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Show ering the ground. This returnin to the camp over Saturday and Sunday would result in a great deaf of s.~ckne ssa, s the children, after sleeping in the steam-heated school building, would, y o n their return, he compelled to lie like animals in a pen called a wmkiup, which was the most disgustingly filthy, p!ace I ever saw. After long discussions, s ~ t t ~ onng t he ground in a dirty hut where the smoke was blinding, with Chief Pnshetoneqna and six of the coun-cil, all old men and by far the best type in the village, I am convinced that force is the only method to be pursued in order to uplift these peol. le. The superintendent, who has had a great deal of experience wit Ind~anss, tates that he never saw a more degraded set than these Sauk and Fox. After close inspection of the primitive customs of the Sauk and Fox tribe, I am glad to say that the conditions existing on this reservation are not approached at any other in the United States, and nowhere else have the efforts of the Indian O5ce been met with such utter repulse and absolute barrenness of results, so far as education and civilization are concerned. At a number of other reservations, conditions similar, thou h not quite so degrading, obtain, emphas~zmg the fact that, if the fndian will not accept the op ortunities for elevation and civilization so gen- erously offered him, tt e strong hand of the law should be evoked and the pupil forced to receive an education whether his parents will it or not.- - If compulsory education is deemed necessary for the white child, with thousands of years of civilization behind him, all the .more should it be for the Indian, who, as a civilized being, is just in his infancy. THE INDIAN WHO HAS ATTENDED 80ROOL. Another year has passed and what has been said heretofore con-cerning "returned students" is still ap ticable, viz, that whi1e.a few may fall by the wayside, as is the case w ~1tth e white race, the majority, upon leaving school, adapt themselves to c~rcumstances and become self-supporting men and women. As was shown by the report of the Comm~ssioner of Indian Agairs iu 1898,76 per cent of the pupils who attend school were classed as excellent. poor, or medmm, and but 24 per cent as bad or worthless. This speaks volumes for a system of education which can, in so short a time, develop from an uncivilized race 76 per cent of men and women capable of taking their places in the body politic of this Republic. It has been stated that material progress can not go beyond certain limits in one eneration, and when we remember that the work of educating the frndiau has extended barely through one generation, the ood that has resulted can hardly be stated. Many returned students fave comfortable two-room houses, a few head of cattle, and are becom-ing thrifty settlers. From the ranks of those who have taken advantage of the opportunities offered have come succes$fil business men and women and skilled mechanics, all exert~nga far-reaching influence in the reservation, camps, and pueblo homes, or wherever they have taken up their abode, and demonstrating to the world what a practical Christian education, such as is received at the Indian schools, will do toward uplifting a race. |