The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-03
Bishop Hare Says the Law is
 Being EVadcd
TRIED TO SECURE RELIEF
Says Discrimination Is Being Prae, ticed Among Various Mission Schools for the Education
 of the indians.

New York, February 2.-The Evening Post today prints statement from the Rt. Rev, William H. Hare. Protestant Episcopal missionary bishop of south Da- kota, in which he charges that the law prohibiting government aid to sectarian Indian schools has been evaded and that money has been paid out to tie Catholic mission school. Bishop Hares statement is dated Sioux Falls. S. D., January ,. He describes the peeuniary embarrass- ment and anxiety on the part of the schools following the aboishment of the contract system of government aid and recites his efforts to secure some measure of relief from it's rigid application.
 'It was urged says Bishop Hare. that when rations and annnities had reached the Indian country and a parent who had child in q mission boarding school con- sented that that chids fair share of the ration for his family should be turned over to the said mission school, eompli- ance with his wishes could not be fairly held as an appropriation for a sectarian school. ventured to present this view of the case to t1 commissioner Of Indian affairs He rejected It. l then carried the case to the Secretary of the Interior.
 He upheld the decision of the commis- sioner I then took the matter Up to the President, who referred the matter to the Attorney y-Genera1 Mir Knox"
 The statement then quotes Attorney General Knoxs reply, uphoding the posi- ton of the Indian commissioner and de- claring that official "has no authority to grant Bishop Hares application"
 Sent to the President.
 This opinion" continues the statement. was sent me by the President as his answer to my appeal. This, of course, tin | ally settled the case. What it's effect upon l the school work of other missionary so- | cietios was, l can only imagine. In re-
 gard to my own boarding school work, 1t
 made it necessary 10 give up entirely two
 of the mission boarding schools, namely St. Pauls. Yankton Agency and St. Johns. l Cheyenne river reserve, and aggregate 1 upon the two remaining boarding schools
 all the boarding school funds that could
 command. l was ultimately driven to sell l St. Paul's school for about half it's value ard St. Johns for about one-tenth of it's
 value. The only comfort lay in the fact that the highest executive officer of tho
 government seemed to have been driven
 to q seemingly pitless act by high and l imperative sense of public duty that pub lie duty being not to use funds in the hands of the government for denomina- tional schools
 Sudden Change of Front. "Imagine my surpuse on discovering l last September that the same executive officers who had declared this to be the policy of the government and had admin
 lstered the policy with ineNorable sudden | Iii contracts for the conduct of mission | boarding schools. On the spur of the mos ment it seemed 10 me that 1 might ease my pecuniary burdens by securing such
 contract for my mission boarding schools, an. 1 wrote to the Hon. W. A. Jones,
 commissioner of Indian affairs. asking for | information. He replied: These contract
 were entered into pursuant to petition filed in the House by the Indians of the several reservations, the expense to be
 paid out of trust funds HOW to their credit in the treasury of the United States, ''In answer to d second letter he wrote me:
 I don't think 1t necessary for you to secure the consent or even have re- quest made for the tribe for the purpose of entering into contract for your board | ing school
 My eyes began to be opened. but not to say, to stare. l recalled the whole history of the action of the government in regard to the interdenominatondl school SIS rshearsed above. l wrote to three or four Protestant missionary soci- eties and 1 learned thst their amaze ment was equal to my own. l next dis covered that these contracts numbered in all nine, and that eight mad been made with one denomination, nd -hat of tue total amount of the contracts, viz slOs,- 7So. all but s4320 was for the benefit of ono | denomination.
 Missionaries Investigate.
 'I happen to have missionaries in the Indian country who have been moving about familiarity among the people there from fifteen to thirty years. 1 addressed inquiries to these and others and learned that the petitions for these contracts were gotten up quietly; that they were entirely unheard of by them and a large number of Indians for months afterward, and that many of the Indians who signed them did not know what the petition meant.
 II received copies of the petition sent in from different tribes. 1 found the peu- tions to be in practically the same lan- guage which the natives would not have used They are signed by women as well as men, About two-thirds of the signers merely attached their marks The whole number of signers is a very small frac- ton of the tribes concerned. In one case 150 signed in a tribe of 5000 Sioux" Bishop Hare then appends list of con- tracts made by the United States Indian office with various sectarian organizations for the education of Indian children for | the fiscal year ending June 90 next. They are as follows: St. Joseph school Roman | Catholic. total for year. Sis.Sd0; St. Louis school, Roman Catholic. S93I5; St. Johns school Roman Catholic, ssl25; Immacu- late Conception school Roman Catholic, S702O; Holy Rosary school, Roman Catho- lie s2l. .Go1; St. Francis school, Roman Catholic, s27OOO; St. Labres school, Ro- man Catholic. s6Is0; St. Mary's school Roman Catholic. $500; Floss boarding s.l nnl. Lntheran SEQ: total. $l02. ISo.