let alone the fact that their ideas are not developed and put in formal form. Too many times we find out about these things after they are already done.

We would like to stress the importance of our Indians having their ideas carried out.

I would like to then pass some more of this time on to the other gentlemen here, Mr. Chairman.

Senator DOUGLAS. Whom do you want as your next witness?
Mr. BERRY. Robert Goombi, Kiowa councilman.

Senator DOUGLAS. Mr. Goombi, we are very glad to have you here.
Mr. GOOмBI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to talk a little about the living standards among our Indian people. I believe today, Senator, that the living conditions among our Indian people are the worst in the history of the Indian Service. The housing is terrible. We have people there living in houses, in shacks, where you could lie on the bed and see the moon and stars. It is pitiful, Senator.

In order for Indians to live, they are compelled to sell land. They have children going to public schools or other schools. They have to sell land to provide for their family. Food is high. Living costs are high. And the only moneys that the Indians have is to sell what mere land they have.

The sanitation among our Indians is in bad shape. I would not be afraid to say, Senator, that, in a hundred homes in my county, Kiowa County in western Oklahoma, you would only find about three bathtubs in their homes. Some have to haul water a long distance. They have no wells. There are no provisions to improve the living conditions under the Bureau of Indian Affairs setup.

Home conditions are bad. No proper food for our youngsters that are coming up to be the future citizens of the United States. It is terrible, Senator.

In the line of education, they struggle along till they get to the place where they graduate out of high school, and, for the next step, higher education, there is no provision. The Indians have no money to send their children to college, junior college, or to university.

I say that unemployment is plentiful among our Indian people in Oklahoma. Nothing has been done to improve the situation.

I think it is a policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to get rid of this Indian land as fast as they can, putting people on the welfare rolls. We think it is terrible.

Senator DOUGLAS. The Commissioner denied that this morning.

Mr. GOOMBI. Well, sir, I believe that, if an investigation is made, it would be so. Because, in the State of Oklahoma in 1955, 525,000 acres of Indian land were sold. They were forced to sell it because that is the only means of living.

So I say that we do need help. We do need aid. And I say again that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is too topheavy with brass and not enough service to our Indian people.

In summing up my statement, with your permission, Mr. Chairman, I would like to insert for the record a statement that I wrote. If you will accept a statement, I would like to have it in the record. Senator DOUGLAS. That will be done.

(The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF ROBERT GOOMBI, KIOWA INDIAN, MOUNTAIN VIEW, OKLA.

HERE'S WHERE OUR MONEY GOES-ELIMINATE THE EXISTING SHAMEFUL WASTE IN THE
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

The American Indian has made great progress in the past 25 years, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs cannot take any credit for it, because they have done a very poor job. The handicapped American Indians have made great progress in spite of the Indian Bureau, redtape, and bureaucracy, and I salute the American Indian.

As an Indian, this is the way I see the Bureau of Indian Affairs: The Bureau of Indian Affairs employees are very busy protecting their jobs, but not the American Indian. The treatment the American Indian receives at the hands of the Bureau officials is a very black page in American history.

I don't believe there is another race of people on the face of this earth who are so mistreated and dominated as the American Indian. Things are rotten in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

As most branches of the Government grow in size and function, they require an increasingly large staff. This fits the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Bureau of Indian Affairs tends to jell into a self-protecting and self-serving class which sooner or later comes to regard itself as an elite. Any human institution will include incompetent and willful men and women whose errors can cause disasters The Indian Bureau has the facilities to cover up errors and make it difficult for the Indian citizens and their Representatives in the United States Congress to know what is being done. The Bureau employees are experts in covering up their dirty works and mistreatment.

The Indian Bureau and its employees have forgotten that they are servants and not masters or dictators. I am not saying that all Bureau employees are not good. We have some of the finest people in this world who are employed in the Bureau, but it is too bad they are not in authority. The Indian Bureau is topheavy with brass and not enough workers in the service of the American Indian.

First, let's stop the shameful waste in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. What we need is a good house cleaning in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Let's start with the Commissioner's Office and come right down to local level. Let's employ people who are qualified, who do not seek personal gains, who understand human beings, who will work with the American Indian. This world is moving too fast and we have no room for dictators. This is still free America.

I would like to point out to you some of this shameful waste in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I want the world to know and understand that I am not "mad" at anyone, but all I want is better treatment and better service for our American Indian. We American Indians deserve better treatment.

Back in 1952 the Eisenhower administration pledged to eliminate the existing shameful waste in the administration of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Let's look into this so-called shameful waste in the Indian Bureau. In the past few years the appropriations have grown larger and larger for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and yet the Indian Bureau is rendering fewer and fewer serv ices. Largely what this administration has done is to cause or increase confusion and fear among our American Indians. I believe right now, under the present setup in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the conditions are worse among our Indian people. Indians have no voice in their affairs.

