The San Francisco call., 1899-06-12
PUBLIC MONEYS
FR|TTEREO AWAY
Alaska Grand Jury's
Sensational Report.
DEN0UNCES AN OFFICIAL
SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCA-
TION ACCUSED.
Alleged to Have Deliberately Falsi-
fed to the Government Regard
ing the Work in His
Field.
SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCA-
TION ACCUSED.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

JUNEAU, Alaska, June (via Seattle
June 1D.-The grand jury of the United
States District Court for Alaska has
made sensational report on the conduct
OF educational matters in Alaska The
report reads:
In the hope that it may be able to effectu-
ally reach some remedial power or authority
the Grand Jury desires to direct attention to the
deplorable condition Of educational affairs in
Alaska.
The blame cannot be tustlvlaid ar the doors ~
Congress. Between the years 1884 and 1897 in
elusive there was appropriated for education in
had 1t been judiciously expended ought to have
given Alaska a school system fairly commen-
surate with the requirements of our people.
We do not undertake to say that there has
been any dishonest or direct misappropriation
OF any part o. this large sum of money. but we
do aver that a considerable portion of 1t has
been frittered away in payment Of the ex-
penses of wholly useless summer jaunts by
the general agent of education to remote parts
of the Territory and IN the establishment of
schools at points where none were needed. un-
less. indeed. it be conceded that the education
or the children of a people who
by day catch the ermine
And by night chase other vermin'
Are to be given the preference over those of
the intelligent white people who form the ad-
vance guard in the march Of civilization into
Alaska.
But for the reason that it believes that a
large amount of money has been useessly ex-
pended, and, the truth not being made mani
fest. will continue to be expended under the
direction of the general agent of education in
Alaska. while yet the neglect of our educa-
tional interests is prolonged. the Grand Jury
would hesitate to refer causually to his
extraordinary scheme for revolutionizng the
mode of travel and transportation of mails and
supplies in Alaska by the introduction of do
mesticated reindeer from Siberia. But we sub
nit that his utter neglect of the duties for the
performance of which he is paid a salary and
the consequent demoralized condition of our
educational system demand and justify even
a harsher criticism than that which follows.
charge and
that he has persistently embodied in his
official reports concerning educational matters
in Alaska that which he knew to be absolutely
false. He has charged time and time again in
his official reports that the clergy of the Greco
Russian church oppose the teaching of English
in their schools and threaten parents that II
they allow their children 10 learn English their
army they old enough to do
duty soldiers. whereas the truth Is that
English has always been taught in the princi-
pal Greco-Russian schools If he has been
guilty of deliberate falsehood in his official re-
ports on education in Alaska what reliance
is to be placed those he makes concerning
the use Of reindeer in Alaska? The plain sim
use OF reindeer for TRANSFORMATION in Alaska
has been failure.
The Grand Jury. therefore, earnestly protests
against any further recommendation for the
importation of domesticated reindeer and re-
spectfully begs and prays behalf of long
suffering people that the honorable Secretary Of
the Interior may in his wisdom see fit 70 re-
lieve Alaska Of the incubus of official who
enjoys neither the respect nor the confidence OF
any considerable portion of her people. white
or native and whose days of usefulness far
as Alaska Is concerned were long since buried.