The record-union., 1899-11-20

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19.-The an
nual report of the Commissioner or IN
dian Affairs, William A. Jones, besides
reviewing the progress of affairs in all
branches of the service, urges more
schools, more systematic metnods'
study of individual traits and consid-
GRAFTON of subsequent environment III
outlying studies in the Indian schools
The entire educational system of the
Indian Office, he says, is predicated on
the final abolishment of the anomalous
Indian reservation system. There are
now 20, ,S99 boys and girls in attendance
on the various Indian schools out of ian
enrolment of over $4,000.
The Indian population has remained
stationary and there has been suchs u
steady increase in the number of In
dams being educated as TO warrant the
opinion that the next quarter century
will witness not a diminution of the
Indian population, but an extinguish-
ment of Indian tribes. One discourage
ing factor, however, is disclosed by the
unsatisfactory results of the past lime
years trial of co-education of the In
dianS with the whites in the public
schools. The report says the results
of this co-education are not conlmensu-
rate with the expenditure; that the idea
theoretically is an admirable expedient
for breaking down prejudices and civil
izlng the Indian, but the figures show
it is not an unqualified success. The
full blood who needed such contact
most, is rarely secured and the ground
work at least of Indian education must
be laid under the Government auspices
and control. Stronger measures for
forcing the attendance in Indian schools
are urged. There are $500 employees in
the Indian service and the policy is to
employ Indians for every position to
which they are adapted by nature and
education.
The removal of the Perris school in
Southern California and rebuilding it
in a more suitable locality will be rec
commended to Congress-
Concerning the Indian Territory. the
report severely arraigns nepotism, lack
of management, demoralized conditions
and .deplorable state of affairs gem
orally in administering the schools and
orphan asylums of the Eve Indian ma
tions. Reporting on the Chippewa out
break of last autumn, Commissioner
Jones says:
For many years the Chippewas have
Deen arrested ana taken from their
homes to st. Paul and other points as
witnesses or as offenders, chiefly in
whisky cases. Often wholesale arrests
have been made solely for the fees
which would accrue to the officials In
dians have been helped to obtain
whisky by the very ones who arrested
them for using it. In some cases In
dians carried off to court have been
left to get back home as best they
could. The whole matter of arrest by
deputy Marshals had come to be a
farce fraud and a hardship to the
Chippewas and a disgrace to the COM
munity.
But neither does this by itself ex-
plain the outbreak" says the report,
which lays the blame to the injustice
in the use of the Indians fund and
frauds in the disposition of their tim
Der. "Estimaters, appointed to ap-
praise the large tracts of pine ceded
to the United States in 1889, have al
ready cost the Indians $50, 900
''All these and other minor influences
wrought together to produce he gen.
eral feeling of oppression and distrust
and evaporation which found express
sion when the arrests were undertaken
by the aid of military force"