1

REPORT

OF

THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, November 1, 1884.

SIR: In submitting my third and last annual report of the operations of the Department, I beg leave to renew recommendations of former reports, so far as there may be necessity therefor, and to make such suggestions as experience and observation have shown that the public interest demands.

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

In my last annual report I gave it as my opinion "that it is quite possible, with wise and judicious treatment of the Indian question, to prevent the recurrence of hostilities between the Indian and his white neighbor that has marked nearly every year of our history." It affords me great satisfaction in my third and last report to be able to say that the past year has been one of peace among the Indians, and that no outbreaks have occurred. All the tribes are at peace with each other and with their white neighbors. In my former reports I have at some length discussed the "Indian question." I do not think it necessary to repeat what I have said in former reports concerning the duty of the Government in dealing with the Indians, or with reference to the necessities of the Indian service. I adhere to the opinions heretofore expressed, which were formed after much study, thought, deliberation, and experience in the immediate vicinity of Indian tribes.

During the past year new buildings have been erected at several of the agencies for the accommodation of the children in the boardingschools. Five new boarding-schools and 12 new day-schools have been added to the list of schools in successful operation. There are now 81 boarding schools, 76 day-schools, and 6 industrial or manual labor schools under Government control. Fourteen boarding and 4 day schools are supplied with teachers and other employés, by some one of the various religious denominations, the Government paying a stipulated price for the care and education of the children therein. This course has been necessitated by lack of sufficient appropriations to provide for all the

children willing to receive an education. The amount paid is somewhat less than the average cost per capita of children maintained in Government schools. There are also 23 schools maintained by churches and associations without expense to the Government, and to the support of which the Government contributes nothing. Three new industrial schools have been completed and put in successful operation during the last year: 1 at Chilocco, Ind. T., with a capacity for 150 children; 1 at Lawrence, Kans., with a capacity for 300 children; and 1 at Genoa, Nebr., with a capacity for 150.

The Chilocco school was opened January last, and although its capacity was rated at 150 children, the average attendance has been 168. The capacity of the school should be increased, for there is no lack of children who are ready and willing to attend it. The location of the school was by act of Congress. The act provided for the selection of 640 acres only. This amount was thought to be altogether too small, and 1,200 acres was at first selected. Afterwards thirteen sections more were selected by Executive order, in order that farming and stock-raising might be carried on by the scholars. During the last summer the boys broke 275 acres of sod, put in 50 acres of millet, cultivated 15 acres of vegetables, made several miles of fence, cut and put up over 400 tons of hay, besides caring for stock and doing work about the building. A herd of 425 cows has been purchased for the school. It is expected that this herd will be cared for by the boys in attendance, and will prove not only an advantage to them in teaching them to care for stock, but prove a source of financial profit to the school.

An additional appropriation should be made for shops, &c., for the school.

The Genoa school, situated on the old Pawnee Reservation in Nebraska, was opened in February last with an attendance of 140 Sioux. The boys have cultivated 6 acres of potatoes, several acres in garden truck, 140 acres of corn, and 60 acres of oats, and assisted in making brick and other work about the place. Additional buildings are necessary for shops and for other purposes. Suitable appropriations should be made therefor.

The completion of the buildings at Lawrence, Kans., was delayed by the cold weather as well as delay in the payment of the contractor, the First Comptroller holding that the money intended for that purpose was not available. Congress authorized the use of the appropriation as first intended, and the work was then resumed. The buildings, however, were not completed until in July, too late to commence school for the season. Seven boys, transferred from Chilocco to Lawrence, and under the direction of the superintendent of farming, and one white laborer, cultivated about 120 acres of corn, oats, millet, several acres of potatoes, &c., and have helped to erect a barn and other buildings. The school was opened for the fall term with an attendance of 100, which will be increased to 300.

A new school building has been erected at Albuquerque, N. Mex., intended to accommodate about 150 children. The superintendent has found it necessary to erect some other buildings, which he is now doing, with funds furnished by charitable people in the East, through the agency of the Presbyterian Church.

Fort Berthold and Fort Hall have been turned over to the Department for Indian schools. It is hoped that by the close of the fiscal year schools will be in operation in both of these forts.

Under the provisions for the placing of Indian children in industrial schools in States at an expense not to exceed $167 per capita, 565 children have been placed in schools in the following States: Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Quite a number of Indian children who have had some training in manual labor schools have been placed in private families, mainly from Carlisle and Hampton. It is believed that hereafter quite a number may be placed in private families from Genoa and Lawrence. The Osages have taken an advanced position in educational matters, having enacted a law through their council requiring eight months' attendance at school of each child of school age, or the forfeiture of a year's annuity, amounting to about $100 per capita. Besides the children in the agency schools they have about 100 children at other schools away from the agency. These Indians are quite willing to pay for the schooling of their children out of their tribal funds. The school work among the Indians, exclusive of the five civilized tribes, is best shown by the following, taken from the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs:

Of the above, 142 boarding pupils and 1,056 day pupils are in New York; the day pupils attend the 30 public schools which the State of New York provides for her Indian population.

This calculation does not include the missionary schools.

