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An excellent general character is given the Lake Superior Chippewas, though little is said as to school matters. The agents say of them: "That these Indians are susceptible of improvement and civilization there can be no doubt, but to reclaim and civilize them is a work of time-the work of a generation, or perhaps generations. Patience, justice and truthfulness being constantly exercised toward them, is sure to result in their gradual improvement." They are mostly connected with the Catholic missions, ong located among them. In Michigan, the Ottawas and Chippewas are generally inclined to become citizens.

The Stockbridges and Oneidas, of the Green Bay (Wisconsin) agency, appear to be doing well. Their agent says:

"The Stockbridges are generally well educated; most of them speak, read, and write our language, and are capable, under proper guardianship, of becoming an intelligent, enterprising, and prosperous people.

"The Oneidas are steadily advancing in the acquisition of the manners and customs of civilized communities. It is believed that the best interests of the Oneidas will be promoted by allotting farms to such as desire them, and creating with the avails of their surplus lands a permanent fund for the maintenance of schools among them." They have schools near Keshena and at Oneida, with an average attendance of 251 scholars.

The "New York Indians" number in all 4,991, of whom 2,427 are children. The schools are under the State laws. There are in all twenty-two district schools, which are reported as very well attended. On the Tonawanda reservation buildings for a manuallabor school are in process of construction. The State legislature provides for one-half the needed amount, and the Indians find the balance, and eighty acres of land for farm purposes. The attendance at the schools is larger and more regular, and the tribes are improving socially, morally, and financially. These Indians are reported to be increasing in number, which was the case also with the nations within the Indian Territory, before the rebellion.

There are several small bands of vagrant Indians scattered through various States, and nothing is said about or done for them in the matter of education.

THE INDIANS IN ALASKA AND THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS.

The newly-acquired northwest Territory contains, it is estimated, an Indian population of at least 70,000 souls. They present characteristics differing widely from those we have been accustomed to observe. With the exception of the Esquimaux they are represented as active and intelligent. According to a report made to the War Depart ment by Major General Halleck they may be classified under four general divisions, and again subdivided in eighteen tribes and bands.

Hon. Vincent Colyer, of the Indian peace commission, who visited the Territory, gives interesting facts bearing on the present condition of these tribes, the existing facilities for education and the progress already made. At the first village he reached the houses were arranged interiorly like ship's cabins, and had doors and windows, with glass sashes. He found them quick in imitation, even to the extent of skillful drawing. Some of the young men were good mechanics. The Koloshan division, living in Southeast Alaska, are quick, shrewd, and willing to learn. Surgeon Bailey, United States Army, medical director, says of the Indians about Sitka, that they are "a civil and well-behaved people. They do not want bayonets to keep them in subjection, but they do need honest, faithful, and Christian workers among them, who will care for them, teach and instruct them in the useful arts, and that they are responsible beings." Mr. Colyer called a meeting of the chiefs to ascertain if they cared for schools, &c. To all such propositions they gladly assented, promising to secure the children's attendance, and also that of the unemployed people at the schools. Among the islanders, Mr. Colyer found a considerable degree of intelligence. In one (Oukamack) he found over a hundred able to read in the Russian language. A priest of the Greek Church lives among them. At another island the natives were erecting a new church, the cost of which they defrayed themselves. The Aleutes are nominally members of the Russo-Greek Church. A few can read and write. The few schools on these islands are hardly worthy the name. Various witnesses are cited by Mr. Colyer, who all testify to the Indians' capacity for improvement. The interior tribes are said to be a peaceable race. The Aleutians, he says, "are a very quiet race, and nearly all Christians," (Greek Church.) Mr. Dodge, ex-mayor of Sitka, says of the Alaska Indians, that "they are of a very superior intelligence." The Sitka post trader says they "are industrious and ingenious." He urges industrial mission schools.

