Mr. ENGLE. In other words, the Indians out there are pretty well mixed up with the rest of the population? Mr. GILLIS. That is right. Mr. ENGLE. As far as living on a tribal basis is concerned, it is not done, is that right? Mr. GILLIS. That is right. I just want to make a statement along that line in 1887 the Indians of northern California had their last war dance on the McCloud River, and their leader was a chief named Topi Wita who led these Indians against the Modocs, the Shastas, the Whites, and others that came into their territory. So they came with their scalps and weapons and met on the McCloud River under Topi Wita. In his speech he said "we are done." Today we bury our weapons and we lay aside our war bonnets, and from this day on the Indians must go forward like the White man. The old dance leaders have died off-the real significance of the dance is not now understood and the younger people today cannot even speak a word of their own mother tongue, and they do not know anything about the dances. They do not understand the religious significance of the dance. Mr. D'EWART. Mr. Russell. Mr. RUSSELL. Does the Indian Service conduct public schools in California for these Indians? Mr. GILLIS. I cannot hear your question very well. Mr. RUSSELL. Does the Indian Service conduct public schools for the Indian youth? Mr. GILLIS. They maintain a training school at Riverside. Mr. RUSSELL. At Riverside? Mr. GILLIS. Yes. Mr. RUSSELL. When the Indian youths are attending public schools in California do they pay so much for their education in the public schools of California? Mr. GILLIS. I think they have been doing that. The sales tax in California goes into the school fund; all Indians pay the sales tax. Mr. RUSSELL. Does the Indian Service maintain hospitals for the Indians? Mr. GILLIS. Yes; they do, and some of them are now closed. There is one at Hoopa Reservation. Mr. RUSSELL. Have you taken those three things into consideration in asking that the restrictions be lifted from the Indians in California? Mr. GILLIS. I do not understand the question. Mr. RUSSELL. Are you taking into consideration those services that have been given to the Indians in asking that all restrictions be lifted from the Indians in California and that they be given full rights of citizens? Mr. GILLIS. Yes, because, I read into the record where the State laws provide those benefits that the Indians are allowed in California, and among them are school privileges. They do not have any objection at all to the Indians attending the public schools and the county hospitals are open to them the same as to any other citizens. The California Indians came out from under the sovereignty of Mexico as citizens, and they have been declared to be natural-born citizens by the supreme court of California. The Congress of the United States during President Coolidge's administration declared all Indians within the borders of the United States to be citizens. In California they are not barred from social security benefits and also county hospital aid. For many years the Indians were the last men hired by the logging companies and mines, but today they are the first workmen to be hired. I went to school up in Oregon. I was taken up there when I was a little boy, and I had first-class treatment there. Mr. D'EWART. Do you have any questions, Mr. Jenison? Mr. D'EWART. Mr. Lemke? Mr. LEMKE. I have no questions. Mr. GILLIS. In my statement to the committee I do not want to injure anyone in any way. It is simply a statement of cold facts, so that the Indians of California may know that we are endeavoring to carry out their wishes when we come here to Washington at their expense as delegates. Mr. MURDOCK. I have one or two questions. The situation in California is different from the situation in some of the other States in regard to Indians. Mr. GILLIS. That is true. Mr. MURDOCK. Since you have no tribal organization in California such as, for instance, we have in the neighboring State of Arizona, you feel that the Indians in California no longer need the service of the Indian Bureau? Mr. GILLIS. Yes; that is true. Mr. MURDOCK. You are advocating, then, that the Indian Bureau be eliminated from the State of California? Mr. GILLIS. Yes; that is what the Indians want. Of course, I have never been under the Bureau except when I was at the Chemawa school. I have never had any land allotted to me. My grandfather came from Hartford, Conn., and he did not want any of his blood to accept a Government allotment, so I have been on my own all my life. I do not know much about Indian reservations because I have never lived on one, but we have Indians here who wish to make statements along that line. I know they were very nice to me when I was in the Chemawa school, and they tried to help us. They were among the best people I ever knew. Of course, I am speaking for the California Indians