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Show 12 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. who will become the leaders and transformers of their people as the L generations come and go. , ELIMINATIOOFN I NELIOIBLES.-Ta~r~e ~n~o t Government schools sufficient for all Indians and in order that these schools might serve I those who depend upon them alone for an education, I considered it wise to eliminate children who were not properly entitled to an education at the expense of the Federal Government. So in my declaration of policy I said: In many of our boarding schools Indian children are being educated at Govern-ment expenea whhse pzuenta are amply able tn pay for their education end have publicschool facilitiw at or near their homes. Snch children ahall not hereafter be enrolled in Government Indian schools supported by gratuity appropriations. except on payment of actual pet capita cost and transportation. The superintendents of several schools are now receiving instruc-tions to carefully examine and limit their enrollment in accordance with the principle involved. There is also a considerable number of Indian children who are citizens of the United States and not wards remaining under partial control of the Government, as this term "wards" has been used and applied by the courts. These children receive the citizenship status of a citizen father, and, more-over, many of them have a large degree of white blood. Thii class should, as Indians, no longer receive Federal educational assistance. Their elimination will lead to two important results, namely, their place in the schools will be taken by others for whom there are not other school opportunities, and the eventual entrance of the citizen class into the public district schools of the States will be brought about. In certain localities this policy will allow some schools to be closed, thus effecting an economy in use of public funds and doing this without injustice to any real Indian children. I do not intend, however, to carry the general principle so far as to deprive of school facilities children for whom no school but a Government institution is available. SCHOOLDS ISCONTINUEhDas. -aIltr eady been found practicable and wise to close the Sac and Fox boarding school, Oklahoma, where public schools abound in an advanced community, and the Witten-berg boarding school, Wisconsin, where other facilities will be avail-able for all children not belonging to the class of nonwards to whom reference has been made. GRADUATEOSF DEMONSTRATED C O M P E T E N C Y . - ~ O ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ provision in the declaration of policy aims at educational evidence of competency. This will be best presented, perhaps, by reproducing . a portion of my letter dated April 28, 1917, addressed to the superin-tendents of all the nonreservation boarding schools which are equipped and authorized to conduct full courses of study, including a four-year period of vocational training. |