Mr. DALTON. I believe, Mr. Walker, you have a copy of that paper which was handed to you. I ask that you present it to the commissioner. Mr. WALKER. Yes. Senator FRAZIER. We will be glad to have it inserted for the record. (The document referred to above is as follows:) HOPIS AT MOENCOPI VILLAGE, NEAR TUBA CITY, ARIZ, 1. The cooperation of the Government in effecting a definite working organization of progressive Hopis to be an advisory and executive council, entirely supplanting the dictatorial rule of the tribal village chief, whose policy is to oppose the Government, the progressive ideas of the returned students, and hold them under the tribal customs, religious practices, and superstitions of the old people. 2. Closer cooperation and more vital relationship with the policy of the Government and a termination of what is now an unrelenting hostility to the agency. 3. An adequate pressure water system advantageously located at some elevated point that will encourage the progressively minded, as far as they are able, to put water within the home for convenient domestic usage in cooking, for washing and for bathing purposes, etc., thus provoking better sanitation and home conditions. 4. A competent farm and water supervisor to advise and instruct in better methods of culture, conservation of their water, and a more economical distribution of it by a system and water schedule for every man that will insure a fair and equitable distribution of it and eliminate the present chaotic conditions that are a constant source of increasing strife and bickerings. 5. A competent well-trained village nurse to daily keep in intimate touch with health conditions within the homes of the village and urge improvement of the present unclean, unsanitary, and unhealthful conditions in the streets and in the homes. 6. The complete removal to locations more remote from the village of horse corrals, chicken houses, and other nuisances that constantly endanger the health of the people of the village and render the village so unsightly and uninviting to the tourist. 7. Closer oversight and more visitation on the part of a physician, and urging of the people to discard the injurious malpractice of their medicine men and receiving of skilled treatment of the trained white physician. 8. The construction of a system of sanitary toilets, properly located, that will serve to discourage the promiscious usage of the immediate grounds adjacent to the village for such unsanitary purposes, for both men and women. 9. A washhouse, entirely independent of the day school, for public usage, and in connection with same some provision for bath facilities that will allow the returned student and encourage him to continue the practice of regular bathing acquired in his school training, and to encourage others among the people also to bathe regularly. WM. H. DALTON. ROGER HNAHMI. Senator FRAZIER. The hearing will have to come to a close. Anyone who has not had an opportunity to be heard may write out a statement, or if they can not do it themselves, have someone write it for them; send it to the Committee on Indian Affairs of the United States Senate at Washington. We will consider your statement and have it printed in our record. The record will be printed and be available some time this fall. The hearing will adjourn. (At 1 o'clock p. m. the subcommittee adjourned.) SURVEY OF INDIAN CONDITIONS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1931 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, Fort Wingate, N. Mex. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at Fort Wingate, N. Mex., Hon. Lynn J. Frazier (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Frazier (chairman), Wheeler, and Thomas. Also present: Senator Bratton; Hon. J. Henry Scattergood, Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs; A. A. Grorud, special assistant to the subcommittee; Nelson A. Mason, clerk; and F. S. Milberg, official reporter. Senator FRAZIER. This hearing is called under authority of a resolution adopted by the United States Senate authorizing the Committee on Indian Affairs of the United States Senate to make an investigation of Indian conditions throughout the United States. So this subcommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate is making its tour and holding hearings. We want to get the facts of the Indians' condition in regard to their general welfare, health, home conditions, and school conditions. It is almost supper time and we were wondering if there were any Indians who want to be heard and would like to go home and not stay for the evening session. We will have to have an evening session after supper to get the situation fully in regard to the school. Are there any Indians who want to now be heard so that they may go home before dark? KINNE BEGE was thereupon called as a witness, and after being first duly sworn, testified, through Arthur Upshaw (who was sworn as interpreter), as follows: Senator FRAZIER. What is your name? The INTERPRETER. Kinne Bege. Senator FRAZIER. Where do you live? The INTERPRETER. At Thoreau. Senator FRAZIER. How far is that from here? The INTERPRETER. About 32 miles. Senator