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Show REPORT OF THE CO~FIBIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIR8. 13 I assured and the necessaries of life furnished, at least until he can get a start and his labor become productive. The better to assist them the allottees should be divided into small communities, each to be put in charge of persons who by precept and example would teach them how to work and how to live. This is the theory. The practice is very different. The Indian is allotted and then allowed to turn over his land to the whites and go on his aimless way. This pernicious practice is the direct growth of vicious legislation. The first law on the subject was passed in 1891, when Congress enacted that whenever it should appear that by reason of age or other disability any allottee conld not personally and with benefit to himself occupy or improve his allotment or any part thereof, it might be leased under such regulations as the Secretary of the I Interior should prescribe for a period not exceeding three years for farming or grazing, or ten years for mining purposes. In 1894 the I word L'inability" was inserted, and the law made to read, "by reason of age, disability, or inability." The period of the lease was also h e d at five years for farming or grazing and ten years for mining or bnsi-ness purposes. This remained unchanged until 1897, when "inability" was dropped out, age or disability alone made a sufficient reason for leasing, and the periods changed to three and five years, respectively. This law was operative until the current year, when it was again changed, "inability" restored, and leases limited to five years,for farming purposes only. It is conceded that where an Indian allottee is incapacitated by phys-ical disability or decrepitude of age from occupying and working his allotment, it is proper to permit him to lease it, and it was to meet such cases as this that the law referred to was made. Had leases been confined to such cases there would be little if any room for criticism. But "inability" has opened the door for leasing in general, nntii on some of the reservations leasing is the rule and not the exception, whle on others the practice is growing. Detailed information as to existing leases on the various reservations is given on page 75. To the thoughtful mind it is apparent that the effect of the general leasing of allotments is bad. Like the gratuitous issue of isltions and the periodical dist.ribution of money it fosters indolence with its train of attendant vices. By taking away the incentive to labor it defeats the very object for which the allotment system was devised, which was, by giving the Indian something tangible that he could call his own, to incite him to personal effort in his own behalf. EDUCATION. Indian education is accomplished through the means of nonreserva-tion boarding schools, reservation boarding schools, and reservation and independent day schools, all under complete Government control, |