But let's go on. Up to this administration there were not more than two Assistant Commissioners in the Indian Bureau, but today the present administration employs a Deputy Commissioner, 1 Associate Commissioner and 4 or 5 Assistant Commissioners, and a flock of directors, program planners, or what I call dreamers. I say that these dreamers and most of the Assistant Commissioners constitute some of the so-called shameful waste in the Indian Bureau. But let's not stop with the Washington office. Down at the Anadarko area office, at Anadarko, Okla., we have more shameful waste. We have an area direc tor, who is the champion confuser and champion troublemaker. During the 3 years he has been there, he has not done one good thing for our Indian people. He is unsympathetic toward the Indian and his problems. He has caused much trouble among our Indian people: right or wrong, he has his way, because Commissioner Emmons and his staff in the Washington office have been covering up for him, right or wrong.

At the present time he is, by his actions, splitting up a 3-tribe organization which has been together for over 100 years.

I am afraid that if this matter of separation of the tribes is not stopped there may be physical violence—there has already been some. The Washington office has backed up the area director in all this and all hell is popping. I am truly afraid someone is going to get hurt. In that event, I will place the blame on the area director and the office in Washington.

To go on with the shameful waste in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The area director has 2 attorneys from the Solicitor's Office, who sit around doing nothing but delay and block the business of our Indian people; 1 of the attorneys runs the show and calls the shots at the area office. We also have an assistant area director and the only time I ever see him do anything is when the area director is meeting with the business committee. I see him carry a pencil and a notebook around and act like a recording secretary to the area director. Oh, what a shameful waste.

We also have a so-called administrative assistant to the area director. He sits in his air-cooled office at the area office most of the time doing nothing, but occasionally he jumps on his Pontiac, like the early-day pony express service, and gets to the Kiowa subagency which is about 1 mile away from the area office. He picks up the checks which are written by the clerks in the IIM accounts and out he runs, jumps on his Pontiac and heads back to the area office to his aircooled office. All he does is sign the checks, jump back on his Pontiac and deliver the signed checks back to the Kiowa subagency for the clerks in the IIM accounts to mail out. I think this so-called administrative assistant picks up the checks 2 or 3 times a day. In the past many years, the person who was in charge of the IIM accounts wrote the checks, signed and mailed checks to the Indians with much better and faster service. This was before the pony express was put into use by the area director. Oh, what a shameful waste.

Next we have the so-called area field representative. He, in my opinion, too, is unqualified for the job he holds. Every time an Indian goes in to see him about his land business the first thing he does is to pick up the phone and call 1 of the 2 attorneys for information. If the attorneys are not in, the Indian just has to wait and come back another day.

Let's go back to the central office in Washington where we have the highpowered directors in welfare, program, credit, land, roads, soil conservation, education, health, law and order, placement and relocation, budget and finance, building and utilities, personnel, property and many, many more departments. At each of the area offices throughout the United States each department has another set of directors, duplicate service. The Bureau is too top heavy with brass and not enough service for our Indian people.

And this is the administration that promised to end the "shameful waste" in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

And another promise: This administration, as you know, has pledged itself to consult with the Indian people of this country and to give them every opportunity for a full expression of their desires, suggestions, hopes and aspirations. In closing, I would like to quote what an old Indian said once:

To Our White Brother:

You remember, when you first came over the great waters, I was great and you were very little; very small. I then took you in for a friend, and kept you under my arms, so that no one would injure you. Since that time we have ever been true friends; there has never been any quarrel between us. But now our conditions are changed. You are become great and tall. You reach in the clouds. You are seen all round the world. I am become small, very little. I am not so high as your knee. Now you take care of me; and I look to you for protection.

Mr. GOOMBI. And in closing, I would like to say or I would like to quote what an old man, an old Indian, said many years ago. This was addressed to our white brothers.

You remember when you first came over the great waters I was great and you were very little, very small. I then took you in for a friend and kept you under my arms so that no one would injure you. Since that time we have ever been true friends. There has never been any quarrel between us. But now our conditions are changed. You became great and tall. You reach in the clouds. You are seen all around the world. I am become small, very little. I am not so high as your knee. Now you take care of me, and I look to you for protection.

Thank you, Senator.

Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you, Mr. Goombi.

Mr. CHEBAHTAH. My name is James Chebahtah, Comanche from Oklahoma. I represent about a little over 3,000 Comanches.

