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Indians. This is especially true in reservation work. The contract physicians on a reservation may wait for the Indians to call them. In the schools they may hurry through their work.
Doubtless it will be necessary for the Indian Office to continue some of this service until they can attract more full-time physicians.
The surgeon is possibly the one type of contract physician that could be used to advantage. All agencies are in need of first class medical service at all times, but it is only occasionally that they need a surgeon. Obviously a contract with some local surgeon of ability would provide the maximum of service to the Indians. A start in this direction has been made at Cloquet, Minnesota. The Cloquet plan is faulty in that the agency is expecting the surgeon to do field work as well. They will not be successful, because a busy surgeon cannot be expected to do routine reservation work.
Dentists. The dental service was begun in 1910. There are ten positions open for dentists, all filled at this time, and funds are now available for three more positions. One of the dentists is permanently stationed at Klamath. This is reported to be an economy measure made necessary by the large amount of money being spent from tribal funds to pay for individual dental work. From this fact it might be assumed that the remaining dentists were able to cover their respective territories, which include the remainder of the Indian reservations in the United States, or possibly that the Indians on these reservations were not in need of dental service, but this is not the case.
Apparently no detailed precise program of dental work has been mapped out. A dentist is not required to visit specified reservations or schools at designated times. Although the Office exercises general supervision the occasion and duration of his visits are regarded largely as matters for him to decide, although sixty days is considered the limit of time to be given one place. As the district covered by these men is large, it is rarely possible for them to return oftener than once every two years, so that obviously much of their previous work is lost.
Dentists are not expected to visit non-reservation schools or places where the services of local dentists can be secured at a reasonable price. Chilocco School reports that it receives dental service from a physician in Arkansas City. On closer questioning, they admitted that the only children who received dental care were