Table showing the date of organization, area, number of acres of land now surveyed, and the estimated amount of school lands in each Territory. Area, 577,390 square miles. Population, (about,) 30,000. No information in regard to any schools has been received, and it is not known that any now exist within the Russian purchase, whose population, according to Mr. William H. Dall, from whose recent work, "Alaska and its Resources," all of the following matter is taken, is: "The first school was established by Shelikoff, in Kodiak, to teach the natives to read; the traders were the teachers. The second school was also in Kodiak, and the pupils received instruction in the Russian language, arithmetic, and religion. A few years after a similar one was opened at Sitka; but until 1820 it was very poor. In that year a naval officer took charge of it until 1833, when it fell into the hands of Etolin, who made it quite efficient. In 1841 an ecclesiastical school was opened in Sitka, and in 1845 it was raised to the rank of a seminary. This, as well as the other schools, was in a very bad condition. In the latter pupils received instruction in the Russian language, religion, arithmetic, geometry, navigation, trigonometry, geography, history, book-keeping, and the English language. "In the ukase of November 1859, a plan for a general colonial school was approved. It was opened in 1860 with twelve pupils; eight of these were educated for the company's service, and four were the sons of priests. A few day scholars were admitted free. After five years' study the company's students were obliged to serve the company for fifteen years, at a salary of $20 to $70 per annum. (It is to be hoped that the announcement of these facts will enlighten those philanthropists who have declared, since the purchase, that the United States were depriving the natives of the advantages which the company* had afforded them of a free education. The only free schools in the Territory were those of the missionaries, and in them were taught little beside the religious observances of the Greek Church and the art of reading the Sclavonic or ecclesiastical characters.) The annual cost of this school was $5,800. In 1862 it contained 27 pupils, of whom only one was a native. Only nine studied navigation. In 1839 a girls' school was established for children of servants of the company and orphans. In 1842 it had 42 pupils; in 1862, 22 pupils. The instruction was principally in sewing, washing, and other house-work. In 1825 Father Veniaminoff established a school in Unalaska for natives and Creoles. In 1860 it contained 50 boys and 43 girls. A school on Amelia Island in 1860 had 30 pupils. The priest at Nushergak in 1843 had 12 pupils. A school-house was built on the Lower Yukon, but there were no pupils." INDIAN TERRITORY. This Territory, which has an area of 68,991 square miles, is peopled with a number of tribes of Indians living on reservations. The condition of education among these tribes is described in the article on the "General condition of education among the Indians," on pages 343-344. GENERAL CONDITION OF COLORED SCHOOLS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU, JULY 1, 1870. By the courtesy of General O. O. Howard, Commissioner of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, we are enabled to include in this report a summary of the general condition of the schools under his supervision, up to July 1, 1870. In submitting his tenth and final report, embracing a period of six months preceding the above date, the Commissioner states that, although nominally the report is only for the above named period, it includes two-thirds of the usual school months, and therefore gives substantially the results of the whole year. The long vacation closed on the 31st of October, but the opening of the schools was delayed, in many cases, for the gathering of the crops. After the Christmas holidays all commenced, and by New Years were in full operation. The reports are not as full as those of the last year, on account of changes in the superintendents; but a much higher average attendance is shown than for the preceding year, with a higher grade of teaching. The aggregate of schools, teachers, and pupils reported remains nearly as large as ever. It would be much larger if the work done by the States themselves were included. The character of the education of the freedmen is in every respect higher than ever before. "The whole race is recovering from the effects of slavery; in all industrial pursuits, in moral status, and intellectual development even the adult population is rapidly marching on."" More than 247,000 children gathered in the various classes of schools the last year, "under systematic instruction, have been steadily coming forward to a cultured man and womanhood, and the majority to assume, with credit to themselves, the front rank of this rising people. Their influence will be normal, formative, and enstamp itself upon many generations." But the report, "though closing an office must not be understood as recording a finished work." "This Bureau has only inaugurated a system of instruction helping its first stages, and which is to be continued and perfected." It is "only a yet pending experiment." "The masses of these people are, after all, still ignorant. Nearly a million and a half of their children have never as yet been under any instruction. Educational associations, unaided by Government will of necessity largely fall off. The States south as a whole awake but slowly to the elevation of their lower classes. No one of them is fully prepared with funds, buildings, teachers, and actual organizations to sustain these schools." "With sorrow we anticipate, if the reports of superintendents can be relied on, the closing of hundreds of our school buildings, sending thousands of children who beg for continued instruction to the streets, or what is far worse to squalid, degraded homes to grow up not as props and pillars of society, but its pests." "The several States will ere long, we hope, come nobly forward, in duty to their children. They cannot afford to leave those in ignorance who are so soon to be upon the stage of action." * Russian Fur Company. STATISTICAL SUMMARY. From the statistical table we obtain the following summary: Schools, day and night, (regularly reported).. Total.... Teachers in day and nights chools, (regularly reported).. Total..... Pupils in day and night schools, (regularly reported)....... Total...... Sabbath schools, (regularly reported).. Total...... Teachers in Sabbath schools, (regularly reported)... Total...... 