Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/113

At the outset of this report the effort will be made to state briefly the position taken by the survey staff with respect to certain fundamental matters of general policy in Indian affairs. Subsequent sections will deal fairly minutely with the subjects of organization and management, health, education, economic condition, family and community life, and legal aspects of the problem. Each of these sections rests on substantially the same assumptions regarding the general policies which should govern in the conduct of Indian affairs. If these assumptions are sound, as the survey staff believes they are, the findings and recommendations in these detailed sections follow logically and more or less inevitably. If these fundamental statements of policy are acceptable, one may differ here and there with respect to matters of detail but not with general principles. The best course therefore seems to be to present these assumptions as clearly as possible at the outset, so that they may be definitely understood, in order that those who wish to take issue on fundamentals may do so at the beginning. In this way it is hoped that thinking and discussion may be clarified, that fundamentals may be considered as fundamentals and the details of practice and procedure as details, highly important though they are and vital in giving effect to general policies.

The Object of Work with or for the Indians. The object of work with or for the Indians is to fit them either to merge into the social and economic life of the prevailing civilization as developed by the whites or to live in the presence of that civilization at least in accordance with a minimum standard of health and decency. The first of these alternatives is apparently so clear on its face as to require no further explanation. The second, however, demands some further explanation.

Some Indians proud of their race and devoted to their culture and their mode of life have no desire to be as the white man is. They