TULALIP INDIAN AGENCY, WASH.

Commissioner SEYMOUR

Commissioner Seymour had planned to make a survey of conditions of the Puget Sound Indians of Washington when she was suddenly called back East by the death of her mother. She had visited the Tulalip Indian Reservation and School, the Swinomish Reservation, the Lummi Reservation, and the scattered Indians, such as the Skagit and Suiattle, and the following is an abridgment of her report on those units of the Indian Service:

The Tulalip Indian School is the only Government boarding school in the State of Washington, many of its 200 children coming from considerable distances. The school, under such conditions as exist in the State, is supplemental to the State school system, receiving such children as are too far from the public schools, orphaned or destitute, or ineligible by reason of health or home conditions. She found that Indian children are pupils in all of the public schools of the region. Many from Tulalip Reservation attend the district school in the adjacent town of Marysville.

Commissioner Seymour recommends that a gymnasium or playroom be built for the Tulalip school; that it need not be elaborate or expensive, but should be roomy and comfortable. She observes that it would serve the social purpose by making it possible for the Tulalip Indian athletic teams to play match games upon their own grounds, and that this would make the school and its work better known to the citizens of the State, most of whom are scarcely aware of its existence or the functions which the Indian Service is performing. In connection with the school Commissioner Seymour states: "The great question at the Tulalip School is that of health. Recommendations have been made to turn this institution into a sanatorium school, but no such action has as yet been taken. At present children needing sanatorium treatment are sent to Fort Lapwai; but inasmuch as that institution is in the State of Idaho the consent of the parents must be formally given to the transfer. That the Indians are not unduly prejudiced against sending their children to Lapwai is shown in the fact that more than 40 from this jurisdiction are there at the present time. Monthly reports are made by the sanatorium to Superintendent Dickens, and monthly letters are written to their parents by the little patients.

"These Indian Service sanatoria are not designed for active cases of tuberculosis, but for those denominated incipient.' My impression from observations made in many places is that there is a tendency to restrict the use of the term 'incipient' to the first hint of tubercular trouble, anything more serious being termed 'advanced'; together with a great reluctance on the part of sanatoria to accept children in whom the disease has progressed to even a slight extent. This policy has the effect of warding off or retarding the disease in some cases, but it is practically without result where the tuberculosis actually exists.

“In my judgment, provision for actual progressive cases of the disease is a necessity. This would not only relieve much suffering and remedy a neglect, but if the disease is one-tenth as communicable as recent campaigns' and 'drives' have indicated, it would remove active centers for the distribution of the plague and thus prove fully as great a factor in preventing the spread as the treatment of mildly incipient' cases. When the sanatorium discharges a patient as having progressed beyond the 'incipient' stage, the child is returned to a home where a lack of sanitation results in the creation of other 'incipient' cases for the institution to foster.

"If tuberculosis is not communicable, the present policy is a sensible one. If the disease is actually communicated by a sick person to a well one, the custom of refusing to care for those really sick and treating only suspects is highly illogical. It is as if those having smallpox were left at large while treatment was rendered only to those who had been exposed to the disease.

"All indications seem to show that the percentage of tuberculosis among the Puget Sound Indians is a high one. This is due to several causes, such as the extremely damp climate and low altitude; the prevalent monotonous fish diet; the weakness due to close intermarriages and the utter ignorance or neglect of sanitation.

"The first of these causes can not be met by a health school at Tulalip, since it, too, partakes of the climatic conditions to be avoided. The second cause is being combated very successfully by Tulalip School in its present state. The school herd of grade and registered Holsteins provides nearly a quart of milk for each pupil every day during the school year. The school

flocks of White Leghorns provide two eggs daily for each pupil. Moreover, the training in dairying and poultry raising means greater efforts in this direction in the homes, while the domestic science work with the girls adds its influence toward a better diet.

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The third cause can be met only as continual interracial contract modifies social conditions. As a matter of fact, there is already a great deal of nonIndian blood apparent in these pupils, and the addition of new strains is bound to progress.

"The fourth cause of tuberculosis is, in my opinion, the most serious of them all. The whole purpose of the Indian school is, of course, the improvement of the Indian home. The value of an Indian school is measured by its effect upon reservation life. But causes deep in Indian life and character make it imperative that schoolroom work be supplemented by endeavors aimed directly at the reservation home. The work of a good agency farmer touches one aspect of this need; but other phases of the situation are receiving little or no attention at the present time. Following up the school work is the great necessity.

