“Under the present circumstances I believe that the Government has at heart the welfare of its wards and is protecting them. There is only one flaw which I desire to bring to your notice. The real wards of the Government are the full-blood Indians, and they, more than the mixed-bloods, are entitled to the care of the Government, for many reasons, easy to understand; now, in point of fact, mostly all of them, on this reservation, are helpless. They are, if in good health, unable to understand their real interest, and to work as they should. In matters of business they are at the mercy of everyone who chooses to deceive them. But the number of those who are in health is very limited. The vast majority are old, crippled, blind or otherwise helpless. And those, I am sorry to say, are practically left unaided. They need food, raiment, shelter, they should be supported. As it is, they are practically thrown on the charity of the white people. Though possessed of lands, they are unable to draw any profit from them. Some appropriation is made yearly for those; but it is insufficient to furnish them with food, raiment and shelter. Means should be provided for that purpose. They are doomed to disappear, and in justice their last years should be made comfortable. The Government has been collecting large sums of money from the white settlers; why not dispose of some of this money liberally for the impotent full-blood Indians who are left in destitution, instead of spending it in improving the irrigation of the reservation, which improvement will never benefit the full-blood Indians who are disappearing, but will turn to the advantage of the mixed-bloods who have very little right to the land (some of them none at all) and who, on account of their superior intelligence got the very best part of the allotments at the time of the opening of the reservation. The condition of mostly all the full-bloods is pitiful. If they have leased their lands, it takes them an age to receive their money, the local Agent having no authority to disburse it, and the Indian Bureau being very slow in granting it. It seems to me that provision should be made in favor of destitute Indians to have them receive monthly some food, and a small sum of money to provide themselves with clothes, also to have them provided with decent houses and with fuel when they cannot get it themselves. No one but those who live on the spot have any idea of the privations which this class of full-bloods have to submit to, through no fault of theirs. It seems to me that this evil could easily be remedied. Some people seem to think that a monthly sum of money, $20, should be paid to each destitute Indian, with which he could easily provide for his needs; but knowing them as I do, I would prefer to see them receive only $10 or even $5 with rations, for if they get more money, they will spend it all in the first days of the month.”[49]