The Oskaloosa herald., 1900-11-15
THE INDIAN BUREAU.
Extracts from the Report of Com
missioner Jones.

Washington, Nov 12.--The total expendi-
ture by the government on account of the
Indian service from March 4, 1883, up to and
including July 80, 1900, has been sS6S, S5S,217,
according to the annual report of Commits
sioner of Indian Affairs William A. Jones.
The expenditures for the fiscal year ended
last July amounted TO $l0,l75,1 07. OF this
amount at least 81, $4,000 was devoted to
the cause of Indian education.
Obstacles to Self support.
Under the head Of obstacles to self-sup-
port of the Indians the report deprecates
the ration system, annuity payments and
the leasing of allotments. The ration sys-
TEN. says the report, is the corollary Of the
reservation system. The Indian population
of the United States is about 267,9OO, of
which 1870 receive daily ration. The ra-
ton issued and its value vary according
to the tribe. Nearly two-fifths of the num-
Der receiving rations belong TO the great
Sioux nation. The ration has been grad
ually reduced in the past few years in ac-
cordance with the policy of the Indian
bureau. If the Indians claim for full ra-
tions as a right Is conceded, the commits
soner predicts that the time when they
will be self-suppoTting lies in the very dis
tant future, if it comes at all. A number
OF the Indians also are assisted by occa-
sional issues and at several agencies the
old and INDECENT are provided for. These
aggregate about l2570. Altogether there
are $3.50 Indians receiving subsistence in
some degree, exclusive of Indian children in
boarding schools. The commissioner urges
that the indicriminate issue of rations
should stop at once. The old and helpless,
he says, should be provided for, but ratiohs
should be issued to the able bodied only
for labor, while those who have been edu-
Gated in Indian schools should depend en-
tirely on their own resources.
Large Payments DemOraIizinE.
Annuities distributed last year aggre-
gated Sl,507,543, the per capita ranging from
E255 down to so cents. The report says that
large money payments to the Indians are
demoralizing in the extreme. They de-
grade the Indians and corrupt the whites;
they induce pauperism and scandal and
crime; they nullify all the good effects of
years of labor. INSCRIPTIONS people 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 hon
est ~ debts. The state of affairs growing
out of this around some of the agencies is a
scandal and disgrace.
Indian Trust Funds.
There is now in the treasury to the credit
of Indian tribes $33, 3l5, 90, drawing inter-
est at the rate of four and five per cent, the
annual interest amounting to 81, SAG, 4S5.96.
Besides this 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 de-
signing people. The ultimate disposition Of
the Indian trust 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
rule, be paid out to the Indians with lit
tie, If any, evil consequences. With re-
spect to the latter, their proper disposition
L. MOI . Ke lys.s Nd tl,,A
wealth is a source of weakness to any
Indian tribe and productive Of much evil.
Two remedies have been suggested:
First, the gradual extinction of these
funds, setting aside a sufficient sum to
maintain the reservation schools a definite
period of years, say q, and then dividike
the balance per capita, and paying each
member of the tribe at certain ages their
share. Second, as a collary to this, division
of the land belonging to the tribe per
capita. The remedy proposed would almost
invariably Immediately relegate the In
dams to poverty, though the remote re-
suit might be for them to work to save
themselves from actual want. The general
leasing of their allotments by the Indians
to white men is denounced.
The Indian Schools.
There are $50 Indian schools Of all kinds
conducted by the government, and an in
crease of 1,4l2 pupils in enrolment and
/, l4Z IN average attendance SHOWN over the
previous year. About 5000 of the "a, 900 ELI
gible school children are unprovided for.
Compulsory education of the Indian chill
dren 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 large
ly to educated Indian parents.
Reviewing Indian territory affairs the
report says there are $4,000 children of white
parents there who should have schools, and
that thousands of these children thus de-
prived of education are growing up in vice
and ignorance, already feeding the United
States jails at Muscogee and other points
with youthful criminals, The cost Of edu-
cation will not be excessive compared with
results. School benefits also should be ex-
tended to the 4,250 Choctaw freedmen. Gov
eminent control of the schools in the Chick
asaw nation is advocated.
The report controverts the commonly ac-
cepted theory that by constant contact with
the whites the extinction of the Indian is
only matter of time. 1t says 1t 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 popula-
ton has been nearly stationary, whatever
decrease there is being attributable to In
dams becoming citizens.