OCR Text |
Show I REPORT OF THE CO~ISSIONER OF INDIAN AJWAIFS. 15 many reservations, although it is frequently unsatisfactory, agency shops and employees are employed for training pupils in the simple industries. The new course of study prepared by the superintendent of Indian schools follows closely the line of policy here outlined, and will result in greater uniformity of method and work. Its flexibility, without destroying the method or purpose, permits its adaptability to the various tribes, whose mental characteristics are as varied as the reser-vations on which they reside. COMPULSORY EDUCATION. Although surrounded by a superior civilization and provided with schools in their midst, great numbers upon many reservations still retain the use of their own language or are not su5cient~yfl uent in the use of English to comprehend readily the great movemeat being made for the benefit of their children. Collecting agents for nonreser-vation schools have exceeding difficulty in making the conservative Indian understand the reasons why the Government desires to place his child in school. Never having had the benefit of such opportuhi-ties the adult Indian fails to understand the advantages which can accrue to their loved ones by taking them from the parental tepeeand placing them among strangers. Coupled with a natural disinclination to lose sight of his children, his hereditary language, manners, and cus-toms are all sacred to him; nor does he desire hi children to learn those things which are to him foreign and distasteful. Love of his own vernacular has been imbued for generations, and on some reser-vations it is no uncommon occurrence for the older :lement, as in the parrt, to recount in their own picturesque language the woes caused by the advent of the white man, the host of so-called broken treaties, disregarded promises, and general bad treatment of the Government. This constant repetition by the fathers and grandfathers tends to incul-cate an unconscious dislike, if not a positive hate, for the ways of civ-ilization. The industrial feature of Indian schools does not appeal to him, as the savage rarely earns his living by the sweat of his brow. The women of the tribe are generally the breadwinners when manual labor is required. Around the camp fire legends of the past are po71red in willing ears, and when a collecting agent from Government or mis-sion school appears he is an unwelcome shadow on pleasant dreams. If, perchance, the awakening of hope for a better future springs into the heart of the young boy or girl and his consent is obtained, it not infrequently occurs that some toothless grandmother or old chieftain interposes an objection which sentimentalists argue should be respected by the Government. To do so will permit, if not force, the progeny of a race capable of taking its place in our civilization to grow up in |