The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-04-09
NO CONTRACT SCHOOLS
LAST WILL DISAPPEAR WITH END
OF PRESENT FISCAL YEAR.
Education Of Indians VIII BE Under
Direct Supervision and Control
of the Federal Government.

Special to the Indianapolis Journal
WASHINGTON, April S.-The government
is now entering upon its last three months
of relations with the ordinary contract
schools for Indian children. The appro-
priation act which becomes operative on
July l contains no provision for contracts
with any school. except Hampton Institute.
which has been retained because of its eX-
ceptional character. 1t is absolutely UNI
UNCONVENTIONAL. 1t is a missionary insti-
tuition in the sense that il trains young
Indians to go out among their people and
educate them actively in the ways of civil
lization, and its record Of actual results
exceeds that of any other school. 1t has
the best discipline and the broadcast and
most wholesome spirit of any; it wastes
no time or energy in blowing its own trum-
pet, but gives its whole attention TO the
work it has in hand 1t is untheatrical
and it is thorough Nobody who knows
how to differentiate the work of the various
schools begrudges Hampton its splendid
| success, and the continued confidence of
| the government.
The programme OF changing Indian edu-
| cation from the contract or mixed school
| SSld 10 the UNIFORM system or
| government ownership and control began
in 1895, when Congress plainly announced
| its purpose TO eliminate the old order by
degrees at the rate of 20 per cent per
year. in the meantime providing whatever
additional facilities might be needed to
care for the children taken out of the Gus
tody of religious schools and others under
private management. Some of the churches
! fota cd in he Of ad hat
the effect of such a policy would be to
leave a multitude of children finally with
out educational opportunities. Once or
twice Congress faltered in carrying out its
plan. owing to the political fears of GER
tain members lest offense be given to de-
nominations of great strength and infu-
ence in their constituencies. But in the
main it chung to the rule it has laid down.
Between the fiscal years 1886 and 1900 the
government spent 5000. 1913 on contract
schools, of which the largest share 50 959-
643, went TO the Roman Catholics and the
smallest, $l,525, 10 an experiment of = single
| year with privately conducted school at
Middleton, Cal. The denomination which
stood next to the Roman Catholic in the
account of its benefcences from the gov
eminent was the Presbyterian. which re-
ceived $50 40, and was cut off wholly after
1874. The Congregational Church was cut
| off at the same time, having drawn $2l9.6H.
stopped after 1895. The Protestant Epis-
| copal Church stopped the next year. hav
ing taken So, SAG No other denomina-
lions reached the 100000 mark. The Luth-
| Grams received $50 200; the Unitarians, $i2.-
$50, and the Methodists, $33. 9f5. The Bap-
lists. who have always most zealously in
| sisted upon the entire separation of church
and state, conducted their school with
| their own money and refused any govern
ment aid. The Roman Catholic was the
| last to claim as such it's share of the con-
! tract fund. The government has offered
| to buy outright such of it's schools as il
was willing to sell at a fair valuation, but
| iC does not feel justified i'm letting those
| II now has pass out of its hands, except
| upon the understanding that, though under
| government auspices. they shall continue
their religious teaching As this was inn
| practicable the Indian Office recently sent
a formal letter to the Catholic Educa tional
| Bureau asking IL TO designate the children
/ under the care of the church who would be
| left without school privilege by the final
severance of relations between the church
| and the government, and received the an
swer that it knew of none: the church
! would henceforth take care of it's own.
| Meanwhile, the government has been in
| creasing it's educational plant steadily so
| as to absorb not only the children grad
| ually left out by the extinction OF one
| contract after another, but also the natural
| increase in the ascertained Indian school
| population. Going back to 1888 as a con-
| yenient point of departure for the COM
| parison. il appears that the enrolment
| in the contract schools dwindled year by
year from a total of 6125 in that year 10
| 2,S06 in 1900, whereas In the same period
! the enrolment at the government schools
| has increased from Ia, 716 TO % 124, and the
! average attendance is now growing in num-
| bers at the rate of about a thousand a
| year. 1t is probable the next step to be
| taken by the government will be the es-
| tablishment of some system of compulsory
| education. Whenever the social and other
conditions make it practicable to carry on
co-education of the race in public schools
| in the West. the government arranges to
| place its young Indian wards in white
| schools, and make a contribution TO the
| district school fund at the rate of so a
| head for the Indian contingent i'm lieu of
! the school tax levied in the case of white
| children. There are comparatively few
| cases, however where the experiment has
| proved successful enough to encourage a
| hope of its continuance In one white
| school in Michigan forty-one Indian pupils
are enrolled: in three in Nebraska and one
| In Wisconsin there are twenty or more
| two in Nebraska and one i'm Washington
| have more than ten, but the rest to
| low figures. The twenty-five white district
| schools in which Indians are taken are
| sprinkled through eight States and one
| Territory. and the average of actual at
| tendance is only rs i'm all. The experiment
| has been only ten years in progress 1t
| made its greatest upward stride during DR.
| Haimanns service superintendent of
| Indian schools. but the decline has been
| steady since 1897. The statistics here given
| 90 not, of course, include either the State
| of New York which assumes care OF its
i own Indian children, the five civilized
| tribes in Indian Territory