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of this position would more properly be described by the title “Field Clerk,” or in some instances “General Laborer.” The duties have rarely been those of an agricultural teacher and demonstrator, and the qualifications required have not been such as are necessary for teachers or leaders in agriculture. The salaries have been so low that, as a rule, the Service is fortunate if it gets a really good agricultural laborer with sufficient education to perform his clerical duties. Some exceptions must be noted. One or two well trained agricultural teachers employed as farmers have shown what is possible, but in general the economic and industrial education of adult reservation Indians has been neglected.
Even less has been done toward finding profitable employment for Indians. As has been said the schools do little for their graduates. Little is done on the reservations. In a few jurisdictions labor services are maintained chiefly in recruiting Indians for temporary unskilled labor. This employment service is largely mass work, not individualized, and it does not often seek to find the Indian an opportunity for a permanent position that offers him a chance to work up or one that will arouse his interest.
Family and Community Development. The Indian Service has not appreciated the fundamental importance of family life and community activities in the social and economic development of a people. The tendency has been rather toward weakening Indian family life and community activities than toward strengthening them. The long continued policy of removing Indian children from the home and placing them for years in boarding school largely disintegrates the family and interferes with developing normal family life. The belief has apparently been that the shortest road to civilization is to take children away from their parents and insofar as possible to stamp out the old Indian life. The Indian community activities particularly have often been opposed if not suppressed. The fact has been appreciated that both the family life and the community activities have many objectionable features, but the action taken has often been the radical one of attempting to destroy rather than the educational process of gradual modification and development.
The Service is notably weak in personnel trained and experienced in educational work with families and communities. The result is the almost total absence of well developed programs for the several