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nounced the aim of placing all Indian children in the public schools. Congress had also passed an act stating:

that hereafter no appropriation, except appropriations made pursuant to treaties, shall be used to educate children of less than one-fourth Indian blood whose parents are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they live and where there are adequate free-school facilities provided.

83

The regulations organized by the Indian Bureau indicated the enrollment, attendance, and tuition to be paid for these pupils. The tuition paid was "based on the cost of education of white pupils in the schools where the Indians attend." 85

Even though this became the policy, it is evident that many Indians in the Southwest still had no schools to attend. Allotment was meant to justify the individualizing of Indian lands so that they could be brought on the local tax rolls. It was meant also to bring Indian people quickly into full-fledge citizenship with its privileges, responsibilities, and problems. During this period, education of the children was to bring this about.

Citizenship-State

In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian citizenship bill. This law declared "all non-citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States," se citizens. Although two-thirds of the Indians were already citizens, this Act completed a piecemeal legal process which had been used to make Indians citizens at various times since the early 1800's and through a variety of mechanisms. Except for clarifying the right to vote for many Indian groups, it is not apparent that this law has legally had much of an impact on Indian education or Indian people. Yet, this Act was used increasingly by the government to urge states to treat Indians on an equal footing with other citizens for services and to encourage Indians to accept the same duties and responsibilities as other citizens.

The year all Indians became citizens also saw the Secretary of Interior call a "committee of One Hundred Citizens" together to discuss ways to improve the Indian service. This committee zeroed in on the problems of Indian education. They recommended competent personnel, adequate school facilities, increased student enrollment in public schools, and scholarships for high school and college students, and a recognition of student-labor programs. The work of this committee caused the federal government to reorganize the government schools so that they could offer advance work. For example, the day schools were to offer through the sixth grade and the non-reservation boarding schools were to offer through the eighth grade. Haskell Institute was to offer through the eighth grade. The move for high school grades were added slowly. Home economics and agricultural extension agents were added to the schools. Although the Bureau of Indian Affairs recognized the importance of this report, neither the committee nor the

83 40 Stat. L. 564.

87

84 These regulations appear in the appendix F, Page 313.

Op. cit., "Annual Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Year 1921," p. 7-8. 86 43 Stat. 253, 8 U.S.C. 3.

87 The Committee of 100 was a group of prominent citizens appointed by Secretary Herbert Work to advise him concerning Indian matters.

agency ceased pushing the assimilation of Indians through the school system.

88

Although allotment and the dissolution of tribal authority continued as policy, the years between 1924-1928 saw a greater interest in protecting Indian property. The Meriam Survey was authorized in 1926 to review federal policy towards American Indians and make recommendations to improve it. This report condemned the allotment policy and urged protection for both Indian people and their property. In education, the survey pointed out the shocking conditions of the boarding schools, called for an end in their enrollment of elementary children, and urged an increase in day schools.89 The report appeared to urge a more liberal policy for the existence of cultural diversity and the use of education as a tool to accomplish this.

With the election of President Herbert Hoover, the Bureau of Indian Affairs came under the direction of Commissioner Charles Rhoades. The Meriam Report's findings served to stimulate new efforts by the Bureau in education, health, administration, and personnel. However, the policy towards the allotment of land and tribal goverments did not change.

90

During this time, W. Carson Ryan, formerly the Education specialist with the Meriam Survey, became the Director of Education for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In the Meriam Survey, he had looked closely at the boarding schools-the facilities, curriculum, teachers, student labor, food and discipline.91 He had declared that they were totally inadequate.92 Ryan sought to develop a more responsive education program for the Bureau by organizing a community school system on the reservations: increasing federal-state education contracts for InIdian children attending public schools; phasing out the boarding schools; and extensively revising the curriculum. The curriculum was to be reorganized to teach basic skills and incorporate cultural traditions and art based on local heritage. He also reorganized the education office and added specialists for different areas like home economics, vocational education, guidance to assist him in redirecting the educational efforts.93

Citizenship-Federal

Although the citizenship act applied to all Indians, the federal relationship with Indians had continued. Citizenship status had been impeded through the various policies. The decade of the 1930's was to witness a renewed effort on the part of the federal government to revitalize Indian tribes and communities and to pay respect to their culture and traditions.

