48 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



visitation to the tomb of Lewis Henry Morgan, where appropriate 

 memorial exercises were conducted. Indians from each of the Six 

 Iroquois Nations gave addresses in English and in their own native 

 tongues. Miss Elsie Elm, an Oneida, sang in the Oneida language 

 a hymn of invocation and Reverend Honyost gave the benediction 

 in his native Oneida. A report of the proceedings of these me- 

 morial exercises was published by Morgan Chapter. 



New York State Indian Welfare Society. This society came into 

 being in November 19 19 as an expansion of the Onondaga Society. 

 It is composed of members of the various Iroquois tribes in New York 

 and their citizen friends. It represents an attempt of the pro- 

 gressive Indians of the State to get together on matters of the common 

 tribal needs of the Iroquois. At the semiannual conferences statis- 

 tical records and accounts are given of reservation conditions and 

 progress; historical accounts, appeals to progress, and other per- 

 tinent matters are discussed. 



The members of the society are in general the progressive leaders 

 of their several tribes, and with the influence of the society back 

 of them have achieved some remarkable results. Conferences 

 have been held in Syracuse, Rochester, Malone and on the several 

 adjacent reservations. 



New York State Indian Commission. During the year this 

 commission, of which the Archeologist of the State Museum is 

 secretary, visited all the Iroquois reservations in the State and con- 

 ducted councils with the Indians. The object of this visitation 

 was to acquaint the members of the commission, most of whom 

 are members of the Legislature, with the actual conditions on the 

 New York reservations and to listen to the representations of the 

 people living on them. 



It appears that the precise status of the New York Indians has 

 never been legally determined. This causes confusion in legal 

 matters and it is now questioned whether the State ever had a right 

 to pass legislation covering the New York tribes. Certain opinions 

 of the Attorney General seem to indicate that some of the tribes, 

 if not all, are to be regarded as independent governments with whose 

 internal affairs neither the State nor the Nation may interfere. 

 If the courts sustain this opinion we must then admit that these 

 Indian domains are not in the State but " surrounded by it." The 

 Indians contend that they were never within the State and never 

 subject to its jurisdiction. The Indian Commission, of which 

 Assemblyman E. A. Everett is chairman, has this difficult situation 

 to adjust. 



