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Show REPORT OF THE COMMI88IONER OF lNDIAN AFFAIRS. 13 other hand, the Iowa Indian on the Great Nemaha Reservation in Kansas ha^ in several generations, under the processes outlined, reached that ntate where he is being absorbed and assimilated by the surrounding white people. Supervisor of Schools A. 0. Wright, in a recent report, stated that these Iowa Indians are rapidly ceasing to be Indians, and taking on the ways and customs of the white man; they prefer the white schools and are sending their children to them; that they are absolutely able to take care of themselves. The board-ing school for these Indians mas therefore abandoned at the beginning of the current fiscal year, and two day schools substituted. In a year or so these may be given over to the general public for use of both Indian and white children as public schools. The ground work of all instruction in Indian schools is the system-atic inculcation of the principles of work. The central thought is the teaching of pupils how to labor and to so apportion the same that the results will appear in their own lives and homes. The entire hiu-tory of these people is filled with legends against the dignity of work. Diudgery was the part of woman, and idleness of man. Even the women of the tribe bound their own chains tighter by pointing the finger of scorn at the reckless warrior who braved the traditions of his race by engaging in honest toil for the support of his family. In derision he was called a "squaw," and made to feel his inferiority. With these hereditary instincts to combat, the discouragements of the schools have been very great. The systematic work of the boarding schools is irksome to the pupils themselves. They prefer the wild, free, and easy life among the woods, where care comes only from nature's cravings of hunger. The school people therefore get little encouragement from parents, many of whom contend that their children are sent to the schools not to work like squaws, but simply to be hnght from the white man's books. The coordination of work and stndy is the prime essential in the course of stndy in lndian schools. All the schools teach the practicai doing of that which the mind, under proper intellectual stimulus, finds should be done. The literary training is limited to that usually embraced in the curriculum of the white public schools, while the industrial pursuits taught are of that character determined by the nat-ural aptitude of the pupil and his future environment. As a very large percentage of the boys propose to live on their allotments, and thus become fanners, stress is laid on those trades the rudiments of which every agriculturist should understand. They are taught blacksmithing, carpentry, stock raising, care of tools, and such allied industries to an extent commensurate with their future vocation. |