HARRY TRUMAN LIBRARY Papers of NATHANIEL DAVIS Despatch no. 69, February 16, 1949, American Ambassy, San José, Costa Rica UNCLASSIFIED Page there is practically no agricultural production beyond subsistence requirements. On the fringes of the reservation, particularly on its southern border adjacent to the Rio Grande de Terraba, small quantities of corn and beans are grown for market. These are carried to the river and floated downstream in dug out canood to Palmar and Puerto Cortes. The traffie 18 Insignificant in axount and attended with serious risks, both from loss of cargoes on the rapids and from lack of competition among prospective buyers. It does, however, provide sufficient cash income for the purchase of machetes, knives, and the pitifully few manufactured articles used by the Indians. Trade within the diatrict is almost entirely by barter Money circulation is incredibly small.
Due in large part to the initiative of an American resident or Costa Rica, Mrs. Doris Stone, the President issued Decree No. 45 on December 9, 1945, which declared inalienable and axclusive property of the tribes that portion of the public domain actually occupied by the and provided for a survey of the boundaries of the reservation thus created and certain other technical details. The decreo also created the Commission raterred to above to adæinister the area in collaboration with the Ministries of Education and Public Health, declaring it to be the purpose of the decree to raise the cultural level and protect the health of the indigenous population.
As at present constituted, the Commission consists of the following five persons, appointed by the President: Mrs. Doris Stone, Archaeologist and Anthropologist Federico Gutierres Braun, Engineer and Director of the Costa Rican Ceographical Instituto Arturo TINOCO Jiménez, Engineer José María CHAVERRI, Inspector General of Schools, Ministry of sducation Porfirio Góngora Umaña, Lawyer All of the above except Mrs. Stone, who is a citizen of the United States, are Costa Ricans and are proraenent in their respective professions.
The Commission takes its work seriously and has done much to improve the lot of the Indiane. In order to protect them from all too frequent abuse and exploitation by local officiala appointed by the central government, the Commission arranged for vesting police authority in the school teachers on the reservation, thus placing police authority in men enjoying the Commission confidence and giving it some supervision over their activities. The Commission has arranged for promising youngsters to be sent UNCLASSIFIED