“I regret that a Senator made this statement. I have been among the Navaho for sixteen years, and I know of not one single instance where a white man was killed on account of Navahos leaving the reservation, or on account of any grazing or land disputes. If every year the killing of from one to a dozen is occasioned by Navaho leaving their reserve, how is it that no one knows anything about it?”[48] In past years I have traveled a good deal over the Navaho reservation. Recently one of my friends, J. Weston Allen, Esq., of Boston, on behalf of the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, of which he is vice-chairman, made a tour of investigation through the Navaho country, and the conditions as he found them were incorporated in an able report to the Secretary of the Interior. Major William T. Shelton, the Superintendent at Shiprock, who has long lived with these Indians, while differing in some details from the views of Mr. Sniffen, Rev. Johnson and Honorable F. H. Abbott, yet agrees with them in the main issue that the Navaho should not be too much superintended. All he needs is protection—not charity, suggestion, nor interference with his industry. Doctor W. W. Wallace, who has been a trader among the Navaho since 1890, writes me that the Indians have steadily progressed, that they ask no favors, and all they desire is to be permitted to continue on their successful way. My own observation leads me to believe that the reservation should not be reduced; allotments must not be made in any event until irrigation has disclosed the land values; more schools should be established, and above all dams should be erected to store water during the spring floods so that more acres may be brought under cultivation. There are vast possibilities for irrigation in the Navaho country, as Mr. Abbott has pointed out. The last investigation by two members of our Board (Ketcham and Eliot) was important, and I present two of the seven recommendations they strongly urged. “_Allotment._ We are thoroughly convinced that the time has not yet come for the allotment of the Indians on the reservation. The Navaho is proceeding along the way of civilization as fast as he can safely travel. He is independent and self-supporting. He is steadily improving his dwelling, his stock and his method of farming. He is learning English, sending his children to school, and increasingly following the advice of the white physicians. He is developing his own water resources, forming good industrial habits and gradually adopting white standards of domestic life. Following their own customs, the Indians divide their common resources with remarkable fairness and live peaceably with one another and with the Whites. They must be permitted slowly to come into an understanding of our customs of private land ownership and inheritance. There is nothing to be gained by hurrying that process. Allotment on the reservation should not be thought of for a good many years to come.