because I know and understand them, but I do not know anything about the Cheyennes, the Choctaws, or the Navajos. Mr. MURDOCK. The point I am making is this: There is considerable discussion among us as to whether the Indian Bureau has not finished its work, or, at least, is ready for termination. I do not think so, of course, because I come from a State where there are big reservations, and the Indian Office has not by any means finished its work there. Mr. GILLIS. Yes. Mr. MURDOCK. But I can see that it has come to the end of its usefulness in California. Mr. GILLIS. Yes. Mr. MURDOCK. After settlement has been made according to the proposed legislation; that is, after the judgment of $5,000,000 has been properly disposed of. Did you say that the proportional part of the Bureau's expenses or the Office of Indian Affairs' expense is about $1,000,000 in California? Mr. GILLIS. I understand from Mr. Zimmerman's report that that is what the expenses are to maintain their operations in California. There are some Indians that come under those benefits, but I do not know just what procedure they have to go through or how much benefit they have received. Of course, we have Indians here who are from reservations who can tell you about that. I never lived on an Indian reservation. Mr. MURDOCK. I want to make it clear to the committee and for the record that I regard the California situation as unique and not representing some of the other States where there are Indian reservations; so I am inclined to sympathize with your proposal. Mr. GILLIS. I thank you very much for that. Mr. D'EWART. I think, Mr. Murdock, that there are several other States that are in that same situation, possibly New York State and possibly South Carolina and possibly some other States. Mr. MURDOCK. Yes; I think you are right, Mr. Chairman. Mr. ENGLE. The bill calling for a convention of California Indians would provide an agency for clear expression from the Indians from California on that subject, and Mr. Gillis represents a great many of the California Indians, and if we get a convention set up in the form provided for under Mr. Lea's bill it would give them a chance to express themselves on the per capita payment, and the distribution of the $5,000,000 as well as the problem of emancipation. Mr. GILLIS. That is true. Mr. D'EWART. Thank you very much, Mr. Gillis, for your state ment. Mr. GILLIS. Thank you for your kindness in permitting me to read the letters into the record. Mr. D'EWART. We are very glad to have you here with us, and we are glad to have your presentation. Mr. ENGLE. There are four other delegates here, Mr. Chairman, representing the California Indians. I assume their statements will be brief, but they would like to make statements before the committee. The first is Mr. Adam Castillo, president of the Indian Federation of Riverside, Calif. STATEMENT OF ADAM CASTILLO, PRESIDENT, MISSION INDIAN FEDERATION OF CALIFORNIA Mr. CASTILLO. I represent the Mission Indian Federation of Southern California. Mr. ENGLE. Do you desire to add anything, Mr. Castillo, to the statement made by Mr. Gillis? Mr. CASTILLO. Yes. Mr. ENGLE. You may proceed. Mr. CASTILLO. Thank you. Mr. Gillis represents 9,000, and I represent about 2,500 in southern. California in addition to the 9,000 that he represents. We favor this convention bill. I think that would qualify all the Indians that are entitled to this per capita payment because the attorney general of California made a compromise settlement, a stipulation with the Department of Justice, and California Indians were awarded $17,000,000. $12,000,000 was deducted for all the expenses of the Indian Bureau in California for 95 years, and that is paid to the Government, now for all expenditures and charges. We have paid all this debt. We should be entitled to all the school buildings and hospitals and all the equipment. It should be turned over to California Indians since we have been charged with every cent that the Government expended. Of course, that is a question I am putting up to the committee here for their decision. I have been coming here for over 10 or 12 years seeking justice for my own people. I heard the chairman say he was not familiar with the California Indians. I do not think any of the committee members should be familiar with the California Indians because we are looked upon as citizens in that State because the Government never carried out its promise in its treaties. We received very little help. About 40 or 50 years ago they were giving very little rations to the old people, but for 25 years that has been stopped, just because we were considered citizens from the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty in 1948. Since 1852, the Government never paid much attention to us. We have been self-supporting all of these years, and all of our old Indian people are getting their pensions now as