The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-19
Educating the Wards of the Nation
==- By FREDERIC ]. HASKIN ====

responsibility Of educating the Indian,
Many charters granted to companies
coloniziug the New World bore the pro
vision that he be instructed IN the
Christian doctrine The Catholic priests
in the missions of New Mexico, Ari-
IONA and California taught him the
industrial arts and simple branches OF
learning. John Eliot S work in New
England bore fruit in 1914. when four
teen villages of "praving Indians
were counted, with IA school and church
in each village. In 1892 the first State
appropriation for Indian education was
that Of the colony of Virginia arrang-
ing for the tuition Of two Indian boys
at William and Mary college.
In 1910 Congress appropriated $40,
600 for Indian schools; this was later
made an annual appropriation and until
1873 the schools were conducted by mis-
sionary bodies aided by national funds.
AS early as 1S4S there were sixteen
manual training schools scattered
among the Indian reservations. Now
the system is under government con
troll. II embraces day schools, reScrva-
tion boarding schools, non.rcscrVatlon
boarding schools and normal training
schools. The one aim and ambition of
the nation and the instructors it cm
plovs is TO so train the brain and hand
Of these wards that each may be use
ful, helpful citizen, able to care for
himself and earn a white man s wages
The most successful day schools for
the Indians arc in North and South
Dakota and Wisconsin, the least sue
cessful are said to be among the Pueblo
Indians Of New Mexico kiuderGar.
tens have been introduced IN the past
few wears with most gratifying results.
despite the racial characteristic Of shy.
ness among the little pupils. Industrial
training Is the greatest factor IN the
development of the people. IN 1878
seventeen Young Indian prisoners OF
war were brought up from Florida and
placed in Hampton Institute, Virginia
? school originally intended for the
education of negroes. The success OF
the venture is verified by the fact that
tine director of manual training work
in that institution TODAY is an Oman
daga Indian. Al Carlisle, Pennsyl'
vania, Colonel r. n. Pratt founded a
school for Indians in 1850. the Haskell
Institute at Lawrence. Kansas, followed
in 1884. Other schools Of note arc at
Chemawa. near Salem, Oregon Chitoco.
Oklahoma; Albuquerque. New Mexico:
Phoenix, Arizona; 4ui Santa Fc, New
Mexico,
Believing that the earlier the Indian
learned the WAYS of the white man, the
quicker would be his civilization, the
promoters of Hampton and Carlisle IN
troduced the outing system. SO popular
in many industrial schools. This was
the placing of each child with a good
white family for so many months each
wear so he could learn the work OF the
farm as we'll as certain social customs
and graces. So effective has been the
educational system in its thirty-one
wears existence that OF the 2s4 900 In
dams outside Alaska. only 26,000 are
now blanket Indians. Ono Indian out
Of every six in the United States prop
er ia in school. Over 100 of these
are in Haskell Institute, and every one
IS given chance sooner or later OF
learning industrial arts. elementary and
advanced English branches, and TO fit
he may choose.
When the Civil war closed in April,
1865. ii left scattered throughout the
country. mostly in the South, n vast
uneducatcd negro population, bewll-
dered with the unusual condition OF free
dom and intoxicated with the prospect
of leading an irresponsible life, In the
Joy of liberation many forgot the sys-
tematic life of the farm, and with q
perverted idea of education, demanded
that which books alone might give, and
tried in most instances to promptly ig
more any effort TO learn or revive the
arts of manual training and industrial
science. Having freed them, the poo
pie Of the North turned courageouslY
toward educating them. though il had
only been IN 1888 that Connecticut cIti-
zers had burned Miss Prudence Gran.
dali s negro school, and the Legislature
had enacted law forbidding the open
ing OF schools for negroes not residents
of that State.
There was much 10 be done, for only
one in many hundreds could read or
write, some favorite slave having been
taught by his master, or some free
born having picked up little learning.
Education of the negro had been pro
hibited as the wiscst means of keeping
him in satisfied bondage. Georgia in
1879 prohibited the teaching Of any
negro, slave or free. within hcr borders
the penalty being 5000.
As soon as provisional governments
were established IN the former slave
States, teachers from the North were
sent out by the Freedman s bureau and
by the various churches and philan-
thropies interested IN the work, As
early as 1861 school wag opened al
Fortress Monroe. and by the close OF
the war Gen. Samuel G.. Armstrong hsd
perfected ms plans for Hampton insti
tuts. In 1865 he bc2an work with the
ola barracks as his building, and with