With the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, came as well a "new deal" for American Indians. Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes and

88 Institute for Government Research, "The Problem of Indian Administration" (1971; rpt. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation), pp. 402-403. Hereinafter, this report will be called the Meriam Report.

89 Ibid., p. 10-14; p. 401-409.

90 W. Carson Ryan and Rose K. Brandt, "Indian Education Today," "Progressive Education," Vol. 9 (February, 1932), p. 85.

91 "Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1934," supra, p. 82. 92 Thid., p. 84.

93 Ibid., p. 88.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier began immediately to initiate a new Bureau philosophy and goal for Indian affairs.

The passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934 gave Secretary Ickes and Commissioner Collier their main tool for reforming Indian affairs. In describing this Act, Collier stated:

Through 50 years of “individualization” coupled with ever increasing amounts of arbitrary supervision over the affairs of individuals and tribes so long as these individuals and tribes had any assets left, the Indians have been robbed of initiative, their spirit has been broken, their health undermined, and their native pride ground into the dust.

The Wheeler-Howard Act (IRA) [sic] provides the means of destroying this inferiority complex, through those features which authorize and legalize tribal organizations and incorporation, which give these tribal organizations and corporations limited but real power, and authority over their own affairs, which broaden the educational opportunities for Indians, and which give Indians a better chance to enter the Indian service."

In education, Commissioner Collier sought to improve the existing schools, reduce and eliminate boarding schools, and develop day schools that would work with adults as well as children and become community centers.95 A major effort was to be made on the Navajo Reservation to organize community schools. At the same time, the Johnson-O'Malley Act came into being. This law made it possible for the Indian Bureau to contract with states for health, education, and welfare services.

This law permitted one contract with the states rather than the hundreds of contracts with local school districts which had been necessary before. The States of California and Washington had already been educating the Indian children. With the passage of JohnsonO'Malley, these states immediately obtained contracts. The California contract contained an interesting proviso:

(The State of California agrees) to afford special courses to Indian arts and crafts, physical and health education; and in distinctly Indian communities, to provide an educational program designed to meet the special needs of the Indians, this program to be adopted and carried out, wherever feasible, with the advice of anthropologists acquainted with the particular Indian group and after consultation with recognized representatives of the Indians, to the end that the program shall take adequately into account the Indian community life, shall be based on Indian economic, health, and social needs, and shall encourage Indian participation.96

This law formalized a pattern of federal-state activity in Indian education which continues today.

The educational loan provisions included in the Wheeler-Howard Act (IRA) also extended governmental assistance to Indians who wish to attend non-government vocational, trade, and high schools as well as colleges and universities. The Commissioner reported that in 1935, there were 515 Indian students in colleges and universities. The following professional and advanced vocational courses were represented: teaching, 49; physical education, 19; home economics, 12;

24 Ibid., p. 91.

95 For example, programs from the Farm Security Administration, Public Works Administration, and Farm Resettlement Administration were utilized to assist Indians through the efforts of Commissioner Collier.

House Report 2091, 1944, p. 335-349.

nursing, 11; agriculture, 8; art, 5; medicine, 5; civil engineering, 5; law, 5; forestry, 3; electrical engineering, 3; architecture, 3; and social service, 3.97 The government's policy of supporting undergraduate and graduate education appears to have been formalized by this law. A blood requirement concerning Indians for these programs also appeared in this law. It stated,

The term "Indian" as used in this Act shall include all persons of Indian descent who are members of any recognized Indian tribe now under federal jurisdiction and all persons who are descendants of such members who were, on June 1, 1934, residing within the present boundaries of an Indian reservation, and shall further include all other persons of one-half or more Indian blood.. For the purposes of this Act, Eskimos and other aboriginal peoples of Alaska shall be considered Indians.

88

The Indian Bureau moved aggressively to carry out Collier's new policies. The Commissioner himself, when Congress did not appropriate enough money, effectively sought and obtained monies from other Federal agencies to extend the program.99 He used the depression-emergency agencies to assist Indian tribes and communities. The respect for and restoration of Indian tribes and communities and the development of their governments were the main thrust of this administration.

