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[[stamp]] APR 9 1954 [[/stamp]]

Elbowoods, North Dak
April 6, 1954

Dear friend Jesse:

I received a copy of a letter today confirming appointment of members of the Income Tax Committee of N.C.A.I., send out by the President Joe R. Garry.

I am ready to go and hereby extend my cooperation as working member of this Committee--As I recall you planned to carry on most of the work through correspondence with Committee members. 

Since, there is no fund's available to defray your expenses as the head of this Committee, you will have to grin and bear it again.

Following comments might show my position.

I note that Members of this committee all come from Western States, where most of these Indians are still living in reservations and in semi-primitive in their status as yet. I would guess that income bracket of the Tribal members in these States are not sufficient per-individual to warrant exploration as a Tribe.

In President Garry's confirmation letter dated April 1, 1954, he suggests that, "We carry this fight against assessment of taxes on income derived from trust property on National basis rather than to leave individuals, or even tribes, to carry on responsibilities alone."

I do not get the point there but, I surmise that he means to lump all Indians together, whether they are full bloods or otherwise, and declare some sort of moratorium for all.

Let me tellof you an incident that happened here on the Fort Berthold Reservation. A General Council was held on March 19, 1954 wherein the topic of payment of Income Tax was raised by some of the would be attorneys of the reservation and as a Chairman of the Tribal Council I was expected to know all about the answers to this question. I was put on the defensive all the way through. I squirmed out of it by telling them that my knowledge of the question was nil.

There are four jurisdictions of Indian reservations in the State of North Dakota, and only Fort Berthed Reservation has members with sufficient income from bonus, gas and oil leases to qualify as income tax payers because of their income deriving from trust property. 

I know of one white man married to Indian woman, whom farms extensively on his wife lands, said that he fills out the income report on the Land on Income Tax form and simply writes out "exempted" on the form

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-11-01 14:20:42