Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-10-10
PROGRESS OF THE INDIAN.
Annual Report of Commissioner of
Indian Affairs Goes Into School
Problem

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9.-The annual
port of Commissioner of Indian Affairs
William A Jones shows a general adj
vancement in the condition of the nations
wards" Education, the greatest factor in
solving the status of the Indians, is being
pushed forward in the service, and now
there are 14l we'll equipped boarding schools
and an equal number of day schools en-
gagged in the education of % 952 pupils. The
average attendance and enrolment has
steadily increased for the past twenty-one
years Vigorous inquiries made by COM
mlssloners during the year show signIfi-
cantly that ~ per cent of those pupils who
have gone through the schools and returned
TO their homes are reported to be in good
physicai condition. contrary to the fire.
quent suggestions that the change might
break a naturally strong and vigorous con-
stituuon OF the pupils attending school.
) per cent are reported as excellent, or
hrst-class; % per cent as good or medium.
while only u per cent are considered bad
or worthless, showing, in the commission
er Judgment. the value of a system which
can IN generation develop from savdges
10 per cent OF good average men and wOm-
Under the present regime, the large net
decrease IN enrolment and attendance OF
!ast year has been changed into net
increase Oh l,Vio and E5 enrolment and av-
eraSe attendance respectively for the pres
ent year The reservation schools show
the largest gain. Agents are now being
urged 10 greater exertions to fill the schools
to the limit of their capacity by placing
therein every child of school age. on the
reservation whose physical condition Will
warrant school confinement and future de-
yelopments Mr.. Jones predicts will un-
doubtedly emphasize that regulation en-
forcing compulsory attendance upon the
schools must be enacted. The placing of
Indian children in the public schools Of
the country for the purpose of co-educa-
with much success. but a fuller test of its
Value and practicability is to be made this
year.
The school plants in the service val
ued at over 100000. and larger funds for
Keeping them in repair are urged. out OF
the general school support fund the Indian
office contemplates the expenditure OF a
sufficient sum to radically increase scho-
lastic facilities for the great tribes of the
Southwest, and to that end adequate addi-
tons Will be made TO the schools now es-
tablished for the PimaS, Papamos, NaVa-
jos, Moquis, Apaches. at Sacton. Fort De-
fiance, keams Canyon. San Carlos and
Fort Apache. There are on these reserva-
items and adjacent thereto. thousands of
Indians without any school advantages
whatever.
Special efforts for school advancement
are to be made with the Jicarilla Apaches.
the Southern Utes and the Semino!es III
Florida.
The Crow. Flathead. Northern Cheyenne,
Uintah and Yakima government commits
April /. Discussing the work of the COM
mission to make allotments on the Uncom-
pahgre reservation. Utah, the commission
says II is believed many allotments Were
made to Indians not occupying the lands
allotted and willing to remove to the
Uintah reservation and that authority for
such allotments is questioned as well as
whether even the Indians in possession of
the lands can be allotted. Congress is
asked to legaliZe the allotments on the
Uncompahgre reservation made after April
l. 1898, to remove all doubt. Referring to
the torturing and burning of Seminoles
in Oklahoma last January the report says
IL Is thought indemnity will soon be paid
by the government to all members of the
Seminole nation injured by the mob of
lawless whites in that occurrence and the
whites guilty of the outrages are now be-
ing prosecuted. The report gives in de-
tail the work that has been going on in
the various reservations during the year.