Shortly after 1850, it became apparent to our authorities that education
of Indians was the most important service that our Government could
render them. Pursuing this policy, schools and appropriations, both
governmental and sectarian (as well as nonsectarian) have increased
until most of the Indians have been, or are, in school. I have referred
on page 25 to the Honorable Commissioner’s report in which there are but
17,500 Indian children listed as out of school.
Naturally, this tremendous activity on the part of all these good
people, has had an effect on the entire Indian body. If there have been
retrogressions, it is not the fault of the educational system. This
should be understood in the beginning.
The subject is so comprehensive that this entire volume could be devoted
to its consideration. But we must needs confine our observations to two
chapters.
Between 1850 and 1875 the education of Indian children was confined to
various missionary and philanthropic organizations. Indians could avail
themselves of collegiate education in the East, notably at Dartmouth
College, which was founded for the education of Indian youth. But there
seems to have been no systematic, or persistent attempt to educate
Indians until 1879, when Captain R. H. Pratt, U. S. A., began the
education of Indian boys and girls. In September that year, the Carlisle
barracks were transferred by the War Department to the Interior
Department for Indian school purposes. By the end of October, General
Pratt gathered together 136 Indians. The number steadily increased; in
1905 there were about a thousand; and at the present time the school
cares for, during the course of a year, something like 1200 pupils. This
remarkable school had up to 1905 admitted 5,170 Indians. Early in
General Pratt’s administration, an outing system was inaugurated. Most
of the boys and girls were placed in families of prosperous citizens of
Pennsylvania, New York or Massachusetts during the summer months. This
brought them in direct contact with the best elements of the white race
and served a double purpose. It not only taught them industry and proper
methods of living, but brought home to the youth of both sexes the vast
difference between the life of white citizens in Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey or elsewhere, and the frontier
element with which so many of the Indians had come in contact. This does
not necessarily imply that all persons living near Indian reservations
were undesirable citizens. It means that entirely too many white persons
by their example did not impress the Indian with any respect for the
white race, and that such individuals set a very low standard. This
feature of Indian (or white) life has had a tremendous effect on the
Indians. Other writers have not emphasized its importance, and its
pernicious effect. Beyond question the fact that the Indians came in
contact with those who were not “substantial citizens,” as we understand
the term, is responsible for many evils, and a general lack of progress,
and a widespread inclination to accept merely the veneer of our
civilization.
General Pratt’s plans, therefore, were not only sound, but of great
benefit in the uplifting of the race. Other schools have followed the
excellent example set by Carlisle, and it is now pretty generally
recognized that the Indian youth must be made to realize that the
majority of American citizens are not of the type of the Indian trader,
the grafter, the squaw-man, etc.
The illustrations presented throughout this and the succeeding chapter
will give an idea of the various activities followed at Carlisle,
Chilocco, Haskell and other schools.
General Pratt remained in charge of Carlisle for about twenty-five
years, when he was succeeded by Major William A. Mercer, who was
replaced a few years ago by Mr. Moses Friedman. The present
superintendent in charge, Oscar H. Lipps, Esq., has had years of
experience in the Indian Service, and is maintaining the high standard
established by General Pratt and followed through the administrations of
his successors.
[Illustration:
DR. CHARLES A. EASTMAN, SIOUX (OHIYESA)
Educated at Dartmouth. Writer and Lecturer.
]
For some years there was a leaning in this school toward the higher
education of Indians, but that policy was not carried to any extent and
need not be referred to in detail here. It is now recognized that the
schools and colleges of the United States afford abundant opportunity
for any Indian who is sufficiently bright, and has the energy and
determination to win scholastic honors. It is neither necessary nor
advisable that the Government should attempt the higher education of
Indians. Most of the successful Indians today were originally trained in
Government schools, and such as exhibited marked ability, left what
might be termed secondary schools and entered colleges. There occurs to
me at this moment Henry Roe Cloud, a Sioux, who graduated from Yale a
few years ago; Doctor Charles A. Eastman, a distinguished author and
lecturer, Dartmouth; Charles E. Dagenett, Supervisor of Employment,
United States Indian Service, who graduated from Eastman Business
College; Arthur C. Parker, State Archaeologist of New York, Albany, who
studied under Professor Putnam of Harvard; Rev. Sherman Coolidge,
Arapaho, graduate of Hobart College and Seabury Divinity School; Dr.
