A SCHOOL PROBLEM Under date of September 27, 1924, Commissioner Burke promulgated a general educational policy with which the board is in accord. Its outstanding features are the extension of the courses in day schools to include six grades and in reservation boarding schools to include eight grades; increasing the number of grades in certain nonreservation schools so that these institutions will carry all the high-school grades, and the inauguration in the Navajo country of two school periods of six months each during the year, with the purpose of increasing the school facilities of the five Navajo reservations and to educate more Navajo children. In the circular announcing this policy Commissioner Burke expresses a hope that the pupils of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, as well as the first, second, and third, may be kept in school all day, doing only such industrial work in the nature of chores as can be performed before and after school hours. This would make systematic vocational and industrial instruction begin with the seventh grade, whereas now in many schools it starts with the fourth grade. Superintendents of reservation and of nonreservation schools are. finding it more difficult to operate their schools with the assistance of the Indian pupils. A few years ago there were so many of the larger boys and girls in the lower grades that there were always enough pupils to carry on the industrial work. It then was not at all uncommon to find a considerable number of primary students between the ages of 17 and 20, and consequently it was comparatively easy to get enough large boys and girls to do all the chores, to work the garden, and do most of the farming labor. In recent years, however, the schools have been filling up with much younger and much smaller children, because the grade ages of the average Indian pupils are more nearly approximating those of white children. Already a number of reservation boarding schools have been embarrassed because their upper-grade children were transferred to nonreservation schools, leaving only small boys and girls to carry on the industrial and maintenance work of the institutions. This situation is quite likely to become serious in a very few years, and the only solution which promises to solve what may be a most perplexing problem would seem to be an increase in the number of school employees. It is almost certain that these conditions_will have to be met very shortly, and it is suggested that greater efforts be made to train Indian young men and women to do much of the work in and around the schools which now is done by the pupils and then detail them as employees. Members of the board have heretofore recommended that the eleventh and twelfth grades be added to the Chilocco and Salem nonreservation schools, and we are pleased to learn that in accordance with Commissioner Burke's general educational policy both of those fine institutions now have the upper high-school grades. In Indian schools, as in similar institutions for white children, there will be found mental and moral defectives. Many special schools for such cases are used for the white children. We have suggested, and we respectfully beg to repeat the suggestion, that it will be well to have two special schools, one for boys and one for girls, for delinquent cases. It is quite certain that among the many thousands of Indian school children there is a considerable number who, for their own good as well as for the good of the other children, should be placed under strict discipline in special schools. THE TRACHOMA CAMPAIGN The trachoma campaign of the Indian medical service was the outstanding accomplishment of the Indian Bureau's year. It began with the conference at Gallup, N. Mex., held by you and Commissioner Burke with the agency physicians and superintendents of the Navajo country in New Mexico and Arizona during April of 1924. At the meeting of the physicians, which was presided over by Dr. R. E. L. Newberne, chief of the Medical Division of the Indian Service; Dr. John McMullen, who has charge of the trachoma work of the United States Public Health Service, outlined a general plan for intensive trachoma work in the Navajo country. The southwestern trachoma campaign, as it is called, started with three units of the Indian medical service in the Navajo Reservation of Arizona and, with the addition of a fourth unit, extended into the Hopi and Pueblo countries. At this writing the full reports for the year have not been completed, so that the statistics of the campaign are not available. But the number of Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo, Apache, Walapai, Zuni, and Paiute Indians of Arizona and New Mexico who were examined and treated for trachoma runs up into the thousands. In this campaign the Indian medical service had the active cooperation of the United States Public Health Service, the Red Cross, the Santa Fe Railroad medical service, and the State health authorities of Arizona and New Mexico. While the southwestern campaign was in progress Dr. L. Webster Fox, of the Post Graduate Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, an eminent ophthalmologist of Philadelphia, who