"It thus appears that a sanatorium school at Tulalip would do little toward relieving the tuberculosis conditions that is not already being done. It is true that such a change would treat incipient cases within the State and in a climate and altitude to which the patients would be native. But it also is true that many well boys and girls for whom attendance upon the public schools is not possible or practicable would be without school facilities within the State if Tulalip were no longer open to them. This evil would, I feel, more than counterbalance the good a sanatorium might do.

"A word as to the force of employees comes not amiss. A large number are of several years' service here. At the time of my visit there was but one vacancy; and in many ways it appeared that the problem of changing personnel is far less acute here than at the usual Indian Service location. A spirit of loyalty for the school seemed to prevail. The proportion of employees having some Indian blood was larger and the quality of their service higher than is usually the case.

"I wish to record my gratitude for the kindness and sympathy of Superintendent and Mrs. Dickens-kindness typical of their helpfulness to all with whom they come in contact. I found this attitude reflected in the spirit of

employees, pupils, and of the Indians throughout this jurisdiction."

The Tulalip or Snohomish Reservation was originally composed of 22,490 acres, practically all having been allotted. About 400 Indians are enrolled at this reserve. Timber operations have been carried on in this district for 10 years and are now nearly at a close. This has had a far-reaching effect upon the Indians and the conditions under which they live. Formerly they gained a livelihood from the water and were huddled in villages of mean board shacks near the tidewaters of the Sound. The cutting of the timber made roads through the forest, which encouraged the use of the automobile, and this developed the utilization of the more remote lands for home sites, while the money derived from the sale of timber has provided for the building and furnishing of homes. Commissioner Seymour states that Superintendent Dickens has "wisely urged the policy of home building upon these Indians, with the result that the trend is toward individual homes, more diversified industry and diet, and a standard of living more nearly approaching that of white In the case of old or sick Indians every effort has been made to apportion the fund so that it will prove a provision for the remainder of the allottee's life. In the case of those whose allotments proved to be undesir able for agricultural uses smaller home and garden sites have been purchased. usually from Indian lands partitioned for the heirs of a deceased allottee. every case the Indian has been impressed with the benefit of using his money for a home before he invests in an automobile, and the number of excellent new houses all over the reservation testify to the wisdom of the policy. At the same time the purchase of an automobile has followed house building whenever funds were to be procured. There are now more than 70 automobiles owned by Indians on this reservation, which means that nearly every family among the 323 Indians owns a motor car, ranging from the cheapest type to the highly expensive make.

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"While the Tulalip Indians have the lack of foresight of all primitive people, they have habits of industry and self-support that should always keep them from dire need. Orchards, young and old; gardens about their homes; cows and chickens; fish nets and boats; baskets of peeled barberry bark (to be sold for its medicinal value); spinning wheels and knitting needles, all

testify to this fact. More than this, their conversation shows a nearer approach to the white man's attitude toward life and labor than in any tribe I have observed. There is an intelligent grasp of every-day English, and a comprehension of business methods that show how far the assimilating process has already gone.

"It is in the sanitation problem that the greatest lack appears. The homes vary, of course, from those that are comparable with the humbler homes of a white community to dwellings that are indescribably disgusting in their appearance. The best of Indian homes are apt to be in crowded disorder. The worst are an abomination of desolation. Yet from such centers of sickness and filth children may go to sit in school beside others who come from sanitary homes, or farm or dairy produce may be sold for general consumption. It is plainly to the community interest to improve the Indian home. It is part of the Federal Government's responsibility as guardian, but is no less the business of all whose lives touch those of the Indians.

"For one great cause is, of course, the isolation of the Indian woman. The men, coming into contact with white men in their labor and their trade, learnthe ways of mart or mill. The children learn much from the school, where they meet the evidences of the 'white man's road,' which these Indians are quite willing to travel.

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For the Indian wife there is no such opportunity. Some of her schooling remains with her. But the sight of well-kept white homes, the inspiration of contact with better standards of cleanliness and sanitation, would be of untold value. Here is work for the field matron, for the parent-teachers' associations, for the public health and social service workers, and, best of all, just plain neighborliness which would help to show the way. We are scarcely at the beginning of our work for and with the Indian woman, and until that work progresses the whole development of the race must lag."

