EDUCATION IN ALASKA.
Although the pride of this most advanced and enlightened nation of the
earth is its public school system, the United States has done nothing
for education in Alaska. According to Petroff’s historical record, from
which the following _resumé_ is made, the Russian school system began in
1874, when Gregory Shelikoff, a founder and director of the fur company,
established a small school at Kodiak. He taught only the rudiments to
the native Aleuts, and his wife instructed the women in sewing and
household arts. Through Shelikoff’s efforts the empress, Catherine II.,
by special ukase of June 30, 1793, instructed the metropolite Gabriel to
send missionaries to her American possessions. In 1794 the
archimandrite, Ivassof, seven clergymen, and two laymen reached Kodiak.
Germand, a member of this party, established a school on Spruce Island,
and for forty years gave religious instruction and agricultural and
industrial teachings to the natives.
In 1820 a school was established at Sitka, and instruction given in the
Russian language and religion, the fundamental branches, navigation, and
the trades; the object in all these schools maintained by the government
and the fur company being to raise up competent navigators, clerks, and
traders for the company’s ranks.
In 1824 Ivan Veniaminoff landed at Ounalaska, and began his mission work
among the Aleuts. He translated the Scriptures for them, and compiled a
vocabulary of their language, and in 1838 he went back to Irkutsk and
was made bishop of the independent diocese of Russian America. Returning
to Alaska, he established himself at Sitka, founded the Cathedral
church, and undertook the conversion of the Koloschians, or Thlinkets.
He studied their language, translated books of the Testament, hymns, and
a catechism, and wrote several works upon the Aleuts and Thlinkets,
which are still the authority upon all that relates to their peculiar
rites, superstitions, beliefs, and customs.
In the year 1840 Captain Etolin, a Creole, educated in the colonial
school at Sitka, became governor and chief director of the fur company,
and, during his administration of affairs, educational matters received
their full share of attention. A preparatory school was founded by
Etolin, who adopted the wisest measures for its success. Religious
teachings were given in all the schools, and arithmetic, astronomy, and
navigation were considered important branches. Etolin himself was a fine
navigator, and, while in command of the company’s ships, he made a
survey of the coast, and a map which is still considered authority. His
wife established a school for Creole girls, educating them in the common
branches and household duties, and furnishing them with dowries when
they married the company’s officers or employees. In 1841 Veniaminoff
founded a theological seminary at Sitka, and it was maintained until the
transfer of the territory and the removal of the bishop’s see to
Kamschatka. In 1860 the school system was reorganized by a commission,
the scope and efficiency of the institution increased, and thorough
training in the sciences and higher branches afforded.
In 1867 the territory passed into the possession of the United States,
the Russian support was withdrawn from the schools, and educational
affairs have been at a standstill ever since. No rights were reserved
for the Indians in the treaty of 1867, so that there is no real “Indian
Question” involved. The Treasury regulations forbidding the importation
or sale of intoxicating liquors makes the whole Territory an Indian
reservation in one sense; but there have never been any treaties with
the tribes; there are no Indian agents within the boundaries; and,
uncontaminated by the system of government rations and annuity goods,
the parties have been left free, with but one exception, to work out
their own civilization.
In leasing the Seal Islands to the Alaska Commercial Company, the
government bound the company “to maintain a school on each island, in
accordance with said rules and regulations, and suitable for the
education of the natives of said islands, for a period of not less than
eight months in each year.” Government agents have seen that the company
kept its promises for “the comfort, maintenance, education, and
protection of the natives of said islands,” and having provided
carefully for these essentials on those few square miles of land, the
general government omitted to do anything for the rest of the great
country and its 33,246 native inhabitants, who are certainly as much
entitled to educational aid as the inhabitants of the nearer Territories
and the Southern States. The Alaska Commercial Company has maintained
schools on St. Paul’s and St. George’s islands as agreed, and, becoming
interested in the rapid progress made by one very bright and clever
young Aleut at St. Paul’s, the company sent him to Massachusetts to
complete his studies. They paid all his expenses for five years, and he
left the Massachusetts State Normal School with credit, and is now in
charge of the schools at the Seal Islands, an intelligent and highly
esteemed young man, in whom the company takes a natural pride.
