To Revise the Census Roll, Indians of California

TO REVISE THE CENSUS ROLL, INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

MONDAY, APRIL 7, 1947

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., Hon. Wesley A. D'Ewart (chairman) presiding.

Mr. D'EWART. The committee will please come to order. We welcome this morning a new member of the subcommittee on Indian Affairs, Mr. Lemke. We are pleased to have him as a member of our subcommittee. We know that he will be of help to the subcommittee and hope he will enjoy his service with us.

We have several bills to call up this morning for our consideration, two of these bills having to do with the revision of the census roll of Indians in California: H. R. 2739, introduced by Mr. Lea, and H. R. 2878, introduced by Mr. Engle. We also have before us H. R. 2639, introduced by Mr. Lea.

Congressman Engle is here this morning to explain the purpose of these bills, and we will be glad to hear you at this time, Mr. Engle. STATEMENT OF HON. CLAIR ENGLE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Mr. ENGLE. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, there are three of these bills; two introduced by Mr. Lea, and one which I introduced. One of them, introduced by Mr. Lea, H. R. 2739, has to do with a revision of the census roll, and one which I introduced, H. R. 2878, also provides for a revision of the census roll of the Indians of California.

(The bills referred to are as follows:)

[H. R. 2739, 80th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To amend the Act approved May 18, 1928, as amended, with reference to a revision of the census roll of the Indians of California

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 7 of the Act of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602), as amended by the Act of April 29, 1930 (46 Stat. 259), be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows:

After the expiration of such time, the Secretary of the Interior shall have six months to approve and promulgate such revised roll, after which the roll shall be closed and thereafter no additional names shall be added thereto: Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior may prepare and distribute to the Indians of California three thousand copies of an alphabetical list of those on the census roll approved May 17, 1933, giving name, address, age at time of enrollment of each such person, and other factual information as the Secretary deems desirable to identify enrollees. Said list of enrollees shall be distributed in the discretion of said Secretary: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, shall also cause to be made, within the time specified above, a roll of all Indians of California, not now living in said State, who otherwise come within the provisions of section 1 of this Act. A person claiming to be entitled to enrollment under this proviso may, within one year after the approval of this section as herein amended, make an application in writing to the Secretary of the Interior for enrollment, stating therein his name, age, address, and any information tending to show his right to be so enrolled. Such supplemental roll shall be subject to such action as Congress may hereafter deem appropriate."

[H. R. 2878, 80th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To amend the Act approved May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602), as amended, to revise the census roll of the Indians of California provided for therein

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Act of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602), as amended by the Act of April 29, 1930 (46 Stat. 259), be, and the same is hereby, amended as follows:

That section 1 of the Act of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602), be amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. That for the purposes of this Act, the Indians of California shall be defined to be all Indians who were residing in the State of California on June 1, 1852, and their descendants now living."

SEC. 2. That section 7 of the Act of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602), be amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 7. That the Secretary of the Interior, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, is hereby authorized and directed to revise the census roll of the Indians of California, made by him in accordance with the provisions of the Act of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602), as amended, by removing from said roll the names of persons who have died since May 18, 1928, and by adding the names of children, and their descendants, now living, born since May 18, 1928, to enrollees whose names are on said roll, and by adding to said census roll the names of Indians not now on said roll and who come within the definition provided for in section 1 of this Act. The Indians of California in each community may select a committee of three enrollees who may aid the enrolling agent in any matters relating to the revision of said roll. Any person claiming to be entitled to enrollment may, within one year after the approval of this Act, make an application in writing to the Secretary of the Interior for enrollment. After the expiration of such period of time, the Secretary of the Interior shall have six months to approve and promulgate such revised roll, after which the roll shall be closed and thereafter no additional names shall be added thereto: Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior shall prepare and distribute to the Indians of California not less than three thousand copies of an alphabetical printed list, consisting of the name of each Indian on the census roll approved May 17, 1933, giving name, address, age at time of enrollment, and such other factual information, if any, as the Secretary may deem advisable as tending to identify each enrollee."

Mr. ENGLE. Mr. Lea is unable to be here today, because the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, of which he is a member, is making a trip to California, and he asked me to present these, his bills and also to present the witnesses who are here from California in support of the measures.

Taking these two bills, H. R. 2878 and H. R. 2739, providing for a revision of the census roll of the Indians of California, they are substantially identical.

In reference to H. R. 2878, providing for a revision of the census. roll, at the last session of Congress I introduced H. R. 6200, which is substantially the same as H. R. 2878. This bill has substantially the same purpose as H. R. 6200, and we have a report from the Secretary of the Interior on that measure; that is, on H. R. 6200. This report on H. R. 6200, was, as I said, a report during the last session, which was submitted to Mr. Jackson, the chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs at the last session, and, if there is no objection, I would like to have this report submitted for the record and to have it read by the clerk of the committee.

Mr. D'EWART. If there is no objection, the report will be read by the clerk of the committee at this time, as requested by Mr. Engle. (The clerk of the committee read the report referred to, as follows:) THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,

Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON,

Chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs,

House of Representatives.

Washington.

MY DEAR MR. JACKSON: Further reference is made to your request for a report on H. R. 6200, a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a roll of the Indians of California.

