into account the C. C. C. reduction, the possible reduction on account of the Farm Security loans and grants, the Soil Conservation operations, and W. P. A. projects. The services had by Indians, Mr. Greenwood says, may be $8,000,000 off. DATA ON REDUCTIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1941 Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. Will you put a table in the record showing that full picture? Mr. COLLIER. Yes, sir. (The table requested is as follows:) Estimate of anticipated and possible reductions during the fiscal year 1941 in expenditures benefiting Indians Mr. COLLIER. It is important that we visualize the Indian Service as one not exclusively in the Indian Bureau. We procure service to Indians through seven other agencies, and the cuts that have been or may be taken by these other agencies are added on to the cuts which the Indian Service may be required to take. I do not think there is any more general statement I care to make at this time. NUMBER OF INDIANS EMPLOYED IN THE INDIAN SERVICE Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. Will you please also place in the record a statement showing the exact number of Indians who are now employed in the Indian Service, including the Washington office and the field? Mr. COLLIER. We will be glad to furnish that. (The table requested is as follows:) Number of Indians employed in Indian Service regularly established positions Location: Washington office_ Total Number 108 4,390 4, 491 Mr. COLLIER. If I may interpolate here, I would like to call particular attention to the fact that on the Senate floor in the debate the other day, one of the Senators practically charged that the Indian Service was a white man's organization and that there were not many Indians employeed, and that those who were employed were only in a menial capacity. He illustrated in terms of the reservation that he spoke of, that part of the Navajo Reservation which is in New Mexico. He said there were only a hundred Indians employed among the 1,200 employees on the Navajo Reservation, and that these 100 Indians were menials. He also said that we are operating 1,550 motor vehicles in the New Mexico area on the Navajo Reservation alone. I have assembled the precise facts concerning the Navajo Reservation which is typical of what is going on in the Indian reservations throughout the country. On the Navajo Reservation there is a total of 1,148 regular positions, of which 639 are filled by Indians, and the balance, 509, by whites. Of the 639 Indians regularly employed, two-thirds are Navajos. Mr. SHEPPARD. You mean on the pay roll? Commissioner COLLIER. Who are regularly employed. Mr. COLLIER. Of a total of 1,148 positions, 639 are filled by Indians and the positions they hold range through every branch of the Service, nurses, head nurses, chief nurses, senior and junior clerks, school principals, teachers, boys' advisers, engineers, foremen, in fact, every type of service. In addition, among the emergency and other temporary employees, such as the Indian C. C. C., 87 percent are Indians. And the pay roll to Indians, upon the Navajo Reservation, has averaged across the last 6 years, $1,300,000 per annum, very much more than the total pay roll to whites. Of motor vehicles on the entire Navajo Reservation there are 422, and not as the Senator indicated, 1,550. And in the New Mexico area of the Navajos there are less than 150, where he said there were 1,550. Now take the entire Service, in its totality, we will present the exact figures when we take up the items, giving the number of Indians in the whole Indian Service, showing that the regular employees exceed the number of whites; about 56 percent of the employees are Indians. Mr. CROSTHWAIT. That is correct; 56 percent. Mr. COLLIER. And if you take into account the emergency employees, the number of Indians exceeds the whites very much more than that. Each year we are constantly increasing the number of Indian employees and correspondingly decreasing the number of whites. Mr. SHEPPARD. Is that not in line with the Department's policy? And I am referring back to some previous experience with the Department on another committee. Is it not in line with the Department's policy that as rapidly as you are able to bring the Indians up to the standard of mental capacity you are placing them in responsible positions? Mr. COLLIER. Just as rapidly as we can. And that increase in employment is contemplated by the Reorganization Act, and is set forth in the President's Executive order of last June, moving all Indian positions into schedule A of the civil service. What we were expected to do by the act, was to create a truly competitive service for Indians to compete against Indians, but we have not been able to do that with any thoroughness, because we have not been allowed any money to set up and maintain the competitive system. What we are doing, by the best methods we can, is to find the most fitted person we can for the job and put him in it. And in our educational program we are trying to prepare the Indians for Government service as well as for industrial and agricultural work outside the service. Mr. CROSTHWAIT. I have some statistics showing the percentage of employees. Of a total of approximately 8,000 regular positions, as of April 1, there were 4,491 of those positions held by Indians. Of that number of positions, about 70 percent were held by Indians of one-half or more Indian blood; 41 percent full blood; and approximately 30 percent half blood; the remainder are less than half blood. Mr. COLLIER. But not less than one-fourth. Mr. CROSTHWAIT. But none under one-quarter degree. We do not have any authority to employ Indians, unless through competitive means, who have less than one-fourth degree of Indian blood. The distribution of those positions, in the various salary ranges, is about the same as for the entire personnel. In other words, the distribution of Indians in the various salary rates, does not vary differently from the total group of the positions held by all employees. Mr. COLLIER. That is with respect to salaries. Mr. CROSTHWAIT. For the Indians it is about the same, with the possible exception of the extreme top positions. It takes time to bring the Indian out so he can take over the very top positions, but the number of top jobs which are being filled by Indians shows a gradual increase. Mr. COLLIER. We have five superintendents and one regional director who are Indians. Mr. CROSTHWAIT. The distribution among tribes is also very interesting and that shows that we have Indians from almost every tribe employed. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. That is very interesting information and should be placed in the record in some detail. Mr. CROSTHWAIT. Yes. (The data requested follows:) Tribal representation, U. S. Indian Service, Apr. 1, 1939 Washington office. Blackfeet Agency. Cherokee Agency. Cheyenne and Arapaho. Consolidated Chippewa. |