ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR FOR 1906 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1907 THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. WASHINGTON, D. C., March 12, 1907. SIR: We have the honor to submit the Thirty-eighth Annual Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners. The purchase and inspection of supplies for the Indian Service has received from this board the attention and cooperation called for by the law and regulations and by the precedents and customs of the board. We submit herewith, as Appendix A, the special report of our purchasing committee, made to the chairman of this board for transmission to you. In that report the dates and places for opening bids for Indian supplies, inspecting samples, and awarding contracts, together with specific statements as to the assistance and cooperation given by members of the board, are given in detail. GENERALLY SATISFACTORY FEATURES OF INDIAN ADMINISTRATION. As contrasted with the state of affairs in Indian administration when this board was created, nearly forty years ago, the present condition of the Indian Service is such as to gratify all true friends of the native American races. 66 There is most marked improvement in nearly every respect; and notwithstanding the dangers which still threaten the Indians from intemperance, we believe that, on the whole, their prospects are more promising than ever before. Those who study carefully the history of the treatment accorded the Indian tribes by the Government have to admit a certain justice in that biting phrase of Helen Hunt Jackson, which stigmatizes the century from 1776 to 1876 as a century of dishonor" in the Government's treatment of Indian tribes. But even as applied to that century the phrase carries a grossly exaggerated criticism, and for the last thirty years the legislation of Congress concerning Indians, their education, their allotment and settlement on lands of their own, their admission to citizenship, and the protection of their rights, makes, upon the whole, a chapter of political history of which Americans may justly be proud. Considering the fact that the "spoils system" of making appointments in the Indian Service has controlled in the naming of Indian agents almost to the present time, and that the fight against civil-service principles in the appointment of teachers and employees in the Indian Service was prolonged and bitter, there is occasion for the greatest gratification at the comparative excellence of the Indian schools and the Indian Service generally for these last ten years. In legislation and 3 |