OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIR% 9 upon them as citizens. It is, however, not so with the Indiana Many of them are gathered in large settlements where there are verg few white pwple and where, as yet, there are no public schoolsto which their children can go, and where there is no public sentiment in behalf of the education of Indian children. In many cases, indeed, their chil-dren are excluded by public sentiment from thepublic schools, and nn-less they attend those provided by the Government they ean attend none, and consequently will grow up ignorant of their privileges and in-capable of performing their duties. For these reasons, I can not too strongly express my earnest convic-tion that the work of education should keep far ahead even of that of rtllotting lands, lest the allotment of lands and the conferring of cibi-zenship prove not only a detriment to the Indians themselves, but, in some cases at least, work harm to the community. MODIFICATlON OF AGENCY SYSTEM. I believe it is entirely feasible and very desirable to'mow the agency system and prepare the way forits complete abolition by placing the agency affairs, in certain csses, in the hands of school superintend-ents. The act making appropriations for the Indian service for the year ending June 30,1893, provides for the abolition of the agency for the Eastern Chexokees in North Carolina, and places in the hands of the snperintendent of the school, the duties which have heretofore devolved npou the agent, and thus inaugurates a system which, I think, is capable of wide application. There are several agencies where the Indians have already made great progress; where they have either taken their lands in severalty or are on the point of doing so; where the idea of citizenship has be-come quite familiar, and where by a little careful oversight, assistance, and advice, such as could be given to them by an intelligent school superintendent, they could soon be thrown entirely upon their own re-sources. At the same time they would not be left wholly to them-selves, and wouldbe thus gradually prepared by experience for the full duties of citizenship and the responsibilities of individual activity. The power of the agent in cases where land has been allotted-as, for instance, among the Sissetons, the Yanktons, the Nee PercBs, and elsewhere-is very baited indeed. Those under him are no longer his subjects, bnt citizens of the United States. He can not maintain an Indian police force or exercise any of the autocratic power to which he was accustomed when they were still merely wards of the nation. He is agent, therefore, in large part only in name, having the shadow of his office rather than its snbstance. To entirely discontinue the; agency, ' however, and leave the pwple who have so long been accnstomed to paternal guidance to their own resources would, in many cases, work great hardship. |