The History of Native Americans As Revealed

EXPLORING NEW TERRITORY: THE HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICANS AS REVEALED THROUGH CONGRESSIONAL PAPERS Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 AT THE CARL ALBERT CENTER

PART I

TODD J. KOSMERICK

This article is the first of a two... part review of the center's resources. Part I focuses on the 1920s and 1930s and glances at the 1940s. Part II, to be published in the 1999 Winter issue, will look at materials from the 1950s-1970s.

TIE PAPERS OF FORMER MEMBERS OF CONGRESS are not the first source most researchers would explore for Native American history. Yet these congressional papers hold a wealth of information, and the collections of the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives at the University of Oklahoma are impor ... tant resources for the study of Native American policy and conditions.' The center holds the collections of more than 30 former senators and representatives interested in Indian affairs (most of them from the state of Oklahoma). Some, such as Robert L. Owen, William Stigler, Thomas Chandler, and Jack Nichols, were of Indian descent. Others, such as Elmer Thomas and Wilburn Cartwright, held important positions on the congressional Indian Affairs committees. Almost all communicated with Native American constituents and tribal leaders, and many conducted research, sponsored bills, and monitored the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and other agencies.

TODD J. KOSMERICK is the assistant curator at the Congressional Archives, Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center, University of Oklahoma.

1 The center was created in 1979 to honor Carl Albert, representative of Oklahoma's third congressional district and the 46th speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives. A previous version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Historical Society in April 1998. All collections cited in this article are held by the Carl Albert Center, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.

Most of the center's collections date from the 1920s-1970s. Although these col.. lections resulted from members working as lawmakers and representatives, many of the documents provide insight into the perspectives of Native American constituents. It is informative to ask, Who were the Native Americans described in these papers? Most of them lived in Oklahoma and had varying degrees of education, ethnic iden.. tity, and tribal affiliation. All of them grappled with federal interference in their lives. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 As might be expected, the documents at the Carl Albert Center show that some Indians detested the Office of Indian Affairs, as the BIA was called during the 1920s and 1930s. Local officials were seen as unsympathetic or cruel, and many people were frustrated at having to adjust to new ways while not being allowed to control their own affairs. In the report of a 1930 Senate subcommittee's investigation into Oklahoma Indian affairs, Robert Bums, an Indian clerk in the agency office at Concho, Okla.. homa, testified to the harshness of superintendent L. S. Bonnin: "Mr. Bums related that Mr. Bonnin is hard hearted at times. He said that Fritz Burgess of King Fisher, Okla. came to Bonnin 4 or 5 years ago and begged him for a little money to buy clothes and special food for his mother who was dying. Bonnin being suspicious that the boy wanted money for himself but not bothering to investigate, told Burgess to come back when his mother was dead and he would then buy her clothes." A 1938 letter..writing campaign to Representative Lyle Boren shows that the Wewoka, Oklahoma, field clerk was also guilty of stinginess. John Burgessof the Seminole Indian Council complained, "You know that the Seminoles have for generations had religious services where they go and camp for two and three days at a time and some times stay longer, and that the members who have money in the Department go to the Field Clerk for allowances for such purposes, but this man refuses to let them have money for religious purposes, and tells them that they should have religious services Sunday morning and then go horne."! Criticism continued under the supposedly benevolent Indian New Deal. The In .. dian Reorganization Act of 1934 (Wheeler.. Howard Act) received mixed reviews in Oklahoma, where many Native Americans-and many whites-eriticized Commis.. sioner of Indian Affairs John Collier. One correspondent wrote to Senator Elmer Tho.. mas: "There's lots of Indians around Shawnee that are against it in many places in the Bill. The Indians believe they like the way it is at the present. They say and tell us there is something behind all this dealing. Many still can't understand it clearly. They hate to loose [sic] all the land they have."? Across the state, hearings were held on the bill in 1934, and the senator kept six folders of transcripts. Based on the negative

2 Statement by Robert Bums in "Oklahoma, Cheyenne & Arapaho Agency," ca. 1930, box 3, folder 2, Legislative Series, Elmer Thomas Collection (hereafter Thomas Collection); John Burgessto Lyle Boren, 3 May 1938, box 78, "Indian Affairs 1938" folder, Lyle Boren Collection (hereafter Boren Collection).

