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Show REPORT OF TUE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. OFFICEO F INDIAANFF AIRS, Washington, D. C., Octoher 16, 1901. SIR: The seventieth Annual Report of the Office of Indian Affairs is respectfully submitted. WELL-MEANT MISTAKES. In the last annual repoi* some attention was given to the obstacles in the way of the Indian toward independence and self-support, and three of the most important were pointed out and made the subject of discussion. It was shown that the indiscriminate issue of rations was an effectual barrier to civilization; that the periodical distribution of large sums of money was demoralizing in the extreme; and that the general leasing of allotments instead of benefiting the Indians, as originally intended, only contributed to their demoralization. Further observation and reflection leads to the unwelcome convic-tion that another obstacle may be added to these already named, and that is education. It is to be distinctly understood that it is not meant by this to condemn education in the abstract-far from it; its advantages are too many and too apparent to need any demonstration here. Neither is it meant as a criticism upon the conduct or manage-ment of any particular school or schools now in operation. What is meant is that the present Indian educational system, taken as a whole, is not calculated to produce the results so earnestly claimed for it and so hopefully anticipated when it was begun.' No doubt this idea will be received with some surprise, and expres- I sions of dissent will doubtless spring at once to the lips of many of those engaged or interested in Indian work. Nevertheless, a brief view of the plan in vogue will, it is believed, convince the most skep-tical that the idea is correct. 1 There are in operation at the present time 113 boarding schools, with an average attendance of something over 16,000 pupils, rang- 1 ing from 5 to 21 years old. These pupils are gathered from the cabin, 1 8593-01-1 |