OCR Text |
Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFBAIRS. 11 Accordingly, there have been scheduled in the Indian Office on be-half of 2,586 creditors claims aggregating $1,706,000. So far lack of clerical assistance has prevented the office from proceeding further than makiig the schedules. So soon as Congress responds to the request for further clerical assistance, the claims will be reduced to stated accounts. The necessity for investigating the claims now scheduled before they are reduced to stated accounts is apparent from experiences the office has had in the past; in 1906, upon investi-gation of triders' claims at Winnebago, Nebr., aggregating $30,000, it was ascertained that not more than 50 per cent of the amounts claimed represented consideration received by the Indians. Training of Indian children and of Indian adults for lives of self-sufficiency and of usefulness-for inclination and for knowledge how to make their individual possessions in lands and in money beneficial to them-has since 1902 steadily increased in effectiveness. In 1901 the appropriation for schools for the first time exceeded $3,000,000, in 1908 reaching a maximum of $4,105,715, and amount-ing to $3,757,000 in 1912; in the 12 years, 1901-1912, inclusive, the 4a p ropr~ationf or Indian schools aggregated $44,200,000. n 1901 the average attendance at Indian schools was 24,077; in 08 it reached 25,964, and in 1911 it had fallen to 23,647. These figures become sibmificast when considered in connection with the statistics for attendance of Indian children in public schools; for hi 1902 the av rage attendance at public schools was 98; in 1911 it .~ was 10,625.' lrom these data is follows that thousands of Indian children, #wl 10 years ago would have attended Government schools, now have such standards of personal cleanliness and come from such homes that they attend public school in company with their white neighbors; and it also follows that the average attendance for Gov-ernment schools in 1911 contained a proportionately larger number of Indian children whose exclusion as yet froni public schools, either because their homes are at a distance or because of personal habits, is the only justification for the maintenance of separate Government schools. In the last two years the devotion of Government schools to their proper province has been further secured by the elirninatioq of many children who in realit,y are ineligible for education at Gov-ernment expense. The attendance of Indian cGldren at schools of all kinds--Gov-ernment, mission, and public-has increased from 24,120 in 1902 to 39,397 in 1911. The fact that in 1911, 24?000 Indian children of school age were not in any school indicates at once the educational task which remains and the extent in which the task was not met in 1902. IIt should be said, however, that the figures for 1902 refer only to Indian children tn voblie schools under Qowrnment contract; those for IS11 glve the attendanee in public sehoola throughoat the country. |