The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1900-11-17
THE INDIANS.
home Interesting Extracts from the
Annual Report of Commits
sioner Jones.


Washington. Nov. I2.-The total expendi-
| ture by the government on account OF the
| Indian service from March 4, 1882 up to and
including July 30 1900. has been $36S 35S, 2l7,
according to the annual report of Commits
| sioner of Indian Affairs William A. Jones.
rho expenditures for the fiscal year ended
last July amounted to $10,1 ,107 OF this
amount at least 50, $4,000 was devoted to
the cause of Indian education.
Under the head of obstacles to self-sup-
port of the Indians the report deprecates
the ration system annuity payments and
the leasing of aliotments. The ration sys-
tenn, says the report Is the corollary of the
reservation system. The Indian population
of the United States Is about 267. 800, Of
which 45. 270 receive a daily ration. The ra-
tion 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. II the Indians claim for full ra >
lions as right Is conceded, the commits
sioner predicts that the time when they
will be self-supporting lies in the very dis
tart future, II II comes at all 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 1850. Altogether there
are $3.50 Indians receiving subsistence In
some degree. exclusive of Indian children ir
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.
Annuities distributed last year aggre-
gated 81, 50I543, the per capita ranging from
$255 down to so cents. The report says that
large money payments to the Indians are
6emoralizing in the extreme. They de-
grade the Indians and corrupt the whites:
they induce pauperism and scandal and
crime; they nullfyI 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 90 debts. The state of affairs growing
out of this around some of the agencies Is a
scandal and a disgrace.
There is now in the treasury to the credit
of Indian tribes $33 3l5. 955 90. drawing inter-
est at the rate of four and five per cent. the
annual interest amounting to s, GAG. 1856. g6
Besides this several of the tribes have large
incomes from leasing and other sources. 1t
Is 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 a
rule. be paid out to the Indians with lit
tie, IL any, evil consequences. With re-
spect to the latter. their proper disposition
Is more difficult 1t is admitted that great
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 definite
period of years, say q. and then dividing
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.
There are go Indian schools of all kinis
conducted by the government. and an in
crease of LAP pupils In enrolment and
| ,l42 in average attendance shown over the
previous year. About 1000 of the "a, 900 ELI
gible school children are unprovided for
Compulsory education of the Indian chill
dren is strongly indorsed 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 1900 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 $3.50 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 n matter of time. 1t says IL 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.