Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1908-02-27

NEARING CITIZENSHIP.
Secretary Of the |nterlory Issues LII.
slruetions to Agents as fellows:

son May ) 1907 an office letter
was sent you, signed by the Act
ing Commissioner. calling upon
yon for a list of The Indians under
your jurisdiction who were sutiie-
icntIy capable OF transacting their
own business to Justify the Dept
i'm permitting them to lease their
allotmcnts and collecting the rem
tai thcrcfron without Dept
mental supervision.
ut is my wish now to extend
this idea step further by giving
Indians who show amy fair de
gree of competency chance to
handle their own money derived
from other sources than rents.
This would include their receipts
from the sale of inherited land as
we'll as of allotment timber and
the like. In the experiment am
proceeding upon the principle
that an Indian kept perpctuaIly
tied to the government. as an in
FAINT is tied to its mother, will
never learn to 90 alone. The
most important lessons any of us
learn i'm life are derived from OK
perience. and the proGtablcness of
these lessons comes quite as
often from our mistakes as
from our success perhaps oftener
AS you have been informed i'm "a
former, | make the test OF capacity.
in deciding whether an Indian
shall have his allotment in fec.
the question whether he under
stands the nature of his acts and
their consequence. In other
words, Does he know what he is
doing, and is he aware that when
he has once parted with his pro-
perty, he cannot recover it again.
II realize that this is a. marked
departure from the old practice
of coddling the Indian and treat
ing him forever as if he were Il
child, or d ward, net only under
care but completely under the
control of his guardian. Some
one at some time, is bound to
make break in that traditional
policy and practice of govern
ment. believe that no better
time could be found to do it than
now, and chat the welfare of the
Indian race is so largely depend
ent upon such chance that
should be lacking in my duty if l
did not make it tduriag my admin
istration.
'.Altho relief from the care of
and responsibility for the money
received by his Indians would
gradually reduce the material
beurdens of an Agent or .,upt, /
should not wish him to consider
himself absolvcd from the very
important obligation of advice and
guidance to the people in his
charge. | should wish them TO
feel free at all times to come to
him, as now, and ask his counsel
and such assistance as he can
properly give them in the handel
ING of their affairs; and / should
wish him to keep an eye upon the
Indians who were testing the
effects of independence as upon
those who were still in leading
strings, with view to proaering
advice even where it is not asked.
If he sees one of them in danger
of a serious mistake. In short.
in my effort to create bridge
which shall lead our Indian brother
across the chasm that now separ-
ates his artificial status as a quasi
ward from his natural and proper
status as a free American citizen.
| wish to make the transition as
simple for him as possible and to
reduce the perils of the situation
TO minimum as far as he will
heed the good words OF those who
know more than he does. His
feet will be surrounded with pit
falls and it is expecting too much
much of human nature to think
that he will not slip into some of
them; but | would bespeak for
him, thru the Agents and Sup't's
everywhere warning hint or a
helping hand when occasion actu-
ally requires either.
'sAny comments or suggestion
with which you may care to ac-