3 Milford Trowingham to Elmer Thomas, 25 April 1935, box 21, folder 117, Legislative Series, Thomas Collection. Todd]. Kosmerick 205 reaction he heard, he worked to exclude the state's Native people from Wheeler~Howard and instead have them covered under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936. Some letters reveal a personal opposition to Collier. A Kiowa wrote to Senator Thomas in 1935: "It seems as though he is striving to gain all the grounds for himself so he can always coerce upon all our rights." Another constituent stated in 1941 that Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 "there has never been a time in the history of Indian Affairs, that there was as much complaints, unrest, nonprogression and ill feeling among the American Indians as there has been since John Collier took charge." Joseph Bruner, the Creek who founded the American Indian Federation in opposition to Collier's Indian reorganization policy, complained to several members of Congress. Believing that New Deal legislation turned back the clock, Bruner wrote Congressman Boren in 1939: "The Indian citizen would appreciate Congress realizing that the tom-torn, tomahawk and scalping knife, and our illustrious leaders of that time, together with renowned 'Indian fighters,' are of the dead past.!" While documenting reaction to federal policy, the Carl Albert Center's collec• tions also open a window on tribal activities and affairs. In the papers of Senator Tho• mas and Congressman Cartwright are numerous documents on the Choctaw and Chickasaw. A major topic is the sale of the tribes' coal and asphalt lands. Shortly after allotment in the early 1900s, these lands were to be sold with proceeds distributed to each tribal member. It was the 1940s before the transaction finally occurred. The Tho• mas and Boren collections also have papers on the rebuilding of the Choctaw Council House, and the former contains a petition "to allow the Cherokee people to organize into a self form of Government that will be adapted to the Cherokee people, their mode of living, laws and constitution." The papers of Congressman Stigler hold corre• spondence on the congressman's bill to authorize federal recognition of the Keetowah Society of the Cherokee.' Other documents reveal tribal divisions, especially between full blood and mixed blood factions. A full blood constituent of Congressman Boren claimed in 1937 that "the Creeks are always divided on account of their habits and vocation and ... the mixed blood Creeks are taking advantage of the fullblood elements instead of protect• ing them." He added that full bloods "never can have a voice in with [sic] the govern• ment concerning our wants as the mixed blood always jump in ahead of us." Senator

4 Jack Doyeto to Elmer Thomas, 1935, box 21, folder 117, Legislative Series, Thomas Collection; W. W. Stack to Elmer Thomas, 10 February 1941, box 10, folder 115, Subject Series, Thomas Collection; Joseph Bruner to Lyle Boren, 30 May 1939, box 78, "Indian Affairs 1939" folder, Boren Collection.

S Materials on the Choctaw and Chickasaw coal and asphalt lands can be found in several folders in the papers of Thomas and Wilburn Cartwright (hereafter Cartwright Collec .. tion). The petition is titled "Cherokee Nation, Now Eastern Oklahoma," stamped by the Office of Indian Affairs with the date 17 January 1935, and filed in box 9, folder 85, Subject Series, Thomas Collection. Documents on the Keetowah Society date from 1944-1946 and exist in box 5, folders 87-8, William Stigler Collection (hereafter Stigler Collection). 206 SUMMER 1999 Western Historical Quarterly

