OCR Text |
Show Even without any payment the very existence of the money is a constant menace to the welfare of the Indian. The knowledge that he has money coming to him some time leads unscrupulona people to induce him to go into debt; and then, when the debt har accumulated and the Indian's credit is gone, pressure is brought to bear by the creditors upon the Government to pay the Indian so that he can pay his honest (8) debts. If this is done, the same routine is repeated to go on until the money is exhaasted. The state of aflairs growing out of this around some of the agencies is a scandal and a disgrace. There is now in the Treasury to the credit of Indian tribes $33,317,- 955.09, drawing interest at the rate of 4 and 5 per cent, the annual interest amounting to $1,646,485.96. Besides this several of the tribes have large incomes from leasing and other sources. It is a safe pre-diction that so long as these funds exist they will be the prey of design- I ing people. The ultimate disposition of the Indian trust funds is a subject for 1 the most serious consideration. In some cases they are small- and in others very large. With respect to the former they can, as a rule, be paid out to the Indians with little, if any, evil consequences. With respect to the latter their proper disposition is more difficult. It is admitted that great wealth is a source of weakness to any Indian tribe and productive of much evil. How to apply it so as to avoid evil con-sequences and produce only beneficial results is a problem which, though having occupied the earnest attention of the b a t and wisest friends of the Indians, seems so far not to have been satisfactorily solved. It has been suggested that the best means of remedying the evils 1 described are- 1. To provide for the gradual extinction of these funds. This is to be done by setting aside a sufficient sum to maintain the reservation schbols as they now exist for a definite period of years-say twenty-one- and then dividing the balance per capita and paying to each member of the tribe between certain ages and to each one who shall thereafter arrive at the proper age his or her share thereof, proper provision to he made for the disposition of the shares of the old and incompetent and excepted ages. 2. As a corollary to this, to divide the land belonging to the tribe per capita. The remedy proposed is a heroic one and is not new. If applied, the immediate result would almost invariably be to relegate the Iudians affected, or many of them, to a state of poverty. The remote result might be, and this is the argument used in its favor, that finding their substance gone and themselves in actual want they would realize that they must work or starve, and so from necessity, if not from choice, put forth some effort in their own behalf. The result would be that in |