OCR Text |
Show xxvi FIFTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF Junction, Col., and those apong the Utes, Osages, and manF other In-dians. These schools are supported in part by payments made from funds that do not in any sense belong to the Government, but do nn-qnestionably belong absolutely to the Ute, Osage, and other Indian tribes, respectively. If this be true, such schools are not uschools wholly supported by the Government," and therefore authority to em-ploy persons for service therein has not been vested in the Superin-tendent of Schools. I t may be said that this position can not be main-tained, for the reason that, evidently, it was the intention of Congress not to restrict the Superintendent to the employment of persons for service in schools supported entirely by what are designated as gratu-itous appropriations. This intention may be admitted, and yet the doubt remain that Congress succeeded in expressing such intention in the law. My attention has been called to these matters by duties imposed upon me by section 464 of the Revised Statutes, which provides that "all ac-bunts and vouchersfor claims and disbursements connected with Indian affairs shall be transmitted to the Commissioner for administrative ex-amination, and by him passed to the proper accounting officer of the Department of the Treasury for settlement," and they are here referred to in the hope that reference to them may suggest to Congress action that wlll obviate the injury and embarrassment to the service that must inevitably ensue if proper and prompt action iu reference thereto is not taken. ANNUAL CONVENTIONS OF SUPERINTENDENTS AND PRMCIPAL TEACHERS. And now, before quitting the subject of Indian education, I desire to renew a suggestion made in my report as Superintendent of Indian Schools in 1585, that provision should be made by Congress for annnal conventions of school superintendents and principal teachers. The subject of Indian education is comparatively a new one, and no proper consideration of it has yet been possible. The methods whieh are employed in white schools have been applied to Indian schools; but it is believed that more appropriate methods might be devised. If the men and women who have had actual experience in our Indian schools could meet together in the manner suggested there would cer-tainly result from their deliberations improved methods of instruction, appropriate text.books, and unity of ellort in all matters relating to school work. Indeed, it is not too sanguine an expectation that out of such deliberations would be evolved a well-organized system of Indian education that would replace the chaos of unsystematic educational methods now employed by the Government. |