“The immorality of our Indians, in my opinion is largely (probably seventy-five per cent) due to the presence of low Whites. Had the Indians been left alone seventy-five years longer; and had they been allowed to continue the time-honored custom of punishing crimes with the whip—they would be today easily and surely seventy-five per cent better men than they are. Here again we forgot that they were savages, absolutely impervious to really noble feelings, such as honor, and that it takes time and careful training to raise them to a higher level. Today, they are incapable of feeling the shame of a prison or penitentiary. When they come back from either, they are treated as heroes. Twenty-five years ago, a whipping solemnly, modestly, and moderately administered to those who had been guilty of thievery, adultery, fornication, gambling or drunkenness, was producing marvelous results. Two years ago, a deputation of Kootenay Indians came to beg me to write in their name to the Great Father (the President) and ask him to allow again the use of the whip. They said, ‘Tell the Great Father that our young men and women only laugh at the white punishments; it is the whip and the whip alone that kept us straight, and the same punishment alone will correct the generation.’

“Under the present circumstances I believe that the Government has at heart the welfare of its wards and is protecting them. There is only one flaw which I desire to bring to your notice. The real wards of the Government are the full-blood Indians, and they, more than the mixed-bloods, are entitled to the care of the Government, for many reasons, easy to understand; now, in point of fact, mostly all of them, on this reservation, are helpless. They are, if in good health, unable to understand their real interest, and to work as they should. In matters of business they are at the mercy of everyone who chooses to deceive them. But the number of those who are in health is very limited. The vast majority are old, crippled, blind or otherwise helpless. And those, I am sorry to say, are practically left unaided. They need food, raiment, shelter, they should be supported. As it is, they are practically thrown on the charity of the white people. Though possessed of lands, they are unable to draw any profit from them. Some appropriation is made yearly for those; but it is insufficient to furnish them with food, raiment and shelter. Means should be provided for that purpose. They are doomed to disappear, and in justice their last years should be made comfortable. The Government has been collecting large sums of money from the white settlers; why not dispose of some of this money liberally for the impotent full-blood Indians who are left in destitution, instead of spending it in improving the irrigation of the reservation, which improvement will never benefit the full-blood Indians who are disappearing, but will turn to the advantage of the mixed-bloods who have very little right to the land (some of them none at all) and who, on account of their superior intelligence got the very best part of the allotments at the time of the opening of the reservation. The condition of mostly all the full-bloods is pitiful. If they have leased their lands, it takes them an age to receive their money, the local Agent having no authority to disburse it, and the Indian Bureau being very slow in granting it. It seems to me that provision should be made in favor of destitute Indians to have them receive monthly some food, and a small sum of money to provide themselves with clothes, also to have them provided with decent houses and with fuel when they cannot get it themselves. No one but those who live on the spot have any idea of the privations which this class of full-bloods have to submit to, through no fault of theirs. It seems to me that this evil could easily be remedied. Some people seem to think that a monthly sum of money, $20, should be paid to each destitute Indian, with which he could easily provide for his needs; but knowing them as I do, I would prefer to see them receive only $10 or even $5 with rations, for if they get more money, they will spend it all in the first days of the month.”[[49]]

Correspondent, St. Augustins, Montana

CHAPTER XXVI. HEALTH OF THE INDIANS 1880 TO 1912

That the Indians of the present time are in a deplorable condition as to health, no person familiar with Indian affairs will deny. It is incomprehensible to me that the appropriations for combatting disease are so meagre, and the appropriations for allotting and education so lavish. As a western friend of mine, who had observed Indians for more than thirty years says, “Of what use is education to an Indian with consumption? An Indian child learns to read and write, contracts trachoma, is sent home and goes blind. How does education benefit the blind Indian?”

Doctor Ales Hrdlicka of the Smithsonian Institution recently made an investigation of health conditions among the Indians. His report is statistical in character, and will be found in Bulletin 42, Smithsonian Institution, 1909.

Following this, the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service made a thorough investigation in 1912–13 of health conditions among the Indians and published another statistical report, “Contagious and Infectious Diseases Among the Indians”, Document No. 1038, 62nd Congress, 3d Session. Investigations were conducted in twenty-five states by competent corps of medical observers. No trachoma was found in Florida. Among the New York Indians there was but .2 of one per cent; Wisconsin 6.86 per cent. In the other states the percentages rise rapidly, reaching 15.5 per cent in Minnesota; 22.38 per cent in New Mexico; 24.9 per cent in Arizona; 68.72 per cent in Oklahoma.

As to tuberculosis, but 1.27 per cent was observed among the New York Indians. But the investigation set forth in the Public Health report related mainly to trachoma and there were limitations placed on tuberculosis research.

SANATORIUM SCHOOL, FORT LAPWAI, IDAHO
No. 1. Superintendent’s house, employees, mess, and official guest room. No. 2. Commissary. No. 3. Laundry and Carpenter shop. No. 4. Employees’ dormitory (not completed when picture was taken). No. 5. Residence of physician, Nez Perce Agency. No. 6. Engineer’s residence. No. 7. Nez Perce Agency. No. 8. School building and chapel. No. 9. Girls’ building and dining-room. No. 10. Boys’ building. No. 11 and 12. Buildings belonging to school district No. 57. Nez Perce County. No. 13. Top of chimney, barely seen, office of the Sanatorium. No. 14 Employees’ quarters, Nez Perce Agency.