OUR INDIAN WARDS 219 



of government, that the Indian Service was notori- 

 ously corrupt; and I think in the public mind the In- 

 dian Service of to-day has the disadvantage of some 

 of that ancient aroma still clinging around it. 



"The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hon. 

 Charles H. Burke, has had long experience with In- 

 dian affairs through his life in the West and through 

 his former connection with Indian affairs as Chair- 

 man of the Committee on Indian Affairs of this 

 House, and is a man of capacity, integrity, and of 

 practical sane idealism. He has associated with him, 

 as assistant commissioner, Mr. Edgar B. Meritt, 

 who has been in that bureau for some thirty years. 

 I do not believe there is in the Government service 

 a man who is more thoroughly devoted to carrying 

 out the responsibilities of his position than Mr. Mer- 

 itt. It was his vigilance that saved the San Carlos 

 Reservoir site, and he is most zealous and devoted to 

 the real welfare of the Indians." 



In Colonial days the Indian was an enemy, only, 

 but the young nation recognized treaty and other re- 

 sponsibilities. Committees of Senate and House 

 were the new nation's first managers of Indian af- 

 fairs. The War Department appropriately took 

 charge of its creation in 1789. Traders introduced 

 liquor, under influence of which Indians suffered 

 both as buyers and sellers in their business with 

 whites. To correct this, President Washington set 

 up Indian trading posts, which the traders got abol- 

 ished by Act of Congress in 1822. Retort to that 



