OCR Text |
Show eition, and I therefore renew a recommendation made last fall, that an appropriation be made that will enable the office to offer to any suitable institution that will furnish buildings, tewhers, and all necessary ma-chinery of the school a compensation of not less than $180 per annum for raah Indian pupil supported and taught therein. This policy would secure the aid of men and money which can be reached in no other way, and the work of Indian edncation be immensely and permanently ad-vauced. Private charity should be enlisted so far as possible. The ont-come will be an intelligent interest in Indian civilization and a pnblie sentiment substantial and permanent, which will outlive change8 in ad-rninistrat, ions and parties and policies. To ask charitable institutions to furnish buildings and all equipment8 and then offer less than mere currentexpenses is unworthy of the Government. It is parsimony that becomes waste, and it justifies the following remarks of General Arm-strong, which, while made in behalf of the Hampton School, have a wide general application. While the charitable are willing to help in this oausc, and it is well to call upon them, it is sn unfortunate fact that they have too often been called upon to do what they have felt was foraed upon them unjustly, and their libeml giving has been at-tended with no respeat for those who are reslly responsible for Indians. Palitioians, as a rule, have faintly comprehended and often prevented wiae work for the Indian, and with good intentions have made the best men reluctant to take holdof hiseduoa-tiou. Hempton's application, duly approved, for only $175 apiece per year, haa twioe hen denied by Congress. Them is room for twentymore girls, hut thereis no money to help, the appropriation bill providingfor only one hnudredat this place. W e hope for better things fmm the next House, whore the di5oulty mema to lie. The lest Congress, as above stated, pro~idodfo r the education of four hundredIndians anywhere in the United States, excepting st Campton mrl Carlisle, at the rate of $167 apiece, who are to be kept, clothed, &a,, for the entire year, calling for their training in s more complete and difEcnlt ruanocr than, so far aas I know, is given in any sohool in the l;md for whites. We can do it hero only because the immense " plant" for the negro makes it phssible. People may t&ks Indians at that rate, but the work odled for will uot be done. I regard the provision as nlost unfortunate for the cause of oomplbte tlaiaging; it is adequate only when the labor of instruction is simply in farming *low with the simplest ednoation, or when Indims are put as apprentices into established work-shops. What Capt,ain Prstt does well at @2OO apiece for three hundred Indians, o. private school will find it hard to do at (250 apiece for fifty Indians. The authorities seem as incapable of encouraging private affort as they are incapable of discooraging tho few who have nndertaken it. The Society of Friends has reoeirred about forty Indians into one of their aohoola in lndiana on the tema allowed to Hampton, and when they ahall aome to introdnce elaborate mechanical teaching will foel, as they even now do, the justice of our position. Buildings.-Thebuildingof school-houses hasprogressed fairly. Seven new boarding-school buildings were oocupied during the past year; six more will receive pupil8 this fall, and four besides the Chilocco, Law-reuse, and Genoa buildings are so far advanced as to promise compls ciou within the current year. Large additions which have been made k)r the Yakama, Sac and Fox, and Absenteo Shawnee buildings mill re-lieve these overcrowded sohools, double their accommodations, and otherwise increase their e.fficiency, and vastly improve their sanitary |