Edited by Wassaja (Dr. Montezuma's Indian name, meani;,.g "Signaling'') an Apache Indian. 

Vol. 3, No. 8 ISSUED MONTHLY November, 1918 

DEMORALIZATION OF THE RESERVATIONS 

It is human to err and if you do not have a 
good environment the pendulum of human nature 
will swin11: towards the side of the last resistance. 
Appreciating this human weakness, the lateatmy 
had every soldier doing something to "keep them 
busy" were the words that were carefully noted 
by those officers who had charge of the soldiers. 
Colonization is a bad policy to make angels. 
There must be a current coming in and going 
out, as in a good ventilated room, for !if~ worth 
living for. An Indian reservation is a colonization, 
where there has not been a normal healthy 
current of environment to develop the man 
character of the Indian. No race under heaven 
was in a better condition to be molded into 
greatness than the Indian~ at the time when they 
were forced on reservations. He had the heart 
and mind of a child that knows no guile, but 
had the physique of a man to protect, support 
and aid his fellow creatures. No better and no 
more loyal friend could be found than the Indian 
before he was frightened and forced at the point 
of bayonets to go into reservation cells. Ah I 
The reservation, (the Indians' Siberia,) was not 
the will of the Indians; it was done by cruel 
brute force, equal to that received by the Belgians 
at the hands of the Germans. It was placing the 
one who had prior rights where he cannot act 
for himself, so that his rights could be taken 
from him without his knowledge. Bandit thieves 
is the price of America. Placing the Indians on 
a patch of their land for no r.ause or reason and 
forcing them to stay there while his doman was 

populated from a few to· over one hundred 
millions of people and has become the strongest 
nation on the globe. It docs seem impossible 
for a progress to occur around the cell prison 
of the Indian and he is retrograding more and 
more to a depth where his forefathers never 
dreamed of. 

Before the Indians were farced into bondage 
on reservations, they were FREE MEN. They 
did not know what a lie meant; they did not 
steal; they had no knowledge of intoxication; 
they did not know what it was to own anything; 
they did not grumble. To the Indian all of God's 
creatures were brothers. Revenge was not in 
his heart. He was generous and free from 
greed. He was not two-faced, but always carried 
an honest face. 

If there was ever a man who. believed in freedom, 
equal rights. democracy, humanity and 
justice it was the Indian, who was rounded up 
by the military of the United States and corralled 

a11 a beast on a reservation; no more to eujoy 
life and live as a human bein!<', AND TODAY 
THEY ARE THERE YET. It is a mockery 
that faces the American people. 

He does not know whether he is an American 
or what not. His life is permeated with fear. 
He lives by being ruled as cattle. The jail is 
always ready for him; with suspicion he roams 
the reservation cage. He lives on the past and 
groans under the present. He knows not what 
hope is; he only expects to breathe and die 
where he buried his father. 

To keep one busy you must have something 
to do for them and pay them for their labor, and 
if you have not they will grow listless and kill 



WASSAJA . 

"WASS AJA" 

Vol. 3, No, 8 NOVEMBER, 1918 

Subscription, 50 Cents a Year 

Single Copies, Sc 100 for $2.00 

ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO 

CARLOS MONTEZUMA, M. D. 

3135 S .. Park Ave. Chicago, Illinois 

time in some way or another. On reservations 
Indians are not kept busy, because there is not 
enough appropriation to pay the Indians for 
their work. The Indians are willing to work 
on reservations, but what is the use of working 
when you get no pay, and so the Indians have 
a good time instead of working. 

Government employes may be interested in 
the Indians for a short time, but their interest 
dies out. What is the use of killing themselves 
when their pay is regular from Uncle Sam every 
three months? They. too, just kill time, unless 
an inspector is heard to be on the way to the 
reservation. Then they are busy for appearanc~ 
sake. 

It seems the Indians have come to love whiskey, 
so, many thousands of dollars are used to 
hire men to proteo:t the Indians in this evil introduction 
of civilization. Among many tribes the 
peyote has crazed the Indians on reservations. 

To kill time on every reservation gambling by 
cards and betting abound. Under the shade of 
a tree or in a tepee you will see gathered women 
and men staking their money and trinkets. If an 
Indian is an an expert at anything on a reservation 
it is at cards. Gambling by the Indians is 
like a little Wall Street on a reservation. 