According to the census report of 1880, the native population of Alaska
numbers 33,246. Of this number 7,225 are Thlinkets and Haidas,
inhabiting the southeastern part of the Territory, and Petroff gives the
following enumeration of the tribes:—
Tribes.
Chilkat 988
Hooniah 908
Kootznahoo 666
Kake 568
Auk 640
Taku 269
Stikine 317
Prince of Wales Id. (West Coast) 587
Tongass 273
Sitka 721
Yakutat 500
Haida 788
———
Total 7,225
While the military garrison was at Sitka, the wives of the officers
taught classes of the natives every Sunday, and when General O. O.
Howard’s attention was directed to the matter, during a trip through the
country, he reported the condition of affairs to the mission boards. The
Presbyterian Board was the first to enter the field, Mrs. McFarland
establishing the school at Fort Wrangell in 1877. In 1878 a school was
started at Sitka; in 1880 one was established at Chilkoot Inlet, and
after that, one among the Hooniahs of Cross Sound, and at Howkan and
Shakan, among the Haidas. A school for Russian and Creole children was
maintained at Sitka in 1879, under the protection of Captain Glass,
U.S.N., whose efforts in the cause of Indian education have already been
recorded.
The Indians are quick to learn and anxious to be taught, and,
appreciating the practical advantages of an education, they unceasingly
beg for teachers and schools. The only drawback to their upward progress
is their want of all moral sense or instincts. The missionary teachers
sent out by the Presbyterian Board have been well received by the
Indians, but, on account of a few unfortunate instances, are not popular
with the white residents. The native chiefs have often given up the
council-houses and their own lodges to them for school-rooms, and taken
the instructors under their special protection.
Recognition was at last given to the rights and the wants of these
people in 1884, and in section 13 of the “Act providing a civil
government for Alaska,” an appropriation of $25,000 was made for the
education of all children of school age, without reference to race. The
public schools contemplated in this act are yet to be established, as
the civil officers have first to inspect, and make their reports and
suggestions as to the wisest disposal of the fund.
At the same session of the forty-eighth Congress, the Indian
appropriation bill made this provision: “For the support and education
of Indian children of both sexes at industrial schools in Alaska,
$15,000.“ The Presbyterian Board of Missions, through the Rev. Dr.
Kendall, made application for a portion of this fund in 1884, and the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his letter recommending that it
should be granted, said:—
“In the total neglect of the government (since Alaska was purchased) to
provide for the educational needs of Alaska Indians, they have been
indebted for such schools as they have had solely to religious
societies, and for most of these schools they are indebted to the
society which Dr. Kendall represents. For the establishment and support
of its schools that society, last year, expended over $20,000, and also
expended nearly $5,000 for mission work. In the enlargement of their
educational work in Alaska, they have therefore the first claim to
assistance from the appropriation recently made by government for the
support of schools in Alaska. Moreover, they have now on the ground
officers and employees who can carry on the work.”
A contract was therefore made with the mission authorities at Sitka for
the education and care of one hundred pupils, at an expense to the
government of $120 per capita per annum, the expenditure to be made in
quarterly payments from the appropriation named above. It was estimated
that for the first year the whole expenditure would not exceed $9,000 or
$10,000. The contracts are temporary, and can be annulled at two months’
notice should a different policy prevail at headquarters; and the
original intention of establishing a government industrial school after
the plan of the successful institution at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., will
probably not be carried out for some time.
The Roman Catholics built a chapel at Fort Wrangell some years ago, but
it has been closed for a long time, and there are no missions of that
church now maintained in southeastern Alaska at least. It would seem as
though this were a field particularly adapted to the efforts of the
Jesuits, who have always been so successful among the native tribes of
the Pacific coast.
Two Moravian missionaries from Bethlehem, Pa., the Rev. Adolphus Hartman
and the Rev. William Weinland, were taken up to the Yukon region by the
U. S. S. _Corwin_ in the spring of 1884, and will devote themselves to
mission work among the Indians of the interior.