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Show I am opposed to this kind of employment and feel that every means should be utilized to urge Indians against such methods of livelihood. It is the policy of the o5ce to persuade Indians to erect permanent and substantial homes on their allotments for themselves and their families, to cultivate their lands, to surround themselves with live stock, and to become thrifty farmers. I can conceive of no line of employment for a people by nature of a roving tendency more in-consistent with the Government's general policy of training Indians to become self-supporting citizens than to permit them to travel around the country with so-called wild-west shows, exhibiting them-selves and their families in the costumes of savagery, presenting barbaric episodes of the past which might better be forgotten. The wages earned in such employment are small and can not be used to justify the risk, even with the best of supervision, which comes to the ordinary Indian in the traveling life under the condi-' tions surrounding the average shorn, from contact with liquor and with an element having no interest whatsoever in his moral or in-dustrial advancement. At the present time a few Indians are employed with shows under supervision. I feel, however, that I should endeavor to do away with the white man's commercialization of the Indian for exhibition purposes as rapidly as is consistent with the fact that Indians have been permitted to engage in such employment for many years and can not easily be brought back to an appreciation of the benefits of a different mode of life. STATISTICS. During the year special attention has been given to simplifying the statistical portion of the annual report. Heretofore statistical in-formation has been spread over considerable space, but now by arranging the tables in the most concise manner possible current data is still able to be shown, while the cost has been reduced to the minimum. INDIAN SERVICE EMPLOYEES. I believe that the preparation of the Indian for full citizenship will be accomplished not only through education and training, but must also come from the example set by the employees of the Tndian Service. For this reason, if for no other, I have devoted a great deal of my time to a careful study of the personnel of the field service. There are approximately 2,500 Indians regularly employed in the field service and a large number are employed by the day at various schools and agencies. The number of Indians employed is steadily increasing, there being about 600 more employed now than were SO employed in regular positions during the fiscal yenr ending June 30, Yt. |