The reservatiou' system make strong men and 
women weak. Why? Because their environment 
is bad. Indian surroundings in order to 
get civilization is a wrong policy. A few teachers 
and the Indian Superintendent can never overcome 
the influences of the hundreds or thousands 
of Indians. It is out of the question. Such rot 
way of civilizing the Indians is demoralizing and 
ruinous to the lndian•race, This policy does not 
benefit the Indians, but it does give bread and 
butter to those who look after them. If we have 
the interest of the Indians at h eart we would do 
away with such ruinous policy by doing away 
with the Indian Bureau and let the Indians look 
after themselves in the masses of the country, 
where they rightly belong. To sneak good of 
the Indian Bureau is to SPEAK AGAINST THE 
BEST GOOD OF THE INDIANS. 

UNITED STATES, NOW FREE THE INDIANS! 

Never in the history of America had there 

been such demonstration of rejoicing as when 

the wire waving over the country proclaimed 

that the war had ended. • 

11Now, free the Indians,'' comes to WASSAJA. 

There is no use of talking, THIS MUST BE 

DONE. The people throughout America think 

the Indians are free and citizens. Again, we say, 

it is not so. The Indians are not free and citi


zens. Reservation life is not freedom. It is 

bondage. The Indian Bureau of the Interior 

Department of the United States is un-American. 

It holds down the Indians worse than slaves, 

Who have a better right to be free and citizens 

of America than the Indians? And yet, they are 

wards and counted outside of laws that govern 

other races in the United States. How can the 

liberty-loving country withhold any longer from 

the Indians their just rights? Now, we have 

gained freedom for other racea or nations, it is 

up to Congress to pass a bill to free the Indians. 

For fifty year& we Indians have been imprisoned 

on reservations. No nation has been so patient 

for their rights as the Indian race. 

Just imagine betwoen six and .seven 
thousand volunteers in the army and navy, 
fighting for freedom (which they do not 
enjoy themselves,) and they have made 
good by the report of the press, A.t a crisis, 
does not that show that they are equal to 
it? Let us hope their services may not be 
overlooked, They fought for freedom and 
equal rights. Would it be right to keep 
them in slavery on reservatioas and under 
the heel of the Iadian Bureau? Good common 
sense would say, "Not on your life." 
What would you do with them? As they 
have nobly carried themselves as men, when 
the country needed them, so should they be 
encouraged to be free and give them thei• 
citizenship to go where they please, in order 
to make their living. Most of them were 

judged upon as incompetent. Now what 

has the slave-holding lnbian Bureau have 

to say? 

What keeps the Indians from becoming free 
and citizens? We arc not wrong, when we say, 
IT IS THE INDIAN BUREAU. In order to 
free the Indians and have them citizens, the right 
way is to abolish the Indian Bureau, because it 
is another Kaiser in America, relative to the In. 
dian race. We have done away with one, let 
the people of the United States do the same 
with the Indian Bureau. Some people will say 
it is too radical. These same people have been 
saying that for these many years, and have not 
done anything to make the Indian man free or 
done anything in any way to see that they are 
citizen•. In order to do what is right for a man, 
you must give him his rights. That is what we 
arc seeking for the Indian race, THE RIGHTS 
THAT BELONG TO THE INDIANS. 

We b elieve and know the Indians are in 
position to be freed and that they arc ready to 


WASSAJA 

be given their citizenship. We assert that the 
only obatacle in the way for the Indians to gain 
their freedom and citizenship ia the Indian Bureau. 

THE INDIAN BUREAU 

An institution that thinks more of itself than 
for the object for which it was instituted, that institution 
is no longer useful. When an organized 
body becomes useless, it turns into a poison. 
That is its way with the Indian Bureau. It has forgotten 
its object, now it is only a routine of making 
reports, receiving reports and filing reports. Outside 
of that, it has no more idea of the Indian's 
interest than a cat. In Washington they are 
ashamed to see and be seen with an Indian on 
the street. They send the Indian back to the 
reservation as soon as possible. 

The "Indian Bureau does not take the Indian 
by the hand and lead him out into the world. 
They would be the last ones to do such a thing. 
But they will set every obstacle in the way that 
leads to FREEDOM and CITIZENSHIP for the 
Indians. They will poison the minds of the 
public about the Indians and will insist they are 
a n:,cessity, and without them the Indians would 
starve and die. They who differ with them are 
branded as frauds and self·exploiters. They 
will bring forth backers such as the Governr:ient 
of the United States, Civil Service, Indian Rights 
Association, Mohonk Conference, churches, and 
men and women of prominence, buch as philanthropists, 
statesmen, authors, artists and others 
from every walk of life. 

