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Problem of Indian Administration

has lost a fundamental qualification for his work. A superintendent who has perhaps unwittingly permitted himself to be actively drawn into the social and business life of those elements of the white community which are believed by the Indians to be preying upon them may not in all cases merit dismissal, but he has gone a long way toward destroying his usefulness in that jurisdiction if not to the Service as a whole. In business affairs, if not in social affairs, the superintendent should keep himself above suspicion. It might even be wise for the Service to have rules prohibiting its local employees and their families from participating in local business enterprises either as stock holders or directors.^[1] The fact that the superintendent is a director in a bank may have nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that a claim of the bank gets priority to the claim of an Indian for a given property, but it is hard to make the Indians believe it. To the impartial observer it looks at least as if the superintendent has done something inconsistent with the requirements of his position.

The immediate steps recommended with respect to organization and procedure are therefore the establishment of the Division of Planning and Development, and the strengthening of the local forces in immediate contact with responsibility of local superintendents.

Recommended Revision of Rules and Regulations. In connection with this third recommendation, a specific recommendation should be made for an early revision of the rules and regulations. For this purpose it would seem desirable to have a committee and sub-committee patterned after those which have been so successfully developed under the Chief Coordinator of the Budget Bureau. This committee should contain representatives of the Indian Office

↑ The law and the regulations already prohibit employees from dealing in Indian land; and the Supreme Court of the United States had held that the titles secured through transactions in violation of this law are void, and that neither the statute of limitations nor tactics ran in favor of the purchasers. The general effect would be wholesome if proceedings should be instituted to restore to the Indians lands which were taken from them in some of those unfortunate cases where field officers have been guilty of violating this law and have been dismissed from the Service because of their offenses. These titles are very probably void even in the hands of innocent purchasers. All such cases should be cleared up at the earliest possible day, as, unsettled, they leave grave doubt as to the validity of many of the deeds in the jurisdiction affected. Innocent third persons may be the victims.

[1] The law and the regulations already prohibit employees from dealing in Indian land; and the Supreme Court of the United States had held that the titles secured through transactions in violation of this law are void, and that neither the statute of limitations nor tactics ran in favor of the purchasers. The general effect would be wholesome if proceedings should be instituted to restore to the Indians lands which were taken from them in some of those unfortunate cases where field officers have been guilty of violating this law and have been dismissed from the Service because of their offenses. These titles are very probably void even in the hands of innocent purchasers. All such cases should be cleared up at the earliest possible day, as, unsettled, they leave grave doubt as to the validity of many of the deeds in the jurisdiction affected. Innocent third persons may be the victims.

[1]