The Department has been embarrassed on account of the small appropriations made for school buildings. On this subject the Commissioner of Indian Affairs says:

Buildings. The embarrassment under which the office has labored for several years-insufficient school buildings-is becoming chronic. If reports gave the number of boarding pupils for which existing buildings furnish suitable accommodation, instead of the number which such buildings are compelled to accommodate, a much smaller showing would be made. Inspectors condemn the crowded, stifling dormito

ries which they find, and agents on the other hand deplore the turning away from school of those who ask for admittance, and they decide to crowd the children temporarily, in the hope that the new building or addition for which they have entreated will soon be allowed. Too often the year goes by without relief and the whole management, even the morale of the school, suffers sometimes seriously. Buildings erected to meet the needs of ten years ago must still be made to suffice, and others too dilapidated and worthless to be repaired must still shelter children who therein are expected to become accustomed to the decencies and comforts of civilization, and to acquire habits of thrift and enterprise.

Since only $25,000 was appropriated this last year for erection and repair of school buildings, no extensive work has, of course, been done. The Shoshone, Menomonee, Sisseton, and Siletz buildings, which were commenced in the previous year, have been completed and occupied; also the three new training-school buildings at Lawrence, Chilocco, and Genoa; and a building begun some years since at White Earth, Minn. The flourishing Albuquerque school has moved into new quarters after three years of waiting in rented buildings, supplemented by temporary make-shift additions, put up one after the other as the pupils crowded in. This building was intended for 158 pupils, and the superintendent of the school is asking for the immediate erection of another building to house the 50 additional pupils who will ask for admittance this fall, and the 100 others who can easily be obtained. The $40,000 appropriated this year for buildings will be needed for the Crow, Devil's Lake, Wichita, Quinaielt, and Fort Peck buildings, and repairs and additions at other points, and Albuquerque must wait another year, as must also nine other places where there are either no buildings at all or else buildings which need immediate enlargement.

There is no obstacle to progress in Indian education with which this office has had to contend so great as the want of money to furnish suitable and even decent school buildings. As stated above, if all the Indian day and boarding school buildings, belonging to Government or other parties, had been filled, only one-fourth of the Indian school population would have been provided for. The suffering at Fort Peck and Blackfeet Agencies might have been made a golden educational opportunity for those tribes. Hungry children would need little urging to become inmates of boarding schools with well-spread tables. There has been money on hand to buy food for pupils, but none to put up shelters for them, and ignorance and wretchedness must continue unmodified and unrelieved.

To add to its other embarrassments, Congress has still further restricted the office by providing that during this year no Indian boarding-school building shall cost, including furnishing, over $10,000. The Chilocco buildings, for 150 pupils, cost, exclusive of furnishing, and in a location where materials are easily accessible, over $20,000, or over $125 per pupil. A smaller building would somewhat increase the rate per pupil. Three evils are therefore left open to choice: (1) To limit the number of pupils to less than 75; (2) to put up a shabby structure, uncomfortable and inconvenient, and which will require extensive repairing and remodeling in the near future, and yet will never be what it should be; or (3) to erect one small building one year and attach another to it during the succeeding season at some extra cost for changes thereby necessitated. Either method pursued in private business would be considered inexcusably shiftless.

It has been the great object of the Department in dealing with the Indian to make him self-supporting. When an Indian youth has been taught to labor he is self-supporting, if an opportunity is presented to him to secure employment. One great difficulty met with is, that when the young of both sexes return to the agency there is no remunerative employment for them. They lack capital to open and cultivate a farm, and if they have acquired a trade, they find no employment of that

character. It is as necessary that some employment should be secured for them as it is to teach them to labor. An Indian educated at Government expense should not be allowed rations, but should receive encouragement to labor by donations of stock, implements of agriculture, &c., and then be compelled to take care of himself. He has the knowledge that enables him to make his living. Give him an opportunity, and if he fails, let him give way to those of his race who will work and live. If, however, the Indian boy or girl prefer to go out among the whites as a laborer, the Government should encourage and aid them so to do. A little money expended in that way will save a large amount that otherwise must be expended in their support. It ought to be the primary object of our dealings with the Indian to make him dependent on himself, and not on the Government; throw him on his own resources, with such aid only as is occasionally needed and as honesty and good faith on our part demands. All educated Indians should be citizens of the United States, and I suggest that those who shall complete the regular course at the several manual-labor schools be given citizenship, without their incurring the risk of a forfeiture of their interest in either tribal lands or tribal funds.

MANUAL-LABOR SCHOOLS FOR INDIANS.

The greatest agency for the civilization of the Indian is the manuallabor school. Indeed, I do not think I shall be far out of the way if I say the only agency for that purpose is the manual-labor school. In former reports I have gone into the question at considerable length. While the argument is by no means exhausted, it does not seem profitable to continue to discuss a question now admitted by all fair-minded men to have passed beyond the domain of speculation or doubt. The history of the few manual-labor schools established for the education of Indian children has demonstrated their great value, and that it is only necessary to multiply their number, so as to include all the Indian children of school age, to forever set at rest the question as to "what shall be done with the Indians." An honest compliance on the part of the Government with the conditions of the treaties with the various tribes concerning schools will substantially provide all the schools required for the education of all the children of school age whose attendance we can hope to secure. The amount due under the various treaties to the several tribes therein named I gave last year as amounting to the total sum of $3,759,400. The amount now due after deducting all appropriations for school purposes is $4,033,700. This money is now due. A large part of the money so agreed to be paid was in consideration of land ceded to the Government by the Indians. It is not a gratuity, but a debt due the Indians, incurred by the Government on its own motion, and not at the request of the Indians. It is true that the debt is due to dependent and weak people who have but little disposition to complain of the neglect of the Government to fulfill its obligation,