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REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,
Washington, November 1, 1880.

SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the annual report of the Indian Bureau for the

1880. year

Gradual progress in the arts of industry has been made by the various Indian tribes during the past year, and in some instances the advancement toward civilization has been marked. The efforts of a number of the tribes in cultivating the soil have been attended with a degree of success that has set at rest the question not only of their ability to learn the arts of husbandry, but also of their willingness to engage in pursuits at once honorable and lucrative, which, at no distant day, will make them self-supporting, and place them beyond the care of the government. Special reference will be found hereinafter to those tribes whose progress in farming and other pursuits has been especially noteworthy. The following table gives a general exhibit of the work accomplished and the gain made during the year by the Indians of the country in the direction of farming, stock raising, house building, &c.:

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Number of sheep owned.

24, 270

157, 056

328, 637

643, 286

189, 054

390, 698

48, 333

199, 732

68, 894

32, 537

863, 525

11, 634

1, 211

185

273, 000

565, 400

2, 015, 000

200, 000

536, 700

176, 500

10, 530

45, 500

5, 500

272, 000

190, 000

32, 400

III

The demands upon the office for implements, tools, &c., to enable them to perform manual labor, come from the Indians at a large majority of the agencies, and are far beyond the means at the disposal of the department for that purpose. Many cases could be cited where it has been necessary to deny the requests made for funds to supply the wants of the Indians in this respect, simply because of the inadequate appropriations provided for the purpose. In some cases the office has been unable to supplement the insufficient facilities already provided for farming, and what had been accomplished in such instances has become of little or no avail, because of a lack of means to continue the work thus imperfectly begun.

The education of Indian youth is a subject whose importance cannot be over-estimated. As will be shown hereafter, the progress during the year has not been commensurate with the desires of the office, principally because of the insufficiency of the funds appropriated for the purpose. While the sum provided by Congress for educating Indian children seems to be a large one, yet it barely suffices to continue the work already begun, and is insufficient to permit of any extended increase in educational facilities, and wholly inadequate to meet the increasing demands of the service.

The past year has been an eminently peaceful one amongst the Indian tribes. Excepting the incursions of Victoria and his band in Arizona and New Mexico, and the semi-hostile attitude of Sitting Bull and his followers, but little, if any, trouble has been experienced in the Indian country.

POPULATION.

The number of Indians in the United States, exclusive of Alaska, is 255,938. These are distributed among sixty-eight agencies at present established in the following States and Territories :

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Those not under the control of the agents of the government, numbering 15,802, are principally in the Territories of Arizona, Idaho, and Utah, and the States of California, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin.

INDIAN EDUCATION.

Reports from the schools on the various reservations are full of encouragement, showing an increased and more regular attendance of pupils and a growing interest in education on the part of parents. Persistent calls for the opening of new schools, or the enlargement of those already established, come to the office from every quarter. During the year sixty boarding and one hundred and ten day schools have been in operation among the different Indian tribes (exclusive of the five civilized tribes in the Indian Territory), which have been attended by over 7,000 children, and taught by 338 teachers. In the education of the Indian youth it is the policy of the office to have farm and domestic work occupy as prominent a place as study in the school-room, and the development of character and training of the pupils in the manners and habits of civilized life is held to be quite as important as acquiring a knowledge of books. But the opportunity for teaching Indian children how to live, as well as how to read and think, is found only in the boarding school, and for that reason the effort of the office during the past year has been directed mainly toward increasing boarding-school accommodations at the various agencies. Only three new schools, however, have actually been put in operation, and four new buildings erected.

The educational work of the bureau could have been enlarged to a much greater extent but for the inadequate appropriations made by Congress for the support of schools. Fifty thousand Indians at seventeen agencies have no treaty school funds whatever, and for educational facilities must depend entirely on the general appropriation for Indian education. Among those tribes there are at least seven thousand children of school age. Exclusive of rations, the cost of clothing, books, and instruction in an agency boarding-school cannot possibly fall below $60 per capita per annum. The whole appropriation of $75,000 would therefore enable the office to keep twelve hundred and fifty out of seven thousand children in boarding-schools for the year, or would keep about twice that number in day-schools.' But this appropriation must also be used to supplement insufficient treaty school funds at various other agencies. The following extract from the act making appropriations to fulfill the treaty with the Flatheads of Montana shows the inadequacy of many of the treaty provisions for schools:

For the support of an agricultural and industrial school, keeping in repair the buildings, and providing suitable furniture, books, and stationery, per fifth article of treaty of July 16, 1855, three hundred dollars. For providing suitable instructors therefor, per same article of same treaty, one thousand eight hundred dollars.

