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If Indians were better educated, they would not be forced to rely so completely on their inadequate reservation resources. With regard to education, there is wide variation among the Indian tribes. The average school completion among some tribes compares favorably with the average non-Indian rural community. This would be true of most of Oklahoma and of some of the northwestern tribes. At the other extreme, the Navajo Indians have an average of less than 1 year of school for the entire population of 65,000.

If poor health were not so prominent a factor in the Indian situation, the problem of seeking and holding jobs would not be o difficult. The incidence of tuberculosis among the Indian population runs much too high. In 1949, of 25,495 Indians examined with X-ray, 510 had active tuberculosis. This is a rate of 20 per 1,000, when in the general population similar X-ray examinations reveal a rate of from 1 to 3 per 1,000. And what shall we say of the infant mortality rates -- amounting to more than 50 percent of all deaths recorded on the Navajo Reservation in 1944 -- which carries off the population before it ever gets to the working age!

Nor do these factors by themselves contain all of the reasons for the failure of Indians to make a better economic and social adjustment. We well know that in many communities where Indians seek labor, there is often verbal sympathy for their plight, combined with an unfriendly reception of the Indian moving into the community as a breadwinner. As the President's Civil Rights Committee reported: "As with negroes, Indians are employed readily when there is a shortage of labor and they can't get anyone else. When times get better, they are the first ones to be released."

Against this picture of discouragement, the Indian tribes have resources which, if used to the utmost, could make a profound difference in their outlook. It is to these resources ans the opportunities which they offer that I call you attention. Here is the hope, if there be any hope. However, the realization of this hope will require program-financing on a scale not yet contemplated by Congress. Here are some of the factors:

Of about 44 million acres of grazing land, Indians are using about 34 million acres, leaving a balance of 10 million acres which is now being used by non-Indians. The remaining acreage should support approximately 256,000 head of breeding cows.  On the basis of 60 breeding cows per family, a minimum income could be assured to more than 4,000 families who now have less than that minimum.

A few years ago, Indians were using 900,000 acres out of the approximately 3,000,000 acres classed as farm land. Non-Indians were leasing 1,800,000 acres. The value of sales from the crops produced by Indian farmers amounted to $7,700,000, or approximately $8.50 per acre.  This acreage return could doubtless be increased by more intensive farming methods; but entirely apart from that possibility, if the same rate of return were realized by Indians on the lands in non-Indian use, their income from agricultural production would be increased by $15,000,000. On the basis of a minimum of $1,200 per family, this would benefit 12,500 families.