New-York tribune., 1905-02-03
INDIAN SCHOOL FUNDS.
L,4V STRICTLY OBSERVED.
No Illegal Fqvors ShO1cn to Cathot'c
Institutions.
rrpou THE TRIBUNE BURrAu.I

washington. Feb 2-The letter of the Rt.
Rev William II. Hare, Protestant EplscopA
Bisbop Of Nebraska relative 70 the payment
Of Indian funds to denominational schoois
which was printed in New-York to-day was
read in the House of Representatives OF Jan
ualy 21 and printed in The Congressional hec-
ord OF that date together with large mass
of oorrespondence on the same subject. and
an amendment was then offered providing that
no norton of sthe moneys appropriated under
The Indian bill should be paid TO any denoml-
national institution. The amendment was
thrown out on a point of order. and many mem
bers OF the House expressed the view that
Bishop Hare had labored under mlsunder-
standing of the conditions. 1t was 1urther
maintained that the distribution of the interest
on funds held for the Indians by the govern
Inent and expended under treaty supuations
was purely a matter for executive determination
on which it was hardly necessary for Congress
10 legslate.
With regard TO the statements in Bishop
Hare's letter. il has been explained in The Trip-
une that when the bishop several years ago ap-
piled for rations for Indian children attending
Episcopal schools there was. in the OPINION OF
the Department of Justice, no law under which
such rations could be issued, and his request
was denied, although its equity was recognized.
The policy of contracting with denominatonal
thus robbed of all government assistance most
Of the denorninational schools, except the Cath
olic and Lutheran were sold or abandoned, as is
shown, with regard to the Episcopal schools IN
Bishop Hares letter
Last year however. Congress removed the
inabi,Iry of the government TO issue rations TO
Indian children attending denoninatonaI
schools by the insertion in the Indian bill of
the clause quoted in these dispatches TO The
IT. IaN-Tnc al q
their schools, denominations other than the
Catholics and Lutherans were unable 10 avail
themselves of the new statute
With regard to the payment Of the portion OF
the interest trust funds TO denomlnationaI
schools as already explained in these dispatches.
it paid on the advice of the department OF
Justice which held that the Indians possessed
the right, under existing treaties, to designate
the schools their children should attend and at
which tuition should be paid That large
proportion of these funds paid out went to
Catholic and Lutheran schools is explained by
the fact that other religious organizations aban-
doned their schools when deprived of govern
T1ent assistance, leaving the two denominations
named practically the only ones in the field.
Bishop Hare's letter dated from Sioux Falls. jan
nary >. said that in 1892 the government announced
that no more contracts with institutions carrying
missionary work among the Indians would be
made anS existing contracts would be retired This.
n was considered. would prevent the issuing
Of rsons and annuites 10 Indian children in board
ing schools, which those children would have re-
oeived home, but August %. 1901. the Indian
Commissioner sent out orders that rations be
issued 10 any child attending a boarding school,
whether entitled TO rations home not. This
caused much expense and anxiety TO the managers
of these schools, who protested to the Indian Com
missioner. He answered that the spirit of the
law forbade the issuing of rations. which amounted
10 am appropriation TO sectarian schools In this
decision the Secretary of the Interior and the At
1orney General concurred.
TWO schools. Bishop Hare said, had be closed
because Of that decision-St PauTs Yankton
Agency, and st. Johns Cheyenne River Reserve
81 Paul's sold for about half its value. and
ST Johns for about One-tenth its value said the
bishop bat he consoled himself with the reflection
that the government had been driven TO this seem
1nSly harsh acr by high sense of public duty.
Then, last september, he discovered, he said that
these same government officials had been making
large contracts for the conduct of mission boarding
schools de wrote for aid for his own and was told
that these contracts had been made in accordance
with petitions filed with Congress by Indians OF
several reservations, the money to be paid out of
trust funds 10 their credit with the government.
OF these c5ntracts eight had been made with
Catholic schools and with Lutheran. school
the Catholics. These petitions Bishop Hare
said, had been circulated quietly that they had
been entirely unheard of by large numbers of Ind
lans until months afterWard, while many of the
Indians who signed them did not know what thev
meant IN case, he asserted. only one hundred
and fifty Sioux had signed of d tribe of five
thousand.