Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/328

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Health
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No effort has been made to rehabilitate the Indian once he leaves the sanatorium. A person who has had tuberculosis, even though he may have achieved a quiescence of his disease while in the sanatorium, is not necessarily in a condition to be returned to his old life. In the white population nearly fifty per cent of discharged sanatorium cases relapse within two years. The Indian’s inherently low resistance and lack of immunity and the deplorable home he often returns to would seem to require that he be carried under supervision for a longer period than the white to assure the permanency of the arrest of his disease.

Institutions of colonies established to meet this need in the general population make provision for teaching the patient some vocation that he can follow with safety. They include selected types of agriculture, poultry raising, certain building trades, clerical work, and other occupations found suitable. Indian handicrafts open a very wide field of activity for the Indian patient. These combined with other established occupations would make it relatively easy to meet the needs of the Indian patients.

The institutions used for this purpose are not of the sanatorium type. As the idea is to adjust the patient gradually to the conditions he must face at home, dormitories are used as a measure of economy. Cottages, however, would undoubtedly serve better, especially for the man or woman with a family, for thus the patient could live under more nearly natural conditions while carrying out the hardening up process.

In this type of work it is frequently necessary and desirable to provide for the family of the patient in which case a percentage of his earnings goes to cover the cost of family maintenance. This type of service is of course intended for the adult and does not apply to children who are in need of further schooling.

In time it is conceivable that small colonies will be built up somewhat similar to the colony at Coolidge, New Mexico, where for commercial purposes Indians are producing a very high grade of weaving and silver handicraft that has a ready market. It is assured and understood that such a project for the tuberculous should be under the direction of medical authority.

A discussion of sanatorium facilities in the Indian Service would not be complete without reference to their relative size and ability