The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-11-12
INDIANS COST MONEY
Wards of the Government Have
Been Expensive.
PLAN is DEMORALIzING
INDIANS ARE FAR FROM Sci e
SUPPORTING

Washington, Nov. 1.-THE total ex-
penditure by the government on ac-
count of the Indian service from March
4, 1889 up TO and including July 80,
1900, has been $36S, 35S, 217, according to
the annual report of the commissioner
of Indian affairs, William A. Jones. The
expenditures for the fiscal year ended
last July amounted to $1O,I75, 107. OF
this amount at least SO. 33O. 600 was de-
voted to the cause Of Indian educa-
ton.
Under the head of obstacles to self
support OF the Indians the report de-
precates the ration system. annuity
payments and the leasing Of aIlOtments.
The ration system, says the report is
the corollary of the reservation sys-
tenn The Indian population of the
United States is about 267 900, of which
1870 receive a daily ration. The ra-
tions issued and their value vary ac-
cording to the tribe.
Get Most Rations.
Nearly two-fifths Of the number re-
eelVing ratiOns belong to the great
Sioux nation. The ration has been
gradually reduced the past few years.
In accordance with the policy of the
Indian bureau. If the Indians claim
Tor full ratiOns as a right is conceded,
the commissioner predicts that the
time when they VIII be self supporting
lies IL the very distant future. If it
comes at all. a number Of the Indians
also are assisted by occasional issues
and at several agencies the old and
INDECENT are provided for.
Altogether there are $3.50 Indians re
ceiving subsistence in some degree, eX-
elusive of indian children in boarding
schools The commissioner urges that
the fnn1GPTln1i mate iGEgra n fipnC
should stop at once. The old and help
less, 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
should depend entirely on their own re-
sources.
Annuities distributed last year aggre-
gated 81 .501. 543. the per capita ranging
from $3.50 down 10 80 cents. The re
port says that the large money pay
ments to the Indians ARE demoralizlng
in the extereme- They degrade the IN
dams and corrupt the whites: they in
duce pauperism and scandal and crime;
they nullify all the good effects of labor
Interruptions people induce the Indian
to go into debt, and then when the debt
has accumulated and the Indians
credit is gone, pressure is brought &c
bear by the creditors upon the govern
ment 10 pay the Indian so that he can
pay his honest debts.
Have Too Much Money.
The state of things growing out OF
the surroundings at the agencies is a
scandal and a disgrace. There is now
in the treasury to the credit of the ID-
dian tribes $50, BIS. $685. 9, drawing inter
est at the rate Of and per cent. the
annual interest amounting to S1,64G,-
1886. Besides this, several of the
tribes have large incomes from leasing
and other sources. It is a safe pFedic-
ton that so long as these funds exist
they viii be the prey of designing peo-
pie.
THE ultimate disposition of the In
dian funds is a subject for the most
serious consideration. In some cases
they are small. and in others very
large. With respect to the former they
can, as a rule, be paid out to the In
dams with little, if any evil cOnse-
quences. With respect to the latter
their proper disposition is more difficult
II is admitted that g-eat wealth IS q
source of weakness to any Indian tribe
and productive of much evil. Two
remedies have been suggested:
"F'iTst-The gradual extension OF
these funds, setting aside a sufficient
~um TO maintain the reservation
schools a definite period of years, say
thirty-one. and then dividing the bal
ance per capita and paying each mem
Der of the tribe at certain ages his
share.
Second, as a corrollary to this, divis-
ion Of the land belonging TO the tribe
per capita. The remedy proposed would
almost invariably immediately rele-
gate the Indians to poverty, though the
remote result might be for them tC
work to save themselves from aCtua
want"
The general leasing of their aHot
ments by the Indians to white men is
denounced.
Education of Proposes.
There were 25O Indian schools of al
kinds conducted by the government
and an increase of 1,412 pupils in enroll
ment and LAP in average attendance
shown over the previous year. AbOu
5000 Of the 81. 600 eligible school children
are unprOvided .g~. Compulsory educa
ton of the Indian children - strongly
endorsed, and congress is urged to au
thoriZe the cOmmiSs iOner to place ever,
one of school age in some school, TIL
selection of the school 10 be left largely
TO educated Indian parents.
The report cOntrOverts the commonly
accepted theory that by constant con
tact with the whites the extinction O.
the Indian is only a matter OF time. 1
saws fl can be stated with great de
gree OF confidence that the Indian
population Of the United States hat
been very little diminished from TIT
davs OF Columbus, Coronado, Raleigh
CAPTAIN John Smith and other earl!
explorers.
The first reliable Indian census wal
in 1870, and certainly since then the m
dian population has been nearly sta
tfonary. whatever decrease there i
being attributable to Indians becoming
citizens.
Reviewing Indian Territory affairs
the report says there are 10000 children
of white parents there who should nav
schools. and that thousands of thest
children thus deprived Of education ar
growing up in vice and ignorance, al
ready fHing the United States jails a
NIuscogee and other points with youth
f,71 criminals. The cost of education
will not be excessive, compared witt
results. School benefits also should b
extended TO the 4,250 ChOctaw freed
men. Government control OF the school
in the Chickasaw nation is advanced.
no TREAT CONSERVATIVES