OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS
First. To promote and coöperate with all efforts looking to the advancement of the Indian in enlightenment which leave him free, as a man, to develop according to the natural laws of social evolution.
Second. To provide through our open conferences the means for a free discussion on all subjects bearing on the welfare of the race.
Third. To present in a just light the true history of the race, to preserve its records and emulate its distinguishing virtues.
Fourth. To promote citizenship and to obtain the rights thereof.
Fifth. To establish a legal department to investigate Indian problems and to suggest and to obtain remedies.
Sixth. To exercise the right to oppose any movement that may be detrimental to the race.
Seventh. To direct its energies exclusively to general principles and universal interests, and not allow itself to be used for any personal or private interest. The honor of the race and the good of the country shall be paramount.
CHAPTER IX
THE INDIAN'S HEALTH PROBLEM
The physical decline and alarming death-rate of the American Indian of to-day is perhaps the most serious and urgent of the many problems that confront him at the present time. The death-rate is stated by Government officials at about thirty per thousand of the population—double the average rate among white Americans. From the same source we learn that about 70,000 Indians in the United States are suffering from trachoma, a serious and contagious eye disease, and probably 30,000 have tuberculosis in some form. The death-rate from tuberculosis is almost three times that among the whites.
These are grave facts, and cause deep anxiety to the intelligent Indian and to the friends of the race. Some hold pessimistic views looking to its early extinction; but these are not warranted by the outlook, for in spite of the conditions named, the last three census show a slight but continuous increase in the total number of Indians. Nor is this increase among mixed-bloods alone; the full-blooded Indians are also increasing in numbers. This indicates that the race has reached and passed the lowest point of its decline, and is beginning slowly but surely to recuperate.