The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-09-26
TEACHERS
MAY WEAR CARE
HOWEVER, THOSE APPOINTED
HEREAFTER, WILL BE RE-
QUIRED NOT TO WEAR
RELIGIOUS INSIGNIA.

RELIGIOUS INSIGNIA,
Taft today issued the following
statement concerning the order early
this year by the Commissioner of In
dian Affairs, prohibiting the use of
religious garb in Indian schools. The
president affirms his previous decis-
ion revoking that order and hence
the religious garb may be worn by
teachers now in the service. Those
employed hereafter, however, cannot
affect such insignia. The president
says in part:
I'm January of this year the Com
missioner OF Indian Affairs issued an
order to superintendent in charge
of Indian schools. directing that all
insignia of any denomination be re-
moved from all public rooms of such
schools, and that the members of any
denomination wearing a distinctive
garb should not wear it while engag-
ed in lay duties as government en-
ployees. Although the propriety of
such an order had been under the
consideration of the Secretary of the
Interior and the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, and although the sec
rotary had submitted the matter to
me for discussion, the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs finally acted on his
own responsibility, without having
first received the approval OF either
the secretary or myself. Because of
this circumstance l directed that or
der to be revoked and that action by
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
be suspended until such time as to
permit a full hearing to be given to
all parties in interest and a conclu-
sion be reached in respect t the mat
ter after full elaboration. Accord
ingly the secretary of the Interior
has given a very full hearing to the
parties in interest, and printed ar
guments have been presented.
I'm the first place it appears that
all religious insignia have already
been removed from the walls of gov
eminent schools by the voluntary
action of those who put them there
before the schools were transferred
to the government, and no question
arises, therefore, with respect to such
insignia, and no order is necessary.
The issue, therefore, is confined to
the question whether those persons
engaged in teaching Indians in the
government Indian schools, and who
are members of the government civil
service, shall be required to lay off
their distinctive religious garb while
they are rendering service as govern
ment teachers.
THE Secretary of the Interior, af-
ter a very full and patient considera-
ton, has reached the conclusion,
stated in a letter to the Commission
er of Indian Affairs that the order
ought not to be made, and that those
persons who are now engaged in tea
chanig in government schools as
members of the Government civil
service, and who arc wearing the
garb, should be permitted to remain
in the service and while discharging
their duties to wear the garb. / con-
u in this view, and the order as re-
voked will not be reviewed.
Teaching was Sectarian.
THE Secretary of the Interior
goes into a very full discussion of the
whole history of the conditions sur
rounding the teaching in government
Indian schools. 1t is evident that at
first the government gave very little
core or attention to the teaching of
the Indians, and was quite willing
to accept the services of any religious
denomination engaged in missionary
work which would take charge of the
education of Indians and give them
%sectarian teaching, and we all should
be most grateful to those denomina-
lions who were willing to spend the
money and the effort not only to
educate but to instill moral and re-
ligious principles in the young In
dams who were warde of the govern
ment. After a time, however, it evid-
emily became the policy of the gov
eminent itself to assume the bur-
den of the education of the Indians
and to direct what it should consist
in, and it is evident from acts of
Congress that it was and is the set
tied intention of congress that the
of the Indians shall be sec
ular and nonsectarian and that their
religious instruction shall be separate
and left to the volition of the Indians
and to the care of the denominations
to whose communion they belong.
But in this transition state, in which
the Indian youth are being trans
ferred from s%ectarian to government
the ultimate purpose has
not always been strictly held in view,
and it has been a frequent method to
transfer a whole school, previously
under a Protestant or Cathoric de-
nomination, to government control,
and to include, in the transfer, all the
teachers who had been engaged in
work in the sectarian schools
and to incorporate them as a whole
and as individuals in the classified
civil service of the government. The
transfers thus have often been eff
fected by the governments renting
UNCONVENTIONAL schools and taking
over the whole plant and the teach
ers as well. 1t appears that out of
2 900 teachers in the Indian schools
there are 81 who wear a religious
garb and who are regularly CLASH
fled members of the government civil
Saruica To diroct Thorn to uiro IN