New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-11-12
INDIANS NOT DIMINISHING
COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
SAYS THE RATION SYSTEM MUST BE
DISCONTINUED TO MAKE THEM
SELF-SUPPORTING.

Washington. Nov. 1.-THE total expenditure by
the Government account OF the Indian service
from March T. 1888 up and including July 3d. 1900
has been S3GS .217 according to the annual
port Of Commissioner OF Indian Affairs William A
Jones The expenditures for the fiscal year ended
last July amounted to sl0l75.107 OF this amount
at least S.23000 devoted to the of
Indian education. The report reviews the change
In the system of transporting supplies. by which
supplies are shipped in open market by common
carrier at tariff better rates estimates that
this saves 20 per cent In cost. Under the head Of
obstacles TO sef-suppOrt of the Indians the re-
port deprecates the ration system, annuity pay
ments and the leasing Of allotments.
The ration system. says the report. is the corol-
larry Of the reservation system. The Indian popu-
lation of the United States is about $500 OF which
1870 receive a daily ration The ration issued and
Its value vary according to the tribe Nearly two
fths of the number receiving rations belong to the
great Sioux nation The ration has been gradually
reduced In the last few years in accordance with
the policy of the Indian Bureau If the Indians
claim for full rations right is conceded. the
Commissioner predicts that the time when they
Will be sef-supporting lies In the very distant
future II II at all.
number of the Indians also assisted by oc-
casonal issues and at several agencies the old and
lndlgent are provided for These aggregate about
l257O Altogether there $3.50 Indians receiving
subsistence in some degree. exclusive of Indian
children in boarding schools The Commissioner
urges that the indiscrminate issue of rations
should stop at once The old and helpless he
says. should be provided for but raions should be
issued to the able bodied only for hor while those
who have been educated in Indian schools should
depend entirely on their resources. Annuites
distributed last year aggregated 507543 the per
capita ranging from $3.50 down to 30 cents. The re-
port says:
dnTEe money PAYMENTS to the indians are de
Indians and corrupt the whites: they induce pau
perism and scandal and crime; they nuilfy ali
people induce the Indian to go into debt, and then
when the debt has accumulated and the Indian $
credit Is gone. pressure Is brought to bear by the
o ha H eon p paT his a6 ' The
of affairs growing out Of this around some OF the
There is now in the TreasmTg t6 the credit Of
Indian tribes saasi s55 90 drawing interest at me
AMOUNTING to ss Resides this several Of
other sources 1t is is a safe predction that SO long
as these funds exist they will be the prey of de-
The Tltma,e disposition Of the Indian trust funds
With respect to the former they can. rule. be
disposition is more dificuit It is admitted that
tribe and productive of much evil.
Two remedies have been suggested First the
gradual extinction of these funds, setting
sufficient maintain the reservation schools
definite period of years-say twenty one-and then
dividing the balance per capita and paying each
member of the tribe certain ages their share
Second. corollary 10 this. division OF the land
belonging TO the tribe per capita. The remedy pro-
posed would almost invariably Immediately reegate
the Indians to poverty. though the remote result
might be for them TO work to save themselves from
actual want. The general leasing of their alot-
mentS by the Indians to white men is denounced.
There were two hundred and fifty Indian schools
OF all kinds conducted by the Government. and an
Increase OF l4l2 pupils in enrolment and l.142 in
average attendance shown the previous year
About eight thousand OF the thrty-fou thousand
eligible school children are unprovided for. Com
pusory education Of the Indian children strongly
Endorsed. and Congress Is urged TO authorize the
Commissioner to place every one OF school age in
some school. the selection OF the school to be left
largely to educated Indian parents.
The report controVerts the commonly accepted
theory that by constant contact with the whites
the extinction of the Indian Is only n matter Of
time. II says II can be stated with great degree
OF confidence that the Indian population OF the
United States has been very little diminished from
the days Of Columbus. Coronado Raleigh Captain
John Smith and other early explorers
The first trustworthy Indian In 1870
and certainly since then the Indian population has
been nearly stationary, whatever decrease there ia
being attributable to Indians becoming citizens
Reviewing Indian Territory affairs. the report
says there are fifty thousand children Of white
parents there who should have schools, and that
thousands Of these children thus deprived OF edu-
cation growing up in vice and ignorance AL
ready filling the United States jails at Muscogee
and other points with youthful criminals The
OF education will not be excessive compared with
results. School benefits also should be extended to
the 420 Choctaw freedmen. Government control of
the schools In the Chickasaw Nation is advocated.