citizens, not because they are wards, that is, those over 65 years of age are, getting their pensions just the same as the white people. So, there is no suffering among our old people. They are better off than we are. What we need is a just settlement with our Government on these lost treaties. Although the Attorney General made a bad job of it, if he had prosecuted it as it should have been prosecuted I think he would have gotten $100,000,000 easily and then we would not have to be coming here, but he just settled on the basis of a partial settlement because the Government never finished making the treaties with the California Indians. It only made 18 treaties and the money gave out, so they just established these Indian agencies in the State and started to appropriate money to run these agencies, and the agencies grew up quite big demanding more money for themselves, and we have not gotten any benefit from these agencies. The Government set aside the treaty lands and then it set aside reservations later and those reservations have not been protected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We have been losing our corners, our boundary lines. The Indian agencies are just like the real estate agencies of the Government to give away our property, give away our water and give away our lands, and that is why we have been losing our lands and water. Mr. ENGLE. Mr. Castillo, may I interrupt you at this point. I think what the committee is interested in is whether or not you, as representing 2,500 Indians, favor the bill to call a convention of the California Indians to deal with these problems you are talking about. Are you in favor of such a convention? Mr. CASTILLO. Yes. Mr. ENGLE. Do you favor a roll call of the Indians for the purpose of having an up-to-date list of the Indians who will be beneficiaries of this $5,000,000 fund? Mr. CASTILLO. Yes, sir. 61954-47-3 Mr. ENGLE. You favor that too? Mr. CASTILLO. Yes, sir; I do; but what I am explaining to the committee is that there is no need of an Indian Bureau in California. Mr. ENGLE. There is no bill pending on that before the committee at the present time, I guess, Mr. Chairman. Mr. D'EWART. No; we are taking up Indian emancipation later in the week. Are there any questions anyone would like to ask Mr. Castillo? (Discussion off the record.) Mr. D'EWART. Are there any questions the members would like to ask Mr. Castillo? Mr. BARRETT. I would like to ask you this question, Mr. Castillo: Assuming that some legislation should be passed granting the hospitals, schools, and other facilities to the Indians of California; just how would they administer them? Mr. CASTILLO. There is no need for any help of that kind for the California Indians. The laws of the State give the schools services for all children of all nationalities, Chinese, Negroes, Mexicans, and others. Mr. BARRETT. I understood you to say a moment ago that you would like to have all the facilities that have been purchased by the Bureau of Indian Affairs transferred to the California Indians because you paid for them. Did you make that statement? Mr. CASTILLO. Yes, I made that statement. Mr. BARRETT. What I would like to know is this: Do you have any organization whereby you could administer the property if it was transferred to the Indians? Mr. CASTILLO. That is where the convention would come in; that is why we want the convention. That is the time when the Indians would all get together, form a business committee, or whatever it might be called, to get a line on all of those things to work with the Government and with the State. That is the purpose of this convention bill, to have some understanding of that kind. Mr. BARRETT. You have a judgment fund of around $5,000,000. Let us assume that is paid out on a per capita basis to the Indians of California and the property is turned over to a business council representing all of the Indians of California; where are you going to get the money to administer the property? Mr. CASTILLO. Well we do not need money to do that, because we are citizens. There are a lot of people in California who live there without much money; they are taking care of themselves and that is the way the Indians would handle it. Mr. ENGLE. I think the idea Mr. Castillo has in mind is that this judgment, which was originally $17,000,000, but the Federal Government took off $12,000,000, and the idea he has is that was an offset for the facilities which have been furnished to the Indians of California, reservation land, or whatever it is. And, I think what he has in mind is that when the Indians are emancipated the hospitals should be turned back to the Indians, and if there is anything else that it be put up and liquidated and the funds divided amongst the Indians in California. Mr. BARRETT. In other words, originally the judgment was for $17,000,000 and that was offset by counter claims? |