FRAZIER. Do you live on a reservation? The INTERPRETER. The extension. Senator FRAZIER. The extension of the reservation. Have you an allotment? The INTERPRETER. I have not got any allotment. Senator FRAZIER. Have you a statement you want to make to the committee? The INTERPRETER. Yes, sir. Senator FRAZIER. Go ahead and make your statement? The INTERPRETER. He says he came down here to tell these people that he is right at Thoreau and he is crowded away from the railroad at the foot of the cliff. There are a number of Navajos live there but they are crowded by the white people. Senator FRAZIER. Go ahead. The INTERPRETER. He said he would like to have a piece of land all right, but they say they need water, an artesian well. They ought to have a couple of artesian wells. Senator FRAZIER. Go ahead with your statement. The INTERPRETER. He says they have a public school at Thoreau. He said some of the Navajo children that come from home to the school along in the wintertime they have a pretty hard time, and the children are liable to freeze to death when they go home. Senator FRAZIER. How far do they have to go from their homes to the school? The INTERPRETER. He says some of them have to go a mile and some of them 2 miles and some of them 3 miles. Senator THOMAS. Ask him if he knows how cold it gets up there! The INTERPRETER. Along in the wintertime it gets pretty cold. They have not got no houses. They have got their own hogans; that it all. Senator THOMAS. Do the children go by bus or do they have to walk? The INTERPRETER. They have to walk. Senator THOMAS. How cold does it get here in the wintertime? Mr. AMBROSE. Thoreau is located about 7,250 feet high, and I have seen the thermometer 35 below zero. Senator THOMAS. What is the elevation here? Mr. AMBROSE. About 6,800. Senator THOMAS. How cold does it get here? Mr. AMBROSE. I do not know, sir. Senator THOMAS. Do you know, Mr. Superintendent? Mr. DALE. I can not answer that. Senator THOMAS. Something like 20 degrees below zero? Mr. DALE. It did not do that this year. Very little below zero. Senator THOMAS. Ask him if he has very much snow where he lives? The INTERPRETER. They have quite a bit of snow; just about that deep lindicating]. Senator THOMAS. He indicated the snow would run up as high as 18 feet deep, is that correct? The INTERPRETER. Yes. Senator FRAZIER. Any other statement? The INTERPRETER. He says that when the children get sick once in a while through the winter they say they ought to have a hospital at Thoreau. He said they have to pay for the hospital. If they want to send patients, why, they have to pay for the truck to take the patient to the hospital. Senator FRAZIER. The Indians have to pay it themselves? Senator THOMAS. Where is the nearest hospital? The INTERPRETER. At Crownpoint. Senator THOMAS. How far from where he lives? The INTERPRETER. It is 25 miles from Thoreau to Crownpoint. About the same distance from Thoreau to Crownpoint. Senator THOMAS. How far did he say? The INTERPRETER. Twenty-five miles. Senator THOMAS. The superintendent says the nearest hospital is here at this school. How far does he live from this school? About 32 miles? The INTERPRETER. Twenty-five miles from Thoreau to Rehoboth. Senator THOMAS. The superintendent says the nearest hospital is where we are now. The INTERPRETER. They would rather have the hospital over at Thoreau, so they do not have to go so far. Senator THOMAS. I see. Senator FRAZIER. Any other statement? The INTERPRETER. He says they have more children at that place. They commence to get crowded and they want to have more land for their children. Their children are increasing. The old people live there and they are getting crowded. They have more children, Senator FRAZIER. They need more land? The INTERPRETER. They need more land. Senator FRAZIER. How do they make a living? The INTERPRETER. He said they live the best way they can. This winter the winter has been hard for them. They can not get anything for themselves. Senator FRAZIER. Do they raise sheep or cattle? The INTERPRETER. They raise sheep. Senator FRAZIER. Ask him how many sheep he has got in his flock. The INTERPRETER. He has got 100 head for himself, but the rest of them got a bunch of sheep. Senator FRAZIER. Some of them do not have that many? The INTERPRETER. He say at his place some of them got 500, 200, and 300. Senator FRAZIER. Do you have any goats? The INTERPRETER. Goats and sheep of his own. There is a hundred. Senator FRAZIER. What breed of sheep does he have? What they call the Navajo sheep or the improved grade? The INTERPRETER. The improved sheep. Senator FRAZIER. How much are you getting for wool this spring? The INTERPRETER. Since last year, he says, wool is not worth very much. Senator FRAZIER. How much is that? The INTERPRETER. He sold his wool last year for 10 cents a pound. Senator FRAZIER. How much did he get for the last lambs he sold? The INTERPRETER. Lambs are not worth very much, so he did not sell any. Senator FRAZIER. Well, did he sell any last year? The INTERPRETER. They sold the lambs for 10 cents a pound. Senator FRAZIER. Ask him if the Indians in his community sell their lambs by the pound? |