By 1939, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee began recommending the repeal of the Wheeler-Howard Act (IRA) and the reorganization and reduction of the Bureau. Appropriations were reduced as a result of this attitude and the Second World War. Congress opposed the continued purchase of non-taxable lands for Indians and redirected the policy towards "bringing Indians into full and equal participation in American life rather than prolonging their special status as Indians." With this directive, John Collier resigned as Commissioner in 1945.

The federal citizenship era which began in 1934 with the full intention of encouraging the development of Indian tribes, their governments, their cultures, and economics ended under the guise of equal participation in American life, ten years later. From this time until 1950, the Congress seized the initiative in Indian affairs. They passed the Indian Claims Commission and the Navajo-Hopi Rehabilitation Acts.

The Indian Claims Commission awards to tribes for the taking of lands illegally brought some early wealth to a number of Indian tribes. These awards were used by Congressional committees as an excuse to call the acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs before them in 1947, for the purpose of soliciting from him a plan to reduce Bureau expenses. Commissioner Zimmerman agreed to list the tribes and criteria to govern how they should be released from federal control.

The Hoover Task Force on reorganizing the Executive Branch in 1949 suggested that the "federal government relinquish its responsibilities over Indians to the states and that tax exempt status be terminated." This recommendation served to give impetus to the next major policy focus in Indian affairs, i.e., terminating the federal responsibility which was to be formalized by the Congress in H. Con. Res. 108: in 1953.

97 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1935, p. 134.

98 Wheeler-Howard Act (Indian Reorganization Act) June 18, 1934, Section 19, 48 Stat.. 984. 99 See footnote 95, supra.

C. DESCRIPTION OF TYPES OF SCHOOLS EDUCATING INDIAN PEOPLE

Schools During the Treaty-Making Period

The very first type of educational institution serving Indian people was the mission school. These schools were conducted under the auspices of individuals or groups affiliated with various denominations. Missionaries had been laboring for many years among the Indians before the formation of the United States, and they were the earliest Christianizing and civilizing influence on the tribes. Thus, it was sensible that the first formal plan for educating American Indians was a cooperative effort between the federal government and religious societies. Both had the same objectives which were ultimately directed towards integrating "civilized" Indians into the body of American society.1

In 1819, the United States Government established the Civilization Fund, which offered financial assistance to religious societies and individuals laboring among the Indian tribes. While the Fund was administered by the Indian Office of the War Department under specific rules and regulations, the actual operation of the Indian schools was left to the religious organizations. Funds were secured by submitting a formal request to the Indian Office, detailing what specific use was to be made of them. Upon approval of that office, an agreement was negotiated between the government and the benevolent society for payments of a specified sum to assist in the support of their establishment.

Several mission establishments were operating in Indian country in the early 1800's, and the numbers increased with the assistance of the Civilization Fund. Notable among the religious societies receiving funds were:

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; Baptist General Convention; Hamilton Baptist Missionary Society; United Foreign Missionary Society of New York; Methodist Ohio Conference; United Brethren (Moravians); Synod of South Carolina and Georgia; Cumberland Missionary Society; Western Missionary Society; and Catholic Bishop of New Orleans.

Among the tribes who benefited from educational services provided in this manner were the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Cherokees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Winnebagoes, Osages, Menomonies, Shawnees, Delawares, Munsees, Sioux, Wyandots, Pottawatomies, Quapaws, Seminoles, Miamies, Sacs, Foxes, and Stockbridge Indians.3

Mission schools received financial support from several sources, in addition to that available from the Civilization Fund. When laboring among tribes which had treaty relationships with the United States,

1U.S. Congress, House, "Memorial of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," Doc. No. 102, 18th Cong., 1st Sess., n.d., Cong. Serial Set #97.

2 U.S. Congress, House, "Civilization of the Indians," H. Doc. No. 203, 27th Cong., 3d Sess., 1843, Cong. Serial Set #423.

U.S. Congress, House, "Report on Repealing the Act of 1819, for the Civilization of Indians, etc," H. Rep. No. 854, 27th Cong., 2d Sess., 1842, Cong. Serial Set #410.

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