I want to say a little on the relocation program. We have several of our young people who left their homes. Some went to Chicago. Some went to the west coast. In leaving, of course, they had some help from the relocation program, but in some cases, after they got to the place where they were supposed to have a job, in 1 or 2 cases that were reported to me they had to look for a job themselves. Sometimes they have to wait a week or 2 weeks before they can find a job.

I think that it is a good program if the people get more help and their program set before they go to the places where they are sup posed to have their job. We need this relocation program around among our people. We have no kind of enterprise at present where we can send our people to work. So, on account of that, some who are very young people-good workers, I might say here-take advantage of their old people. By that I mean, Senator, they have no place to work. They have no kind of program there. They depend on the older people. Sometimes they bring their family and live with their parents, and that is hard for old people.

For that reason I feel that there ought to be some kind of setup for my people around where they live.

Of course, there are some that are capable that can go out and make their living. I am happy to say that we have some that are making good.

This relocation program is good. All other programs for the Indian are good. But, Senator, I would like to say here that after it passes and becomes a law it goes into the hands of the Bureau. Then they interpret in this law the policy, the administration. It goes back to the field, our reservations. After it becomes law the Indian cannot help himself. They have to abide by this law, this policy.

You know there are many programs that are good. After it leaves the Bureau, after they make their policies, it ties it up. Especially I am talking about my people. The redtape, the policy, is so that our people just cannot go around it sometime. There has got to be something done about that.

I believe in your program if you can at least give some of these young educated people that are coming before you testifying-I believe if you will give them a chance to do some of this following this policy and make it light on the Indian people, they would get somewhere. It would help them. But the restrictions and redtape in the policy after it becomes a law hinders our people.

Senator DOUGLAS. Then, as I understand you, what you are saying is that we should try to bring work to the Indians where they are, where they live?

Mr. CHEBAHTAH. That is right.

Senator DOUUGLAS. And, second, that the administration should have as little red tape connected with it as possible?

Mr. CHEBAHTAH. Yes. Make the policy and restrictions a little lighter so it can help our people.

Senator DOUGLAS. Do these other gentlemen have any testimony that they wish to give?

Mr. CHISHOLM. I have a short one, Mr. Chairman. My name is Henry Chisholm, and my address is Washita, Okla., general delivery.

It is a great pleasure, Mr. Chairman, to be the representative of my Delaware people here at this time before this committee, and they wish to express their views and would like to go on record today recommending the passage of S. 964.

They think this would be a good bill, for it is very vitally needed, for they are in a depressed area at this time.

They also feel that it is the last alternative for survival for them. They feel they have their backs against the wall.

There is only one way of survival-obtaining of a livelihood. If they had some source of income, other income. But they have no income whatsoever, only that which is derived off of the land, and that is too small to sustain them in any way whatsoever.

They are the lowest group in the vicinity of that area.

I would like to go further, but I will try to be as brief as I can to go through this.

They feel that some day in the future if this bill goes through that they would be able to stand and manage their own affairs and not have outside assistance and they would feel more freedom in their way of life.

So, Mr. Chairman, that is all I have to say at this time.

Senator DOUGLAS. In other words, what you are saying is that unless work can be brought in to them, in all probability they will be forced as individuals to leave the reservation?

Mr. CHISHOLM. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Senator DOUGLAS. And the tribe will disintegrate and these people will be thrown upon the tender mercies-which are not always so tender of the outside world. Is that not right?

Mr. CHISHOLM. Yes, sir. Welfare or other.

Senator DOUGLAS. Mr. Miller, do you have any statement?
Mr. MILLER. Yes, I have a brief statement to make.

Back yonder prior to 1950 in Kiowa County, Okla., we ranked 13th in population of 77 counties in Oklahoma, and thereafter, shortly thereafter, we fell back to 16th. Due to the shortage of work and unemployment facilities it was brought about that people left the State, and we were the losers in losing some of our population, both Indians and whites.

Now, I think, Senator, from my common observation, as I read just clearly the findings of fact as the Congress, the Senate, has seen and proposed, that there in section 2 I think it is broad enough, essential enough, that man with a common knowledge should follow that, because in all our surroundings throughout the United States here and yonder you will find people unemployed, both white and Indians.

I think that back in our hometown in Anadarko, Okla., I found some middle-aged Indians that have fine education and have fine vocational education. I would say that they are ready for any kind of a decent job where it can improve their standard of living and their general well-being as a citizen, as a family man, as a wife, as a schoolchild. After all, Senator, I feel proud to say these few words-that I believe that it was within your conscience that you want to do something for the citizens of the United States.

I think it is a good policy for our people in this country to integrate. In so doing we can improve our way of living to life within the modern methods of living, to be civilized more, so to speak.