The Alaska daily empire., 1921-12-21
H00NAH PEOPLE WILL EDUCATE
 HE CHILDREN
Declare for Larger School House and VIII Compel
 Children Co to School.
(speciaI correspondence.)

HOONAH Dec. IA few days ago, inspired by the words of Gov ernor Scott c. Bone before the con vention of the Alaska Native Broth erhood, at Douglas. the people Of Hoonah, headed by theNnative mayor and council, called a mass meeting and discussed their responsibilities as true Americans. The consensus of opinion seemed to be that the na tive parents of today had been de- frauded of their rightful schooling by grandparen.s who clung to the an- cient customs of ignorance and bar barism. They decided that their own children must be better cared for They decided also that the present capacity of the old government school building was entirely too small 10 meet their growing needs. Defi- mite action was taken. A petition was drawn up on the spot, addressed 10 William T. Lepp, chief, Alaska Di- vision, U. s. Bureau of Education, through c. w. Hawkesworth, division superintendent, and signed by 16S Jeople The petition reads as fol lows:
 i've, the people of Hoonah, in mass meeting assembled, feeling the great need of education. for our grow ing children, and realizing the utter inadeqnacy of our present, school building, respectfully petition your office for greater school facilities. On our part, we promise to do all in our power to keep our children in school during the entire term"
 Hoonah has a winter population of between four and five hundred peo- pie. Hitherto it has been the GUS tom of these natives to take their entire families with them when on fishing, hunting or trapping trips. al lowing the children to attend school in December long enough to 1earn their Christmas pieces for the mis- sion festivals, and a few days at other odd times when in the home port.
 The promise in that petition shows conclusively that the parents have awakened to the fact that such lax habits will never put their offspring abreast of the white children of the Territory.
 The awakening began few weeks ago when Paul c. White, native as sistant teacher, urged the council to pass ..compulsory attendance ordi nance iiia.rbnformity with legislation enacted by tHe Terrftorial Legislature in 1915.ss This the native council did. Then they appointed a truant officer to see that its provisions were car ried out People living at nearby camps brought their families into town and sent their children to school.
 4First graders, too big for the pri- mary dasks. in the remodeled school room .1pst airs filled the seats in the room below. All the chairs in the school, residence were brought into use Ten new desks sent up by the department were set up. Several others were rescued from the scrap Tile and repaired. Boys made desks far. themselves +6ut of old packing fboxes, and the, fifth grade was forced to sit on kerosene cans at manual training bench. The dispensary was turned into a class room for reading, sewing and carpenter work.
 Then, to back up their promise in the petition, the native mayor of Hoonah visited the school and told the 50 pupils assembled in the grade room that any act of disobedience on the part of the older pupils would be handled by the native council.
 We mean business" said the mayor. We want our boys and girls to obtain the schooling that we par ents failed to get, and we're going 10 stand squarely behind the teachers in all their efforts for our good. We want better knowledge of the Eng l!sh language, arithmetic, geography, world history and government. and the kind of manual training that will help us to help ourselves"
 Of the 102 pupils enrolled, S6 are now attending regularly
 Things have been happening in Hoonah during the past 10 days. On December 10 $1S0 was raised by the natives at a basket social, held in Pete Hopkins house. and donated to the William l.. Paul fund.
 On December 16 another basket so- cial was held. this time for the bene- fit of the native band. Frank Shotter donated the use of his moving pic t,fre house. Over $70 was raised and will be used for the purchase of in- stfuments.
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