Pity does not help. The above mentioned 
backers of the Indian Bureau are backers because 
they pity the poor Indians. How human 
it is to shift one's personal responsibility onto an 
organization or a bureau. When an organization 
or bureau goes so far as to KEEP ONE FROM 
HIS RIGHTS. MAKES ONE WORTHLESS 
AND DEPENDENT, then it is about time 
to CALL A HALT. 

The Indian Bureau has been in existence for 
half a century. Time enough has been given to 
it to bear fruit, and it has born fruit out of the 
Indians. Out of a splendid race the Indian 
Bureau has demoralized it in every way to a state 
that words can not express. The mind of the 
Indian is not free. He has been deoendent on 
the Washington Father too much. He has been 
taught to depend upon the Indian Agent, and 
emoloyes of the Indian Service. HE WAS A 
FREE MAN ONCE, but since the Indian Bureau's 
birth, he has been kept as a pris:>ner within the 
confines of the reserv'ition svstem, which no 
ADOPTED AMERICAN WOULD TOLERA.TE. 
He m'.>ves and h,.s his b eing in an atmosphere 
that is not an Americ!ln. For fifty years he has 
been living in a world by himself. Such is the 
fate of the Indians at the hands of the Indian 
Bureau. Friends and America, can such autncr,.r.y 
be tolerated after battling and winnin11 for FREED0\
1, EQUAL RIGHTS. DEMOCRACY AND 
JUSTICE for the whole world? 

NATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCE 

If there will be a Peace Conference of all the 
nations after the war, the Society of American 
Indians should delegate a representative from 
the Indian race. Why? Because we Indians are 
a nation. We Indians have never received ju!tice 
from the hands of the United States. We 
have been relegated lo the outside realm of humanity. 
There is no picture as black as the 
history of our race. You may speak about 
abuses and mistreatment received by the Belgians, 
Bohemians, Poles, Serbians and other nations of 
the old country, their griefs and wild kings are 
no comparison to the treatment of the Indians at 
the hands of the American Government. Five 
hundred years have rolled by and the Indians 
are not free yet. Five hundred years since the 
invasion of the pale faced race on the domain of 
the Indians and they do not enjoy the rights of 
human beings. Thia righteous war is a mockery 
to the Indian race, if we are not allowed at the 
Peace Conference. 

CARLISLE U.S. INDIAN SCHOOL 

We Indians must not misunderstand Carlisle 
School, because the present Indian administration 
is foreign to its principles. It appears that they 
misunderstand everything pertaining to Indian 
matters; but are very apt at personal advancement 
at the expense of the Indians. 

·Roosevelt writes a whole lot about Indians, but 
he does not know anything about Indians. The 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs weeps a whole 
lot about the Indians, but he has no knowledge 
of the Indians. These are the very men who 
(when in power) have done more to throw back 
the Indians in their moving forward to be men 
and women than any other two men in the world. 

No other institution in the United States has 
done more for the Indians than the Carlisle Indian 
Industrial School. It stood as a light-house 
on a hill to enlighten the world and to place the 
Indian where he rill:htlv belongs. It had a hard 
birth. It was the first Indian School and it was 
while the country was opposed to such an unpromising 
and hopeless undertaking the school 
budded. The life.giving power at its birth 
and for a quarter of a cenh1ry, was General 

R. H. Pratt, now the most esteemed white man 
by the Indian race. 
It was Roosevelt who relieved General R. H. 
Pratt as Superintendent of the Carlisle Indian 
School, which he founded and where he hoped 
to die in the harness for the India~ children. the 
future destiny of the Indian race. Take away 
the spirit of a great in,titution that upholds the 
standard of the Indian race, you take away 
the life of that institution and tear down the 
standard of the Indian race. He who talks so 
much about "~quare deal" may speak to the 
Indians to doom,day; the Indians will tell him 
this one act of his was not a •square deal.• 


WASS AJA 

1T WAS A CALAMITY THAT THE INDIAN 
RACE MUST SUFFER. 

To the one who has the Indians at heart; to 

he one who was a 1pupil;" to the one who is 
an Indian; to the one who was connected with 
the Carlisle School and to the one who knows 
Christ's love for humanity-the Carlisle Indian 
Industrial School-the place was sacred. Teach


ers and pupils have come and gone. The ground 
is there, but it may have changed. The 
trees are larger and taller; there may be more 
buildings; its athletics may surpass the days of 
Metoxen, Bemis and Hudson, Day in and day 
out the same routine work has been going on. 
Yet, the place was sacred. It speaks of General 
Pratt and all the good he has done for the 
Indian people. 

