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Show 426 REPORT OW SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SOHOOLS. the virtue and intelligence of the people depends the stability of the. - - - Government. With education will come morality, cleanliness, self-respect, indus-try, and, above all, a Christianized humanity, the foundation stone of the world's progress and well being. If we would be successful in our work, the Indian child must he placed in school before the habitiof barbarous life have become bed, and there he must be kept until contact with our life has taught him to abandon his savage mays and walk in the path of Christian c~vilization. Instead of roaming with parents, riding wild ponies, sitting by rail-road stations-favorite places of amusements-learning the white man's vices around saloons, etc., the children, if in school, would have the example of right living in present and past history daily set before them, and would be taught to look upward for their ideals, to have a right appreciation of life, and respect and obedience for constitutional authority. When superintendents of public schools feel that "in order to raise the literate, social, and moral standin of our community, children should be placed under such control anf have their time so thoroughly occu ied with the acquiring of an honest trade or industry that a radl-cal c t ange may he effected in their natures, and that they may reenter the community with a wholesome resf ect f.or th e rights of others, with a due regard for law and order, an eqn~pped to be self-respecting, honest, law-abiding men and women, instead of incorrigibles consigned to an inglorious end," how much more necessary is it that a compul- SON law should be enacted for the Indian. go stron er argument in favor of compulsory education for the Indian nee f be advanced than the conditions existing at the Sauk and Fox Agency in Iowa. Five miles from the reservation proper the Government has erected an excellent building, well equipped for between 75 and 100 pu ils. Last year the average attendance was only 30. Although in t%e heart of civilization for many years, these Indians have made little use of their op ortnnities and are in almost as primitive a state as were their forefatf fe rs, to whose traditions and superstitions they cling with tenacity. The majority of the Indians of this reservation have been and still are bitterly opposed to the ednca-tion and civilization of their children. Notwithstanding the fact that the agent and superintendent have made vigorous efforts for the last year and a half to overcome this prejudice against the school, but few pupils have been enrolled, and owing to a recent decision that parental permission is necessary in order to place children in school, a condition of affairs exists here that is startling. United States Indian Inspector McLaughlin, whose experience among the tribes is well known, states that these Indians are in a most deplorable state of barbarism, and that nothing but force will induce them to permit their children to be edu-cated and adopt the ways of civilization. When I visited this agenc in March last I spent considerable time in the camps in con11 any wit"% the agent and superintendent, who were endeavoring to persuade the parents by every known means to allow their children to return to school. A number of the Indians stubbornly refused to allow this, while some insisted that if they did permit their children to be put in school they should be sent home to their parents every Saturday and allowed to remain until Sunday night. The weather at this time was extremely cold, several inches of snow cov- |