Carlos Montezuma, Apache, University of Illinois; Howard E. Gainsworth,
Tuscarora, business expert, Princeton; Rev. Frank W. Wright, Revivalist,
Choctaw, graduate of Union College; Doctor Olephant Wright, Choctaw,
Union College; Miss Bee Mayes (Pe-ahm-ees-queet), Ojibwa, educated in
Boston, musician; Louis Shotrige, Chilkoot, Chief of his tribe,
graduated from the University of Pennsylvania; Nicholas Longfeather,
Pueblo, inventor and tree doctor, graduated from Syracuse; Marvin Jack,
Tuscarora, horticulturalist, Cornell; Rev. Philip B. Gordon, Chippewa,
priest, graduate of St. Paul’s; Mrs. Marie L. Baldwin, Chippewa, lawyer,
graduate of Washington College of Law; Dennison Wheelock, Oneida,
lawyer, Dickinson College; Thomas St. Germain, Chippewa, business, Yale;
John M. Oskison, Cherokee, newspaper business, Harvard; William F.
Bourland, Chickasaw, lawyer, graduate of Berkley; Asa F. Hill, Mohawk,
minister, Denison; Francis La Flesche, Omaha, author; Angel
Deceva-Deetz, Winnebago, artist; Zit-kal-a-sa, Sioux, writer; Elmer La
Fouso, California, singer; Tscawina Redfeather, Creek, singer; Jeff. D.
Goulett, Sioux, politician; Gabe E. Parker, Choctaw, Registrar of the
Treasury, Washington; Charles D. Carter, Cherokee, Congressman; F. E.
Parker, Seneca, business expert in New York City.
These all availed themselves of advantages other than those afforded by
the Government schools. There is no reason why many Indians should not
occupy high positions and become distinguished citizens. I include
Honorable Senator Robert L. Owen and one or two people serving in
Congress, although in them the white blood predominates. My list is
confined to those in whom Indian blood is in excess of white, with two
or three exceptions.
The plant at Carlisle has been extended year after year until there are
at present fifty buildings. There are upwards of one hundred
instructors, clerks, and other employees.
Carlisle produced the first newspaper printed by Indian boys. This, _The
Indian Helper_, became in later years _The Red Man_. The Indians are
trained in every conceivable industry necessary to the welfare of Indian
men and women. The following trades are taught in well-equipped
buildings: tailoring, carpentry, blacksmithing, wagon-making, printing,
dairying, stock-raising, general agriculture, gardening, engineering,
irrigation, brick-laying, plumbing, etc. There is also a shoe shop, tin
shop, paint shop, etc.
There is instruction in music, and the Carlisle military band is a
feature of the parades and entertainments. There is a gymnasium, and
outdoor recreation, exercises and athletics have had a beneficial effect
on the student body. The football and baseball teams, as well as the
track squad, have made Carlisle a formidable rival of Harvard, the
University of Pennsylvania, Mercersburg and numerous colleges and
schools. The famous athlete, James Thorpe (_See page 39_), was trained
at Carlisle and at the time of the Olympic games in Stockholm, was
awarded first prize as the ranking athlete in the world. The sturdy
football eleven has on more than one occasion been pitted against the
best football material produced by Harvard, and the West Point eleven,
during the annual fall contests. Apropos of these games an interesting
story was told me by an interpreter in Minnesota. He had played on the
Carlisle eleven many years ago. At that time most of the team was
composed of Ojibwa (Chippewa) with a few Sioux and other Indians,
practically all of whom understood more or less of the Ojibwa language.
