230 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19 



long as the American Indian remains the lowest income ethnic group in the 

 United States. On the cheerful side of the ledger is the fact that the high 

 death-rate is offset by the higher birth-rate so that the Chippewa are in- 

 creasing in number. 



An additional word may be said regarding the possibilities of improving 

 the situation through the medium of a public health program. Dr. E. T. 

 Foard, Director of Medical Services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in 

 recently deploring the utter inadequacy of a preventive medicine program 

 for the American Indian makes the following points (pp. 1403-7): 



1. "As for public health (preventive medicine) service for the Indians, 83 field 

 nursing service positions are now provided for under budget limitations and only 50 

 positions are filled. Despite the urgent need for improvements in environmental sanita- 

 tion on practically all Indian Reservations until within the past few months, only one 

 medical officer trained or experienced in public health adminstration had ever been 

 employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for field service. It was only within the 

 past 60 days that the first sanitary inspector was ever employed for field service 

 among the Indians; yet basic sanitation is the one great need for eliminating health 

 hazards which exist on a majority of the Indian Reservations. At the present time, 

 only two qualified sanitary engineers are employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs 

 and only one of these two is devoting his full time (on the Navaho Reservation) to 

 public health work. No pediatricians or nutritionalists have ever been employed for 

 field service among the Indians; yet diseases of infants and children are among the 

 principal causes of the high death rates among Indians as a racial group. . . . 



2. "Only one dentist is employed for each 19,000 Indians. . . . 



3. "Of the 62 Indian hospitals operated in the United States, more than 40 per 

 cent of the hospital load from year to year has been made up of preventable or con- 

 trollable diseases. . . . 



4. "The high morbidity and mortality rates among the Indians are undisputable 

 evidence that the health of the American Indians, a majority of whom are wards of 

 the government, has been neglected to the extent that the lack of health facilities for 

 Indians is a disgrace to the nation. . . . 



5. "The Indians are entitled to health services equal to those provided for the 

 white people of the country. For lack of funds, inability to pay adequate salaries for 

 professional personnel and an outmoded central administrative policy, they are not 

 getting it." 



Dr. Foard ends with the statement that unless the present federal plan 

 is radically improved, the public health program should be transferred to 

 state agencies for administration with the aid of federal subsidies. In terms 

 of direct benefit to the Indian, such transfer has much to recommend it. A 

 local agency is more likely to be sensitive to the problems and needs of the 

 Indian group in its ken, whereas a centralized agency in Washington might 

 be more prone to think in terms of "blanket" programs. Perhaps the chief 

 contribution of the anthropologist is to point up the fact that each Indian 

 reservation must be considered potentially a unique situation with the possi- 



