Robert Leland Papers

I first met Robert Leland in the summer of 1965 when he was in Washington, D.C. working on the water rights problems of the Pyramid Lake Paiutes. He called the office of the National Congress of American Indians, where I had been working late, and invited me to meet him for coffee and conversation. We talked until the restaurant closed and in a short evening he was able to provide me with a fascinating background of the tribe, its current problems, and its future potential. Additionally, Bob was able to present such a vivid picture of the politics of the tribe that several years later when I was able to visit Nevada and meet with the tribal council, I was well-prepared to speak to some of their most pressing concerns.

Over the years then, I came to rely on Bob's counsel and advice on many technical problems and we became good friends, keeping in touch long after our lives changed radically and he was retired and I was teaching in a university. During the course of our close professional relationship I came to learn that Bob had been a stalwart supporter of the National Congress of American Indians, regardless of which political faction happened to be in office, and that he had always made it a point to come to the NCAI conventions and assist the delegates in drafting resolutions, in discussing national issues, and in promoting the growth of this national Indian organization. His close attention to detail was of considerable value in the days of termination when proposed legislation containing many innocent-appearing phrases actually had the seeds of destruction contained within them.

In the spring of 1967 John Belindo, who was heading the NCAI office in Washington, D.C., was able to smuggle a draft of the much heralded but secret "Omnibus Bill" out of Interior. This proposal was Stewart Udall's major effort in Indian legislation but it had some dreadful provisions, most notably it would have allowed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to mortgage tribal trust land to secure funds for economic development. It was dangerous in that many suspicious characters hovered around the Bureau seeking to gain concessions of Indian lands, water, and resources and allowing mortgages to be out on tribal lands would have opened the chicken coop to the great variety of predators waiting outside.

We had to quickly reach a consensus on how to respond to this proposal and so I called a special secret meeting in Denver to analyze the bill. Robert Leland was the only tribal attorney asked to attend this meeting. I was well aware that almost every other tribal attorney would have taken the draft bill, slipped out of the meeting, and contacted his tribes and claimed credit for having unmasked this Interior proposal. I knew, however, that Bob Leland would be more interested in helping us devise a strategy to stop the proposal than he would in getting credit for exposing it. It is a singular tribute to Bob's integrity that not a word of our meeting or strategy leaked out until we were prepared to oppose the bill and at no time, even when the fight against its approval was the most desperate, did Bob ever try to claim credit for his help even though his help was considerable.

So he was a man of rare personal integrity, and a good friend besides. What struck me most about Bob was his willingness to give support to the good people within the tribe in their time of real depression. He never abandoned any of them even if they were not in office at the time and he really cared for this little tribe of Paiutes and gave a good deal of himself to them in many ways. His papers show the broad scope of this research and concern and illustrate for future scholars and historians the nature of Indian life and political problems during the last half of this century.

I am honored that Bob's family has asked me to write a little introduction to be included with his papers in the University of Nevada, Reno library. I am certain that people using these papers will be guided by the warm, wise, and generous spirit of Robert Leland as they see him emerge in his correspondence and research. He was quite a man and I am pleased to have been included among his friends.

Vine Deloria, Jr. Tucson, Arizona