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Show XEPORT OF TKE COMMISSIONER OF AFFAIRS. XIX and the increase in the number of children attending school is in no small degree due to the fact that ]>laces in which to teach thechildren hare been providcd from other than Government funds. Moreover, as has already been stated, in the maintenance of schools so established ' the societies draw largely from their own funds to, supplement the al-lowance granted these schoolsby the Government. In assisting in the support of such schools the office has beeu entirely non.sectaliam, anti all tbe leading denominations of the conntry are represented in Indian school work. For four years past the Indian appropriation act has contained an item of $15,000 or $20,000, providing fbr the education of Indian pilpils in industrial schools in Alaska. In 1884, when the first of these appro-priations was made, no educational facilities wbatcrer bad been pro-vided for the inhabitants of las ski, except one or two small schools established and supported by religious societies. The schools estab-lished by the Bussian Government had of course been discontinued, and' the American Government had provided no substitutes. As a tempo-yary expedient the Indian Office asked that it be a,llowed at least to make a beginning in school work among the Indians of that country, and the small sums named abore mere appropriated accordingly. So . sma!l an appropriation for so distant a work made it irnpracticablc for the office to send a representative to Alaska., who sllould establisll and keep in operation a system of schools for the widely scattered bands of Alaska Indians, and its efforts in that direction hare beeu confined to assisting various societies in establishing new schools and in enlarg-ing and improving those already established. Honever, the Alaska Indians, so called, are hardly to belooked upon as Indians in the scnse in which the word is applied to the tribes on our western reservations. They are Alaskaris, the native people of the land, who know horn to support themselves by the resources of the country and the industries naturally arising therefrom, are ready to engage in any other industries which may be established there and to assimilate the customs of those who come to settle among them, and are anxious to be. educated. They are the laboring class, which needs neither corralling nor feeding nor agencies nor any of the machinery which has sprung up in connection with our Indian service, and to attempt to foist upon them this mmhineg would he to ignore all the lessons which the last half century of dealings with Indians shduld hare taught this nation, and to repeat over again the old blunders and errors in Indian management. Within the last two years I am informed that by using small Gov-ernment appropriations for that purpose the Bureau of Education has undertaken to establish a public school syst,em, not for the whites and not for the Indians, but for the people of Alaska, and, in my judgment, this is the proper course to pursuc. The amount appropriated I under: stand to be inadequate. In my estimates for the next fiscal year I have not included the nsual item for Indian schools in Alaska, became I be. |