Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: Malfeasance or Indirection [California Indian Superintendency] Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection # of Pages: 12 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-09-03 22:12:09 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:22:44 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:22:44

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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The Historical Society of Southern California intendent to the Tule River Farm were supplied at $13,500 above their market value,” Perhaps realizing an error in the handling of Beale’s case, bureau officers moved cautiously, Henley’s accounts were suspended and department clerk Goddard Bailey detailed to “‘investigate the official conduct of Superintendent Henley.’’*" Arriving in California, Bailey found Browne’s charges concerning the mill essentially correct but in need of qualification. Henley, first of all, had gained nothing financially from the transaction. Moreover, accounts of starvation were ‘‘mere rumors,” although the lack of stores had caused ‘“‘oreat suffering.” Concerning the sale of cattle. Bailey confirmed Browne’s report. Henley had used his position to effect the sale of “inferior and worthless cattle, ostensibly purchased from third parties, but in reality owned by himself.” Goods were also generally purchased above the market price, according to Bailey. Provisions for Mendocino were “charged to the government at a large advance upon the cost, the profits enuring to the benefit of the Superintendent.” Specifically, potatoes were bought at $2,000 above the going rate in the spring of 1857. And herein Bailey found one reason for the high cost of the reservation policy in California and perhaps even the failure to “civilize” the Indians. To compound matters, Henley had not maintained adequate accounting records. As Bailey observed, “. . . it is impossible to trace his disbursements . «oat Col. Henley had accepted office for the purpose of defrauding the Government he could not have devised a system better calculated to baffle investigation, than that which obtains in every branch of the business of this Superintendency. wee, reports of Browne and Bailey were not conclusive evidence of fraud, they were certainly an indication of poor fiscal administration and a lack of propriety. Not only had Henley failed to administer fiscal affairs properly but reports began to reach Washington that he was failing in his duty to “civilize” the Indians. Bailey, for example, concluded “.. . the reservations are simply government alms-houses, where an inconsiderable number of Indians are insufficiently fed and scantly clothed.” The Alta California, speaking of the Tejon Reservation, asserted “it has been badly managed, as have all the California Indian Business Affairs Indian affairs in this country.” “The appointment of Col. Henley,” continued the editor, “had a tendency to impede the progress of the attempted Indian civilization.”” At the same time Henley and his agents filed conflicting reports. Vincent Geiger in charge of Nome Lackee wrote, “This reserve . . . has probably fulfilled its mission. . . . To quiet Indian disturbances, give safety tolives and property ...and prepare a place for the support and protection. . . .”” Henley, too, stated, “The Indians are well satisfied and the Employes [sic] industrious and attentive to their duties.’’*° Suspecting removal, Henley moved to justify his conduct. The mill, he wrote, was on land “particularly desirable for settlement” which “‘should not be selected for Indian purposes.”’ White pressure for Indian land was, thus, eased in the mill’s construction, since the mill had satisfied the demand, yet being on the edge of the reserve, kept whites at some distance, Concerning the issuance of stores, they were merely a loan which had been repaid. The transaction, reported Henley, had no serious effect, except * in the minds of those ‘‘who are not acquainted with the habits of the Indian.” But in the end, he admitted the mill was “‘an error in Judgement.” Henley also denied he had inflated vouchers as men of “‘character beyond reproach” would testify. Browne, it seemed to Henley, had been governed by an “almost insane anxiety to prove something against me.” The potato incident was attributed to Sub-agent H. L. Ford. Butasa final justification, Henley called attention to the fact that, since the California colonization policy was an experiment, unorthodox procedures were sometimes necessary. Sifting all the conflicting statements, Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson discounted the superintendent’s reports. So did Commissioner J. W. Denver, who concluded “the Indian reservation policy . . . has wholly failed to accomplish the beneficent purposes for which it was inaugurated.” The reason for the failure, wrote Thompson, was the “mismanagement and neglect of our employes.” Denver concurred. “All the operations,” it appeared to him, “‘seem to have been more or less characterized by want of system, administrative ability and faithfulness on the part of the principal officers and agents.’’”* Removal of an officer [283 7