The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-12
COST OF THE INDIANS.
Uncle Sam Is Putting Up SIC, 100000
Annually for the Reds.

ain utAAy ZOE the heOS
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.-THE total ex-
pend1ture by the government on account
of the Indian service from March 1. 1888
up to and including July 80, 1900, has been
$3S6, 1858, ,217, according to the annual re-
port of Commissioner of Indian Affairs
William A. Jones. The expenditures for
the fiscal year ended last July amounted
to ,107 Of this amount at least
$S,SSO,O0O was devoted to the cause of In
dian education
Under the head of obstacles to self
support to the Indians, the report de-
precates the ration system annuity pay
ments and the leasing of allotmentS
The Indian population of the United
States is about 267, 800, of which 45, ,270 re-
ceive daily ration The ration is Sc
cured at it's value, varying according to
the tribes. Nearly two-ffths of the num-
Der receiving rations belong to the Sioux
nation. The ration has been greatly re-
duced within the past few years, in ac-
cordance with the policy of the Indian
bureau. If the Indians claim for full
rat1ons as a right is conceded, the COM
missioner predicts that the time when
they Will be self-supporting lies in the
distant future, if it comes at all. A num-
Der of Indians are assisted by occasional
issues, and at several agencies the old
and INDECENT are provided for These ag-
gregate about 1850. Altogether there are
$3.50 Indians receiving subsistence In
some degree, exclusive of Indian children
in boarding schools.
The commissioners urges that the in
discriminate issue of rations should sto2
at once. The old and helpless, he says,
should be provided for, but rations should
be issued to the able bodied only for la
Dor, While those who have been educated
in Indian schools should depend entirely
on their own resources.
gate $,507,543, the per capita ranging
from $3.50 down to so cents The report
says that large money payments TO the
Indians "are demoralizing In the extreme
They degrade the Indians and corrupt
the whites: they induce pauperism and
scandal and crimes; they nullify all the
good effects Of labor. Unscupulous peo-
pie induce the Indians 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 SC that
he can pay his honest CD debts The
state of affairs growing out of this
around some of the agencies is q scandal
and a disgrace.
There is now in the treasury to the
credit of Indian tribes $33, ,315, ,955 O9, draw
ing interest at the rate of and per
cent, the annual interest amounting TO
$1,646, 1856 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 designing people.
The ultimate disposition of the Indian
trust fund is a subject for the most seri-
Gus considera ton. 1t is admitted that
great wealth is a source of weakness to
any Indian tribe and productive Of much
evil Two remedies have been suggest
ed: First, the gradual extinction of
those funds, setting aside a sufficient
fund to maintain the reservation schools
a definite period of years. say twenty
one, and then dividing the balance per
capita and paying each member of tho
tribe at certain ages their share Sec,
ond, as co1lary to this division of the
land belonging to the tribe per capita
The remedy proposed would almost in.
variahly Immediately relegate the Indians
to poverty, though the remote result
might be for them to work to save them
selves from actual want. The general
leasing of their allotments by the In
dams to white men is denounced.
There were 25G Indian schools of all
kinds conducted by the government and
and 1,142 in average attendance shown
over the previous year. About 8,00G of
the "a, 600 eligible school children arc pro-
vided for. Compulsory education Of the
Indian children is strongly indorsed and
congress is urged to authorize the COM
missioner 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 says that the Indian popu-
lation of the United States has been very
little diminished from the days Of Column
bus, 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 is being attrib>
uted to Indians becoming citizens.