The past forty years we have had statistics on Indian advancement in the Secretary of the Interior and Indian Office reports. Until late years, these were not detailed, but presented in condensed form the opinions of Agents, Superintendents and employees.
In 1908 the United States Board of Indian Commissioners published a table containing answers to twenty-six questions. The information is valuable and was of service to the Government in handling Indian problems. I do not reproduce the table here for the reason that excellent though it was, it omits protection of property, and vital statistics. Under my chapter devoted to health I have discussed, in a general way, the health of the Indians, but have not presented tables for the reason that I do not wish this book to become too statistical in character.
Feeling that none of the statistical and other reports submitted by Superintendents, Special Agents, Inspectors—or even the Honorable Commissioner himself—emphasized the phase of the situation which in my eyes seemed the most important, I have prepared a table of my own.
Two general questions might be asked every man and woman in the Indian Service, every educated Indian, and every person living in, or near, Indian communities. These are:
First. “Is the Indian citizen treated as the white citizen, or is he discriminated against?”
Second. “Has his moral, physical, financial and general well being increased or diminished, the past twenty years?”
On these two very pertinent and important questions hang the entire future of the American Red Race.
After some thought, I decided to obtain opinions from those who knew at first hand how our wards were progressing. The information I desired must cover all of the United States, where Indians now live. Naturally, it was confined to the region west of the Mississippi, with the exception of tracts in Wisconsin and Michigan.
The excellent table prepared by Commissioner Sells in his report of 1913 is based upon statistics sent in by Superintendents, teachers and physicians. Of necessity, it could not include statements or opinions of missionaries and other observers. It presents the views of employees in the Department.
After deliberation, a series of fourteen questions were prepared and addressed to upward of 300 men and women representing every reservation, Indian community, or school. Nearly half of these replied, and on pages [345] to [358] I have presented their comments grouped under these various questions. I have tried to make the questions sufficiently elastic to cover every phase of the subject. Specific requests applied to one section of the country, might be out of place in another. For instance, a series of questions concerning the Navaho, might not be answered intelligently if applied to the Ojibwa of Wisconsin.