During the 60 years we are reviewing 12 Presidents, 30 Congresses, 21 Secretaries of the Interior, and 16 Commissioners of Indian Affairs participated in the task broadly defined as the Federal administration of Indian affairs. The changes in the executive and legislative personnel were generally followed by changes in executive and legislative Indian policies. The annals of the six decades under consideration disclose a shifting national Indian policy and a succession of varying Indian Bureau programs. Nevertheless, the responsible Federal authorities have always kept in mind as the chief objective of the national administration of Indian affairs the complete absorption sooner or later of the American Indians into the body politic of the Nation. The big fact which stands out as the predominant development in our retrospect of the past six decades is the progress of the American Indians since 1869. The advance they have made is the more remarkable when it is remembered that there are living to-day old tribesmen whose great-grandfathers were aborigines who never had seen a piece of iron or steel, who never had heard of strange whiteskinned people. In 1869, according to the records, most of the tribes west of the Mississippi River were in the cultural stage known to ethnologists as "higher barbarism." Many of these tribes were characterized in the Indian Office reports of that time as "barbarians," " "savages," "wild men," and "untamed nomads." There will be found no savages, wild men, or untamed nomads among our American Indians to-day. Some of our full bloods retain much of the primitive in their conception of life and in their ways of thinking and doing, and many Indians, still influenced by aboriginal complexes, refuse to adapt themselves to the new order of things in some particulars, but many more have most or all of the attributes of our modern civilization. It is a disconcerting commentary upon our national intelligence that the general American public is lamentably ignorant of the true Indian situation. It seems to entertain the notion that most of the Indians in the United States are painted, feathered, war-whooping savages, animated museum specimens supported in some mysterious way by the Government and rather useful as picturesque embellishments of the landscape for the kodaking and edification of the ubiquitous "tin-can" tourists, or as local color for movie thrillers and" gripping" novels of the wide-open spaces. BULLETS AND BALLOTS When President Coolidge approved with his signature the Indian citizenship act of June 2, 1924, he certified in effect that the American Indians had been merged into the body politic of the United States. All Indians are citizens and thousands of them went to the polls and cast their ballots in the last presidential election. Some of the old full-blood Indian voters of 1928 were the same redmen who were officially classed as "barbarians," "savages," and "wandering nomads" in 1869 when Indian wars and Indian raids kept the United States Army busy in the West. The difference between the Indians of 60 years ago and the Indians of to-day is comparable with the difference between bullets and ballots; the difference between semibarbarism and civilization. Com paring the hostile, raiding, hunter-stage Indians who worried the Government six decades ago, with our Indian fellow citizen of the present, affords striking contrasts that may be used to measure the degree of progress the Indian people has made. Here are some of the significant contrasts between then and now: War between the races has been forever abolished by the peace which is the normal status of a united citizenry; Army posts have been transformed into Indian schools and hospitals, war paths into railroads, and hunting trails have widened into National and State highways; tepees and wigwams have made way for houses, ranging from undesirable shacks and modest cottages to $50,000 mansions; the scalping knife has been relegated to the museum and the can opener has come into the Indian kitchen; doeskin leggins have been discarded for creased trousers and buckskin moccasins for rubber-heeled shoes; the medicine man has yielded to the skilled physician and the medicine woman to the trained nurse; the little Indian has been taken out of the papoose board and now is rolled about in the baby carriage; the rhythm of the Indian tom-tom and drum times the steps in the jazz and fox trot at Indian dances; where the buffalo once ranged Indian-owned cattle now graze; the great tribal hunting grounds have been plotted off by the wire fences of Indians and white men's farms and pastures; the pony dragged travois has been put aside for the automobile and farm wagon. More Indian money to-day is spent for gasoline than the Indians of 60 years ago spent for rum, and the less than 5,000 Indian children who were induced to attend schools in 1869 have expanded into an army of over 70,000 Indian school children, whose parents want them to be taught. Missionaries on reservations, teaching and living the Christian religion, had much to do with forwarding Indian progress. Many of them served as Indian agents, doctors, and teachers. Missionaries not infrequently proved to be stanch protectors of Indians against designing white men, and sometimes against corrupt Indian agents. The earlier reports of Commissioners of Indian Affairs carried many references to the work of Christian missionaries. THE OUTLOOK The 60 years of Federal and Indian relations we are reviewing began with President Grants' inauguration, March 4, 1869, and