2,039 638 2,677 2,563 737 3,300 114, 516 35, 065 149, 581 1, 108 454 1,562 4,907 1,100 6,007 74,502 23,250 97,752 4, 239 9,307 247,333 Pupils in Sabbath schools, (regularly reported).......... Total..... Total schools of all kinds... Individuals are often duplicated in our aggregate of pupils in the different kinds of schools; we refer to previous explanations of this fact. The total amount of teaching, however, is accurately represented by the number of pupils we have given. Schools not regularly reported have been watched and encouraged with all the care possible. The total number of regularly reported schools is not as great as in the corresponding months of last year; but such schools were, in general, much more largely attended, the total attendance being only six pupils less than last July. In our report of that date the opinion was expressed that we had, with the means in hand, obtained the maximum of attendance, and by the result of the present half year we find this prediction verified. The average attendance, however, is larger than ever, being 91,398 to 89,396 last year, or 794 per cent. of the total number enrolled. This average has, during the five years' existence of the Bureau, gradually increased from the first. The freedmen sustained wholly or in part 1,324 of the above regularly-reported day and night schools, and own 592 of the school buildings. The Bureau has furnished 654 buildings. There are 58 per cent. of total enrollment always present and 55 per cent. always punctual, showing that pupils are no less persistent in educational efforts than formerly. The advancing standard of scholarship, from year to year, is seen in the following comparison with the corresponding half year in 1869: We also report with great satisfaction that the number of high or normal schools, and of industrial schools, have largely increased. Of the former, 74, with an attendance of 8,147 students, and the latter, 61, with an attendance of 1,750, have been in active operation. Our efforts, by normal school instruction and other methods, to obtain colored teachers for their own race are proving successful. They, for the first time, predominate in our present report, white teachers being 1,251 in number, and colored 1,392. The advance of these people to such places of responsibility and reliance upon themselves has been one of our first endeavors; in its realization the future is full of promise. It will be also seen that the freedmen have, during this half year, paid for their schools $200,000-a larger amount than ever before. One evidence of the same tendency to self-support and independence. EXPENDITURES. Whole amount of expenditures by this Bureau for schools from January 1, 1870, to June 30, 1870, inclusive: From appropriation fund: For repairs and rents for schools and asylums, and salaries of school superintendents and agents. School fund: For teachers, books, &c... Refugees and freedmen's fund.. $433, 218 47 4,287 10 By freedmen, (estimated) By benevolent societies, churches, and individuals, (estimated) Total. 1,002,896 07 We are able to say, before going to press, that since the first of July large sums have been paid for schools and school buildings, all of which would make the above total "by the Bureau" larger than in any previous six months. GENERAL CONDITION OF EDUCATION AMONG THE INDIANS. The Indian tribes and bands resident within the United States are directly under control of the General Government. Its authority over these scattered communities, within the limits which the policy so long followed in relation to them has assigned, is complete. The General Government is the protector and guardian of this race. They are regarded as its "wards." At least such is the theory. In the progress of the nation changes are rendered necessary in the application of this theory. Learning our duties more clearly through the terrible events of the past decade, we are realizing the mistakes that have been made, as well as the obligations resting upon us. Nothing seems more settled, as a question of national policy, than the obliteration of such distinctions as excluded from the privileges of citizenship a large body of the people on account of color. How soon the Indian shall become a citizen is a question for others to consider. But the conclusion is inevitable. Either citizenship or extinction seems to be the Indian's destiny. What, then, is our duty? Clearly to prepare them for an intelligent acceptance of the position. We should be incited to a systematic effort for the education of the Indians in our midst, not alone from a realization of the fact that experience has dearly taught that it is cheaper by far to feed and teach than to fight and slay, but from the higher motive of fitly preparing them for the duties of citizenship. Individual ignorance is a curse. That of communities is a degradation to the people who permit its continuance. We have faced that issue so far as the negro is concerned, recognizing that the millions spent under the supervision of the Freedmen's Bureau have been well invested in preparing the freed people for the citizenship they now so honorably enjoy. The returns it brings are already recognized in the form of permanent peace and national integrity, as well as in moral progress, social order, and material benefit resulting from the stability intelligence gives to