OCR Text |
Show compulsory school law is felt more keenly than at this place. These Indians have withstood the teaching of conscientious missionaries and earnest workers under the Government, and are in nearly as barbarous a condition as they were a century ago. Many heads of families refuse to draw their annuities, erroneously thinking that by this course they will avoid having to send their children to school, thus working a great hardship to others in the family who really need the money to kee them from suffering. d e s e Indians are surrounded by an excellent class of white settlers, who have used their utmost endeavors for many years to better the condition of the tribe, but apparently to no purpose. The missionaries who have labored many years among them are discouraged, and I am convinced that only a law compelling attendance at the school which the Government has recently established will have any effect upon them. These Indians will be referred to again in connection with the snb'ect of compulsol education. ~uaPaw Agency, Zd. li.-This agency has under its sup~rvision eight tribes, each occupying a separate reservation. These Indians are practically white, they bein citizens of the United States and under the jurisdiction of the 6nited States courts. All own fine tracts of land, well adapted to agriculture. A great deal of earnest work 1s being done by the missionaries at this agency, and with considerable success. Fifteen places of worship, belonging to the Methodist Episcopal, Episcopal, Baptist, and Roman Catholic churches, and the Society of Friends, are located here. The buildings of the Seneca or Wyandot school, this agency, are beautifully situated and in good repair. The literary work of the school is satisfactory, and the school farm, while not very good land, furnishes rain and vegetables. At the 6uapaw school, which has been discontinued, I found the bnildings old and needing repairs. The water supply was not of the best, and there was no fire protection except fire buckets. The school farm consisted of about 400 acres of good land, and produced avariety of vegetables, besides several hundred bushels of corn. More attention should be paid to the teaching of farming, as a major-ity of the children in this section of the country will in all probability make their living in this manner, as they have allotments of excellent land, which in this part of the country is very productive. The Indians on this reserve are not fond of labor and would rather rent their laud for a small sum of money than to till the soil for many times the amount. If they could have the love and dignity of labor instilled into them and be induced to till their fine tracts of land, instead of renting their farms at low rentals to their more industrious white nei hbors, a much better civilization would be engrafted upon them. ~ h o e n i zsc hool, Ariz.om.-The bnildings at this school are in good condition and well cared for. There should be a hospital here large enough not only to care for the sick, but to give an opportunity as well for the training of large girls for nursing, as the Indian girls take readily to this occupation and become excellent nurses. The school has an enrollment of about 700, but the capacity of the bnildings should be increased to at least 1,000, as owing to the density of the Indian population in the Southwest, and the increasing eager- .ness of the Indian youth to attend school, it would be an easy matter to maintain a school of this size at Phoenix. |