Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-12
DECLINE OF THE RACE
Facts as to the Mortality Among In
dian School Graduates.
ANSWER TO RECENT CRITICISM.
The Young Redskins Come East Under
mined by Disease.
MORE CARE IN SELECTING PUPIL
lconRrspoxDrNor OF THE D1sPArcH.I


shut up on reservations, confined in poorly
ventilated cabins, half clothed and half fed,
and with no incentive to work and improve
his condition, has in the past two genera
tions changed hardy and vigorous race to
a scrofulous and consumptive one p
That is the forcible manner in which the
Hampton Indian School management an
swers the attack of John Grass, the Sioux
chieftain, and Secretary Irvine Miller, of
the Sioux Commission, upon the system OF
Eastern school education for the red wards
of the nation. In a sensational Washington
dispatch OF January Mr. Miller confirmed
all of Grass complaints, and declared that
from 80 to 20 per cent of Hampton and Car
Isle students die like sheep upon their re-
turn to the West, because of the effect of the
Eastern climate or the enervating influence
of closed houses after their outdoor lite on
the plains,
I went down to the quaint Virginia town
OF Hampton to investigate this startling
statement. The Normal and Agricultural
Institute there now has over 600 students OF
both sexes. OF these 120 are Indians and
the balance are negroes. More or less local
interest attaches to this remarkable institu-
ton in your city, because it was founded
partly with money bequeathed for that pur-
pose by Charles Avery, the old-time Pitts
burg merchant, who became famous as a
benefactor of the black people. Josiah
King, ESQ.,, the late Pittsburg editor, was
one OF the leading supporters lof the school
also, and portrait of his venerable face
now ornaments the private Office of General
S. 9. Armstrong, Principal
80 fvraiI6 OF
Hampton on that day than it had been in
Washington, and baseball match between
two of the college mines was in progress
when arrived. Yet, among the spectators
1 noticed one stalwart Indian boy, wearing
heavy sheep-skin gloves. Another wore
closely-buttoned overcoat, and so slender
and spare-featured was he that I was sure
that saw him shiver when two buttons
slipped loose in the course of an exciting
home run. A few other Indians had their
throats we'll protected by red bandana
handkerchiefs. Still, the majority of these
Western recruits for education we're dressed
to suit the mild climate. But among the
hundreds of negro boys standing around
could not see single one who had taken
any such precautions from a possible damp
zephyr from the ocean just beyond. There
was that marked abandon of all winter
clothing among them typical of Southern
swarthiness.
IT sPoILs OLD IDEAS.
"Sitting Bull'' out on the war path wear
ing gIoves The Modocs wrapping their
bare arms and manly bosoms in the folds of
great oVercoats before leading United States
cavalrymen a chase! Towering Eagle"
adjusting his spectacles before sighting his
rife on the big game OF the Dakotas!
These contrasts suggested themselves to
me as turned from the dozen chilly Indian
students, only to encounter a somewhat
dignifed' Oneida Indian boy who wore
spectacles and displayed clean pair of
cuffs over the pack of textbooks he carried.
This last incident reminded me of Secretary
Miller's second objection to Eastern schools,
viz: that the time spent in the East gives
these young sprigs Of the forest airs and
habits which make them despise their
parents when they return home, thus spoil
ing their promised usefulness.
But it was the unexpected discovery of
the oys-afraid-of-the-cold that
struck me most. How terribly the Indian
race must have degenerated from their for
mer greatness and their original strength of
body and constitutions A healthy nudity
of body always accompanied the suggestion
Of the title american Indian" That is
only a tradition now.
'fI have been told by good physicians"
said Miss Cora NJ. Folsom, the teacher who
oversees the Indian work at Hampton and
keeps a record of its graduates in the far
West, "I have been told by these physicians
that they had never seen an Indian with
perfectly sound lungs, and they did not be-
lieve such an one existed.
"And yet" she continued, laughing,
tGI - Olxya fbax a1
by diving out, but hold their own in num-
bers."
General Armstrong. the principal, told me
that the reports of dreadful mortality
among Hampton's returned pupils were mis-
leading. "In ten years" he explained, "this
school has sent back to the West PAT young
Indian men and women. During the first
six years the mortality was heavy, 66 dying
after returning home. But since 1884 up
to the present only six have died at their
homes-a decided decrease, In the earlier
years of the Hampton experiment the In
dlans were taken right out of the wild camps
and brought to climate and mode of living
so new to them that their frail and diseased
bodies had to give way under the strain.
The reason of the decrease in deaths since
then is the fact that we now bring better
material East, drawing from local schools
that have arisen since then among the In
iians. AS the primary schools of the West
improve we will be able to get more and
more tested pupils, and thus decrease the
ieath rate still more"
AN INVESTIGATION ooURTED.
There have been some 25deaths of students |
while at Ham pton, which are not indicated |
n the above figures. They were from the |
,ame causes and have been decreased in the |
,op,a -ofio ir,i raos0na This yu0uld L
make nearly 100 of the 313 pupils who have
been at Hampton, now dead. (The PAT be- |
ore mentioned were full hedged graduates |
,nly.) That is certainly larger mortuary.
'ecord than that of any other college or nor |
nal or technical school IN the country. It, |
It first glance, would seem to bear out the
lssertions made by the Sioux Commission,
hough the defense of the school is fully MS
reasonable because the largest number of
leaths were prior to 1884, way to improve
nent now having been found. It is hardly
air to discourage efforts at Improvement,
General Armstrong thinks. He courts in
by Congress on the subject.
Principal Armstrong turned me over to
Mss Folsom. She is lady experienced in
indian work and was among them in their
Western life last summer. 1.-THE Indians
re SO contaminated with scrofula and pull
arlier students here were our very wnrNt
rom physical standpoint. Picked up out
# wild camps they were sent to US by un-
medical examiners there who were
lad to get rid of them. The Sioux, COM
ng down to this low country from the dry
leights of Dakota felt the effects of the big
hange in elevation and climate. That is
Vhy the mortality was the heaviest at Stand
ng Rock-which, blythe way, is John Grass
egion. Conditions are now changed.
rhe local schools have tested
already grown accustomed
o the indoor civilized life. These We take
instead of blanket Indians, or where We
ccept married men and women-and we
laye educated many such couples here in
ur cottages at Hampton--they have been |
watched and recommended by responsible
,arties.
CAREFUL MEDICAL ExAMINATIoN.
"AlIars ezamiusd.msdicallz. in the West /