The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-23

Washington, Jan-The familiar old idea that something is going 10 be done for the American Indians always turns out to be the same old ] mirage.
 The reformers who insist that the Indians are not getting deceAt treatment are only matched in their logged persistency by the burean- crats of the Indian bureau who do not seem to change their policies. At least the friends of the 3OO.- 900 Indians under federal jurisd.c- ton are again squawking to that effect. Possibly they deserve some attention, because when MT Hoover
 became president he eased out the commissioner and assistant commis- sioner of Indian affairs and install- ed couple of noble citizens who were expected to bring about great change.
 Unfortunately. those critics who used to plan Commissioner Burke and his regime have begun to com
  Assistant Commissioner Scattergood have made no Improvements at all and that the poor, Indians, long ac- customod to neglect and abuse. are as badly off as ever.
 Charges against superintendents
 of reservations and agencies includ-
 ed accusations of graft, neglect,
 cruelty ans gross incompetence of all
 varieties. Such charges were so or
 ten proved that it was commonly
 supposed many of the Indian bureau
 employees would be fired and a
 change of policy effected. The idea
 was that 1t would be a finething if
 the government could choose an oc-
 ca sional superintendent who would
 have some sympathy with the h.
 dians. But instead of sending guilty
 superintandents to jail--or discharg-
 ing the,n---the Indian bureau recent
 ly issued {. public statement to the
 effect that more Indians ought to be
 in jail; that is, that they ought to
 be made more easily subject to
 punishment under the white man S
 laws.
 Congress won't do anything about
 the Indians this session, of course,
 which presumably means this year:
 It's mem hers, who have always tried to help the Indians, can only pro- test, as Usual. The senate Indian Affairs committee, after years of struggle .or an investigation, was authorized to inquire into conditions On the reservations and unearthed much shocking evidence. But 1t can only make it's report and recoT- mend legislation, for which the time IS inadequate in this congress The most noticeable effect of the investigation thus far appears to be that cited by Senator Frazier of North Dakota, chairman of the com- mittee. who says that superintend- ents whose dismissal was recom- mended unanimously by his investi- gating subcommittee are still on the job, rutting on the government payroll Indians who testified in their behalf and making things harder than ever for the Indians who pro- tested the treatment they had re-
 ceived. Senator King of Utah says at least one fourth of the present D. l'OO0 bureau employees ought to he discharged and that the administrd- ton of Indian affairs should then
 be carried out in accordance with
 humanitarian instincts.
 "I believe that Rhoads had a sin cere desire to improve the condi- tions of tie Indians" he says. but I fear that he has been unable to throw off .he bureaucratic net which envelops every person who en- ters into federal departments and bureaus. The Indians are wards or the federal government, but on many reservations they are no be'- ter off than they were many years ago. And nothing is being done
 about it. Their lack of progress IS
 almost entirely due to the 1neff- ciency of the bureau and those con-