Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1890-01-27
GRAPHING WITH INDIAN EDUCATION

GRAPHING WITH INDIAN EDUCATION,
At last the Indian bureau has one at its
head who has a bold and firm grip on the
matter OF Indian educaton Comr. Nor
rams proposed system for immediate and
practical adoption faces the diIiruuec
and solves the problem on the same
principles that are adopted Tor the educa-
ton OF the youth of Rhode Island, or any
great city 1t is based on facts to which
experiments for ten or fifteen years give
credenCe. The average Indian child
needs the same instruction as the white
child, All Indian youth need primary
and industrial education; many of them
rise to the grammar grade a fe" of them
tC the high school. The government
must have a complete system of these
schools. 1t must have suitable buildings
for them. These schools must be related
70 each or any other most carefully
taught and graded. They most usually
be- remote from the tribes, if boarding
schools, and on the reservations, if day
schools. The buildings and appoint
ments must be complete and sufficient
for 50 per cent of the possible enroll
ment. The education must be compul-
sorry, and at the same tins the youth of
all tribes subjected to it. 1t must be
kind, moral and religious as well as in
dustrial, subversive OF superstitions and
customs by being begun early, and pro-
tracted from three to five years in each
OF the three grades, the highest grade hay
ing the lOgest term.
The sexes should be educated together,
with careful training in all domestic econo-
mics and the use of machinery. The
pupils must be allowed to choose freely, to
live separately from their tribes and mingle
with other people in their occupations
and homes, and to take up lands wherever
subject to location. The whole RESPONSE
bilitS of the education of Indians belongs
to the government. The schools in charge
of religious associations must be allowed
and maintained as the voluntary choice Of
their parents or the youth, just as for white
people. TO accomplish this, there is need
for next year of total expenditure of
1916 800, of which 1914, 800 shall he
expended on buildings for both boarding
and day schools, with repairs, furnishings,
tools and implements to provide ample
accommodations and instruction for Il, 600
boarding pupils and 5000 day pupils, of
whom there shall be three high schools,
seven grammar, and the remainder board
ing and day schools for the great majority
OF q 900 scholars.
To feed and clothe pupils at school costs
| the government no more than IN then
tribes. To educate is far cheaper than to
| fight the Indians. Education will break
up tribes and reservations; set free lands
! to be sold to white settlers make the In
dams productive Of wealth in their various
capacities, and thus DE a measure Of
economy. As measure OF justice it is
ndisputable; as feasible, the experiments
OF ten or fifteen years justify 1t; as wise
legislation, it is to be compared with the
cost of schools in states and cities, the
expense Of ships of war, the support Of
the army, and the expenditures for public
buildings, which, for stone and mortar
and costly architecture, approximate il
seine instances the entire cost oi'the year
ly maintenance of the entire Indian schoo
population.
The New MEXICAN believes that NJ
wiser appointment has been made by thin
ADMINISTRATION than that Of Comr. Nor
gan, whose scheme thus commends itsel
to the good sense Of the nation i'll the edu
cation ofthe Indian.