Thomas heard about in• fighting between the Kiowa• Comanche-Apache "old guard" and a group seeking federal ap• proval of new tribal bylaws." Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 Acts of Congress influ• enced federal policy and tribal activities, but congressional education, health, and eco• nomic programs also depended on congressional approval. Some of the earliest and rich• est material in the center's col• Students, teacher, and day school representative (back row, lections concerns schools. The far right) at Kallihoma School near Ada, Oklahoma. This L. M. Gensman Collection image (Photo 1785) was included in "Third Annual Report of the Supervisor of Indian Education for Oklahoma to the contains the transcripts of an Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Fiscal YearEnding June 30, April 1921 meeting between 1934," and is filed in the Elmer Thomas Collection. One Kiowa, Comanche, and section of the report concerns "Special Indian Day Schools" established in Native American communities in Oklahoma. Apache leaders and Assistant The teachers and most of the students at these schools were Commissioner of Indian Af• Native American. Courtesy of Carl Albert Center Congres• fairs E. B. Merritt. The tribes' sional Archives (CAC), University of Oklahoma. Rainy Mountain School had been closed, and the children were required to attend local public schools . Kiowa delegate George Hunt brought a girl with him to the meeting: "You see this little girl here, there are many more just turned out in to the public schools. They can't understand the English language and have no chance to learn it except what their mothers can teach them and sometimes the mothers don't know the English language very well. Al• though we don't want to be cut out of the public schools in the higher grades, we want our Indian children to be kept in school while they are young to learn the English language[,] and they can't do that in the pub• lic schools so all of us want the school at Rainy Mountain re-established."? Many other documents from the 1920s and 1930s reveal the value schools held for Native Americans and conditions that existed in them. For example, Choctaw ChiefWilliam A. Durant wrote Congressman Cartwright in 1939 that the overcrowded

6 Sartv Cowe to LyleBoren, 2 June 1937, box 78, "Indian Affairs 1937" folder, Boren Collection; Edward Hirsch to Elmer Thomas, 5 February 1937, box 9, folder 70, Subject Series, Thomas Collection.

7 "Hearing BeforeE. B. Merritt, Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs," 22-25 April 1921, box 12, folder 38, Lorraine Michael Gensman Collection (hereafter Gensman Collec• tion),4. Todd]. Kosmerick 207

boys' dormitory at Jones Acad• emy had been condemned years earlier but continued to be used. When funds for a new dormitory were cut from an Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 appropriation bill the follow• ing year, another constituent wrote that of 26 children applying for admission to the school, only one had a mother: "Some one has to take care of these children and that is the A public health nurse (right) provides instruction on the purpose of this institution.. .. preparation of baby formula. This image (Photo 824) was To cut out the one much included in "Pictorial Report of Activities in the Oklahoma• needed dormitory was the Kansas Area, U. S. Indian Service," dated June 1939 and filed in the Wilburn Cartwright Collection .CourtesyofCAe. wildest of false economies to say the least.?" Materials on Chilocco, Goodland, Fort Sill, and other boarding schools exist in other collections. Indian education supervisor to the Indian Affairs commissioner, Samuel H. Thompson, wrote about conditions at five special Indian day schools in 1934, and Senator Thomas received a copy of the letter. About the Kallihoma School near Ada, Oklahoma, Thompson commented, "We found the school room neat with attractive decorations. Many improvements have been made since I was there some months ago The Indians have donated logs and much work and there is a fine community spirit One of the things badly needed is better equipment for the teacherage, where they need hot and cold water and a bath.... This [school] is going to take care of twenty-five to thirty-five Indian children, many of whom are full bloods who would not otherwise be in school."? During this time, public schooling of Native American children was common. A government official wrote to Boren in 1940: "[Public] school attendance records indi• cate that when teachers show an interest in the Indian children, make the work inter• esting in the school and actually visit the homes and discuss school problems with the parents, it has been a very effective means of bringing about regular attendance on the part of the Indian children." He conceded, though, that "we have even gone to law in a number of cases to force the acceptance of Indian children in public schools."!"

8 Cyril M. Surry to Wilburn Cartwright, 6 February 1940, box 6, folder 10, Cartwright Collection. Other correspondence on Jones Academy exists in box 6, folder 3 of this collection.

9 Samuel H. Thompson to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 7 December 1934, box 9, folder 36, Subject Series, Thomas Collection.

10 Willard W. Beatty to LyleBoren, 29 January 1940, box 78, "Indian Affairs 1940" folder, Boren Collection. 208 SUMMER 1999 Western Historical Quarterly

