Your TR Source
President Roosevelt encloses a letter from George W. Reed that recommends the retention of Agent George H. Bingenheimer at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Roosevelt requests George Bird Grinnell’s opinion on the letter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-07-02
President Roosevelt thanks George Bird Grinnell for his report on an incident at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and writes at length on why it is difficult to appoint a non-local person as an Indian agent.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-06-13
President Roosevelt will take no action until hearing from Winthrop Murray Crane, but George Bird Grinnell has already been sent to investigate.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-05-01
President Roosevelt thanks George Bird Grinnell for his book on duck shooting and informs him that an investigation is being carried out at the Standing Rock Agency.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-28
President Roosevelt has heard that Samuel Brosius and the Indian Rights Association will pay George Bird Grinnell’s expenses if he goes to investigate the Standing Rock Agency. Roosevelt encourages Grinnell to go and to report back to him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-28
President Roosevelt encloses a letter from George Kennan regarding the Standing Rock Agency. Roosevelt wants action taken on Kennan’s statements and suggests sending George Bird Grinnell to investigate. Until such time as that might be possible, he asks that Kennan’s letter be sent to the inspector at Standing Rock, requesting a full report.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-22
President Roosevelt has been discussing potential land leases at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and is concerned that the leases will become “more than temporary expedients.” Roosevelt’s ultimate goal is to have Native Americans be “productive occupiers of their own lands.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-01-30
Responding to a request from President Roosevelt for a report regarding James H. Monteath’s service as an Indian agent, C. Hart Merriam encloses a letter and expresses his deep concern that Monteath and others like him are unfit for such service. Merriam appeals to the president’s sense of “justice and good government” to remove such men. He also expresses concern that George Bird Grinnell’s report regarding the Standing Rock Reservation was suppressed and not published.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-03-19
George B. Grinnell will travel to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation at the President’s request, although according to George Kennan’s letter, the President’s directions had apparently been lost in the mail.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-05-01
George Bird Grinnell will be traveling to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation but wishes to meet with President Roosevelt beforehand to ascertain his views and seek advice. Of special concern to Grinnell is the date that the Walker and Lemon leases were drawn up.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-05-03
George Bird Grinnell initially declined Samuel Brosius’s offer to investigate the conditions at Standing Rock Indian Reservation because traveling to the reservation is very inconvenient. However, if Grinnell is appointed by President Roosevelt to investigate, he will go out of a sense of duty. Grinnell suggests times when he can meet with the president the following week.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-05-01
George Kennan discusses the issue of government land leases with the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Kennan suggests that an outside investigator (George B. Grinnell), not someone from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, be sent to investigate the land leases on the reservation. He mentions an unnamed investigator whose testimony changed when in front of his superior. Kennan also mentions a letter from Mary C. Collins, a missionary, regarding admissions by Agent Bingenheimer that he has had published in the Outlook.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-28
George Kennan thanks George B. Cortelyou for correspondence relating to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Kennan is returning this letter, as well as enclosing one for President Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-28
Inspector Nesler is traveling to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation at the insistence of Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock, to investigate unfair land leases that have been forced upon the Indians. George Kennan suggests to President Roosevelt several knowledgeable people Nesler ought to consult in his investigation. The names provided include white missionaries and government officials and leading members of the Standing Rock community.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-27
Senator Kittredge previously asked President Roosevelt whether the lease of W. I. Walker of Standing Rock Indian Reservation could be executed, and Roosevelt asked him to respond to an article that had appeared in The Outlook about such leases. Kittredge now encloses Walker’s reply to the article by George Kennan on the leases at Standing Rock.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-23
George Kennan encloses a copy of the Russian folk tale “Napoleander” and writes with information from Mary C. Collins, a missionary at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, about the mishandling of land leases by Agent Bingenheimer. Bingenheimer argued to the Indians that the Commissioner forced him to act in this manner and that the leases were drawn up in Washington before the Indians met. Bingenhiemer said that if he had been allowed to speak freely before a Senate hearing, he would have given more information.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-23
Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock has an inspector at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to look into the controversy pertaining to land leases. He encloses a letter from George Kennan regarding these leases and asks President Roosevelt for a detailed answer as to what needs to be done. He argues that an investigation needs to be held related to the leases of Indian land.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-23
Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock encloses articles from the Outlook magazine pertaining to leases of land on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. A controversy is brewing over these leases and Hitchcock orders C. F. Nesler to investigate whether the Standing Rock Indians desire the lease and the propriety with which the government made the lease.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-22
W. I. Walker of Novelty Manufacturing Company is having difficulties with the land he has leased from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. According to Walker, there is no syndicate of cattle men as George Kennan argued in an article in The Outlook. He argues that the Standing Rock land is less beneficial than the Cheyenne territory, and when this is taken into account, the land cost was essentially the same. He argues that the Indians are fine with the agreement and that the taking of Indian cattle by white men will be less likely with the fence that he will put up. Walker argues that his money has been held up by the government.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-19
According to Mary C. Collins, Agent Bingenheimer was limited in his speech and actions with the Native Americans due to instructions from his superiors. Bingenheimer related to her that Commissioner Jones had the leases drawn up and boundaries determined, long before the meeting at which the Native Americans signed the leases.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-04-12