv,,ticn n• i,r.,z:n,: !Ands to the members of this tribe. It will be seen from WASSAJA this that in addition to receiving their entire res­ervation at McDowell in allotment the membera of the tribe will also be given an allotment of five acrea each of irrigable land on the Salt River Reservation. This really cornea to them aa an additional aratuity. As they have, under the Kent Dich is oufficient for the irrigation of &bout 1,300 acreR of land. 8..,yond this supply of w z.ter, no assurance CGn be mad~ with r~ference to the irrigation of adclitional lands. Very truly you,s, •· * ' Assistant Com Tii~sion~r. MO!tE INFOR'Vl,\TION 1rnc.,ROING THE REMOVAL OF McDOWELL INDIANS 340 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, Calif., May 5th, 1921. HON. ALBERT H. BURKE, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. Dear Sir:-We wrote ycu on April 2r,d, last, and again on April 22nd, calling your attention an emergency matter affecting the welfare, in fact the very existence, of the Camp McDowell Reaervation lndiAna; and, after explaining the the writer'• connection with thia matter by refer­ring you to a volume of correapondence in your department and in the cffice cf the Secretary of the Interior, we reapectfully asked you if you would or would net make an inveati11ation of the matter; and further reque•ted that work antag­onistic to the rulini: of former Secretarv Fisher now progreaaing on McDowell be held in status quo until we could be heard in this matter. I am reliably informed that the work which will result in the re.::oval of these Indiana from McDowell is still proceeding and its accomplish­ment daily growinR nearer a reality. I am also aware that no reply from you of any kind or na­ture has been received to my said twt> lettera. Lest we did not make our position cleArto you, permit us to exemplify anrl enlarge our former l"tters; knowing that at as the newly appointed guardian of these helpless Indians, you are the proper party to whom we should first address ourselves, and aincerely believing you would welcome an opportunity to right any wrong existin1,; in your department, If we seem too persiatent in our correspondence kindly bear with us, and remember that we have apent in the paat two (2) long hard and weary years gettin11 the facts to the Superior of the In­dian Burenu and convincing him that this bureau's: "It ia our opinion" and "therefore we propose to do'' should be b,.cl,,ed up by ju•tifiable facts and not ju,t arbitrary ruling$, but I am calling to your 11ttention the facts brought out at va1t expense to the taxpayrrs of this country through a Con­gressional Committee .:nd the snme facts, which with additional ex,mination by the Secrdary, hrnught forth his s'lid cond~mnation of "mistake.w fhese facts are all in your £i'e1 and in the files of the Department of the Interior. Further, by examinin~ these files, you will also £ind verilica­ti">n of mv nt..trment that all th" mighty influence of the lndi~n Au,..~11 w~• URe..J to •upnres11 nr divert the knnwled,;ie of the f.tcta coming to light. We urge in the intereAt4 of the taxpayers of this c:onntry that you •pend a few d,.ys examin­iro the records above mentioned, estim,te the vast s~;;, nf m-,ney the wror.gful acts of the Indian De­putment at that t'm" loaded upon the taxpayers, to say r,othin[? c>f the shameful, wnnton violation d its dutv as a guardian and protector of these In­di,ms. It is not my stnte,ment of facta I ask you to con·,ider, but it is tl,e facto deduced under oath out of the lnforn Bureau itsi,lf an-:! condemned by this eminent Secretarv of the Interior. The Bureau's action in this, nine (9) years ago, was despicable enouzh to make sick any law abiding and Gov­ernment tn;sting citizen-but what can be said of their methods in this instance to override an ad­ 4 WASSAJA judication and order of a Secretary of the Interior obtained after such an extended and expensive in­vestigation. I have heard it said: "What do three hun:lred (300) Indians amount to when twenty.five thousand (25.000) citizens in Phoenix, Arizona, want this Verde River water to drink?'' My answer is there is a wrong and a right way to get this water if its use is necessary, and I know the methods of the past twelve ( 12) years have been branded a "mistake" by an official of the Government, and I know ·somewhere, somehow, some other official of the Government is going to see fair play and a deal given these Indians in spite of the opposition (as shown in your own records) of the Indian Bureau and the Public Utility Corporations of Arizona. Some of these Indians are alive today who saw their brothers killed by the bloody Apaches, when these Mohaves were fighting side by side with U. S. troops to protect the settlers of Arizona from horrible massacres. Soldiers are alive today who saw these Mohave& follow trails, which even the soldiers' intrepid bravery told them was inviting suicide, until these loyal Indians located and led the