The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-01-26
BY MAX STERN
Times stan Writer

WASHINGTON. Jan. 26.-Along
with the millions Of their white
brothers. a quarter million Ameri-
can Indians are looking with hope
toward March 4, and wondering
whether this will be a red letter
day or Just another day on the
calendar for them.
For 300 years. these first Ameri-
cans and their ancestors have car
ried what they consider the red
mans barden' only to become
begged each year a bit farther into
the social mire.
In many ways, their condition
has improved under the regime Of
the past four years, yet economi-
cally little has been done, they
claim, to lift the burden
Now, they hope that the new
DEAL promised under the Roose-
welt administration, will include
some fundamental reforms
The red mems" chief burden,
they will tell you, is the Indian
bureau. This has been pointed to
as bureaucracy at its costliest.
System" Is Fought
In 1926, the Indian bureau cost
S14,000000 year. Last year it cost
$27 900 600.
With about the same number Of
Indians to care for, the bureaus
cost practically has doubled in the
past six years 1t now requires
$500 regular bureau employees plus
some 1000 extras, to take care of
$4,000 bureau wards, or one to
every tWenty-three Indians.
The bulk of this huge sum, the
Indians claim, is spent less to help
them conserve their rights and their
civilization than to help perpetuate
what they have come to call "the
system"
The red mems bill of complaints
against this system is long and
explicit. Chiefly they want relief
from what they consider three
cardinal wrongs. These are:
l. The allotment system. Estab-
lished in 1887 to make Indian
tribesmen into good American yoe-
men of the soil, this system has, it
is claimed, worked TO ALLEVIATE In
dians from not only communal land
but individually-o allotments.
Monopoly Is Charged
The Indian domain has, indeed.
'shrunk since 1887 from 100000
to 47O00,O0O acres.
The provision that upon an allot-
tees death his land is auctioned off
has resulted in the buying up of
some of the best Indian lands by
whites, in swindles and in other
practices
Administration Of these hundreds
of thousands of arHctments entails
annual waste of millions, it is
claimed. Largely through its work
ings. the Indians claim, between
$4,000 and 100000 Indians have been
made landless, and cast forth to
compete for jobs or charity with
whites to form a group of the ma
tons most pitiful forgotten men,"
2. Indian bureau monopoly. In
stead of being allowed use of such
regular governmental services as
courts, forest and irrigation aid,
health and school departments,
Indian wards must submit to spe-
cial and duplicating services under
the Indian bureau. These special
services are, The Indians declare,
vastly inferior to the regular ones.
AssaiI Broadway Schools
3. Indian boarding schools. These
institutions long have been under
fire of the Indians and their friends
They have. it is claimed, failed to
Americanize Indian youth, and in
stead merely weaned them from the
ways of their fathers and aided in
destroying indian civilization.
Many charges of kidnapping, beat
ing and other harsh measures have
been laid against these schools.
They cost, it is claimed, $5000,000
more annually than education of the
10000 Indian children through day
schools.
1t has been in this field that the
reforms of he Indian management
of the past four years have been
most effective. DR.. w. Carson
Ryan, the new education director
under the present management, has
greatly improved service in these
schools, and is out to abolish them
entirely.
Present Regime Humane
The Indian bureau in the past
has been run by two types of adj
ministrators. Harsh was the adj
ministration under the Fall-Burke-
Merritt regime: humane and SYM
pathetic has been the Wilbur
Roads Scattergood regime of the
past four years.
Two Philadelphia Quakers, Indian
Commissioner Charles j. RhOads
and his assistant, ]. Henry Scatter
good, have won plauditS from the
Indians and their friends for better
ing personnel, improving educational
and irrigation services, inStlling
a new spirit in the bureau But, as
a recent petition of forty-nine In
dian tribes told congress, the SyS-
tenn" remains almost intact.