The Swinomish Reservation is some 20 miles north of Tulalip, where a community of about 220 Indians maintain themselves by fishing, logging, agriculture, and various other occupations. Its original land area was 7,339 acres, all allotted. The shacks at the edge of the water, Commissioner Seymour reports, present a most disheartening appearance, dilapidated and dirty, but most of them are no longer occupied regularly. As funds are available houses are built upon the allotments. That this process does not go on even more rapidly is due to the fact that the timber on these allotments has less commercial value than at Tulalip. But the process for better housing is apparent here.

At the time of her visit to this little reserve its Indians were getting ready to observe Memorial Day by working at the Community Cemetery clearing the abundant weeds and putting all in order. The Memorial Day exercises were held in a community hall costing some $2,000, which the Indians themselves subscribed for the purpose. The hall was built within the past year. It is a building about 90 by 30 feet in size, as yet unpainted, has a stage and a kitchen, and is arranged for motion pictures, and the plain benches are removable so that the floor may be used for dancing. Commissioner Seymour's comment on this community hall and the problem of caring for helpless Indians follows:

"It is the sort of community center which is being urged upon the public generally, and it is produced by the community itself; not thrust upon it from the outside. It speaks volumes for the progress of these Indians upon the white man's road.' At the same time one can not hurry to the conclusion that the journey on that road is more than well begun as yet. These Indians all speak English, send their children across to LaConner to the public grammar school and high school, are familiar with the business and industrial life about them, and participate in it habitually. They are on the way to assimilation. But the process is still far from complete.

"For example, there is the problem of the helpless, aged Indians. We visited a number of these wretched old men and women in their miserable hovels and found some of them sightless, most of them weak, and all living in filth and neglect. It is not always lack of money that causes such conditions. Sometimes such a pitiable old creature may have a considerable sum to his credit at the agency office. But if he has no family to care for him he may fall into the state of distress regardless of his funds. Hiring other Indians to care for him proves impracticable; the idea of payment will not tie an active young Indian down to the work of caring for the sick and old. In a week or two the lure of visiting or some merrymaking calls the guardian away and the old ward is alone again."

Outside of the actual reservation boundaries there are many Indians, such as the Skagit and Suiattle, unallotted through error or change of policy; others having allotments on the public domain taken up in some cases many years ago. These Indians are practically self-supporting, Commissioner Seymour says, and their children often attend public schools, but many of them are at Government boarding schools. In the main the problems are the same as on the reservation-home and health conditions manifestly the first need for improvement.

The Lummi Reservation, about 25 miles north of Swinomish, has somewhat over 500 Indians enrolled there and contains an area of 12,560 acres. Like the Swinomish, the Lummi are cut off from their neighbors by a slough. Beyond their peninsula is Lummi Island, on which there is a white settlement. In order to give access to Lummi Island the Government has granted a right of way and the county has constructed a road which affords a beautiful driveway through the forest and along the beach which is largely used by automobile parties.

Concerning this reservation Commissioner Seymour writes:

"This beach is the allotment of an Indian, now deceased, in whose estate 52 heirs share in greater or lesser degree. Partition is, of course, out of the question, and the sale of this beach, with the inevitable commercializing to follow, is a strong probability. It is unfortunate that the Indians themselves are not sufficiently versed in business organization to manage the place for their own benefit and enjoyment, but the time is not yet ripe for such development. The close proximity of this reservation to the Canadian border adds to the difficulty of preserving order here, and the Lummi 'bad actors' cause considerable concern to those intrusted with Indian welfare.

"This reservation has more and better agricultural land than others of the region, and farming is more nearly general among the Indians. It is pleasant to see the dooryards of so many Indian homes bright with flowers. The northern part of the peninsula is in need of reclamation by draining, and a bill providing for such action was introduced, with partial success, in the last Congress. Its passage would have assured the addition of many fertile acres with their potential wealth to the assets of the Lummi Indians.

"The Government day school has in recent years been turned over to the county, and the public school is held in it, attended by many Lummi children. The Lummi people have not yet organized a company to take over and maintain their cemetery as the Swinomish have."

In summing up her report Commissioner Seymour sets out the following general conclusions:

"These Indians are further along in the transition stage than most of those I have observed of recent years, although their contact with the white race has been of shorter duration.

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"The greatest reason for this lies in the fact that they have always been self-supporting. May the future protect them from pauperization and continue the process of wholesome development. If, together with greater desires, they develop the purpose of satisfying their desires by labor, their progress will be in the right direction.

"The ownership of automobiles has reconciled them to State taxation of personal nontrust property. This is a step in actual citizenship much more valid than the nominal citizenship conferred by legislation. If the same agency-the automobile-will awaken them to a feeling of responsibility for their roads, another step toward normalcy will have been taken.