ended, chronologically speaking, March 4, 1929, when President Hoover entered the White House and you took up the onerous duties of your high office. Soon after your installation we were privileged to confer with you on the broader aspects of the future administration of Indian affairs and you laid before us an outline of a policy of Indian administration you had in mind; it read as follows: The fundamental aim of the Bureau of Indian Affairs shall be to make of the Indian a self-sustaining, self-respecting American citizen just as rapidly as this can be brought about. The Indian shall no longer be viewed as a ward of the Nation but shall be considered a potential citizen. As rapidly as possible he is to have the full responsibility for himself. Leadership should be given the Indians rather than custodianship. The Indian stock is of excellent quality. It can readily merge with that of the Nation. In order to bring this about it will be necessary to revise our educational program into one of a practical and vocational character and to mature plans for the absorption of the Indian into the industrial and agricultural life of the Nation. Decentralization of the activities of the bureau shall be brought about as rapidly as possible. Viewed over a term of years, the Indian agent, as such, with his abnormal powers, shall be dispensed with. In so far as it is feasible the problems of health and of education for the Indians shall become a responsibility of the various States. Certain assistance for these purposes should be provided the States wherever it is equitable and desirable to do so. New Indian schools should only be provided if it is not possible to merge the training of the Indian into the school system of the States. In so far as it is possible scholarships in the institutions of higher learning of the country shall be provided for those Indian boys and girls who are capable of going beyond the ordinary high-school training. The educational program for the Indian should be placed under the supervision of the Bureau of Education. The health program should be placed under the Public Health Service. In so far as it is possible, except on a few large reservations that are appropriate for a satisfactory life for the Indians, there should be continued allotment of land with full ownership rights granted to the Indians. It shall be the aim to provide employment for Indians for all occupations possible in connection with Indian communities. The general policy should be to increase the facilities for the care and development of the Indian for a short period of time, with the general plan in mind of eliminating the Indian Bureau within a period of, say, 25 years. No new appointments should be made in the Indian Bureau except in following out the above program. In so far as it is possible general legislation and general appropriations from Congress shall be sought, rather than specific legislation for specific Indian groups or to solve individual Indian questions. A survey shall be made of all existing laws with which the Indian question is involved, so that proper laws can be drawn rescinding former actions which are no longer necessary, and an adequate legislative program developed for the future. This policy should meet the general approval of fair-minded, forward-looking friends of the Indian people. Its objective is plainly disclosed in the opening paragraph of the statement, "to make the Indian a self-sustaining, self-respecting American citizen just as rapidly as this can be brought about." For many years we have taken the position that the underlying purpose of the Indian Service should be to hasten the progress of the Indians toward their absorption into the body politic of the Nation as unrestricted, self-sustaining American citizens, the equals in all respects of our average American citizenry. We are gratified to find this thought emphasized in your policy outline as "the fundamental aim of the Bureau of Indian Affairs." In your pronouncement you have indicated a working program to effectuate a policy of acceleration which would call for the speeding up of enlarged Indian Service activities purposed to bring nearer the time when all Indians will be prepared to step out from under the supervisory care of the Federal Government, and the Indian Bureau will pass out of existence. Obviously, a program with this purpose will require the cooperation of Congress because there would be need of largely increased appropriations for a comparatively short time to adequately finance the carrying on of the augmented and intensified activities. We are in hearty accord with you in your policy program in the main; its general purpose is in line with progressive ideals concerning the future of the Indians and it presents a hopeful outlook. It is too much to expect, however, that every part of the policy and its program will receive unanimous approval. We refer particularly to the propositions to transfer to the States the responsibilities involved in the problems of health and education for the Indians and to continued allotment of lands with "full ownership rights granted to the Indians." As to Federal and State relations concerning the Indians who are under Indian Service supervision we have taken the position that this question is of such momentous importance to the Indians themselves that it should be given the gravest consideration before the transfer of the health, education, and welfare activities of the Indian Service to the several States having Indian population is incorporated in a Federal Indian policy. In this