was on his vacation at Glacier National Park in Montana, conducted a trachoma clinic in the hospital of the Blackfoot Reservation which adjoins the park. He did this at the invitation of Mr. Fred. C. Campbell, superintendent of the Blackfoot Reservation. During the course of the clinic, which continued a number of days, Maj. Gen. Hugh L. Scott, of this board, Mr. Edgar B. Meritt, Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Mr. S. M. Brosius, of the Indian Rights Association, happened to visit the reservation and attended the demonstration. They were so impressed with the work of Doctor Fox that their enthusiastic reports, combined with official action taken by Commissioner Burke at the recommendation of Assistant Commissioner Meritt, resulted in the attendance of a large number of Indian Service physicians and superintendents who were ordered to the Blackfoot Reservation, where Doctor Fox conducted a demonstration clinic for them. Later in the year a similar clinic was held by Doctor Fox at Albuquerque, N. Mex., and other demonstration clinics were conducted by the ophthalmologists of the Indian Service. As a result there are more than 50 Indian Service physicians who have become skilled operators in trachoma. It is doubtful if any other service in this country now has as many eye 58904-25- -2 surgeons, ranging from good to expert, as the Indian medical service has. The trachoma campaign in the Indian Service attracted widespread attention. The board of trustees of the American Medical Association, meeting in Chicago last October, appointed a committee to act in an advisory capacity to the Indian medical service in the prevention and suppression of trachoma. This committee was composed of the following well known ophthalmologists: Dr. J. H. Wilder, Chicago, chairman; Dr. William C. Posey, Philadelphia; and Dr. Arnold Knapp, New York City. At a subsequent conference of this advisory committee with the Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of Indian Affairs instructions were sent to the field service calling for a complete survey of every supervised Indian family for the purpose of securing a record of trachomatous Indians. This survey was recommended by the American Medical Association committee. After the roll is completed, with its accompanying record of housing conditions and hygienic surroundings of Indian families, trachoma specialists will be sent to each reservation to handle the situation. Included in the program of the American Medical Association committee is a plan to teach the Indians the mode of transmission and the best means of avoiding infection of trachoma. To carry out this recommendation the first weeks in May and October of each year have been designated educational trachoma week on reservations. During these periods physicians and superintendents will give lectures daily to groups of Indians, and special instructions will be given in Indian schools, where papers on trachoma will be prepared by the students in the higher grades. All missionaries on reservations have been urged to cooperate in this program. At the close of the year the campaign against trachoma was proceeding with increased intensity. Dr. J. S. Perkins, in charge of the work in Arizona and New Mexico, had with him Dr. R. H. Ross, Dr. A. M. Wigglesworth, and Dr. W. C. Barton, with Dr. Polk Richards as consulting ophthalmologist. In Oklahoma Dr. H. B. Hailman was carrying on a trachoma campaign in collaboration with Drs. G. W. and P. C. White, of Tulsa, who voluntarily associated themselves with him. Dr. L. L. Culp, with headquarters at Tomah, Wis., was conducting a campaign in that section, and Dr. J. R. Collard, who is the instructing ophthalmologist for the Indian medical service, was at Crow Agency. Dr. Walter S. Stevens, assistant chief of the Indian medical service was in the field at large. On almost all of the reservations and in almost all the schools the agency and school physicians were examining, treating, and operating for trachoma. Until this general campaign against trachoma started, friends of the Indians, in and out of the Indian Service, had but little hope that this prevalent eye plague of the Government wards ever could be eradicated from the reservations and schools. The unquestionable success of the intensive effort, through a well-organized campaign to fight trachoma, warrants the strong hope that in a comparatively few years our Indian people will be clear eyed and reservations will be rid of the disease which has made blind men and women common objects in Indian communities. We are informed that the work will continue with unabated energy, for Congress has appropriated sufficient funds for the purpose. The cooperation of the American Medical Association is a significant indication of the general confidence which has been inspired by the year's achievements of the Indian medical service. The board extends its congratulations to you and to Commissioner Burke upon the success and promise of these endeavors. Faithfully yours, To the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. GEORGE VAUX, Jr., Chairman. WARREN K. MOOREHEAD. SAMUEL A. ELIOT. FRANK KNOX. DANIEL SMILEY. MALCOLM MCDOWELL. HUGH L. SCOTT. |