Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-01-04
The New Indian Nation.

49, The proposition, which has met with som(
favor at Washington, to establish territorial
government over the Indian territory, after the
pattern of those adopted for the other organized
territories of the United States, was regarded
with repugnance by the people most interested
and its agitation has led them to forestan such
action by setting up government of their own
The great council, which has lately heeu in ses.
sion at ocmulgee, and of whose doings our cor.
respondent has given us some details, succeeded
in framing constitution which was accepted
with remarkable unanimity. Of its provisions
the telegraph has furnished an abstract, showing
that the government contemplated is confed-
Grafton of states or tribes with relations to each
other and to the central government not unlike
those of our states in the union. The executive
= legislative and judicial departments are pro-
vided for on basis similar TO that of the cor
responding departments in our government ex-
cept that the senate, as well as the lower branch
of the legislature, is prCportoned in numbers to
the population of the several tribes or nations
represented; that the judges TO be elected for
term of years, instead of being appointed to
hold their offices during good behavior; and the
legislative powers of the assembly are limited to
a somewhat narrower range of topics than those
OF congress.
The confederation will embrace only those
tribes now residing within the Indian territory,
and those who may hereafter have lands assign
Cd them there. These are all more or less civil
lied, and some of them have had long expert
ence and considerable success in governing
themselves, through institutions modelled after
bpc NJ he Of
wealthy; some are well educated and have an
intelligent appreciation of the social and polti-
cal needs of their people We believe they all
have prohibitory liquor laws, which though
sometimes eyaded, are enforced when an offence
Is discovered without fear or favor. The princi-
pal tribes are the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees,
Chickasaws, Seminoles, Muscogees and OsageS.
There are numbG Of other tribes or parts of
tribes, whose population is small. The new
constitution will, it is not doubted, be ratified
by the councils of the several tribes, and the
new government will go into operation during
the present year.
The report made to the council by its COM
mittee on education disclosed some interesting
statistics. The Cherokees have since the war
only neigh6orhood schools. OF these there are
three in each of the sixteen counties, with an
average attendance III each of from twenty to
forty scholars. The whole number of scholars
is 1890. Three Of the schools are for freedmen
only ThTee-fourths of the teachers arc native
Indians. They are paid four hundred dollars
annually, and the schools are kept ten months
in the year. This tribe numbers about II 900.
Their school fund is $3.50, 14O, the orphans fund
is nearly 100000, and the annual appropriation
for public schools is about $4,000. Besides the
pupils in thepublic schools, twenty ofthe young
people of the tribe are receiving an education in
the states. An act of their legislature for the
last year authorizes the opening of two board
ing schools or academies, for males and females
respectively, where au advanced education can
1e obtained
The Muscogees have a population, including
freedmen, of about $4,000. They have super
intendent of public instruction and twenty-five
teachers for as many schools. Nine more schools
will soon be opened. There is one boarding.
school with eighty pupils, and another to accom-
modate au equal number will open in the spring.
Six of the public schools are exclusively for
freedmen. The average number of scholars at
tending all the schools during the past year was
200. The teachers of the common schools are
paid $500 for ten months instruction The sal
aries of the superintendent and the teachers of
the neutrality-suspicious. is paid by Methodist and
Presbyterian mission boards the other school
expenses by the tribe, to meet which they have
the income from funds to the amount of S11 0O0
and the balance, $4,000, they have appropri.
ated from the public revenue of the tribe.
The Seminoles, with population of $780, have
four neighborhood schools, with 225 scholars in
all, and an average attendance of forty in each
school. The teachers are paid $500 annually.
A boarding school is building which will accom-
modate fifty scholars. This annual school ex-
penditure, S25OO, is derived from the United
States under treaty stipuations. The Chicka-
saws number $500. They have eleven neghbor.
hood schools, with 44O pupils in all. This ma
ton also supports sixty pupils at schools in the
states at the annual expense of $3.50 for each
pupil. Their annual school fund fo- supporting
the common schools is s29 OOO and for children
-'-ar schools in the states, S21 900. The 0sages
have a population of nearly 1000, and support
fifty pupils at the Catholic mission school at an
expense OF $4,000 annually. The Peoras, with a
population Of 179, sustain one school with
thNuA9-AfN pApllb5 at dll dlluudl GOSt OF nearly
$4,000. This school and those of the Chicka-
saws seem 20 be most literally if not extrava-
gantly, provided for. 1t is evident from these
figures thatif education does not flourish among
these tribes il is not for the lack of liberal ex-
penditure.
These school funds are ALL with possibly some
comparatively unimportant exceptions, derived
from the government of the United States as
consideration for the REIMBURSEMENT by these
tribes of the lands they occupied elsewhere, and
accepting reservations in this territory When
the United States government is charged with
systematic oppression and injustice towards the
Indians, and nothing is more common than to
hear that charge made, it should be remembered
that all the tribes who have been removed to
reservations for many years past have been thus
munihcently provided for, not only with school
funds, but with annuities paid to the individual
members OF the tribes, or in some other way, SC
that in some tribes the average annual income
is greater than that OF the members of any other
community in the world. If the early settlers
Of this country, who, instead of taking DOS
session by force of such land as they wanted
bought il Of the simple natives for a few
trinkets, have been thought worthy of com.
mendation, the national policy which has con
ferred upon the Indians such substantial anC
permanent benefits as no savage race ever re
ceiyed before from civilized competitor for ii
territory, ought not to be sweepingly con
demned. The administration of the Indiar
2 policy has been most unfortunate, owing mainly
TO the bad character Of the agents employed
and the peculiar temptations to fraud offered b,
the ignorance and helplessness of the Indians
bat the policy itself has generally been beue6
cent and liberal.
GOVERNOR HoFFMAH's message to the New
York legislature yesterday contained some sec
sihle suggestions IN regard to shortening til
session, diminishing the volume of annual legis
lation, defeating private schemes Of plunder
suspending the construction of the state capi
tol, the cost Of which II is already apparent vii
enormously exceed the original estimates. unit