The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-11-20
JONES TELLS OF
INDIAN AFFAIRS
Annual Report of the Commits
Sioner Made Public.
MORE SCHOOLS ARE URGED
Prediction Made That Next Quarter of
Century Will Witness Extinguish-
ment of Tribal Organization.
Among the Aborigines
MORE SCHOOLS ARE URGED

Washington, November 19.-The annual
report of the commissioner of Indian af-
fairs, William A. Jones, besides reviewing
the progress of affairs in all branches of
the service, urges more schools, more sys-
tematic methods study of individual traits
and consideration of subsequent environ
ment in outlining studies in the Indian
schools.
The entire educational system of the In
dian Office he says, is predicted, upon final
adjustment of the anomalous Indian reser-
walton system. There are now 2O,522 boys
and girls in attendance on the various In
dian schools, out of an enrolment of over
25,O0O the Indian population from which
these are taken being 1S1 900. While the
population has remained stationary there
has been such steady increase in the num-
Der of Indians being educated as to war
rant the opinoin that the next quarter of
a century will witness not a diminution of
the Indian population, but extinguish-
ment of Indian tribes. One discouraging
factor, however, is disclosed by the unsat-
isfactory results of the past nine years
trial of co-education of the Indians with
tHe WHITES III lHe puDiiC SSHoOlS. Ihc hC-
port says the results of this co-education
are not commensurate with the expendf-
ture; that the idea theoretically is an adj
mirable expenditure for breaking down pre-
JUDGES and civilzing the Indian. but the
figures show it is not an unqualified sue
cess.
A thorough and exhaustive investigation
of the Seminoles in Florida has resulted in
the discontinuance of the officers of indus
trial teacher and other employees and no
school will be established for them at pres
ent, their real and fancied wrongs having
embittered them against governmental as
sistance.
Concerning tt.,e Indian Territory, the re-
port drraigns nepotism, lack of manage
ment and demoralized conditions and de-
plorabe state of affairs generally in ad-
ministering the schools and orphan asylums
of the five nations. Out of 81 boarding
schools not more than four of the superin-
tendents are reported competent to teach
the ordinary English branches and finan-
cal Encouragement is especially COM
planned of.
Reporting on the Chippewa outbreak of
last autumn, Commissioner Jones says:
For many years Chippewas have been
arrested and 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. Indians have been helped to OBJ
tain whisky by the very ones who arrested
them for using it. In some cases Indians
carried off to court have been left to get
1,ao hos could The whole
matter of arrests by deputy marshals has
come to be farce, fraud and a hardship
. to the Chippewas and a disgrace to the
community; but neither does this by itself
explain the outbreak. When a delegation
of Chippewas visited Washington last win
ter their most bitter complaint was about
injustice in the use of their funds and
frauds In the disposition of their timber.
Without going into details 1t is sufficient to
say that in 1889 the Chippewas were with
difficulty induced to eede to the United
States large tracts of valuable pine lands
on the representation that the sale of the
pine would bring them in a fund of several
million dollars AS is always the case,
many Indians were utterly opposed to the
sale. committee was appointed to make
allotments on coded and reserva ton lands
and to secure removals to White Earth of
those who were willing to go there.
again, under authority to dispose of
dead and down timber, contractors have
cut large quantities of green standing tim
Der. There are also strong indications that
considerable timber was fired to bring 1t
nominally under the head of dead tim
ber" This was another loss to the In
dams. All these and other minor influences
worked together to produce the general
feeling of oppression and dstrust and ex-
ASPIRATION which found expression when
the arrests We're undertaken by the aid of
military force"