In addition to schools, a number of documents focus on Native Americanhealth facili• ties. Overcrowding was a com• mon complaint. In 1929, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 Senator Thomas wrote to the Indian Affairs commissioner that there were 51 patients at the 42 bed hospital at Fort Sill. Some beds contained two oc• cupants. Fifteen patients be• longed to tribes other than the Kiowa, Comanche, or Apache, for whom the hospital was in• Nannie Hogner (center), a Cherokee woman, teaches basket• making to other women in Adair County, Okl ahoma. This tended, because these other image (Photo 1794) was included in "Third Annual Report of Indians had no facilities of the Supervisor of Indian Education for Oklahoma to the their own. Anotherhospital, at Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1934," and is filed in the Elmer Thomas Collection. The report Talihina, Oklahoma, was ex• indicates that Hogner supported her family through the sale of panded to combat tuberculo• baskets that she made. Courtesy of CAe. sis. The managing director of the Oklahoma Tuberculosis and Health Association told Senator Thomas in 1936 that "this construction will help the tuberculosis situation, by far the worst health hazard of the Indians. Also, it will provide for [the care of] chronic diseases and condi• tions that incapacitate large numbers. To meet any of these problems is to give oppor• tunity for restoring earning power and self-support to the people of this race."!' Poor economic and living conditions are topics found in much of the correspon• dence in the collections. Poverty was caused, partially, by inexperience. The Gensman Collection's 1921 transcripts of hearings before Assistant Commissioner Merritt recorded a Comanche requesting a "supervisor-farmer appointed for this purpose to assist the farmers in helping the Indians, and to help look after their improvements on the Indian allotments. Indians haven't had much experience in the ways of farming and need all the encouragement they can get so as to take proper steps in the ways of farming."? Conditions were terrible during the early years of the Great Depression. In 1931, Congressman Cartwright contacted Red Cross directors to determine if suffi• cient relief funds existed for southeastern Oklahoma's Native Americans. One of the executive officers replied, "Three out of five Indian families in Latimer County

II Elmer Thomas to Charles H. Burke, 9 February 1929, box 9, folder 16, Subject Se• ries, Thomas Collection; Carl Puckett to Elmer Thomas , 26 May 1936, box 10, folder 49, Subject Series, Thomas Collection .

12 "Hearing BeforeE. B. Merritt, Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs," 22-5 April 1921, box 12, folder 38, Gensman Collection, 11. Todd] . Kosmerick 209

destitute," and another stated, "no funds on hand or any organization to reach the re• mote districts of our county for destitute Indians ." In the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 transcripts of a 1934 Wheeler• Howard hearing in the Tho• mas Papers a Native American requests, "Our children are married now and have no place to go. They have no home .... I want you to help me. I want you to give my children a Ci vilian Conservation Corp s-Indian Division (CCC-ID) fire tower constructi on project in Delaware County, Oklahoma, 1939. house and team and every• This image (Photo 896) was included in "Pictorial Report of thing to work with."!' Activities in the Oklahoma-Kansas Area, U. S. Indian Service," New Deal me asures dated Jun e 1939 . Part of thi s report , filed in th e Wilburn Ca rtwright Co llection, describes the work and training provided changed little. In 1936, the by the CCC-ID and its predecessor, the Indian Emergency Con• attorney for the Seminole servation Work (lECW). Courtesy of CAe. wrote to Sen ator Thomas that "the Seminole Tribe of Okla• homa has not received any benefits whatsoever under any of the past or present relief agencies." The following year Seminole leader John Burgess appealed to Congressman Boren for a bill allowing payments to tribal members in order to purchase seed and buy shoes for the children. Thomas received similar pleas, and an Indian farmer asked for a loan to buy feed, a well for his livestock, and clothes for his children. This correspon• dent wrote that "the W. P. A . has turned most of the Indians down on account of them being land owners," even though the Indian Affairsoffice restricted their ability to sell their land to raise cash . James Kahdot, chief of the Citizens Band of Potawatomi, stated, "We are a [alli] homeless and in a very destitute condition. I am not writing for myself alone as I have land but there are hundreds ofour people who have no homes or any means of livelihood." Former Congressman W. W. Hastings, himself a Cherokee, recommended to the senator in 1936 that land be purchased for landless Indians . Ironi• cally, a newspaper clipping placed in Thomas's files declared "Poor Indians Few,Okla• homa Reports."14

13 Mrs. J. M. Harris to Wilburn Cartwright [telegram] and R. G. Gates to Wilburn Cartwright [telegram], both 8 January 1931, box 5, folder 5, Cartwright Collection; "Proceedings of meeting held by Senator Elmer Thomas and Mr. A. e. Monohan, Assistant to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, with th e Indians of the Kiowa Reservation, relative to the Wheeler-Howard law,at An adarko, Okl ahoma on Oc tober 23, 1934," box 9, folder 74, Subject Series, Thomas Collection, 25.

