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Problem of Indian Administration

are abandoned lightly and new clean ones constructed elsewhere, thus curtailing the spread of disease, which even so, is inevitable under the existing conditions of overcrowding.

On Indian reservations in this part of the country, water generally is scarce. Sometimes it is difficult even to get enough to drink, so lack of cleanliness of body, clothing, and homes is a natural consequence and is found with discouraging frequency. In addition to lack of cleanliness in the house, overcrowding is a serious problem. Whole family groups sleep on the ground and privacy is unknown. Contagious and infectious diseases have full sway over the entire household if one member becomes ill. Scarcity of water, overcrowding, lack of adequate ventilation, careless disposition of sewage, and exclusion of sunshine are almost universal in the typical Indian dwelling.

The temporary nature of the primitive Southwest Indian home has been mentioned, but the homes of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, on the other hand, are of great permanence. For generations these natives have dwelt in their ancestral homes of adobe brick, patching and repairing from time to time as they crumble and wear. Although certain unsanitary conditions surrounding them are detrimental to health, as contaminated water, century-old graveyards in the main patio of the village, sewage in the streets, corrals in the yards adjoining their houses, and the lack of water-closet or privy of any kind whatever, yet houses themselves are neat, and ventilation is assured by means of the picturesque corner fire place found in nearly every room. The porous soil of the desert and the prophylactic benefits of the sur, however, check to some extent the influence of the disease-bearing germ bred by such conditions,

In other sections of the country, the government has attempted to correct the bad housing by a model-home campaign and has built frame houses for the Indian, but since the training in housekeeping was in many instances inadequate, the effort has often been ineffective. The story of the Indian owning a fine six-room frame building, and living adjacent to it in his tepee is fact, not fancy. When the Indians do live in the houses provided, they often barricade themselves behind tightly-closed doors and windows to avoid fresh air, and they may live for years in an increasing accumulation of