“We are impressed with the exceptional opportunity of the Navaho reservation for the work of field matrons and recommend that an additional force be provided for. The field matrons should work in close cooperation with superintendents, teachers and physicians. “In general we believe that the condition of the Navaho is promising. The people are virile, industrious and independent. With the exercise of ordinary good judgment, patience and tact, there need never be any serious problem in connection with their development.” Doctor Joseph K. Dixon, representing the Wanamaker Expedition, visited the “painted desert”. He took some remarkable motion pictures of Navaho herders driving thousands of sheep down to the waterholes. As I observed these pictures, portraying the peaceful, industrious life of these red nomads of the desert, I wished fondly that all men and women unable to observe Indian life as it is in the Southwest, might see them. They recalled many interesting days spent among these sturdy folk. The natives living as do the Navaho, present an object lesson to all “reformers”, and it is to be devoutly hoped that we will heed the lesson and “let well enough alone.” To do otherwise will destroy the initiative of a self-supporting and upright people, and deprive the world of a primitive stock of exceptional physical stamina and mental ability. Mr. Allen’s report to the Secretary of the Interior and the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee cannot be reproduced at length, much to my regret, but I herewith append certain sections, as it is a splendid presentation of the Navaho situation and includes valuable recommendations to meet the needs of these Indians. “Three obvious difficulties immediately present themselves when any plan of Navaho settlement is considered—(1) the great inequality of the land for grazing purposes; (2) the scarcity of water, and the fact that much of the land is far distant from the nearest water supply; (3) the existence of summer and winter ranges and the removal of the sheep from place to place under the changing conditions of different seasons of the year. “Of the inequality of the land for grazing purposes, it is sufficient to say that there are vast areas of rock and sand where an allotment of 160 acres would not support a single sheep. Of the inaccessibility of water, it may be similarly stated that there are sections of land within the reservation which are so far from water during the dry season that sheep would die from exhaustion before they could reach it. Of the necessity of moving the sheep from one part of the reservation to another, it is perhaps sufficient to point out that in the winter the sheep must have the protection of the sheltered valleys and in the summer they are driven by the heat and the scarcity of water into the mountains.