OCR Text |
Show during the past year only 74 per cent had one-eighth or less Indian blood, there were enrolled in the nonreservation schools, from the 3,034 children of Indians not living on reservations, 334 per cent with one-eighth and lesa Indian blood. As soon as these facts were developed stringent orders were issued to exclude from the schools all pupils who are improperly enrolled. Under the law, however, a person with any Iudiau blood in his veins is construed to be an Indian. Therefore it was ruled, for the purposes of education, that a child mt h one-eighth or less Indiin blood whose parents have broken away ,. . from tribal institutions and are living in a white community, with schools, churches, and other civilized advantages, should not he enrolled in a Government school, but that, on the other hand, a child of one-sixteenth Indian blood whose parents are living Indian fashion on an Indian reservation, with none of the advantages of civilization, is to all intents and purposes an Indian and can be admitted to the Govern-ment schools, from which, if it were debarred, no, other means of education could be secured. A nonreservation scho.01 should not have a capacity of less than - 300 pupils nor more than 600, while to perform efficient work a res-ervation school should never exceed in capacity 200 pupils, preferably about 125 to 150. In the first instance the larger capacity gives . opportunity at the nonreservation school for more extended instruc-tion in farming, the mechanical trades, and domestic pursuits. The latter school, being of small numbers, enables the superintendent and employees to give more direct treatment to each child, to study more efficiently individual characteristics, and thus develop with greater accu-racy peculiar and latent talents. This work, therefore, being a partic- : ular function of a reservstion*school, renders necessary the rule that , the former class of schools should be recruited from the latter, thus giving a foundation of morality, cleanliness, and knowledge of the English language, upon which the nonreservation school may build the finished character. ! There may be one or two places where exception should be made to the generalizations .heretofore set out. The policy of the Indian Department is based upon the t h e ~ r yof giving the Indian such an .. ; industrial training as will properly fit him for the environment in 1 i which, either by accident or necessity, he is compelled to remain. In i carrying out this policy agricultural and industrial schools appear to be the best medium. Of course an effort is being made to develop \ this policy at places where the same, it is presumed, can be success- ; fully inaugurated. The new Indian school at Riverside, Cal., is an outgrowth of thii idea. At Chiiooco, Okla., special effort is being made. This is a large industrial school with a capacity, with new buildings, of between five and six hundred pupils. It has a magnscent farm of about |