When the German army destroyed cathedrals 
wrought by masters, art paintings that can never 
be replaced and other ruthless destructions, 
America protested with righteous indignation at 
such outrage and it was a grand stand taken by 
the American pe9ple. 

Let it be known that the United States Indian 
School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was one of the 
grandest landmarks on the Ameiican continent. 
Carlisle Indian School was a living monument 
that spoke of the first great and noble act on the 
part of the white race to the Indians. It was 
an Indian institution known all over the globe. 
There was not an institution like it in the world. 
It was not a college, it only went as high as the 
8th grade, but it had the respect of the higher 
educational institutions of the country. The sec· 
ond calamity came to the Indians when Carlisle 
Barracks was turned back to the War Department. 
Carlisle Indian School was the anchor of 
the Indian people. Take away that, what have 
they} Nothing! Take away the best thing a 
natian has, what will be the result} Backward 
step by step will be the result. All of the 
Indiana throughout the country are in that position 
if no immediate steps are taken to do what 
is right for the Indians, 

If the United States has taken awny the best 
thing the Indians ever had, why not ABOLISH 
THE MOST SPURIOUS AND INJURIOUS 
STIGMA THAT HOLDS THE INDIANS 
DOWN AS SLAVES OF THE WORST KIND1 
If such unlooked for action was taken by the 
country to the detriment of the lndihns, now it 
is up to the Government to abolish the Indian 
Bureau for the betterment of the Indians and 
to the country. 

AN IMPORTANT REQUEST 

This office would like to receive from 
Indians all over the United States their 
opinion on freedom and citizenship for themselves, 
This request is also desired from 
the people of all races, regardless of creed 
or color, The Government will not do anythiRg 
until the Indians themselves make an 
effort on their part to say whether they 

want to be free and get their citizenship, 
(and there is not a question of doubt in 
WASSAJA'S mind but that ALL INDIANS 
WANT TO BE ABSOLUTELY FREF..) How 
great it will be to hear from every reservation, 
This is the Indiana' opportunity to 
express themselves. So let every Indian who 
gets WASSAJA read this request carefully, 
then pass it along to other Indians, or in 
fact, to any person .in sympathy with the 
Indian cause, and ask them to write in a 
few words whether they want to be free or 
not. Replies from Indians and ~ther races 
will be greatly appreciated 

Address all replies to 
DR. CARLOS MONTEZUMA 
3135 South Park Ave, Chicago, Illinois 

NEWS FROM THE WEST 

As an island is defined as a tract of land en· 
tirely surrounded by water, so an Indian Reservation 
may be deacribed as a tract of land entirely 
surrounded by thieves. 

Two often the Indian Superintendent or Agent, 
becomes the agent and co-partner of those who 
would plunder the Indians rather .than attend to 
his duties as administrator of the affairs of the 
Indians themselves. 

The blundering, wabbling oftimes treacherous, 
administration of Indian affairs, conducted from 
the seat of power three thousand miles away, is 
the most sickening, discouraging, disgusting failure 
in the history of the American Government. 

While the superb, natural sense of honor of 
the Indian has led him to scrupulously observe 
every treaty and obligation ever entered into, the 
Government has left a trair of broken treaties; 
broken promises, repudiated pledges-hundreds 
of years' records that would disgrace any king 
of the Cannibal Islands. 

Whatever of relief has been obtained for the 

Indians has usually been through an appeal from 

department red tape to the ears and heart of the 

people. We Indians can find very few white 

friends that are willing to beak bread in the 

wick·i-up; who feels the throbbing of the In


dian's heart, who understanda him and who 

loves him for his virtue. 

FOUR FLUSHING 

What the Indian Bureau has made us from 
what we were and then tells the public: "That 
the Indian is not a man. That the Indian is not 
capable of taking care of himself. That the Indian 
is not competent to be a citizen. That the 
best thing is to keep the Indian as a ward. That 
the reservation system is the best thing for the 
Indian That Cato Sella is the best man the 
Indians ever had: That the Indians are not 
capable of handling their own money. That the 
Indians would starve to death without the aid of 
the Indian Bureau." 

LORD, DELIVER US FROM THE CURSE 
OF OUR RACE-THE INDIAN BUREAU.