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Show REPORT OF TEE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. OFFICEO F INDIAAFNF A ~ , Washington, D. C., September 30,1965. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the seventy-fourth annual report of the Office of Indian Affairs. Assuming the responsibilities of the commissionership in the very middle of the fiscal year, I have endeavored to gather up the threads of the work of my immediate predecessor and weave them into a consistent fabric, with only such new features of design as changeful passing conditions seemed to demand. For whatever in this report bears the stamp of novelty, but has not yet earned the seal of accom-plishment, I shall crave your indulgence on the plea that the field of Indian affairs is presenting every day fresh problems for solu-tion, and that, there being no precedents to guide us in solving these, we are necessarily driven to experiment. But in order that the gen-eral end toward which my efforts are directed may be the more clearly understood, I beg respectfully to lay before you one of the fruits of my twenty years' study of the Indian face to face end in his own home, as well as of his past and present environment, in the form of a few OUTLINES OF AN INDIAN POLICY. The commonest mistake made by his white wellwishers in dealing with the Indian is the assumption that he is simply a white man with a red skin. The next commonest is the assumption that because he is a non-Caucasian he is to be classed indiscriminately with other non-Caucasians, like the negro, for instance. The truth is that the Indian has as distinct an individuality as any type of man who ever lived, and he will never be judged aright till we learn to measure him by his own standards, as we whites would wish to be measured if some more powerful race were to usurp dominion over us. 1 IND 1905-1 |