A Dead Man’s Name on the Payroll

William H. Embree, of Walla Walla, has filed in the office of the commissioner of Indian affairs charges against L. T. Erwin, agent of the Yakima Indians, of which charges a summary is given below:

1. That said L. T. Erwin had one Charles Adams using a government team hauling freight from Toppenish to the agency, paying him on a fraudulent voucher in the name of Simcoe Jim, dead several years. 2. That said L. T. Erwin took $15 out of the final pay of Charles Lombard and kept it, paying him that much less than his due. 3. That on February 3, 1894, Charles Adams used a four-horse team belonging to the government, hauling private freight from Toppenish, paid by a fraudulent voucher. 4. That on February 13, 1894, Charles Adams used a government team as specified in charge 3, and was paid in the same manner. 5. That on February 27, 1894, Charles Adams used a government team as specified in charge 3, and was paid in the same manner. 6. That Erwin has robbed the school, in this, that the amount of goods issued at each regular weekly issue is short of the amount named in the requisition, amounting to hundreds of pounds of beef and other goods. 7. That he has employed one Charles Adams as irregular carpenter at $3 per day, although said Adams is not now and never has been a carpenter or mechanic of any kind. 8. That said L. T. Erwin has paid said Adams for January, February and March as such irregular employee, while in fact he [Adams] did no more work than a competent man could do in ten days. In February he hauled private goods with a government team from Toppenish and spent eleven days in his room reading novels. 9. That Erwin committed perjury in swearing, in his report of employees in service, that said Adams had performed work during said three months, when in fact he had not worked to exceed ten days during the third quarter of 1894. 10. That during January, February and March, 1894, Erwin had a family consisting of himself and wife and seven children and a cook, ten persons, and part of the time six men boarders, an average of four during all the time, besides more or less visitors, from thirteen to fifteen persons being fed during the quarter. Practically all the provisions used in this great family were taken out of the commissary goods, including beef, lard, etc., and everything used in a boarding house, to an amount that could, under no circumstances, be less than $100 to $125 per month. That said Erwin used all his beef from the government supplier, and also fifteen or twenty cords of wood. As his account is less than $59, he took the balance from the commissary goods. 11. That the said L. T. Erwin has committed perjury in this, that he swore to his accounts on abstract 'E' as less than $59, when it should have been from $300 to $500. 12. That he defrauded the government in carrying on his papers only twelve hogs, when, in fact, there were eighteen in the school. 13. That the said L. T. Erwin killed ten hogs that were never weighed, nor was the lard, making about 2,500 pounds of meat and a corresponding amount of lard. The hams and lard were cured and taken by him. 14. That in May, 1894, he took one ham to his house and sent one to Mr. Banks' house, neither of which was weighed or accounted for. 15. That he attempted blackmail in this, that he conspired with one Maher, of North Yakima, to have said Maher write Mr. Clendenning, superintendent of the school, a civil service employee, and Mr. Embree, an agency employee, for a contribution of $25 or $50 each, for the ostensible purpose of sending a man to Washington City to prevent any adverse legislation to the civil service reform law. [See Maher's letters in the hands of the civil service commission.] 16. That he made indecent proposals to Miss Teeple, clerk in the postoffice at Toppenish, and threatened her with being put off the reservation, saying that she could not remain on the reservation without his consent. 17. That he carried one Ramsour on his roll of employees as an engineer, while in fact the said Ramsour knows nothing about engineering; that he keeps said Ramsour as a commissary clerk to cover up his peculations of commissary goods. 18. That the said L. T. Erwin obtained the consent of the Indian council in the Wenatchee fishery matter by clear and unquestionable misstatements of fact in this, that he claimed there were 125 Indians on said Wenatchee reservation to be allotted, absorbing 10,000 acres, and that there were therefore but 10,000 acres left to sell, and for that they would be paid $20,000, while in fact the agreement signed was for the full amount, or all their title and interest in said fishery reservation, and there were no Indians living on said reservation, and are none at the present time; and, further, that the signatures to this agreement were obtained by intimidation, misrepresentation and fraud, and other questionable means. 19. That Erwin willfully and maliciously deceived the commissioner of Indian affairs in falsely stating that W. H. Embree had been insubordinate and had disobeyed orders, knowing the accusation to be false and untrue. 20. That Erwin buys beef cattle of the Indians on foot for a specified amount per head and that he takes false vouchers for a much larger amount than actually paid to the Indians.