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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAK AFFAIRS. DEPARTMEONFT T HE INTEBIOE, O ~ I O EOF INDIAANF FAIRS, Washington, D. C., October 16, 1917. SIR: I have the honor to submit this the eighty-second annual report of the Bureau of Indian Maim for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917. A DECLARATION OF POLICY. A careful study of the practical effects of governmentd policies for determining the wardship of the Indians of this country is con-vincing that the solution is individual and not collective. Each individual must be considered in the light of his own environment and capacity for larger responsibilities and privileges. While ethnologicdy a preponderance of white blood has not heretofore been a criterion of competency, nor even now is it alwaya a safe standard, it is almost an axiom that an Indian who has a larger proportion of white blood than Indian partakes more of the charac-teristics of the former than of the latter. In thought and action, so far as the business world is concerned, he approximatea more closely to the white blood ancestry. . On April 17,1917, there was announced a declaration of policy for Indian affairs, as follows : DECLARATIOX OF POLICY IN THE ADMINISTBATTOR OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. During the past four yearn the efforta of the adrninie.trution of Indian affairs have been lagely concentrated on the following fundamental activitiegthe betterment of health conditiom of I n b , the auppr&on of the liquor t d i c among them, the improvement of their industrial conditiona, the further development of vocationd &ing in their schools, and tha protection of the Indiana' property. Rapid progrees has been made along all theae linen, and the work thus reorganized and revitalized will go on with increased energy. With these activities and accomplishments well under my, we an, now ready to take the next step in our adminietrative program. The time haa come for diecontinuing guardisnship of d l competent Indians and giving even c l w attention to the incompetent that they may more speedily achieve competency. Broadly spasking, a policy of greeter liberalism will henceforth prevsil in Indian administration to the end h t every Indian, aa won aa he haa been detembed to be aa competent to tranmct his own business aa the average white man, shall be given full control of hie pmpetty and have all bia lands and moneys turned over to him, after which he will no longer be a ward of the Government. 3 |