The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-11-12
EVILS OF INDIAN SERVICE.
POINTED OUT IN ANNUAL REPORT
OF COMMISSIONER
Annuity Payments and the Ration
system Deprecated rs Demoraiiz-
ing-CompuIsory Education Re-
commended-Cost of the Service.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.-THE total ex-
penditure by the government on account
of the Indian service from March 4. l1ss'
up to and including July 30. 1900, has been
1865 35s, 2l7 according to the annual report
of Commissioner of Indian Affairs VIM
A. Jones. The expenditures for the fiscal
year ended last July amounted TO NO,lT5,-
107 OF this amount at least 81, 100000 was
devoted to the cause OF Indian education
The report reviews the change In the sys-
TEN OF transporting supplies. by which the
supplies are shipped in open market, by
common carrier, at tariff or better rates,
and estimates that this saves 20 per cent.
in cost Under the head of obstacles to
self-support OF the Indians. the report
deprecates the ration system, annuity
payments and the leasing of allotments.
The ration system, says the report, Is
the corollary of the reservation system.
The Indian population OF the United
States is about 267 900. of which As, 270 re-
ceive a daily ration. The ration issued
and its value vary according to the tribe.
Nearly two-fifths of the number receiv-
ing rations belong to the great Sioux ma
ton The ration has been gradually re-
duced the past few years. in accordance
with the policy of the Indian bureau. If
the Indians claim for full rations, as a
right, is conceded. the commissioner pre-
diets that the time when they will be self
supporting lies in the very distant future,
II 1t comes at all. A number of the In
dams also are assisted by occasional is
sues, and at several agencies the old and
INDECENT are provided for. These agere-
gate about 12,5To, Altogether there are
$3.50 Indians receiving subsistence in
some degree, exclusive of Indian children
in boarding schools The commissioner
urges that the indiscriminate issue of
rations should stop at once The old and
helpless he says, should be provided for.
but ratlons should be Issued to the able
bodied only for labor, while those who
have been educated In Indian schools
~<yxw sAAt-
Matter of Annuittes.
Annuities distributed last year aggre-
gated 81 .507,54S the per capita ranging
from 1855 down to so cents. The report
says that large money payments to the
They degrade the Indians and corrupt the
whites; they induce pauperism and
scandal and crime they nuliify all the
pie induce the Indian to go into debt, and
then, when the debt has accumulated and
the Indians credit Is gone, pressure Is
brought to bear by the creditors upon the
government to pay the Indian, so that
he can pay his honest debts. The state
OF things growing out Of the surroundings
grace. There is now in the treasury to
the credit of the Indian tribes, So, 3l5.-
5000. drawing interest at the rate of
amountns to BESIDES interest sSIs
several of the tribes have large incomes
from leasing and other sources. 1t is a
safe prediction that so long as these funds
exist they will be the prey of designing
people.
THE ultimate disposition OF the Indian
funds is q subject for the most sehious
consideration. In some cases they are
small and in others very large With re-
spect to the former. they can, as rule,
% be paid ont to the Indians with little.
II any. evfi consequences. With respect
to the latter the proper disposition is
more difficult. 1t is admitted that the
great eat, wealth sati. is "A source q weakness
much evil. Two remedies have been sug-
gested: First, the gradual extinction Of
these funds. setting aside a sufficient
definite period OF years, say twenty-one,
and then dividing the balance per capita
and paying each member of the tribe at
certain ages their share; second. as a cor
ROTARY to this. division of the land be-
longing to the tribe per capita. The
remedy proposed would almost invariably
Immediately relegate the Indians to pow
erty. though the remote result might be
for them to work to save themselves from
actual want"
The general leasing OF their aIiotments
by the Indians to white men is denounced.
Education of Indians.
There were $50 Indian schools of all
kinds conducted by the government, and
an increase of lap pupils in enrolment
and l.l42 In average attendance. shown
me el tsn,p scSeaI chSpen s sO OF
provided for. Compulsory education of
the Indian children is 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 In
dian parents,
The report controverts the commonly
accepted theory that, by constant contact
with the whites. the extinction of the In
dian Is only a matter of time. II says
II can be stated with a great degree of
confidence that the Indian population of
the United States has been very little
diminished from the days of Columbus,
Coronado. Raleigh Capt John Smith and
other early explorers.
The first reliable Indian census was in
1870. and certainly since then the Indian
population has been nearly stationary.
whatever decrease there has been being
attributed to Indians becoming citizens.
Reviewing Indian territory affairs the re-
port says there are 61e0n children of
white parents there who should have
schools, and that thousands Of these chill
dren thus deprived OF education, are
srowing up In vice and ignorance, already
filling the United States iaiis at Muscogee
and other points with youthful criminals
The cost OF education will not be excess
sive compared with results. School
benefits also should be extended to the
go Choctaw freedmen Government con-
troll OF the schools In the chickassw ma
u faA