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Problem of Indian Administration

the water rights of the Pimas and of the Flathead Indians, and so on. So much of the material for the study of his problems was located at the Washington office that he returned there before the others, leaving to them the gathering of what more or less fragmentary data could be secured regarding Indian courts, marriage and divorce, and criminal jurisdiction. From time to time specific legal questions were referred to him by other members of the staff. Individual legal claims and individual tribal claims and tangles were often presented, almost any one of which might take months of study for an intelligent comprehension or court presentation. Obviously one lawyer on a survey staff could not assemble the material necessary for a full understanding of any of these. The problem was not one of understanding each individual claim, but of ascertaining or constructing a practical legal device designed to receive and quiet all peculiarly Indian claims within a comparatively brief period of years.

The Work of the Indian Adviser. The Indian adviser not only interpreted the survey to the Indians and the Indian to the survey, he participated actively in every field of endeavor. Himself the founder and head of an accredited high school for Indian boys, he was deeply interested in the schools. On the reservations he was particularly valuable in visiting homes. His particular achievement, however, was in establishing contact with the Indians. In all announcements of the arrival of the survey staff at a jurisdiction the fact was featured that the staff included one Indian. What is commonly termed the Indian “grape vine telegraph” also worked. Added to these aids was the fact that Mr. Cloud has a wide acquaintanceship among the Indians of the United States and has been active for years in constructive work in their behalf. The result was the one hoped for, namely, that the Indians would come to him. Thus conferences with Indians and Indian councils became a regular part of the work of the survey.

Indian Councils. Whenever any group of Indians expressed a desire to hold council with representatives of the survey staff, their wishes were met. At times the entire staff present in the jurisdiction sat in these councils. When this practice too seriously interfered with other activities, only a part of the group would sit. The ordinary practice was for the director of the survey or someone acting for him to make a brief statement of the origin and purposes