“The Government is further at a disadvantage in having to educate a politician about every three years to take charge of the Indian Bureau. An experienced field man should always be in this position.
“The attempt to put Indians in public schools while finally desirable and necessary is at present a failure in most places and should be pushed with the greatest care, meantime supporting Indian schools until such time as the Indian is in shape to attend public schools of a type better than we have now.
“The theory of administration is sound if it were followed up by experienced men, who were content to follow a policy already promulgated instead of hunting for new ideas to be called their own.”
Correspondent, Sisseton. South Dakota
“Continually giving things gratis does not make them appreciate what is being done for them, but rather makes them inert and destroys all ambition. It looks rather strange to see yearly thousands of dollars spent in educating these poor children of the desert in distant and magnificent schools. Thousands of well-to-do white parents could not even think of giving their children such a change.
“Sooner or later the taxpayers of the United States will object to having their hard-earned money thus spent. And, if by that time the Indians have not learned to help themselves, depend on themselves, and make a living for themselves, and support their children, then their future will be hopeless.”
Correspondent, Phoenix, Arizona
“The building of homes would suggest the necessity for material which the forests would furnish in abundance. Study of the men would suggest the necessity of regular employment as a proper discipline leading to civilization. Mills should have been established and the men set to work turning the forests into lumber as fast as it was needed for lumber, and a sufficient over-plus to pay the men for their work, and all other expense of operation.
“The warming of the homes and other buildings would suggest the necessity of fuel; the barbaric improvidence of the Indian would be overcome by setting a time when every able-bodied man must go to the woods and gather a year’s supply of fuel for his home, as well as for all the public institutions.
“The need of clothing, blankets, etc., and the peculiar abilities of the Indian women as evidenced in their beadwork, rush mats, and grass baskets, together with the wide acres of grazing lands, would suggest the raising of sheep and the establishment of mills for the manufacture of woolens.