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Show 96 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. I Seminole Indian8 ............................................. 2, WO Seminole freedmen ............................................ -1, 000 Total ................................................... -3,000 Totalnumber of Indians inIndian Territory. .................. 62,500 Total number of freedmen in Indian Territory.. ............... 18,500 Tots1 white p- o-p ulation in Indian Territory.. .................. -200,-000 Total population of Indian Territory. ................... 281,000 Based upon the above figures, there isapproximately in these nation a scholastic population as follows: Indians, 12,500; freedmen, and whites, 40,000. All these children are, under the enlightened pol icy of the United States, entitled to the benefits of a good common school education. The following table is a recapitulation of the number, enrollment average attendance, etc., of the schools in the various nations: 1 Theaverageattendance haanot beenreported to thisaEce, snd25Oiaeatimsted ir~erageettettedenoe. It will be observed from the above table that the maximum amount per capita for the support of the boarding schools is paid in the Choctaw Nation, and the lowest in the Creek. The average cost of these schools is about the same as that of the regular Indian schools, but the compari-son stops at that point. The educational and industrial advantages of the latter schools are very marked, especially in! those lines which are best adapted for the formation of habits of thrift, energy, and indc-pendence. At the average price paid for the support of these schools, if they were conducted upon the same ewnomical lines as the other Indian schools, there would be prompt improvement in the character of the service, and results would soon convince the most skeptical that an early abandonment of the present unsatisfactory and half-hearted Bystem was a matter of necessity. Under proper control and intelli-gent management the inwmpetency and wastefulness so general would be discontinued, and the children now growing up in ignorance or given a useless education, would have advantages which their red brothers outside of the Territory are enjoying. The only hope of per-manent and lasting results, in preparing the Five Civilized Tribes for citizenship and Statehood, must come through complete Qovernment control of tbe entire educational machinery. The wasting of thousauds of dollars annually in crude and sometimes vicious methods of dealing wit,h this important branch of Indian civilization should no longer be Nation. L%emIme.. ................... Chootaw ........-........-.-- Creek ........................ Chickasaw ................... Seminole ..................... Total.. ................. ------ 4 309 318 9 $18,625 5 381 332 10 705 580 9 73:098 5 300 '250 10 47.10U 151 2 200 145 8 2l.a00 145 , 20 26 1,958 1,620 .......... |