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been made for such first hand examination as seemed necessary. In a few instances the Indians presented new leads which were followed up. When they volunteered themselves to take certain of the staff out and show them, the invitations were accepted. Otherwise the superintendent would be told that certain members of the staff especially desired to visit certain sections or certain homes. The general impression of the staff was not so much that the superintendents were trying to hide something as that in the selection of what should be seen in a limited visit, judgments necessarily varied. In one instance the suggestion of the Indians necessitated a long, all-day trip in extremely cold weather to a remote part of the reservation, which the superintendent had not suggested because of the discomforts involved. The conditions there were not unlike the worst which the superintendent had already shown. The only difference was that they were more uniformly depressing and accentuated by the distance from the agency.
Interviews with Missionaries. At each jurisdiction visited the effort was made to visit the missionaries who were within reach, to see their work and equipment, and to talk with them about the Indian problem in general. Right Reverend Monsignor William Hughes, Director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, most courteously supplied each member of the survey staff with a general letter of introduction to the Catholic missions in the field. The staff was everywhere most cordially received by missionaries of all denominations, and is deeply indebted to them for the opportunity of seeing their work in considerable detail and of discussing with them freely the problems from their point of view.
Interviews with Indian Traders. At several jurisdictions the
staff found traders with a great fund of valuable information. In
a few cases the traders were able to supply accounts of Indian
purchases which were believed to represent practically all purchases
made for a given family in a given period, thus throwing considerable additional light on the way in which the native diet was supplemented from the white man’s store. More often they could only
discuss Indian purchases in a very general way. Several traders
are well posted on the production and sale of the Indians’ output,
both native Indian articles and ordinary commercial goods. No
effort was made, however, to make any detailed examination of
the trader’s accounts or to attempt to determine whether the Indians
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