Arizona republican., 1899-03-31
INDIAN POPULATION AND INDIAN SCHOOLS
 OF ARIZONA
By Prof. S. NJ. McCowan.

l SlVe Of the Indians Ot Alaska, and con-
 trary to general belief, is not decreas-
 ing. Of this number about 10000 of
 these native Americans are living
 within the limits of our own beloved
 territory They consist of the follow
 ing named tribes, viz: Apaches, G.
 250; Chimhuevas, 100; Pimas, Mari copas and Papagos, $500; Supais, 250;
 Navajos, 20,000 Mojaves, 2,000; Hual- apais, 620; Moquis, 2,000; Yumas, 1000. These tribes are located in reservations
 in all parts of the territory, and are
 under the control of agents appointed
 by the president. Indian wars are al
 most unknclwn, owing to the new pol
 icy of the government, which attempts
 to make good, useful citizens of the
 Indians by educating the head, hand
 and heart in preference to the old
 method of premature death. After all,
 Indian nature is but human nature
 bound in red, possessing the same pos abilities for good and evil.
 The Indian problem is somewhat eX- pensive, costing the government be-
 tween $9,00O,000 and $10O00,000 annu-
 ally for maintenance, education and fulfilment of treaties with the various
 tribes; but then, as an old Indian once
 told me, "This no Injun'S business this white mans business; Injun he heap satisied-Injun he no kick. He no likum white mans way, no likum white mans talk, no likum white
 mans education. Injun he likum white mans whiskey little-that's all"
 This is true. The Indian does not ask to be assisted He wants to be let alone to follow his own customs and desires. To him liberty is license and heaven is passions sway undiSturbed. e-
 PIIt tbGax to hoc fol II burden and resolved to execute a pol icy of development. No longer labor
 ing under the deIusion that the red mans anatomy was somehow different from other humans and that his seat of learning lay under his vest-Or where his vest ought to be-the white man has for, To! these many years, realized the futility of making true manhood and womanhoOd by stimulat- ing the red mans solar pleXus, and has undertaken the task of fertiliZing and stimulating the brain. The startling discovery has been made that the h. dian is not all stomach-that he has brain, and that this brain is located as other brains are wont to be; that it is responsive to cultivation, and that education can make of it a correcting and guiding monitor. Generations have passed since we began tickling his palate with white mans sugar, cof- fee and flour, and accustoming his di- gestive organs to retain a white mans dinner. Now the object is to get the Indian youth into the best modern in dustrial schools, and make of them, by the slow but sure process of education, useful men and women and wealth. producing citizens.
 Those of us who have worked with l.; Il1l1 how do other discovery rot less startling than the discovery of brain, and that is that he has a soul. We believe, too, that this soul is capable of surprising evo- lu'tions, and believing this, we are striving by the simple process of de- velopment, to turn out symmetrical, well-balanced, fully equipped men and women.
 Erroneous ideas are the cause of the Indians inferiority, of all his social disorders The cure will be their re- moval, and this can be done only through educational processes. I'm proving his environment will not cure, because the tonic does not reach the seat of the disease. The disease lies in the man; he is the thing to be i'm proved, not the world in which he lives The Indians goodness is static, i
  does not even dream of this rich in heritance; his heirdom is unsuspected. 1 The only possible way to correct him and through him his social disorders, l is by educating the child with the pO- tential man in him. The Indian can not be corrected, nor his social disor- | ders cured, by herding him on a res ! ervation and fattening him like swine. ! He cannot be cured by the issuing of rations nor by the cutting off of his i hair, though the fuss some people l make over this hair-cutting would | lead a novice to suppose that educa- tion was essentially a tonsorial pro- cess.
 To correct past errors and miserable policies schools have been established | on most of the reservations for the of the Indian youth. The | Indian school system embraces three grades of schools, known as the day i affairs of one Or two | rooms located near prosperous Indian where children go to school | in the morning and return to their | homes at night, much after the plan of cur district SchOOlS-reServat | schools, which are large boarding | schools established on the reservations, and nOn-reservation schools, which are generally located near some large city and in the midst of prosperous az ricultural districts. The plan is to en- ter the Indian youth in the day schools, promote them from these to the reservation boarding schools, and from these to the nOn-reservation schools. The entire course comprises nine grades, which cover about the same field that is covered by our white grammar schools. The largest and oldest Indian school in the country is that at Carlisle, Pa, which was estab lished in 1870 by Captain Pratt, who still remains it's superintendent. This school has an attendance of 800 pupils. The second school in size is the Pnoe nix school, which was established in 1890 and has an attendance this year of nearly 700. The Phoenix school, by reason of it's admirable location and