Collection of Letters and Documents Belonging to Ross C. Preston, Superintendent of Two Indian Schools in Oklahoma
Colony and Pawhuska, Oklahoma: 1907-1908. A collection of ten letters, totaling 12 pages, together with a four page typed circular, two typed reports (10 pp), and six additional documents (6 pp). The material dates from 1907 and 1908, and was all sent to Ross C. Preston, superintendent of the Osage Indian School in Pawhuska, OK, and former superintendent of the Segar Indian School in Colony, OK.
Perhaps most significant is a January 15, 1908 letter, enclosing a 4pp circular, sent to Preston by Francis E. Leupp, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Leupp writes “I enclose a draft memorandum prepared originally for a letter to a number of experienced workers among, and friends of, the Indians, the purpose of which will be apparent on reading.” The circular, apparently unpublished, is a memorandum arguing against the government policy providing $10 a month payments to Native Americans. Leupp writes that the policy had a “tendency to cultivate in the Indian a sense of total irresponsibility. I know Indians…who have now, thanks to the $10-a-month plan, become perfectly reckless in money matters, and will do anything they can to evade or space the payment of a sum of money due a creditor. This is not, as it seems to me, one of the lines in which we should educate a dependent people.”
Another five letters, meanwhile, relates to allotted land purchased from Native Americans and then sold by Preston while stationed in Colony, OK in 1907. One letter, from William D. Leonard of the United States Indian Service, asks for a signed copy of an appraisement for land Preston purchased from Pretty Woman, and then resold to a white man, “As the various heirs of Pretty Woman have recently all came in and signed the deed…” Another letter, from R.J. Bauman, clerk at the Segar Indian School, relates to certificates of heirship for land allotted to several local Native Americans, whose land Preston and others was apparently trying to steal: “On the allotment of Walking Ahead, South gets the same as before, viz, 3/4; Big Smoker gets 1/8 instead of 1/4 as previously paid to him; and Red Woman 1/8…Watan sale was held yesterday. Sold a little over 6 blocks for 1400.” Next is a sternly worded letter from Charles F. Larabee, acting commissioner of Indian Affairs, chastising Preston for not forwarding deeds to his office, indicating “a very careless and negligent manner of transacting official business.” Also included is a two page handwritten draft of a Preston’s response to Farabee, offering his excuses: “I was unable to get executed before I took sick with typhoid fever…upon my return to active duty I found this Indian had gone to Florida with an Indian Show company.”
A third group of letters and reports relates to finalizing Preston’s accounts at the Segar Indian School. One letter, from the clerk at Segar, relates to checks paid to school employees. Another letter, also from Segar, encloses ten pages of typed reports correcting errors in the school’s accounts. These relate mainly to supplies used at the school, i.e. “Invoice of E.D. Foster…shows the purchase of 245 lbs. Net Beef, Red Moon School…not taken up. Answer. This beef was reported to me after the property accounts had been closed…the receipt was accompanied by a voucher showing that the beef had been expended for subsistence of pupils of Red Moon School. This error was caused by the fact that there was a delay in the arrival of Supt. Leonard, and as it takes several days to get returns from Red Moon School…”
Finally, the collection includes five pages of handwritten accounts for Preston headed “Statement of Disbursing Account. United States Sub-Treasury Service,” as well as a 1914 tax document from Ada, OK. In very good condition with folding creases and minor additional creasing. Item #15037
Price: $1,500.00