Dec. 19, 1928: Claims Indians in dire straits

-Colville Tribe seeks money from government

Armed with a collection of testimonials from leading merchants serving nine tribes represented on the Colville Reservation, Mrs. Mary Lloyd, herself a Colville Indian, has initiated a drive for immediate payment of $100 to each Indian by the United States government.

"The Colville Indians were to have been given $50 a year each for 20 years, but they never got the first payment," says Mrs. Lloyd, who just returned from a tour of the Okanogan country.

GREAT DEAL OF WANT

"I find, after my trip through the reservation, that there is a great deal of want. My people have been given only 80 acres of a farm allotment in the north half, and very few of them are really making a living that way. Ed LaFleur and Theo Bourgeau, at Inchelium; Amelia Tonasket at Republic, and Mrs. Joe Hill are doing well. But they are the only ones I know that are.

"If the Colville Indians are managing to live, it is because of the work they have been able to get picking huckleberries and selling them or trading them for vegetables and other food, or picking apples and other fruit in and around Omak and in the Okanogan section.

"Lately the sheep have spoiled even the berry patches, and the government grazers can move along as fast as they want, so far as we are concerned. Cull White, at Keller, is one exception. He tries to keep his flocks off the huckleberries, and respects the Indians' rights to them. He also instructs his camp men to feed the Indians."

RESERVATION IS ROCKY

"A couple can make as much as $200 picking fruit in the fall and this makes good winter grubstake. But there is no stake in the farm land of most of the reservation. As one of our orators said recently.

"If you want to know which is white man's land, and which the Colville Reservation, look for the piles of stones. They will be on the reservation."

Mrs. Lloyd points out that there are scores of deserted cabins on the Colville Reservation, most of them being not — as many would insist — houses abandoned by lazy Indians, but former homes of white men.

Mrs. Lloyd sent her report on her survey to Senator C.C. Dill by air mail today.