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Show 75 agriculture in the same zones of South America. At the same time he states that in some respects the 35 million Indians on the Continent (the author's demographic estimate) must be considered an absolutely negative quantity for the economy of the Continent and therefore for progress. Among the socio-political aspects, the author emphasizes the social phenomenon of the great facility that the Indian has shown lately in absorbing elements of material progress; the Indians are not frightened in our constant but slow march of progress, and except for scattered groups in the tropics, they are taking an active part and with their own hands are building the first and most important steps in the advance toward Western culture. But, says the author, "We must prepare them to assimilate civilization on the march without causing disturbances in our established democratic regimes." Finally, he points out the latent danger of certain exotic doctrines, for the socio-political organization of the Indian mass is weak and a fertile field for demo-goguery and extremist propaganda. The author concludes his study naming what he considers to be the four most important causes of the Indian problem: empirical and negative agricultural production, bad communications, bad sanitary conditions that prevent full demographic development, and lack of orientation in the distribution and establishment of rural housing. Mr. Beteta proposes a series of concrete solutions for these four facets of the backward living conditions of the Indian of America. Buitron, Anibal (Ecuador), "Las Organizaciones Internacionales y el Indio," America Indigena, XIV, No. 2 (April, 1954), pp. 103-11. English summary: The Indian in America has been for centuries and is today above all an agriculturist, rooted in the land. He prefers poverty at home to wealth in a strange place. Money has not yet acquired for him the value it has for modern society. Although there have been cases of "spontaneous" migration of Indians, investigation often proves that the people involved were in fact driven to leave their homes by excessive exploitation and suppression. Unfortunately, although the Indian is fundamentally a farmer, a considerable proportion of the American Indian population owns little or no land. This is the true basis of the Indian problem. The Indian who owns land is not a problem at least not to the degree that the landless Indian is one. Not only is his economic situation better and more secure, but his mental outlook is more open to progress. He may have time for a secondary activity, such as handicraft or trade, which brings him in contact with more progressive groups and proves to him the need for education and better living standards. For the landless Indian, on the other hand, life is hard and lacking |
