The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-10-20
AFFAIRS OF
THE INDIANS

Lake Mohonk Oct 2O.-Aftar Al
bert X Smiley had opened the 27th
annual meeting Of the conference of
Friends OF the Indians and other De
pendent Peoples. Elmer Brown. Com
missioner OF Education fer the 4. ).
was made president. Brown made a
brief address on the work among The
Alaska Indians.
Monhonk Lake, N Y. Oct. 20.-The
Lake Mohonk Conference for Friends
of the Indians and Other Dependent
People. met here today. r. G.. Nalen-
tine. Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
addressed the conference, saying in
part:
The people of the United Stai -
ought 10 know certain things about
their Indian bureau. They know today
too little about the two or three fun
damental principles in the light of
which all the multiform activities Of
the Indian service fall into well-ord-
cred array in an advance toward a
single goal. In the 1ninds of most peo-
pie the Indian service is a mere
hodgeposlge of activity. Indians are
going to this or thar kind of a school,
heing allotted. raising stock. working
in the words. learnin. To irrigate
drawing per capita payments in some
cases and rations iB others owning
bank accounts of all sizes from few
collars 10 many thousands, going to
church and engaging in pagan rites,
dealing shrewdly with trades or be-
coming an easy mark for them. he
veloping all kinds of diseases. getting
drunk and even keeping sober, Loaf
ing and making some of the best
workmen the United States possess
es. All these various activities are
kept in further confusion by the ka-
leidOscopic changes introduced by the
rapidly developing economic and so
cial life of the white people scattered
more and more around and through
the Indian country.
This apparent chaos i'm Indian af
fairs is only true superficiallv. II is
necessary fer the people AT large to
understand what the fundamental
principles governing the rsureau are
in order TO assist i'm bringing them 10
the surface and TO demand OF the In
dian bureau and of Congress their in
telligent and forceful application"
Continuing. Mr.. Valentine said thai
the Indian service was today wide op-
en- for the whole country for inspec-
ton. He said il was impossible fer
him TO hear and see all the good and
all the bad in the service personally.
and that il was necessary for Con
gress to give him to this end a corps
of thirty competent inspectors with
the necessary qualifications. Real SUI
perintendentS also were needed. These
suprintendents should be big men.
for Indian affairs above all Is a human
business. and to get good men ade-
Quate salaries must be paid.
1t is possible to do only two
things with the Indians" Mr.. Nalen-
tine went on. ito eXterminate them
or to make them into citizens. Our
present course is cross between
externination and citizenship II we
would escape a disgrace greater than
any which has attended this Indian
business yet we must stop at the be
ginning of this twentieth century and
think clearly about the Indians and
set ourselves resolutely 10 certain
clean and high courses. The whole A
merican people must do this thinking
and this course which the thinking OF
all the people will make clear de
mands OF US more than would he de
manded in the case of the backward