The Springdale news., 1889-01-18
INDIAN EDUCATION.


 His Annual Report. Discusses the oues-
 ton uf indian Education and the Gradu-
 al Assimilation af the Red Man with the
 Masses oG the Republic.
 WASHINGTON. Jan. l3.-Commissioner of Indian Affairs Oberly. it his annual report for the past fiscal year, devotes great deal of space to the subject of Indian education. The education of Indian youth, he says, should be compulsory; but on those principles of compulsion which are recognized as legitimate in the free commonwealths of the world. which principles. while they would require the Indian child to receive such education as would fl him for civilized life and self support therein, would leave to his par ents the liberty to choose between the Government and the private school. so long as the private school furnished the elements required by civilized life and ronformed to q uniform standard pre- seribed by the Government and main- tained ill the schools. 4 uniform stand- ard of qualifications should be required of all teachers receiving appointments, and should be enforced by rigid and im- partial examinations. The official tenure of the teacher should be permanent, and removals should be made only for ineffi- cieney, ineemPeteney, or other unfitness. and the whole educational service should in the interest of justice, administration and efficiency, be exempt from those changes and that instability. of tenure which appertaiu to partisan appoint ments. Industrial training should be \ principal feature of every Indian school, where the Indian child must be taught many things which come to tho child of civilized parents because of environment without the sehoolmaster's aid.
 In concluding some general remarks on this subject, Commissioner Oberly says the Indian has begun to change with the changing times. He is commencing tn appreciate the fact that he must become ciyilized-must. as he expresses il, ',learn the white mans ways''-or perish from the face of the earth. He can not sweep back with a broom the flowing tide. The game on which he lived has disappeared. The war path has been ob liberated. He k hemmed i'll on all sides by white population. The railroad re- fuses ta be excluded from his reservation that het-bed of barbarism, in which many nexieas social and political weeds grow rankly. The Christian missionary is persistently eutreating him to abandon Paganism. Gradually the paternal hand
 
 from his support. His environments na longer compel him. or afford to him op- PaftHHities, te display the nobler traits ef his character. Ga the war-path and Ill tine chase he WIS hero; all activity; pa- tient of hunger; patient of fatigue; eoai- headed-a creature of exalted fortitude. But now, on the war path and i'll the chase he can not exalt himself bY bravery and endurance, and he should hot be permitted to live any longer in idIeuess and debauchery. He should te brought under the opera tions If the law. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread ull thou return unto the gF6uHd.1 lie should be educated 10 labor. He needs the virtue of industry and the ability of the s4illful hand. Ha should, therefore, he taught how to work, and all the schools that are opened for h children should be schools in which they will be instructed in the use of agri- cultural implements, the carpenters saw aud plane. the st8Hemas0H's troWel. the tailor's needle and the shoemaker's awl. He should be taught not only how te work, bat also that t is his duty to work; for the degrading communism of the tri- haI-reservation system gives to the indi- yldual nu incentive 10 labor. but puts q
  iouable. He must be taken out of the re- seryation through the door of the general 1 allotment act.
 But if he will not learn, and if he shall continue persist i'll saying Il am con tent: let me alone" then tho guardian must act for the ward. and do for him the good service he protests shall not be done =the good service that he deuounces as a bad service. The Government must then, in duty to the public, compel the Indian to come out of his isolation into the civ tlized way that he does not desire to enter into citizenship; into assimilation with the masses of the Republic; into the path If National duty; and in passing along that path he will find not only pleasure in personal independence and delight in individual effort in his own interest, but also the eonsummation of that patriotic enjoyment which k always to be found in the exercise of the high privilege of contributing to the general welfare.
 The Commissioner reports that during the past fiscal year 3,3i9 allotments of lands. involving Bis I2i acres, were made to Indians. He urges legislation to au- thorize the leasing of Indian land for grazing purposes. Many tribes would be benefited by it and 1t would enable them To derive a revenue which would lessen their dependence upon Government ap- propriations. He also recommends tho enactment of a law to protect timber on allotted lands from the depredations of timber thieves