Tag Archives: Indian Office

Easy Targets

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Indians who couldn’t speak English were easy targets for whites who wanted  their assets. A bit of mental deficiency only made it easier. Jackson Barnett was a retarded Indian in Oklahoma who received a randomly selected allotment (160 acres) around the turn of the 20th century. When oil was discovered on the land, the Indian Office appointed a guardian for him; the guardian very properly leased Barnett’s land for him and paid the oil royalties to the superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes at Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Jackson was eventually worth over a million dollars, and in 1920, a white woman suddenly showed up on his doorstep and persuaded him to get into her car. She drove Barnett to Kansas and married him (against Kansas law), then drove to Missouri and married him again. She eventually got him to sign over half his money to a mission society, and half to her.

This woman and others concerned with Barnett’s estate met with Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke, who gave his approval for their actions. Publicity eventually upset the wife’s plans and the courts threw out the contracts Barnett had signed. Burke was criticized for his actions, but he was exonerated of wrong-doing by the House subcommittee which investigated the case.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke

Book about Jackson Barnett by Tanis C. Thorne

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Spare No Expense

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Indian Office , Washington, DC, circa 1920, courtesy Library of Congress

Indian Office , Washington, DC, circa 1920, courtesy Library of Congress

Each year, the House of Representatives conducted hearings on the Indian Appropriation Bill, to approve funding for all the expenses associated with schools and reservations. The Canton Asylum for Insane Indians also fell under this bill.

In 1912, commissioner of Indian Affairs, Robert G. Valentine, supplied information about the asylum’s expenditures the previous year. In 1911, the facility had been allocated $25,000, but only spent $20, 524.81. (Canton Asylum’s superintendent, Dr. Harry Hummer, was determined to come under budget each year).

Employee costs were highest, at $10, 791.18, and their subsistence came next at $4, 066.88. The next two most expensive items were construction and repairs, and then heat, light, and power.

Stationery and office supplies came to $205.88, and “miscellaneous” at $271.99.

The cost for medical supplies for the year: $172.13. Below is a picture of the medical staff at Tulalip Indian School; there are several student nurses besides the staff doctor and nurse. At the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, the superintendent was also the doctor and the only medical provider. Nurses were not employed there until nearly the end of the facility’s existence.

Medical Staff, Tulalip Indian School, 1912, courtesy Library of Congress

Medical Staff, Tulalip Indian School, 1912, courtesy Library of Congress

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