Collection of Correspondence Related to the Purchase of Allotted Land by Officials at the Fort Totten Indian School, Together With a Circular Discouraging Native American Participation and Dancing at Rodeos and Fairs in the Decades After the Ghost Dance
Fort Totten, North Dakota: 1907 to 1925. A collection of 54 letters, possibly retained carbon copies, together with two circulars. In very good condition. The letters are each one page, ranging from a few lines of text to a full page, on the letterhead of the United States Indian Service, and sent between 1907 and 1925 from the Fort Totten Indian School, located on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota. Many of the letters are by three superintendents, C.M. Ziebach, S.A.M. Young, and W.R. Beyer, while the rest are from various other agency officials. Recipients include a couple of Sheyenne, North Dakota banks as well as a series of Anglo residents of Sheyenne. The letters provide insight into how school superintendents and agency officials used their positions and connections to facilitate a run on allotted land purchased or leased from Native American heirs on the reservation. The letters relate to these transactions, including the mailing of checks, the issuing of patents, the signing off by Native heirs, prices paid, and tracts purchased or leased. Some examples follow:
“You are advised that papers in connection with sale of the NE/4…has been signed by the heir at Standing Rock…you will please send me your certified check in the sum of $1011.60, balance of the purchase price…”
“I have to advise that this patent has not issued…as the matter is being held up at the present time pending the determination of the lawful heirs of the allottee.”
“Bond and verification of sureties are enclosed herewith for execution by the bondsmen and Mr. Erickson covering his lease on the allotment of Oyeohnamajinwin.”
“Robert Little Cloud, of this reservation, has a position in some society in the Crow Hill district, having charge of the funds of that society. It is stated that about three years ago there was deposited in your bank by him on account of this society the sum of $105.85…”
“You are informed that there is a lease on this tract which will not expire until October, 1914. The allottee is living and there is little hope of it being posted for sale.”
“Your offer of $1660.00 for the W 1/2 of the SE 1/4 Sec. 19-151-65, being the allotment of Wasicuwin, allotment No. 688, has been accepted by the owner and she has signed a request that you be issued a patent in fee…”
“I am inclosing herewith lease covering the allotment of Oyeohnainajinwin, deceased Devils Lake Sioux allottee No. 1004, properly signed by Iyoyamwiciya, sole heir, in your favor for a term of two years from Jan. 1st, 1917, at $100.00 a year. You will please sign the lease, have your signature witnessed by two persons, and acknowledged before a notary public…”
“relative to the desire of Mr. Flink to secure a lease on the S1/2 of SW1/4 Sec…being a part of the allotment of Iyayuhmani, Devils lake Sioux allottee No. 785, you are advised that the allottee was again consulted and he does not care to lease the land at the rental offered in the application of Mr. Flink, being $68.00 a year, but will lease same for a term of one or two years, at an annual rental of $102.00 per annum.”
“Before the purchaser can be called on for the money the sale must be accepted by all the heirs and quite often a great number of the heirs live on other reservations and this causes a delay in the sale.”
“Florence White Thunder sold and conveyed this land to Baker Borstad without the approval of the Department. The Examiner of Inheritance, Mr. John H. Hinton, holds that this deed was not valid…it is recommended that proper steps be taken to cause the approval of the deed executed by Florence White Thunder to Mr. Borstad. The money paid by Mr. Borstad is still held in the bank of Oberon pending the approval of this deed…”
The collection also includes a pair of intriguing circulars distributed at Fort Totten. The first relates to the ink required in producing photostatic copies of land leases (“black ribbon of sufficient newness to give a clear and distinct imprint on the papers"). The second is a four page mimeographed circular, issued by the United States Indian Field Service, dated April 10, 1925, and stamped “Indian School, Fort Totten, N.D.” The circular was issued to “all fair associations, towns where rodeos and roundups are ordinarily staged…and to all organizations that use the Indians as a drawing card…” It is signed in type by seven reservation superintendents in the Dakotas and Montana, beseeching these organizations to halt their encouragement of Native Americans “to show off their old time dances and customs in their old time finery.” The circular cites a newly implemented five year program hoping “to make diversified farmers of all Indians living on their allotment and to change their community life to fit into this plan.” The circular discusses the successes of the program, and asks rodeo and fair managers for “assistance to encourage the Indian to stay at home and look after his farm affairs,” rather than encouraging them to “parade in their old time, costumes, and give exhibitions of their old time dancing…We do not want him to be paraded in paint and feathers while he goes back two generations and dances the old savage dances…We do not want him to be considered as a relic of barbarism…”. Item #15317
Price: $2,500.00