way to the capture of the bloody Apache Chief Geronimo. Therefore we would ask you for the facts relating to and the scope of the Presidential Order which rumor only tells us, was issued last summer. It is inconceivable to us that the then President Wilson, with his undisputed and magnificent humanitarian views, could possibly is•ue an order to moVt, these helpless Indians from their mountainous home of a life-time's occupation, to a pe.ltry five (5) acres of land in the desert, if he had had the slightest inti­mation that a former Secretary of the lntsrior, a man also of the highest ideals, and one of the most learned lawyers of our country, had declared, after a most extended investigation, (which all the mighty bureaucratic power of the Indian Bureau had tried to stop or divert,)-that: "Buth the Department''-(meaning the Interior Depart~ ment--··and the Indian Office consider the idea, in any form it may have taken of plan or of action of general allotment for the Camp McDowell lndianR on the c;:alt River Reservation or on land adjacent to it rather than on the Camp McDowell Reservation, to have been a mistake.'' And further emph . tically stated, and lat~r issued an order to the ndian Bureau to carry his statement into effect. that: ''The Department ~ow proposes to allot the !ndians of the Camp McDowell Reservation on that reservation.'' (Letter of Secretary Fisher to Latimer, August 10, 1912.) Further, we contend that this order issued by the Secretary was and absolutely is today (un­less you can show us an entirely new set of facts) a complete, and should be final, adjudica­tion of the honest, legitimate rights of ·these Indians to an allotment with all rights on Mc­Dowell. You nor any other man can not cer­tainly with any sincerity claim, that allotment on McDowell of "grazing lands" with the In­dians' Verde River water rights and them­selves transferred to Salt River some twenty (20) miles away, is anything but hollow mock­ery. It is too vacuous to hardly mention, let alone argue. Bear in mind, if you please, that the Secretary brands as a "mistake," the very land which your bureau, with the help of the ultra extraordinary power granted the President (and as such rarely, if ever, used in the past thirty (30) years) now attempts to plant them on five (5) acres, and when the Sec­ retary rebuked their action as a "mistake," the Indian Bureau was then more generous and offered double the amount of land, namely, ten (10) acres instead of five (5.) These soldiers were the ones who secured this Camp McDowell Reservation as a reward of merit for these Mohaves. That they have warranted the trust and favorably used it, is also proven by sworn records in your depart­ment. Former Commissioner Valentine, under oath before a Congressional Committee, testi­fied on June 9, 1911, that: "I understand that these McDowell Indians are abso­lutely self-supporting. and some of the most independent and thoroughly earnest Indians that we have . They are an unusually fine bunch ... It will be a surprising spectacle to liberty-loving Amer­icans. to the descendants of Arizonians of the 80's, to relatives of soldiers who participated in that bloody Apache campaign--to see these Mohaves peacefully but helplessly resisting to the last the official!)-condemned perfidy oi the Indian Bureau, finally driven b, the bayonets of the soldiers, the successors of their comrades of the 80's, from their establishsd mountain home of twenty-five thousand (25,000) acres to a paltry sun-baked desert land allotment of five (5) acres apiece. We desire to co-operate with you in every way, believ­ing that if the official facts were known, that even a ma­jority of the 25,000 citizens of Phoenix would'not support their public utility corporation ousting these Indians with­out proper compensation, let al,.,ne virtually kicking them out c,f their homes to shift as they may under new and almost hopeless conditions. The power to save these Indians from this fate can be invoked by you, the Secretary of the Interior, the Presi~ dent, or last, and supreme, by Congress . Somewhere in this field we have implicit faith and trust that some man will not stand idly by and permit the Indian Bureau to wantonly tear to shreds the orders of II Secretary of the Interior and will make an example of respect on the part of bureaucrats for orderly procedure and at least a sem• blance of honesty. May we have an expression from you at an early date as to the facts of thi& Executive Order. secretly obtained under your predecessor, as well as your intentions in the premises? Also what do you suppose to do about stop· ping the work on this reservation until this matter can be settled. Respectfully, (Signed) JOSEPH W . LATIMER . "LET MY PEOPLE GO" -----ANo----­ "ABQLJSH THE INDIAN BUREAU" "LET MY PEOPLE GO, " per copy ................. IOc "ABOLISH THE INDIAN BUREAU... percopy... 15c "ON THE INDIAN TRAIL" BY DR . 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