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Show 4 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. physicians, 54 nurses, and 88 field matrons. In the Indian com-munity, as in other communities, there is insistent concern for the cure of existing disease, but the great emphasis is put upon preveu-tion of disease and increase of personal efficiency. In carrying out preventive measures a very promising beginning has been made in having physicians secure intimate information about the living con-ditions of each individual, by going from house to house and camp to camp, and examining closely into hygienic conditions. Thii aggressive campaign awakens the Indians to the danger of tuber-culosis, trachoma, and other infectious diseases; and through simple instruction and suggestion helps them to some understanding of how they can improve their living conditions and extricate themselves from the unsavory and unsanitary environment in which many of them hsve existed. Results are already apparent. A physician at White Earth, Minn., reports that upon his second round of visits he found marked improvement in 50 per cent of the homes. The physician at Leupp, Ariz., after spendmg 21 days among the camps, submitted a medical survey that may well serve as a model for the service; he found, too, that his personal visits did much to overcome the Indians' reserve and their repugnance to modern medical attention, for his treatment was eagerly received and many of his patients in the camps later sought him at the hospital for further attention. The increasing influence of trained physicians decreases the de-pendence upon medicine men. These medicine men, however, can be made very helpful, as was shown by the superintendent of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, who secured the chief medicine man of the tribe as the physician's most devoted assistant and the dcient dispenser of his drugs. Attacking the problem of disease in a slightly different way, one of the physicians has prepared a seriea of stereopticon slides and motion-picture films to illustrate in juxtaposition the ordinary habi-tations of careless Indians and the pleasant, healthful homes of Indians who have taken advantage of the opportunities the Govern-ment has given. While throwing these pictures upon a screen he gives a simple, pointed talk upon outdoor exercise, ventilation, dis-posal of garbage, care of milk, water supply, tuberculosis, trachoma, and kindred subjects. On an extended tour among the schools and agencies in Montana, California, Arizona., and New Mexico he has given 52 of these educational entertainments before audiences of Indians and employees aggregating more than 10,000. The medical supervisor, too, as he travels the field carries sets of slides and gives numerous illustrated talks in the evening, and several superintend-ents have received slides and typewritten lectures to use at their reservations and schools. |
