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Problem of Indian Administration

and will have little means of support. His Indian friends will be incensed, and without understanding all the minutiæ of civil service status and the retirement system, will cite the case as showing discrimination against Indians. Under the same circumstances the white employees would be given a retirement allowance. Why does the government slight the Indian?

At another jurisdiction the director of the survey was asked by a stately old Indian chief of police for an opportunity to present a personal matter. Arrangements were made for an evening meeting. The old man brought a carefully preserved file of papers consisting mainly of letters which had been written him by army officers and civilian superintendents commending him for specially meritorious service. Some of them dated back to his service as a scout for the government when troops were in the country, and others related to his work in aiding in rounding up a band of outlaws. He was conscious of the fact that he was old, perhaps too old, for a chief of police, and he wanted a pension. Several superintendents have done excellent work in aiding the old scouts who worked with the troops in establishing their rights to military pensions, but it is often hard to get the necessary evidence. This old chief of police ought to be entitled to a civil retirement benefit, because of the length of his service as a civil employee.

In the matter of quarters, too, the effort should be made to prevent discrimination. Unquestionably white employees as a rule have come from homes which are physically superior to those from which Indian employees have come, yet the Indians are quick to note the sometimes marked difference between the accommodations furnished white employees and those furnished Indian employees, especially if tribal funds are used in support of the agency. It is probably true that the Indians on the reservations visit more frequently and more intimately the homes of the Indian employees. It is therefore highly desirable that these houses be in a sense models, not elaborate or ornate but examples of reasonable standards in housing, sanitation, and housekeeping. Several of the homes of Indian employees visited were in fact models insofar as the Indians could make them so with what the government supplied as a foundation. Most Indian employees would doubtless take care of what the government might supply in the way of improved accommodations. Those who did not could be “romped on,” to