The signals were, of course, called out by numbers, but during one of
the plays, the quarterback became confused. The play was misunderstood
and the opponents gained. He became angry, dropped his numerical system
and called out to the other players in Ojibwa what they should do. The
succeeding play was a success and from that until the end of the game,
the quarterback called out his signals in Indian, and the game was won.
In all schools girls are trained in the domestic arts, and this covers
every conceivable duty connected with home-life. Both boys and girls are
thoroughly grounded in primary education which includes the common
branches, and a sufficient training in the handling of moneys and
accounts, the buying and selling of produce, and general mercantile
affairs to enable them to cope with the white people in managing their
farms.
What is said of Carlisle is also applicable to the great Chilocco school
in Oklahoma. Chilocco Indian School was established May 17, 1882, and
opened January 15, 1884, with 123 pupils from Kiowa, Comanche and
Wichita, and Cheyenne and Arapaho Agencies.
The school is located at Chilocco, Oklahoma, and was established
primarily for the Poncas and Pawnees and other Indians of Oklahoma,
exclusive of the Five Civilized Tribes. However, the student body has
for years included youth from all parts of the country, and since 1910
restricted numbers of the Five Civilized Tribes have been admitted. W.
J. Hadley was the first superintendent. A dozen other men held this
office, and April, 1911, Edgar A. Allen, Esq., was appointed, and still
remains. The school, under his management, has done excellent work.
The maximum attendance at any one time at this school during the past
year was 561 and the total attendance 692. Since the school was
established in 1884 it is impossible to tell how many students have gone
through it, but it is likely that the number would not be fewer than
5000.
In addition to the non-reservation schools conducted by the Government,
there is the school at Hampton, Virginia, where both colored and Indian
youths are trained. The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute was
established in 1868 by General C. S. Armstrong. After ten years of
success in training negroes, Indians were included. Since that time
about 1500 boys and girls have been trained at this place. It is stated
that five-sixths of them are industrious and are a credit to the
institution. The academic course covers four years. There are normal
courses, and business, agriculture, and the trades. In connection with
the school there is a stock farm of 600 acres, together with a model
farm, dairy, orchards, poultry yards, gardens, etc. The equipment is
about sixty buildings. The Government pays $167 a year for each of its
120 Indian pupils. There never has been any discrimination against the
Indian on account of his color. This is seen in many of our Eastern
institutions where Indian boys are received on the same footing as
Whites. But there is a feeling against the negro—not a feeling of
hostility, but a general disinclination to associate with him on terms
of equality. That is seen in some of the schools. The negro is received
as a student, but not as a social equal. I have always thought that the
mixing of negroes and Indians at Hampton was unnecessary. Hampton is not
a Government school, but is maintained by private subscription and the
Government pays a certain sum per pupil for Indians who are there
educated. The system has worked satisfactorily, and Hampton has turned
out many excellent and worthy graduates. But it would be better, it
seems to me, if the Indians and the negroes were educated in separate
schools, just as today we do not consider it advisable to educate Whites
and negroes in the same school. At Harvard University, colored students
are admitted, and in the classes and through the general University
life, there is no discrimination made against them, and they are on an
absolute equality with the white students. But in the real life of the
world there is a line drawn between them, and no man or woman can blind
himself or herself to this fact.
The association of Indians and negroes in Oklahoma has not helped the
Indian, and a careful study of the situation there would lead one to
suggest that the policy be discontinued in the best interests of both
the races. The union of the negro and the white is not to the advantage
of either, and it is even more true of negro-Indian marriages, according
to my way of thinking.
It was found that the boarding-school and the non-reservation school did
not entirely supply the needs of the Indians, and so was organized the
day school. Mr. Leupp, who made a great improvement in the
administration of day schools, hit the nail on the head when he stated:—
“To me the most pathetic sight in the world is a score of little red
children of nature corralled in a close room, and required to recite
lessons in concert and go through the conventional daily programme of
one of our graded common schools. The white child, born into a home that
has a permanent building for its axis, passing most of its time within
four solid walls, and breathing from its cradle days the atmosphere of
wholesale discipline, is in a way prepared for the confinement and the
mechanical processes of our system of juvenile instruction. The little
Indian, on the other hand, is descended from a long line of ancestors
who have always lived in the open and have never done anything in mass
routine; and what sort of antecedents are these to fit him for the
bodily restraints and the cut-and-dried mental exercises of his period
of pupilage? Our ways are hard enough for him when he is pretty well
grown; but in his comparative babyhood—usually his condition when first
captured for school purposes—I can conceive of nothing more trying.