general prosperity. Another problem is before us in this question of Indian education, more difficult in some respects than that which we have partially solved, which lies partially in the character of the people with whom we must deal, but far more in their isolation, peculiar situation, and the system under which they now live. To properly comprehend these difficulties it is necessary to ascertain the facts that bear upon them. In this spirit a careful summary of the reports made to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, so far as they relate to the question of education, will aid the formation of intelligent judgmont. The report for 1869 is our authority in ascertaining not only the wants of the Indians, but their own desires, in regard to education. Grouping the various superintendencies into geographical divisions for a more convenient presentation of the facts, the first examined will be THE INDIANS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. In the Territory of Washington the Indians number about 22,000, distributed among more than twenty tribes. Of these only four agencies report schools as in operation. The superintendents uniformly report steady progress by the tribes under the influence of these schools, and the missions attached thereto. In each case there is complaint, however, that their usefulness is impaired throngh the reduction of appropriations for their maintenance. The character of the Indians at agencies where schools exist is declared to be improving. They are deeply interested in the cause of education. Of the Indians on reservations where no such influences exist, the reports are bad. They are described as lazy and debauched. The school building on the Chehalis reservation has not been completed for want of funds. Generally it is stated that owing to the inadequate appropriations "some of the schools have suspended, and others have failed to accomplish the good expected of them." Oregon has an Indian population of about 11,700 souls. Of these all but about 1,200 are located on reservations and under charge of the officers of the Indian Bureau. There are six schools reported, That for the Umatilla agency as having "a measurable degree of success." The Warm Spring agency asks for another school, the children living too far off to attend the only one in existence. At the Grande Ronde agency there are two schools, one being a manual-labor institution. Only one was in operation, however, "for want of means to cari, on both successfully at the same time." The manual-labor school at the Siletz agency has been converted into a day school, "which has had but indifferent success." At the Alsea sub-agency no school is in existence, while at that of Klamath one has recently been established. The testimony is generally in favor of the Indians' desire for education and of the rapid improvement of the children where schools are established. In California the Indians are variously estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000 souls. Their condition appears to be deplorable. There is no attempt at education, except as far as the Catholic mission efforts are maintained. The Spanish policy, which was also that of Mexico, regarded the Indians as possessing no usufructuary or other rights. It was the policy of conquest, and resulted first in the enslavement and then in the merging of the races. Treaties were, however, made with these Indians by United States commissioners, which were rejected by the Senate on the grounds above stated. Reservations have, however, been selected and most of the tribes gathered thereon. The utter neglect of all school facilities is disgraceful. Nevada reports about 14,000 Indians, who are generally peaceable. Nothing is said as to education among them. Congress has made appropriations for schools and teachers. ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO INDIANS. Within these Territories the tribes most difficult to civilize or even to keep peaceable are to be found. The Apaches are worse than Ishmaelites; their hand is against every man, but they fail to have the redeeming virtue of hospitality, which is a characteristic of their Bedouin prototype. Yet even the Apaches are not entirely given up by some who have had an opportunity to study them closely. It is estimated that in Arizona there is an Indian population of about 25,000; of these, Colonel Jones, United States Army, considers 16,000 to be peaceable. Hon. Vincent Collyer, Secretary of the Indian Peace Commission, visited this Territory as well as that of New Mexico, and from his report the following facts are gathered: The Moquis number about 4,000. They live in villages, cultivate the soil, raise sheep, show evidence of civilization, are supposed to be descended from the Aztec race, and are anxious for the establishment of schools in their midst. They live in towns. The Yumas, Chemehuevis, New River, Cocopas, Mohaves, Pimos, Maricopas, and Papagos, are all peaceable tribes, generally devoted to agriculture and stock raising. Like the Moquis, the principal tribes, as the Pimos, desire the establishment of schools and also to be taught the mechanical and industrial arts. Some of the Apache bands are desirous of peace, while with others war will continue, in all probability, until they are exterminated. The most valuable fact with regard to Arizona is the existence of the Moquis and Pimo tribes, with several smaller ones of similar character, to whose facility for acquiring a better civilization and general intelligence every one bears ready witness. The shameful neglect as to education which has hitherto characterized our conduct toward their brethren, the Pueblo Indians of the adjacent Territory, should not be repeated here. The New Mexico Indians are estimated by the superintendent to number 19,000. Of these 7,000 are Pueblos. The remainder are Apaches, Utes, and Navajoes. The educational condition of the Indians is on the same footing as the whites. It is summed up |
