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Show MAR 31 1914 u.5- i n A r a . n b$$. Cn+-,, &, a . . 'Z 40, :;qd ,' I J i REPOKI' OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. DEPARTMEONFT THE INTERIOR, OWICE OE INDIAANFF AIRS, Washington, September 15,1909. SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith the seventy-eighth annual report of the Oflice of Indian Affairs, covering the period July 1, 1908, to June 30, 1909. The resignation of my predecessor, Hon. Francis E. Leupp, took effect on the 18th day of June, 1909. On the 19th day of June I took the oath of office as commissioner. ks the administration of the sew-ice thus changed hands in the last month of the fiscal year, the events recorded in this report fall almost entirely within Mr. Leupp's term. I have tried, therefore, to make the record largely a simple statement of fact, uncolored by my own views. For whatever there maybe here in the way of indications of future work I alone am responsible. As to the lines of policy which the bureau will follow, I prefer to let the coming year speak for itself; hut here I would record the debt which I feel I owe to Commissioner Leupp in his having turned over to me a service to which he has contributed undying qualities through his love of truth, his fearlessness in working for the end as he saw. it, his unbounded energy in handling details, and his intense personal . loyalty both to the office staff and to the field force. These qualities . in him have quickened the service in a way which will contribute daily to the success any successor might achieve. The Indian Service is primarily educational. It is a great outdoor-indoor school, with the emphasis on the outdoor. The students in this school are 300,000 individuals, ranging in age from babes at the breast to the old men and women of the tribes, and with a range of characteristics which is indicated by no one fact perhaps better than that these 300,000 individuals speak about 250 fairly distinct dialects. The plant which composes the physical properties of this school con-sists of an area of land nearly twice the size of the State of New York, or larger than the State of Missouri, scattered through 26 States, in areas rangingfrom a few hundred acres to some as largeas the smaller States of the Union. The funds to carry on and to be cared for in connection with this plant amount to approximately $85,000,000, of which $62,000,000 belong to the tribes; $13,000,000 belong to 1 |