“My heart warmed toward an eminent educator who once told me that if he
could have the training of our Indian children he would make his
teachers spend the first two years lying on the ground in the midst of
the little ones, and, making a play of study, convey to them from the
natural objects right at hand certain fundamental principles of all
knowledge. I dare say that this plan, just as stated, would be
impracticable under the auspices of a Government whose purse-strings are
slow to respond to the pull of any innovation. But I should like to see
the younger classes in all the schools hold their exercises in the open
air whenever the weather permits. Indeed, during the last year of my
administration I established a few experimental schoolhouses, in regions
where the climate did not present too serious obstacles, which had no
side-walls except fly-screen nailed to studding, with flaps to let down
on the windward sides in stormy weather.”[39]
The day schools, for the most part, are of simple construction. The
teachers’ quarters are built adjoining, or the teacher occupies the ell
or detached cottage. There is usually attractive land large enough for a
garden. Except in the northern reservations, the day schools are more or
less open-air affairs. In many of them the children are provided with a
luncheon at noon. Among the poorer Indians, the school luncheon
furnished by the Government constitutes the only substantial meal the
Indian children receive. Most observers agree that boys and girls six to
thirteen years of age should not be separated from their homes during
the entire year. The day school surrounds the children during school
hours with a wholesome environment and encourages them to work at home
in the field and garden and promotes real education, culture and
advancement.
The boarding-schools on reservations were considered by Mr. Leupp to be
an anomaly in the American educational system. He aptly states:—
“They furnish gratuitously not only tuition, but food, clothing,
lodging, and medical supervision during the whole period for which a
pupil is enrolled. In other words, they are simply educational
almshouses. Nay, though ostensibly designed to stimulate a manly spirit
of independence in their beneficiaries, their charitable phase is
obtrusively pushed forward as an attraction, instead of wearing the
brand which makes the almshouse so repugnant to Caucasian sentiment.
Thus is fostered in the Indian an ignoble willingness to accept unearned
privileges; from learning to accept them he gradually comes to demand
them as a right; with the result that in certain parts of the West the
only conception his white neighbors entertain of him is that of a beggar
as aggressive as he is shameless. Was ever a worse wrong perpetrated
upon a weaker by a stronger race?”[40]
The boarding-schools have somewhat changed their character, and they are
certainly reduced in numbers since Mr. Leupp’s administration. His
successor, Honorable Robert G. Valentine, recommended their restriction,
and the present administration has still further curtailed them. The day
schools are far preferable, also are the non-reservation schools.
Indians who are exceptionally bright need not attend reservation
boarding-schools, but will find opportunity to study under better
conditions elsewhere; like Eastman at Dartmouth; Roe Cloud at Yale.
Of Indian education at the present time there is little criticism to be
offered. The tendency seems to be toward agricultural training with a
sufficient grounding in primary and secondary education to enable the
pupils to write intelligent letters, keep accounts and become familiar
with American history, etc. This is all that need be expected of the
Government schools, and advanced learning may be obtained in the
colleges.
While all this is true, we must record, that in the early years of
Indian education grievous mistakes were made. These have had their
effect on the Indian body at large. Chief among these were the contract
schools established years ago by act of Congress. These were schools
located either on the reservations and known as boarding schools, or at
a distance.
