The $15 allowance to come to each Indian on the diminished Colville Reservation, while it will be a help to many who are reported to be near starvation, is by no means a generous portion.
The Colville Indians have traveled anything but a rosy path. Many portions of the reservation are incapable of raising anything marketable. Thousands of acres are fit only for grazing or mineral prospects. Many of the natives, some of them withered in age, are living in insufficient shelters.
This is no reflection on the Indian agents. Give them credit for doing the best they can with what is at their disposal. It is not that the United States government wishes to be cruel or indifferent. It is just the old story of thoughtlessness.
But it is a dear form of thoughtlessness so far as these helpless government charges are concerned. If every federal official empowered to dispense Indian funds could travel from Wellpinit to Inchelium he would be appalled with the results of using too much government red tape.
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