The sum of four thousand dollars per annum is required for the sup. port of the Flathead boarding-school, of which nearly half must be taken from the general appropriation for schools.

This appropriation must also be used for the erection and furnishing of new school buildings, and the enlargement of those which are already overcrowded.

In compliance with the appeals from neglected agencies, the office has made arrangements for erecting eleven boarding-school buildings during the coming season, and for the establishment of thirteen new boarding-schools. These will be the first schools of any kind ever provided for the eight thousand San Carlos Apaches and Western Shoshones, and the first boarding-schools opened for twenty-five thousand Indians at nine other agencies, where small and irregularly attended day-schools have hitherto met with indifferent success, and made little impression upon the tribes among which they were located. But few of these schools will be fairly in operation till toward the close of the current fiscal year, and the expense of their maintenance will not be burdensome until the following year. Increased provision for the support of schools will then be absolutely necessary, and I trust that not less than $150,000 will be appropriated for that object by Congress at its next session.

The importance of having at least one good boarding-school at each agency need not be argued. After the thirteen boarding-schools above referred to have been opened, thirteen more agencies will still remain unprovided for. At not more than fifteen out of sixty-six agencies can the government be said to have made adequate provision for the education of the children of the tribes belonging thereto; and at very few of the remaining fifty-one agencies will the schools, both boarding and day, accommodate 50 per cent. of the school population. The necessity for increased and increasing appropriations to enable the office to keep pace with the demands of the Indians for educational facilities is manifest and urgent.

An Indian boarding-school similar to that at Carlisle has been established during the year at Forest Grove, Oreg., for the benefit of Indians on the Pacific coast. It is under the immediate charge of Lieut. M. C. Wilkinson, U. S. A., and has been in operation since February last. Two buildings, which will accommodate 150 pupils, and another which it is proposed to subdivide into workshops, in which various trades will be taught, have been erected-the latter building entirely by the labor of Indian boys under the direction of one of the teachers, who is a practical mechanic. Forty pupils are now in attendance, representing six different tribes. For Indians like those on the Pacific, who are already in close contact with the whites, and who have adopted to a large extent the dress and habits of their white neighbors, the training which such a school gives is especially needed, in order to prepare them for the competition with white civilization, which must soon be inevitable. The number of pupils in the school will be increased during the year as far

as funds at the disposal of the office will allow, but unless some special and generous appropriation is made for the benefit of the school the number in attendance must be kept far below the number of applicants for admission.

The attention of Congress has been repeatedly called to the necessity of making some provision for the education of the Alaska Indians; but thus far no action has been taken on the matter. An appropriation of a few thousand dollars for that object would enable the office to educate some Alaska youth at Forest Grove, who, after a few years' training, would be fitted to become teachers among their own people. A comparatively small expenditure in that direction could, in this slow but sure way, be made of incalculable ultimate benefit to the Alaska Indians. The Hampton and Carlisle schools now number sixty-six and one hundred and ninety-six pupils respectively. Since November, 1878, one hundred and three pupils, representing thirteen different agencies, have been in attendance at Hampton. The report of S. C. Armstrong, principal of Hampton Institute, which will be found herewith on page 182, testifies to the general good conduct of the pupils, to the gratifying progress made by them in acquiring a knowledge of the English language and of elementary English studies, and to the interest and aptness with which they have taken hold of farm work, and received practical instruction in domestic work and various trades.

The first company of sixty boys and twenty-four girls from the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Agencies reached Carlisle in October, 1879. Since that date two hundred and thirty-nine children have been in attendance, representing the Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches, Pawnees, Sissetons, Menomonees, Iowas, Sac and Fox, Lipans, Poncas, Nez Percés, Wichitas, Apaches, and Pueblos. Ten per cent. of the number have been mixed bloods, and two-thirds of them children of chiefs and headmen. Industrial work occupies a prominent place in the school, and fifty apprentices are learning the trades of carpenter, blacksmith, wagon-maker, saddler, tinner, shoemaker, tailor, printer, and baker. A statement of the work accomplished by them will be found in the report of Lieutenant Pratt, page 178, to which attention is invited. Specimens of articles manufactured by the Carlisle pupils exhibited at the county fair attracted much favorable attention from visitors, and the small premiums awarded the Indian boys and girls for excellence of workmanship gave them great satisfaction and encouragement.

Aside from the benefit accruing to the children educated therein, the establishment of these schools has aroused a strong interest in Indian civilization on the part of benevolent people in the East, which has resulted in generous donations to aid in the support and to add to the comfort and happiness of pupils at both Hampton and Carlisle. Moreover, during the summer vacation, forty-eight boys and girls from these two schools were received into various families in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, where they were given an individual home-training which

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