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Show COMPAFZSON OF RESERVATION AND NONRESERVATION SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION. . The work of Indian education for the past' twenty-five years has been conducted by means of schools located on and off the various Indian reservations. Each system has earnest advocates and equally earnest opponents. A " battle royal" has frequently been fought over the merits and demerits of these two classes of schools, and, as too frequently happens, the contestants can not see the good qualities of the other. A discussion of this question involves a resume of the efforts made in the past for the education of Indians. As early as 1819 the Gov-ernment began this work among the Indians by the appropriation of $10,000, and invited aasociatioos and individuals already engaged in educating the Indians to cooperate with the War Department in whose . hands the matter was placed. This statement presupposes the fact that such associations, presumably missionary, were already in the field. There were also treaty agreements with the various Indian tribes rela-tive to the education of their children.from the first one of December 2, 1794, almost down to the present, while the Continental Congress made a spasmodic effort in thisdirection in 1775. The work of Indiin education was practically in the hands of various religious denominations until July 15, 1870, when Congress appro-priated $100,000 for Indiin schools.' From this time to the present there has been a steady growth of schools, enrollment of pupils, and increase of facilities. Of the ninety reservation boarding schools conducted to-day, only \ five were established prior to 1870, as follows: Yakima, Wash., 1860; Pawnee, Okla., 1865; Leech Lake, Minn., 1867; Sac and Fox, Okla., 1868; Kaw, Okla., 1869. During the decade 1870-1880 twenty-seven schools were established, which are in existence to-day, the remainder having been established subsequent to 1880. Prior to 1878, when a contract was made with Hampton Institute, Virginia, for the education of certain Indian pupils, all the efforts of the Government were directed to the education of Indians on their res-ervations. The following year, 1879, the old army barracks at Car-lisle, Pa., were turned over. for lndian school purposes and the first nonreservation school established. In 1880 another nonreservation school was established at Forest Grove, Oreg., and subsequently merged into the Chemawa School, near Salem, since which time 23 more schools of this class have been established, making 25 in all. In discussing j the establishment of the 3 first-named schools the then Commissioner \, of Indian Affairs, in his annual report for 1880, said: The number who can be educated in Eastern schools is and always must he a small fraction of the Indian youth who are entitled to receive an education at the hands of the Government, and the necessity for agency schools is not done away with, but increases yearly. |