Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/164
Exactly what positions should be provided in a given jurisdiction and how the different duties should be distributed between them should be worked out by the specialists in the Division of Planning and Development after a careful study of local conditions. Some jurisdictions with a large number of Indians have such magnificent distances and such poor roads, that the practical solution will doubtless be to divide the territory into districts with one general worker in each district, and possibly one or two with special ability in fields particularly important in that jurisdiction located at the agency headquarters and working out from there. In other larger jurisdictions where the Indians are easily reached, it will doubtless prove more satisfactory to have the work divided on a functional basis with trained workers in the several branches with headquarters at the central agency office. Nothing uniform and standardized can be recommended offhand for application in all jurisdictions, because the needs of the jurisdictions are so different and the physical conditions so diverse. Study and planning are necessary to arrive at a sound plan.
An illustration of the necessity for planning on the basis of local conditions may be worthwhile. The employment of a trained specialist in recreation and community activities for the nomad Navajo would at this time be almost ludicrous. With the Osages, on the other hand, the employment of such a worker, the very best that can be obtained, appears to be a fundamentally important first step in an effort to combat the bad social conditions which threaten to engulf the whole tribe. The Navajos have little leisure and they rarely get together; they are too busy attending to their sheep. The Osages have little but leisure; their problem is what to do with it. They love to get together, hence the Peyote Church and the feast incidental to it, and the elaborate buildings constructed at the expense of individual Indians for community gatherings. Here is a force that is going to find an outlet. The question is can it be turned into channels that will strengthen these people or is it inevitable that they be submerged by it? The program here, it would seem, must begin with recreation. If recreation succeeds, contacts will have been established through which they may be aided in other directions, which to some persons may seem more important.