This bill, in its present form, has certain undesirable features, and I therefore recommend that the measure be modified before it is enacted.

You may recall that a similar bill, H. R. 3605, was reported on adversely by this Department on March 1, 1946. A roll of the Indians of California was compiled under the authorization of the act of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602), which defined the Indians of California as those Indians residing in that State on June 1, 1852, and their descendants "now living in said State"; i. e., living on May 18, 1928. This act, as amended by the act of April 29, 1930 (46 Stat. 259), further provided that the roll of the California Indians should be completed within a period of 5 years, after which "said roll shall be closed for all purposes and thereafter no additional names shall be added thereto." The roll so prepared by this Department contains 23,571 names, constituting the beneficiaries in a suit recently adjudicated in the United States Court of Claims in the case entitled The Indians of California v. The United States (98 Ct. Cls. 583 and 102 Ct. Cls. 837). The judgment in this case was entered on December 4, 1944, in the amount of $5,024,842.34.

Any new legislation affecting the roll of California Indians which set aside the labor already expended would be unfortunate. Persons who are not now officially recognized as California Indians would doubtless seek to establish such identification in an effort to share in the judgment money. The proposed legislation provides only that the Secretary shall use the existing roll as evidence in establishing the rights of any individual to enrollment, and presumably he would be required to examine every claim submitted regardless of whether he had previously determined that the claimant was not entitled to enrollment. This would needlessly duplicate costs and labors already performed.

While it would be unwise to set aside the existing roll and create a new one, I am aware that many persons whose names are listed on that roll are now deceased, and many children born since the roll was made are not included. I would not be averse to a bill which provided simply for revising the roll of 1928 by removing the names of deceased persons and adding the names of later born children.

I suggest, therefore, that the language of the bill be changed to read as follows: Strike out all of the language following the enacting clause, down to and including the word "enrollment" on page 2, line 4, and insert in lieu thereof the following: "That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, to revise the membership roll of the Indians of California, made by him in accordance with the provisions of the act of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 602), as amended, by removing from said roll the names of persons who have died since the approval of said act, and by adding the names of children, now living in the State of California, born since May 18, 1928, to enrollees whose names are on said roll."

On page 2, line 9, substitute "1 year" for "6 months."

On page 2, line 9, after the word "wish," insert the word "revised."

The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there is no objection to the submission of this report to the committee.

Sincerely yours,

DMN/ic:ems 7-31-46 cc-Chicago Office

Secretary of the Interior.

Mr. ENGLE. The two bills now pending before the committee, H. R. 2739 and H. R. 2878, correspond to the recommendations of the Secretary of the Interior set forth in his report on H. R. 6200, have the same purpose.

To give the committee the background of this particular legislation, I would like to read from a report of the assembly committee on governmental efficiency and economy investigating conditions of Indian affairs of the State of California, made on January 15, 1947. I will first read that portion which relates to the problem of the roll call. This was a report of a subcommittee of the California State Legislature to investigate conditions of the California Indians. They made certain recommendations, and for that reason it seems to me that what it has to say would be of interest to the committee.

Here is what they say in regard to the problem of the roll call; It says:

The testimony of competent witnesses indicated that the Indians of California are not satisfied with the present method prescribed by law for the just and equitable payment of compensation due them. One of the most important factors that the Indians of California disapprove of is that concerning section 7 of the 1928. Jurisdictional Act. (The 1928 Jurisdictional Act was introduced by Representative Lea, of California, and became law. This law provides the sole means of relief available to the Indians of California.)

The seventh section of the 1928 act referred to above provides for a roll call of California Indians to be taken; at the expiration of 5 years such rolls shall be permanently closed. In accordance with the 1928 act, a roll call was duly taken and completed, being approved May 17, 1933. This has been an alphabetical roll giving the name, relationship in family, ages, dates of birth, degree of Indian blood, tribe, where enrolled and allotted, post office, and amount and kind of property owned of each Indian. As of May 17, 1933, the roll was permanently closed and no further roll is being contemplated. The closing of the roll call would have been obviously just, providing the claims of the California Indians against the Federal Government had been concluded shortly thereafter; however, because of the long interval of time between the closing of the rolls and the still uncompleted settlement, it is equally obvious that population conditions have greatly changed. The roll call taken in 1933 is admittedly incomplete because of the many Indians who were absent from the State or unable to register in the census. The California Indians are in unanimous agreement that the roll call should be reopened, and that a supplemental roll be taken to provide for the new addition to families, absentees, and the many other changes that have occurred.

The other bill which Mr. Lea introduced is H. R. 2739, a bill to amend the act of 1928, as amended, with reference to a revision of the census roll of the Indians of California.

In order to give you an idea of the problems with which we have to deal there I want to read a little further from the assembly report to which I have just referred. I will read that portion of the report entitled "The problem of per capita payment." It says:

Under the provisions of the 1928 Jurisdictional Act, per capita payment of moneys provided for the settlement of the California Indians' claim is not provided. The Indians feel that this is an injustice and are desirous of having that section of the law amended so that per capita payments can then be made. Under the terms of the original 18 treaties, and in accordance with the 1928 Jurisdictional Act, the amount that could be legally recovered by the Indians of

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