"In their use of English, in their business relations, in their attendance upon the public schools, in their beginnings of organization for community purposes, these Indians have made real strides toward that assimilation which must be the end of an Indian problem here.

"The serious needs remaining are those pertaining to health, sanitation, and home life. At the root of all these lies the need to reach the Indian women in their homes. The education of every Indian girl in sanitation and domestic science of a sort applicable to her home conditions is a necessity the public school does not supply, so the Government school has still a very vital function to perform.

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Beyond this there should be a follow-up system. The Indian girl should be encouraged to practice in her home that which she learns at school. I be

lieve the prejudice against new ways is far less acute than in most sections. Contact with the right sort of examples will do much to carry on the good effect of precept and training.

"There should be field matrons, and there should be a definite effort toward widening the contact between the races.

"The Indian woman in the Indian home should be the thought behind the policies and actions of all who have Indian welfare at heart."

WISCONSIN CHIPPEWA, POTAWATOMI, AND WINNEBAGO
Commissioner SULLIVAN

During June and July of 1925 Commissioner Sullivan made a visit to La Pointe, Lac du Flambeau, Laona, and Grand Rapids agencies in Wisconsin. An abridgment of his report on the Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Winnebago Indians of the four superintendencies follows:

La Pointe Agency, with headquarters at Ashland, is in charge of Superintendent Phillip S. Everest, who looks after the affairs of 1,100 Lake Superior Chippewa. Hardly any of these Indians live in Ashland. Some are employed on the railroad, and a few are working as patrolmen on the public roads. The chief Indian settlement is at Odanah on the Bad River. The great decrease in lumbering in this region has deprived the Indians of what formerly was their chief means of livelihood. Commissioner Sullivan found that many of them have taken up farming in a small way and that some of the farms are fairly well kept up. Reporting on this reserve Commissioner Sullivan says, in part:

"In marked contrast to the unkempt and run-down appearance of most of the buildings at Odanah are the various buildings of St. Mary's School, which is located in the town. The farm attached to the school is quite large. Very many acres have been cleared. Everything on the farm, as well as in the school and the adjoining church, is a lesson to the Indians in thrift, tidiness, and industry.

"Superintendent Everest has been active in repressing violations of the prohibition law. Moonshine has been sold repeatedly in Odanah, and Mr. Everest has brought about the arrest of several offenders. The local justice of the peace, who is an Indian, has been seconding his efforts courageously. The morals of the Chippewas in Mr. Everest's charge are fair. The great majority of them have proper respect for marital relations. They are not indifferent to education. Some years ago certain Indians living toward the eastern part of the reservation took advantage of the Wisconsin law and presented a petition for a public school. Accordingly, a school was opened there, and since then it has thriven."

The Lac du Flambeau Agency, with 800 Chippewa, is under the charge of Superintendent Hammett. Commissioner Sullivan calls attention to the rundown condition of the reservation boarding school buildings which, he says, is probably due in part to the several changes in superintendents during the past year. Commenting on this, Commissioner Sullivan says, in his report:

"It is regrettable that buildings, in which young Indians should receive impressions of tidiness and care for property, should be allowed to fall into such condition of disrepair that they must give the contrary impression. Example speaks louder than precept. It is idle to tell the Indian scholars that they must keep their homes neat and clean when large sections of the plaster in the schoolhouse have fallen from the walls, and when much of the woodwork cried aloud for soap and paint.

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Mr. Hammett complains with reason that the present sewage system drains into Lac du Flambeau, not far from the Indian village. Doubtless cottages will multiply along the five connected lakes, into which this sewage must find its way, and there is an ever-present menace of typhoid fever.

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'Here, again, example speaks louder than precept. Warnings to Indians of the necessity of a proper disposal of sewage can not be very effective if they see the representatives of the United States Government acting inconsistently."

Concerning the timber on the reserve, Commissioner Sullivan stated that last spring there were extensive forest fires in the neighborhood of Lac du Flambeau, and that some of the boys at the reservation school were away from their classes fighting these fires for about six weeks. He found that the observation tower, a few miles from the school, was deficient in its equipment in that it had no roof to protect the forest ranger and no telephone connection with the headquarters from which fire fighters can be summoned promptly. Commissioner Sullivan's observations on the industrial situation follows:

"I saw little evidence of enthusiastic farming in the neighborhood of Lac due Flambeau. It is easy for the able-bodied Indians to make good wages