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Bellingham Herald, 8-29-50
(Front page, below picture.)
NCAI CONVENTION
8-29-50

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Integration of Indians Bound to Come, Says Myer
Ultimate integration of the American Indian into the general pattern of American life is inevitable "no matter what any of us here do about it," a natural movement that is bound to come, U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs Dillon S. Myer told the National Congress of American Indians Tuesday morning. 
But how well this integration is accomplished, Myer told the 300 or more Indians from all parts of the U.S. in his audience, is "up to us," meaning that it is the responsibility of the Indians and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to work out together their problems and plan their program for action by the U.S. congress. 
Commissioner Myer, who came out from Washington, D.C., especially for the convention of the National Congress of American Indians in Bellingham, said that interest in the American Indian is greater than ever on the part of congress and that the ward status of the Indian (Indians are wards of the government) gradually will be abolished. 
Myer said it was absurd to think that any Indian bureau that changes every time congress changes can adequately handle the Indian problem. "It is time now for us to settle down to work," he said. 
He outlined the manner in
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Integration of Indians Bound to Come, Says Myer
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which the Indian Bureau to which he was appointed only last May, will undertake the solution of the Indian problem with the help of the Indians- from the area level of the Indian affairs office and the reservation level of the Indians.
Chief Justice George B. Simpson of the Washington supreme court visited the convention Tuesday morning in respect to Justice N.B. Johnson of the Oklahoma supreme court who is president of the Congress of American Indians and presiding over the convention here. Chief Justice Simpson was made an honorary member of the N.C.A.I. in a brief ceremony when Justice Johnson introduced him, and spoke briefly.
He said that he had a blood heritage from the Cherokee tribe through his father, whose great grandfather was full-blooded.
"I am proud of that heritage which is an old and early American heritage," Justice Simpson said.
"If the courts of our lands are to uphold the traditions of justice in preserving our Constitutional rights and guarantees, those who hold office in those courts, become the guardians of our American way of life.
LOYAL AMERICANS
"This calls for careful and impartial consideration of all issues. It calls also for constant alertness, for in these days when Communistic elements attack us from within and without, we must vigilantly guard our American freedoms against use for subversive ends." The American Indians, Justice Johnson has declared during the convention of the Indian Congress here, is one minority group in America into which Communism has not infiltrated and in which nothing of a subversive nature has ever found acceptance. "The loyalty of the American Indian to the U.S. government has never been questioned," Justice Johnson said.
Justice N.B. Corn of the Oklahoma supreme court who accompanied Justice Johnson to Bellingham was introduced at the morning session. 
Seated at the speakers' table and introduced also were Ervin J. Utz, assistant commissioner of Indian affairs, who accompanied Commissioner Myer; Morgan Pryce, area director of Indian affairs at Portland, and George P. LaVatta, Indian director of welfare and public relations.
Another important visitor and delegate, also at the head of the table, was Hiram Clark, superintendent of the Standing Rock Indian agency at Fort Yates, N.D.
Pryce, in a brief talk, said that the problems of the Indians are the same as those of any other American citizen - better homes, better schools, better hospitals.
Commissioner Meyer and Utz conferred with Indian bureau area staffs and visited reservations in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, Oregon and Washington on the way to Bellingham. They were at LaConner Monday.
Myer's visit here is the first any U.S. commissioner of Indian affairs has paid to the National Congress of American Indians. The Congress, organized in 1944, has become the recognized voice of the American Indian.
POLICY OUTLINED
Myer spoke to the convention for 40 minutes Tuesday morning- friendly, practical, thorough in explaining just how he intends to operate the Bureau of Indian Affairs to work with the Indians for their rights and their integration into the American scene- American citizens among other American citizens.
He spent the rest of the morning session answering questions of individuals and tribal representatives put to him from the floor- an actual conference with the Indians.
"I do not advocate elimination of the reservation- that must be decided by the people who live on the reservations. The reservation is your land, and you have the same right to it that other citizens have to land they own," he said.
"The Indian problem is one of the most complex problems in the United States government. It is essential in a problem of such complexity that we look at the whole picture."
PROBLEMS OUTLINED
Myer said that some basic phases of the Indian problem for the government are: 
To provide the same kind of educational program for the Indian that other American citizens have.
Indian acceptance of public schools on the public school basis. He said he was glad to find so few segregated schools for Indians in this area.
Opportunity for higher and vocational education for Indian youth. "Indian youngsters have the same opportunity as any other American youngsters to whatever kind of job they want to do. This involves the question of placement and working with employment sources."
Resource development to enable all Indians to make a decent living was given as further phase of the problem. "I do not mean just land, cattle and physical resources. Some reservations are so over-populated it is simply impossible for anyone to make a living there."
Delivering the convention keynote address Tuesday afternoon Reginald O. Curry, chairman of the Ute tribal council in Utah, said to the N.C.A.I. delegates, "You have come here with a common purpose in mind - to help the cause of our American people. You have come here with the knowledge that the National Congress of American Indian has become the voice of the Indian, the medium through which your desires, hopes, and problem will be made known to these best able to help us.
RAISE LIVING STANDARDS
"We are firm in our beliefs and determined to raise the standard of living for our Indian people to the same standard as other citizens of the United States, a way of life that is rightfully ours.
Mayor Jack Mulhern in welcoming the convention at the opening session Monday afternoon said that he had attended many conventions here and, since becoming mayor last June, had welcomed several different kinds but that Congress of American Indians convention is one of the most widely interesting.
"The Indians in the United States have a heritage of which they may be proud, and it is admirable that today the struggle between the native Indians [[word cut off]] the pioneer white men are being seen in a different light," Mulhern said.