The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Mr. Sells, issued a valuable report December 8, 1913. It covers the period from July 1, 1912, to June 30, 1913. In order that we may grasp the full significance of the work being done by the Indian Office, and the magnitude of the problems confronting us, it is necessary to present some statistics, taken from this report.
There are some 6,000 employees in the Indian Service, and 330,639 Indians. Among the Indians are included a great many mixed bloods and persons who have married Indian women. This swells the total, as I have pointed out on Page [21].
The property of these Indians is estimated by the Commissioner to be worth nearly $900,000,000. As competent observers in the State of Oklahoma claim the Indians have property there rising $500,000,000 in value, it is my candid opinion, after considering the Navaho, Crow, Sioux, Yakima, Apache and all other lands, minerals, timber, etc., in the United States, that the sum is probably nearer $1,200,000,000. There is also in the United States Treasury some $48,848,744 in cash.
There has been appropriated since the year 1881, and including the year 1914, this generous sum for the education, allotting, protection of Indians and the maintenance of the thousands of employees in the Indian Service, viz:—$263,623,004.01. This enormous sum properly and wisely expended from the year 1881 to the present time would have solved the Indian problem in the United States. But two great obstacles stood in the way—the politician in the East and the grafter in the West. The Honorable Commissioner cannot state in his report that it is due to these two influences that our Indian history is, beyond question, the darkest page in the general American history, but such a statement is absolutely correct.
Of these 330,000 Indians, 180,000 have received farms, or as the Indian Office calls them, allotments. 34,000,000 acres have been used for this purpose and there remain 39,000,000 acres. The Commissioner states that the timber held by Indians is worth $80,000,000.
Since 1876 the Government has spent $80,000,000 for schools and education, and there are now 223 Indian day schools on or near Indian communities; 76 boarding-schools on reservations and 35 non-reservation schools. There are 65,000 Indian children, and all go to school save 17,500 who are either defectives or unprovided for.
There are 25,000 Indians suffering from tuberculosis; yet there are but 300 beds in all the Indian hospitals. This is a condition that would not be tolerated outside of an Indian community in the United States, for twenty-four hours. Thirty-two per cent of the Indian deaths are due to pulmonary tuberculosis as against 12.02 per cent among the white people of the United States. 60,000 Indians suffer from trachoma. This eye disease was introduced by the lower class of European immigrants and it spread throughout nearly every Indian community.
“I find that the Indians have more than 600,000 acres of irrigable land, approximately 9,000,000 acres of other agricultural lands, more than 50,000,000 acres grazing lands, and that the Government has expended approximately $10,000,000 in connection with Indian irrigation projects.
“Many able-bodied Indians who have valuable lands are wholly or partially without seeds, teams, implements, and other equipment to utilize properly such lands. This is particularly true in several reservations where large sums of public or tribal funds have been used in constructing irrigation systems, and is in part the reason why such large areas of irrigable and other agricultural lands are not under cultivation.
“The valuable grazing lands of the Indians offer unusual opportunities for increasing the meat supply of the country, at the same time furnishing a profitable employment for the Indians as well as utilizing their valuable grazing lands. During the last year the Indians cultivated less than 600,000 acres of their vast area of agricultural lands.