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existence is not surprising; nor, if their history be considered, is it strange that they accept their conditions with an almost oriental fatalism and resignation, and in many cases seek the temporary relief that is to be found in alcohol, peyote, and narcotics or in primitive dances and festivals. The surprising thing is to find many who have preserved their sense of humor. Although at times they complain bitterly of individual government officials, yet the majority of them look to the government as their best friend. Often they ask too much from it in the way of rations and relief and do not value highly enough what it gives in the form of constructive educational service, but this attitude is the inevitable aftermath of the old policy of rationing now largely abandoned.

Some white people are inclined to say, “You can’t do anything humanitarian for them. They are Indians and they will always be that way. They would rather be that way than work.” To these people two answers may be made. The first is that there are too many instances of marked success with individual Indians and with groups to warrant any such conclusion. The second is that many methods used with the Indians in the past, notably that of rationing, produce the same results with any people. They pauperize them instead of educating them to do for themselves. The errors in past methods are too obvious and too glaring to permit of past failures being fairly and justly attributed to peculiar racial characteristics of the Indians. Abundant evidence shows them to be a people of real capacity with many characteristics of outstanding worth. For example, one of their outstanding traits is their Christian virtue of loving their neighbors as themselves. The poorest Indian will share what he has with his neighbors. To Indians, selfishness and stinginess are cardinal vices. One of the difficulties the government has is to keep the lazy and the shiftless from living off the products of the labor of their more energetic tribesman who is attempting to follow the white man’s economic ways. Mention should also be made here of their artistic ability. With nothing but a few cans of house paint, one Indian boy has painted theater curtains for several of the Indian schools which make the ordinary commercial curtains look insignificant and commonplace. In those schools where the children have been permitted to draw Indian designs and things which appeal to them they have shown an exceptionally high artistic ability. Some of the musical organizations, for example, the band