OCR Text |
Show 68 , REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDI.4N AFFAIRS. The ultimate end of all Government effort in educating Indian children in Indian schools is to'prepare them for conlmunion with their white neighbors on an equal footing and induction into our common citizenship. As far as mkerial conditions and environment are concerned, the Omaha Indians are now as nearly ready as any for advancing to s new stage in the pursuance of this policy. Most of them speak English and substantially have adopted the white man's ways of living; public schools have been built within the limits of the old reservation; there is no antagonism on the part of the whites to the admission of Indian children into the white schools, and every-thing seems favorable to -the State's assuming the task of educating its red citizens side by side with its white citizens. The time is rapidly approaching when, in the thickly p ~ p ~ i a t d parts of the country where the Indians have been allotted and large areas of inherited lands sold to white farmers who have settled among them, bringing in a system of district schools, the Government must cease to provide separate schools for Indians. After mature con-sideration of this plan it was decided to take the first step toward closing out our separate educational establishment for this tribe, and orders were issued for discontinuing the' Government boarding school on July 1,1906. As these Indians are allot-, and their lands are, untaxable for the period during which the Federal Government holds the title in trust, this arrangement would, if left to itself, compel the State to assume the entire burden of educating its red citizens without re-ceiving any such compensating benefits as it receives from its white citizens thru the school tax. That,seems unfair; so, as these Indians have funds to their credit, it has been agreedthat the Government shall pay an amount per capita for the 1ndian ehildren who attend the common schools equal to that which is paid per capita by the State for the white children who attend the same schools. In a recent report the superintendent in charge of the reservation says that from correspondence with some nonreservation schools, and from talks with the Indians, he anticipates no trouble in finding places for all eligible pupils whose parents wish them to have the advantages of these schools; and of the common school plan he says: During the past year there were over eighty of the Omaha children who attended public schools on the reservation and in the towns of Pender and Ban-croft, and I have never heard a complaint from anyone that they did not receive good treatment. There seema to be an increasing desire on the part of the whites to cooperate with this office in the matter of educating the children, both whites and Indians, on the reservation. The public school sys-tem on the reservation has not yet reached the degree of perfection that is to be desired, but that will come with time and work. Owing to the small per-centage of propem on the reservation being subject to taxation, it is not |