Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-06

faculty is giving the students a general
technical educate
There is an institute for training teachers
at Las Vegas. which | wrote about the
other day, and another normal school in
the southern part of the state. an agricUt-
tural college, a military institute and
school for deaf mutes. All of these schools
are supported by taxation and have good
reputation. There are several Indian
schools. supported by the government and
by religious denominations. among the
Pueblos and the other tribes of the terri
tory. The Pueblos, as everybody knows, are
supposed to be descended from the progen-
itors of the Aztec race. They live in fixed
villages and cultivate the soil. They all
have local governments of their own and
a system of administration which is older
than history and admirably adapted to the
peculiar conditions in which they live.
There are three large governmnt schools
for these and other tribes a Santa Fe. AL
DuquerQue and MeScalaro and local schools
on all Of the several reservations. The San
ia Fe school is the largest. 1t has been
running about fifteen years. has ten sub
stantial brick buildings and several minor
structures of abode which have been erect
ed from time to time. Congress made an
approprat ton of $4,000 at the last session
, for a girls dormitory, which will increase
the capacity by about one hundred students
There were 49, students in attendance last
year. OF these $50 We're Pueblos. % were
Papagoes, II We're Nava JOS. - were Pimas
and the remainder from other tribes in the
territory.
Industrial Training.
The Albuquerque school has about three
hundred students and that at Mescalaro
about hundred. More than half the
students al Albuquerque are Nava jos; there
are few ADaches and the remainder are
from the Pueblos. All three of these above
schools teach book learning up to the eighth
grade of the ordinary public school, so the
n NJ
writing and arithmetic and know something
of the geography and history of their coun-
try: but more attention is paid to Industrial
misunderstanding. gardening, stock ard
fruit raising, and the ordinary mechanical
trades for the boys while the girls are in
structad in housekeeping, dressmaking,
cooking, laundry work. blanket weaving
and the ordinary domestic sciences, they
may be able to improve the homes of their
families and earn their own living if neces-
Sary.
Education is not compulsory among the
Indians, but 1t should be. 1t is difficult
to get the children into the schools. Many
parents will not be persuaded; others seem
quite anxious to have their boys and girls
educated, especially the boys. but most of
them are Indifferent. There day
schools in all of the nineteen pueblos for
the benefit of the children who remain at
home. but it is difficult to secure pupils
there also. The Pueblo Indians generally
speaking. are not favorable to education.
ancient customs to modern innovations.
Supt Crandall's Experience.
Mr.. c. j. Crandall, superintendent of the
Indian school at Santa Fe. says that the
Navajos are much brighter and more am
bilious than any other Indians. and that
the Apa hes are next to them.
THE Navajo are the brightest Indians
l have ever met" said he the other day
| h.a IN y, nd
south. for fourteen years, and have known
most of the tribes personally. The Indians
of the northern ATTITUDES are more intel
lectual and are ADLER than those of the
south but they yield to vices more readily
and are more subject to disease. The
Pueblos are dull. slow. reticent, mystical
and stocal 1t takes them long time to
get on to an idea they are very slow in
reasoning; they have very little sense of
humor. They more serious than any
Indians | have ever known and the most
difficult to teach. They are extremely con-
sentative, the slowest to change of all our
native races, and they have fought the
hardest and most persistently against the
advances of civilization. Notwithstanding
persecution and inducements, they have
preserved their religion and customs ever
since the advent of the Spaniards, 800 years
ago, although they are slowly dying out.
There are now nineteen pueblos, with a
population of about 5000 souls, while the
early Spanish records mention forty three
pueblos, with hundreds of thousands of
people, who have disappeared in pestilences
and wars. Pecos. their sacred place has
entirely gone. Nothing is left but the ruins
of an old church. The population of Taos,
the most important of the pueblos. has
been reduced to 800; but the people still
cultivate the same area of land,
II am inclined to think however" said
Mr. Crandan that the next census will
show an increase in the population of the
pueblos which will be due to the suppress
sion of contagious diseases, to vaccination
and sanitary regula tions. all of which have
been enforced upon then. against the most
stubborn resistance. In some cases mil
itarV assistance has been necessary. The
Pueblos are beginning to intermarry some
what with the Mexieans also.
Effect of Education Not Lost.
What is the effect of education upon
them?"
when the boys and girls go home from
this school. from Carlisle, Hampton. Has
kell and other institutions, few of them
keep no to the standard of living which
they have been taught but example and
precept are not entirely forgotten. Some
of them drift back to the lowest level of
their tribe; but most of them do better and
live better. Hence our work is not entirely
lost. Sometimes we get very much discour-
aged The older members of the tribes
are so conServa tive. so suilen. so reluctant
TO abandon the habits of their ancestors
that their uplifting is very slow process.
They do not want their children educated;
they shelter themselves under the past;
they preserve their secret religious rites
and are willing TO live miserable exist
ence from our standpoint long they
are allowed to practice those mystic cere-
monies. Nevertheless few prosper
ing, and you may say, as general rule.
that those who have been educated at gov
eminent schools. when they return to their
homes. demand better things than they
would have been contented with before they
came away They insist upon sleeping upon
beds and eating off of table from dishes
with knives and forks Instead of dipping
their fingers into the common kettle. as
they formerly did. The girls will insist