[Illustration:
CLASS IN AGRICULTURE JUDGING CORN, CHILACCO INDIAN SCHOOL
]
Years ago, when the Government was pushing allotting and educating of
Indians to the exclusion of pretty much everything else, there sprang up
a pernicious system, which I am happy to say has been abolished. Schools
were erected in a number of localities, and agents were sent hither and
thither to gather Indian pupils. The Government allowed quite a sum of
money per head for the support and education of these Indian children. I
have forgotten whether it was $200 or $400 per capita, but it was quite
a sum. One of the reasons tuberculosis and trachoma became so prevalent
was on account of these schools and the crowding of the children into
small quarters. The more children, the larger financial returns to those
conducting the school. Extensive enrollments were regarded with great
favor at Washington and so, the system continued to expand until the
Government officials awakened to its distressing effect.
Honorable O. H. Lipps, supervisor in charge of the United States Indian
School, Carlisle, writes me regarding these contract schools as
follows:—
“Referring further to the inquiry in your former letter, I might add
that when I took charge of the contract boarding-schools in the Five
Civilized Tribes four years ago, I found in some of those schools
conditions that were almost shocking. For instance, in the school near
Okmulgee, Oklahoma, not only were two and three sleeping in one bed, but
the beds were double-deckers and pupils were packed in almost like
sardines in a can. The same was true in some of the other schools. It is
needless to state, however, that this condition was immediately remedied
so that those schools are now among the best boarding-schools we have in
the service. The contract system was abolished and the superintendents
are now bonded officers and under the direct supervision of the Indian
Office.”
It is unnecessary to go into details, and we should not blame the
authorities at Washington. The whole matter of education was largely an
experiment; and mistakes must needs be made.
A great deal of the tuberculosis and trachoma is, beyond question, due
to the crowding in these schools. There is absolutely no excuse for such
system and it is surprising that it continued as long as it did. The
fact that children came home from these schools to die, or to become
permanently disabled, had a deterring effect on the Government’s
educational policy. It was quite natural that Indian parents did decline
to send their children to school under such conditions. No white parent
would send his son or daughter to a school if by so doing that child
contracted disease. Yet we were expecting the Indian to cheerfully
accept a scheme of education which we would not countenance among
ourselves for a moment.
I have tried to ascertain the number of children sent away to school who
came home and died. It has been impossible to secure any reliable
statistics. Miss Caroline W. Andrus of the Indian Record Office, Hampton
Normal and Agricultural Institute, under date of September 2d, 1911,
writes me that:—
“The death rate was high among our Indians for the first few years, but
no physical examination was then required before they left their homes,
and a good many died within a few weeks or months after they arrived.
Homesickness probably had a good deal to do with it, but some were
certainly far gone with tuberculosis when they reached here. Any
statistics we might get together would be for so small a number that I
think they would be useless, particularly as we have never used large
dormitories, but have an average of two students in a room, and
therefore no over-crowding.”
In a table of statistics presented in a later chapter will be observed
that under Question IV, “In your opinion has there been a high
percentage of deaths among children suffering from tuberculosis sent
from schools to their homes the past ten years?” we addressed a great
many persons, including teachers, and asked their opinion. Many of these
can give no accurate information, having been recently appointed. Others
think that the death rate has not been very high, whereas others claim
that many Indians returned from school merely to die from consumption or
to become blind from trachoma. It would have surprised all of us, I
think, could statistics be compiled with any degree of accuracy. For
instance, during the long period that Carlisle has been maintained, it
would be illuminating to place before the public in tabulated form how
many of the Indians are living and how many have died. Charles F.
Lummis, Esq., of California, who has devoted a great many years to the
study of Indian problems, is of the opinion that in the early years of
our educational system we made almost as many consumptives as educated
Indians. He has uttered this opinion in several of his articles in past
years. Be that as it may, at present the physicians in charge of the
schools and physicians on the reservations are doing all humanly
possible to end this evil.
But the opposite still obtains in some quarters. We have been properly
ambitious to keep the schools free from disease and we have promptly
sent to their homes children who are not strong or healthy, with the
result that disease was disseminated on the reservations. While this was
good for the school, it was very bad for those who lived at home.
-----
Footnote 39:
The Indian and his Problem, page 126.
Footnote 40:
Leupp, page 137.