Honorable O. H. Lipps (at the time Mr. Lipps wrote he was in charge of Coeur D’Alene, Flathead and other Indians in the northwest.) Briefly summed up, his opinion is to the effect that the full-bloods are in the best condition; that white people are taking advantage of the Flatheads, but not of other Indians in his region. Few white men marry full-blood Indian women, but white men marry mixed-bloods for their property.
XIII. “I believe the Indian Department is doing all in its power to protect the Indians’ property; more could be done to protect his health.”
Mrs. Elsie E. Newton is one of the Supervisors in charge of health of the Indians. She has served for many years in the Indian Office, and is one of the most competent employees. I quote at considerable length from her letter.
VI. “I cannot answer this with precision as my knowledge of the Indian country, except in one or two localities, is less than ten years old.
“It can be said, however, that even in five years there has been a great change in the environment of the Indian, with few exceptions. The Whites have settled pretty well in and around him and have diffused ideas which in time he is bound to adopt in more or less degree. I speak of matters of dress, food, shelter, etc. The superficial aspect of his life is changing. In like manner, his attitude toward law, morals, etc., are being modified. It appears that he is going through that period of transition, forgetting the old code of life, or at least not regarding it, and yet not dominated by the new. This transition period is always one of distinct loss both in moral force, and achievement. From this point of view, he is not as well off today as he was ten years ago, but until he has passed through the critical period, it is unfair to make comparison by years merely.”
VII. “Immorality is a relative term. Certain Indian tribes had moral codes under which they lived and lived acceptably, or morally. Those codes differed and the difference in them marks the diversity of the general condition of those tribes today. Thus we find the Crows deteriorating while the Northern Cheyennes, living practically next door, are still good stock. The sexual morality of the former is low compared to that of the latter.
“Few Indians practice monogamy after the Anglo-Saxon ideal—one partner only, and one partner for life. Divorces are common and frequent; even so, one finds few prostitutes among the best tribes, and promiscuity is not common. Even in the lower tribes where promiscuity is common, the prostitute is not. Such tribes have still the remnants of phallicism in their ceremonies.
“The state of morals is not due so much to the presence of low Whites, generally speaking, as it is to the fact mentioned above, that the tribal authority has become loosened, their own social restraints have disappeared, and there is no definite code, or its enforcement succeeding. The Federal law has never covered the ground on reservations where it retained jurisdiction and where the Indians are citizen allottees, the State does not exert itself to exercise control; local judicial machinery is reluctant to punish infractions of the law, partly because the community concerns itself very little with offences of the kind among Indians themselves, and partly because of the expense involved in prosecutions, in which Indians bear no share by taxation.
“As regards that morality which is designated honesty, I hardly believe that the word of an Indian today is as good, man for man, as in the previous generation. Traders would be more competent to give testimony on this point, because in their business they have learned whom to trust and whom to suspect.
IX. “The white man is more likely than not to take advantage of an Indian where his own advantage is concerned. This is due as much to the innate pushing quality of the Whites, as the corresponding retiring quality of the Indian. It is frequently a racial rather than a moral matter. It is often a matter of mere competition between Whites. For instance, I once had a conversation with a bank official in an Indian country, where banks were discounting Indian notes at an impossible usurious rate. The man was highly respected in the community, well regarded for honesty, a church worker, and in my own opinion a good, typical American. We discussed the matter reasonably, and he concluded by saying, ‘I suppose this sort of thing seems unpardonable to you,’ and when I acquiesced, he continued, ‘We look at it about this way,—if we do not get the Indian’s money, some one else will.’ The Indian makes no resistance to such treatment, partly through inability, partly through unambition.