14 John Burgess to Lyle Boren, undated, box 78, "Indian Affairs 1937" folder, Boren Col• lection; Charles E. Grounds to Elmer Thomas, 17 September 1936, box 10, folder 56, Alfred Harper to Elmer Thomas, 9 Sept ember 1936, box 10, folder 55, James Kahdot to Elmer Thom as, 25 February 1935, box 10, folder 22, W. W. Hastings to Elmer Thomas and Will Rogers, 6 November 1936, box 10, folder 55, all in Subject Series, Thom as Collection; the newspaper clippin g can be found in box 210 SUMMER 1999 Western Historical Quarterly

The federal government did employ specific measures to try to improve the con... ditions of Oklahoma's Native Americans. One program was the Indian Emergency Conservation Work (IECW), later renamed the Civilian Conservation Corps Indian Division (CCC... 10). A report to Congressman Cartwright indicated that approximately two hundred Choctaw and Chickasaw were employed on IECW projects betweenJuly Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 1933 and June 1936, although an average of only 58 were enrolled at anyone time. In southeastern Oklahoma, these men planted trees and constructed bridges, firebreaks, truck trails, reservoirs, and corrals." The Resettlement Administration also maintained an Indian component. One project was eastern Oklahoma's Kenwood Resettlement Community, which according to a 1940 letter from the Indian Affairs office to Elmer Thomas, was established in 1939 with 11 families on rehabilitation farm units. Within a year, a compulsory sav... ings plan had created some grumbling. The settlement eventually disbanded in 1946, as is recorded in the Stigler Collection." As a direct result of Elmer Thomas's Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, Indian credit associations were established to make loans to Indian farmers. Contained in the senator's papers is the first annual report of the Grady County (Oklahoma) Indian Credit Asso ... ciation, which began business in 1937. The report lodged a number of complaints: the officers and director had to pay for expenses out of their own pockets, there was no secretary to attend to day... to ... day business, and a number of stockholders wished to withdraw. During its first year, the association approved only three of 35 applications. The Indian Affairs superintendent scrutinized every loan and application and squabbled over details. He approved a $1000 loan to one farmer but questioned the man's pur ... chase of 150 chickens, two mules, and five cows because the loan agreement called for a purchase of 300 two ... pound chickens, two nine... year... old mules, and six cows. Eleven folders in the Stigler Collection document some of these associations through the 1940s and into the 1950s. Stigler corresponded with state and local administrators, who constantly complained of restrictions placed on them by the BIA.17

9, folder 44, of the same series and Collection.

15 "Indian Emergency Conservation Work, I. E. c. W. Benefits to Choctaw..Chickasaw Indians in Oklahoma," undated, box 15, folder 43, Cartwright Collection.

16 John Herrick to Elmer Thomas, 18 July 1940, box 10, folder 106, Subject Series, Thomas Collection; documents on the Kenwood Cooperative for the year 1946 are located in box 10, folders 35-6, Stigler Collection.

17 "Annual Report and Suggestions of the Activities of the Grady County Indian Credit Association, From October 22, 1937 (the date of organization) to October 22, 1938, is Hereby Submitted by the Board of Directors at Chickasha, Okla.," box 10, folder 89, Subject Se• ries, Thomas Collection; additional materials on the Indian Credit Associations are located in box 10, folders 18-28, Stigler Collection. Todd]. Kosmerick 211

The correspondence, reports, and other documents received and created by Oklahoma's congressmen shed light on the activities, plight, and feelings of the state's Native American population, who in the 1920s and 1930s struggled to adopt domi• nant white customs, weather an economic downturn, and adjust to changes in federal policy. The men who served as senators and representatives from the 1950s-1970s also Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/whq/article/30/2/203/1870240 by guest on 01 October 2021 generated and gathered documents that concern the effects of termination policy and the beginnings of self-determination. Part II will discuss these materials, as well as look at continuing developments in Native American health, education, and eco• nomic development.

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