Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/89

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
62
Problem of Indian Administration

for the Five Civilized Tribes, too, may be very far from showing the present number, as they are those of the present roll made in 1907. Exclusive of the Five Civilized Tribes, the number of Indians is about 250,000.

Every state in the Union has some Indians, but in most of the eastern states the numbers are:small. According to the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1926, twenty-three states each had one thousand or more. Arranged in the descending order, according to number of Indians, these twenty-three were:

Oklahoma[1]
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
120,487
Arizona
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
44,729
South Dakota
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
24,676
New Mexico
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
22,527
California
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
18,913
Minnesota
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
14,819
Montana
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
13,273
Washington
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
12,436
North Carolina
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
12,191
North Dakota
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
10,119
Wisconsin
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
8,089
Michigan
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
7,610
Oregon
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
6,662
Nevada
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
5,692
New York
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
5,342
Idaho
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
3,959
Nebraska
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
2,639
Texas
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
2,110
Wyoming
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1,899
Utah
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1,584
Kansas
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1,527
Mississippi
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1,200
Louisiana
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
1,066

The Indian Service does not operate in Texas and Louisiana and is only nominally in charge of the Indians in New York. Of the Indians in North Carolina 2833 are under the supervision of the Indian Service and 9358 are scattered throughout the state; of those in Michigan 1193 are under the Indian Service and 6417 are scattered. In three states the Indian population under the Indian Service is less than 1000, namely, Colorado 790, Florida 460, and Iowa 374, although in Colorado the total number of Indians according to the Census figure for 1920 is over 1000.

Study of such figures quickly disclosed that it would be impracticable in a year’s time to have the entire survey staff visit each jurisdiction and make a thorough first-hand investigation. Examination of existing material and interviews with persons familiar with the Indian situation disclosed that conditions in the various jurisdictions were very different, and that it would be impossible to study a few and generalize from them to the remainder, a fact

  1. The 120,487 figure for Oklahoma is made up as follows: Indians other than those of Five Civilized Tribes, 18,981 ; Five Civilized Tribes Indians by blood, 75,519, Intermarried whites, 2582 and Freedmen, 23,405.