Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-07
MORNING.. 4APRIL7, 1881.
Thursday Morning, April 2, 1881.
THE EDUCATIoE OF INDIANS.

| 1 No more interesting educational work is going on in this country than the teaching of
 Indians at Hampton, Virginia in the school
 under the charge of General s. c. Arm
 strong, and it is pleasing to record the fact
 thBt the plan to increase the scope of this
 work in favor. of Indian girls is in fair way
 to be speedily carried out. The building needed for the accommodation of the girls | will, it is estimated, cost about $2O, GOO, and
 the furniture $3 ,000 more. After deducting
 the cost of the portions of the building
 which will be used by the pupils in common, such as the laundry, the recreation room, the hospital room, etc., the cost of each of the
 forty seven sleeping rooms which the build ing. will contain will be $3oO The plan of
 subscription is to receive sums,of 1900 from
 such persons as have the ability and the de- sire to providea whole room. and to apply
 smaller sums that are contributed to the gen. eral building fund. Thirty rooms have been taken in New York, three by persons else
 where, ,and the rest were taken by residents of
 Boston at a meeting held in that city Tues
 day evening in aid of the movement
 At this meeting which was attend ed by
 between three and four hundred of Boston's
 distinguished and philanthropic men and
 women, General Armstrong gave most in-
 teresting and cheering account of the educa-
 tion of Indians at the Hampton school. He
 said the work done for them was based not
 on a theory but on fact. The seventeen who
 came there first were the pick of the worst
 of the fighting Indians of the plains. He had seen 8 good deal of work among the W weaker races but he had never seen any more radi- cal change than appeared in these, ex-war- riors. Eleven of them were admitted to the Christian church connected with the school and three or four to the Episcopal church. Four out of the seventeen died, two went back to blackest barbarian, two are now teachers at Carlisle, and the others went back to their people, where they were now living worthy lives and exerting beneficial indu-
 ence. The result of the work that had been done for the Indians at Hampton amounted to this That they were capable of acquiring our language; they could read, after two years, simple books, and at the end of the third they could read anything they needed to read. They could talk the language easily. 1 The mornings from half past to 12 were devoted to study, and that kept up through l three years gave them basis of intelligence 1 and ideas sufficient for all practical purposes 1 of Indian life. Thorough education would 1 be mistake. It might wean them from their l tribes and they would go back neither white | men nor Indians. There was no doubt that | a few out of the hundred that were | at the school would be so well fitted men, tally and morally for a higher educa- 1 tion that they ought to have it. but only one in several could be entrusted with that | power. The majority, after the three years course at the institute, would go back speak ing their own language, and fitted to slip into the grooves of Indian life with their people, but still sustaining themselves and raising up their reople to themselves. That vas the objective point of the work. Indians 1ad wit humor, memories they never for got what they were taught. They had brains, md to spare. Their intelligence was re- To teach them was stimulating4 here was no more exciting or delightful york anywhere in education than tea ching hem. Morally, they had good basis to york upon. The Indian was nearer Chris ian than any other savage. He saw no diff iculty in building up character in the Indian n the matter of ordinary morals or the high sr matter of embracing Christian truth. They were more religious than the negroes 5hey were deep and thoughtful. The weak side of the work of educating the Indian was the physical. The death rate had been seri- ous, but not discouraging. In all cases death had been from diseases contracted before leaving home. By careful nursing the death rate had been very much reduced. The h. dians were in better health than ever before, and by the system of study, only part of the day. and the rest of the time being devoted to outdoor work or work in well-ventilated shops, the death rate had been reduced so low that it was not now considered as thing to be feared.
 The great success achieved with the In- iians at Hampton warrants hearty support and an increase of the work done there, and 1t also warrants an increase of the education Il work on the reservations Comparatively few children can be brought to the east, and ,nly few ought to be taken away from their lomes. Common schools ought to be multi 1 oiled as rapidly as possible within reach of he fathers and mothers of the children for { whom they are designed