connection we beg leave to invite your attention to our report for the year 1927, in which we present our views on this subject. We have found no valid reason to justify a change in the position we took then. We doubt the advisability of adopting as a fixed part of a Federal Indian policy the proposition that there should be continued allotment of lands" with full ownership rights granted to the Indians." We raise this question because the history of the Indians since 1887, when the general allotment act (the Dawes Act) was passed, conclusively shows that the average Indian and his property are soon parted after he is given a patent in fee to his allotment-that is land with full ownership rights. We beg leave to cite what was called "The New Declaration of Policy," promulgated and put into effect in 1917 and which "turned loose" more than 10,000 Indians in three years with generally unsatisfactory results, so unsatisfactory that the policy was terminated by the Secretary of the Interior in 1921. We have taken the position that before a restricted Indian is given unrestricted possession of his allotment, excepting where a patent in fee automatically follows the termination of the trust period, the department should carefully investigate his case and determine whether he has demonstrated his ability to manage his own affairs without requiring the supervisory care and protection of the Indian Service. In short, we are of the opinion that the process of turning an Indian loose should be an individual, not a wholesale operation. We fear, therefore, that if the remaining unallotted Indians are allotted their lands with full ownership grants the consequences will be identical with the unsatisfactory results of the group policy of 1917, which made certain degrees of blood status the only prerequisite for granting Indians patents in fee instead of individual qualifications. An annual report is supposed to cover but one fiscal year. In the preparation of this Sixtieth Annual Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners, and having in mind the advent of a new administration, we studied the recorded history of Federal and Indian relations for the past six decades and have set down, in convenient form for your consideration, the outstanding happenings which have led to making the Indian situation of to-day. A reading of this outline of 60 years of Indian history may offer suggestions concerning Indian administration which will be helpful to you and to all other friends of the Indians. In following the course of the National Government in its efforts to manage Indian affairs we found that experimentation was a necessity in the earlier days for the Indian Service had no precedents to guide it; the early Indian Service administrators were pioneers. 70301-29-2 It is small wonder that the annals of the Indian Service disclose many mistakes, numerous blunders, veering policies, and disconnected, unrelated programs. The experimental experiences of the Indian Service enabled its administrators to discover the right ways and the wrong ways of doing things; they learned that all the methods they found in use when they grappled with the Indian situation should not be thrown into the scrap heap, and that they got further through the slower process of evolution rather than by adopting drastic changes in policies and programs. We take considerable satisfaction in the belief, engendered by your evolutionary policy, that you intend to use all the good which you found in the Indian Service as the foundation for the program to be followed in effectuating your policy of acceleration. In connection with this work we present to you the review of six decades of Indian administration which follows these pages, and we offer you, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the cooperative services of the Board of Indian Commissioners in working out a practical solution of the Indian problem which has vexed, puzzled, baffled, and challenged the National Government ever since it took up for itself the dual rôle of guardian and trustee of the Indian people. FIRST DECADE, 1869–1878 Indian hostilities arouse Nation. Grant's Peace Policy. Indians "halter broke" but not "bitted." Grafting Indian agents. Grant appoints agents named by churches. Congress ends treaty making with tribes. When President Grant took hold of the reins of the Government March 4, 1869, he was confronted with an Indian situation which bedeviled the West and bewildered Washington. Indians were on the warpath in several parts of the Great Plains fighting, raiding, and ambushing white men, and at war with each other. Many of the large tribes which were not openly hostile were sullenly passive, waiting only for a good chance to jump their reservations and raise the warwhoop. Eastern newspapers called the Indians "red devils," "skulking redskins," "treacherous savages," and "bloody barbarians." During the Civil War some of the larger tribes had broken away from agency control and their depredations forced the Government to withdraw more than 8,000 troops from the front to send them into the West to protect the settlers. In 1867 Congress, at the request of President Johnson, had authorized him to appoint an Indian Peace Commission to inquire into the causes of the numerous wars and widespread hostilities which were keeping the western country in a state of unrest and constant apprehension. The commission consisted of eight men, four of whom were Army officers. One of the four civilians was the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Gen. Wil |