Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  May 7, 1931

Indian Won't Serve As Chief

Muskogee, OK -- May 6

Chili Fish, Seminole Indian named by President Hoover as chief of his tribe for a day, has refused the honor, although he maintained that he and other Seminoles were loyal to the United States.

The Indian said he would not serve because of the closing of the Seminole Boarding School in Seminole county by the Indian office and also because he did not approve the policies of the commissioner of Indian affairs.

Fish, nominal chief of the Oklahoma Seminoles, speaks no English and presented his refusal and reasons in a letter written for him. Fish was named to sign a corrected deed to tribal property following a Government custom to name an official chief each year to transact routine business.

Agency officials here said the Indian school Chili Fish referred to had been closed because of a policy of sending Indian children to schools attended by white children to promote closer associations.