Three California Writers:
Majority Report
by Samuel J. Rice
Edited by: Cindy Beck
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MAJORITY REPORT
Your committee in approaching the consideration of this subject were
deeply impressed with its importance. They saw a policy
adopted by the Indian commissioners deeply affecting the present and
future prosperity of the state. Regardless of the
extraordinary circumstances which impelled the wave of population to
this state, they have undertaken to assign to the Indian tribes a
considerable portion of the richest of “our mineral land”(?).
Regardless of the topographical character of our state which
presents an extensive surface of the most valuable grazing land of
our earth, but with comparative limited quantity of land fully
adapted to agriculture purposes those gentlemen have undertaken to
assign no inconsiderable portion of the latter, including property
of the Indian tribes, wholly incapable by habit or taste of
appreciating its value.
To take any portion of the country west of the Sierra Nevada for the
home of the wild and generally hostile Indians would be so
manifestly unwise and impolitic that your committee can not think
that anything more is necessary than thus to present it to public
consideration. But the policy which suits California has been
one long established and to which we claim an undoubted right.
That policy is to remove all Indian tribes beyond the limits of the
state in which they are found, with all practicable dispatch.
Summing up and adopting of the resultions read:
Resolved: As the sense of the Senate and Assembly of the State
of California, that the policy pursued by the Federal government
towards the Indian tribes in this state, is wholly and radically
wrong and should be rejected.
Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be intrusted to oppose the
confirmation of any and all treaties with the Indians of the State
of California, granting to Indians an exclusive right to occupy any
of the public lands in the state.
Editor’s Note – These are only a few of the resolutions
extracted from many more, but they show emphatic influence upon the
law-makers in Washington. Ever since the men of erudition in
Washington have eschewed the pleadings of the Indians up to this
day.
The recent statement made by Hon. J. E. Raker before the
Congressional committee on Indian Affairs on the hearings, is as
follows:
The impression given out by the assistant commissioner of the Indian
Affairs was that the Indian delegates from California, in their plea
for their people, had shown themselves ungrateful. It was
shown by the assistant commissioner (without any opportunity on the
part of the Indians to explain their position) that they had all
been to government schools and that their statements concerning the
needs of the California Indians were not fair to the Department of
the Interior, and represent gross unappreciation. It should be
remembered that the California Indian delegates were not
representing the Indian population of California, and that in the
limited time allotted to them to present their case, they were
continuously interrupted by questions. It is a fact that can
not be successfully disputed that many of the California Indians
have not received educational or other advantages from the Federal
government.
The assistant commissioner in the hearing referred to, under date of
March 23, 1920, page 77 said: “Yes, sir; we feel that the
California Indians have not been treated fairly by the government;
that they ought to have the opportunity to go the Court of Claims to
have that claim tried out with the understanding that if either side
is not satisfied with the judgement of the Court of Claims they may
appeal to the Supreme Court.”
This is only an instance whereby the public at large can build or
form its intelligent opinion regarding the Indian problem. To
help this cause along is to illuminate the question of Indian
problems in a square deal.
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