It is suggested that their tribal life should be utilized as local municipal germs. We should provide a good system of schools and instructors in the useful arts; give magisterial powers to the heads of missions and to the principal teachers; encourage the chiefs in the habit of regarding themselves as civil officers charged with preserving the law. An experiment of this character in British Columbia has worked well. There can be no escape from the duty devolving upon the General Government in this matter. The facts are sufficient to warrant the hope that the pressing necessity for comprehensive action will be at once recognized.

INDIANS IN BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.

At the last session of the present Congress, F. N. Blake, esq., United States consul at Hamilton, Ontario, British North America, made, through the State Department, an interesting and valuable report as to the "management of Indians in British America," from which the following extracts and information relative to schools and education are given:

"In each Indian settlement of importance, there is, at least, one school. Altogether, in the different parts of the Dominion, these schools are not less than fifty-three in number. The teachers appear to be selected with due regard to the religious tenets of the tribe, and to other circumstances. The Wesleyan Methodists are conspicuous in promoting the diffusion of education among the Indians, but in addition to this denomination and the New England Society already mentioned, the Seminary of Montreal, the Church of England, the Congregational Society, and the Colonial Church Society also contribute, and yet aid is far more frequently given from the funds of the Indians themselves than from any other single source. It is always furnished when other means are inadequate. In such cases the payments are made out of the funds of the band at quarterly periods, by checks from the office of the Indian branch. Occasionally the salaries of the clergymen are supplied from the same sources. It is also usual in some of the bands, when assembled in council, to vote provisions for widows, the aged or infirm, and other persons in indigent circumstances.

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"The desire of the Indians for schools is one of the most significant indications of the progress toward improvement, which, however slow, does certainly exist. Those who are best informed in regard to them agree in saying they so far appreciate the blessings of civilization that even such of them as prefer for themselves the wild freedom of a savage life are anxious that their children should be educated like those of the white man. The young people entertain more decidedly than their seniors a proper sense of the benefits of education; and it should not be forgotten that in this, as well as in every other method of assimilation to the ways of civilized man, the Indians who have adopted Christianity are, as might well be expected, far more progressive, and cling less to the ways handed down to them from their forefathers, than those who yet adhere to paganism."

According to the tables annexed to the report, there are in the four provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, an Indian population, under the control of the Dominion Government, of 23,192 persons. These figures are based on census returns made in 1867 and 1868. An increase of 207 persons for the last year is shown. The school returns for 45 schools show an attendance of 2,626 boys and girls. One school is set down as an industrial school. Seventeen schools are sustained out of the funds of the bands, seven in part therefrom; while the balance are supported by religious organizations, or the famous "New England Society," well known to all students of colonial annals. It still maintains ten schools, eight of them among the "Six Nations"-descendants of those who followed Capt. Brandt from New York to Canada, after the Revolution. The funds referred to as used for the maintenance of schools, is obtained from the proceeds of land sales; a matter which is kept strictly within the hands of their Indian Bureau. So also of the proceeds derived from the sale of timber, cut from the general reservation. Out of the interest derived from these funds are the appropriations made. It is very evident that the Indians are doing better, morally and intellectually, in the British colonies than among us.

Mr. Blake describes the industrial school at Brantford, chief town of the Six Nations. At the time of his visit 80 children were in attendance. The school has substantial buildings and a fertile farm of 200 acres. A plain English education is the aim sought by the teachers. The children are also fed and clothed at the expense of the "New England Society," which has this school in charge. Provision is made for sending those who show proficiency and ability to higher schools. A striking feature is the care taken to instruct in practical agriculture. The Indians prefer farming to mechanical pursuits, not from inaptitude to the latter, but from the comparative independence of the former. The boys work at stated tasks in the fields and barns, under direction of the farmer, and the girls are instructed in household duties, and such labors as belong to farm life, including the dairy, spinning, &c. Since the pupils have been boarded, greater progress has been attained. The reason for the success achieved under this plan is stated by Mr. Blake to be the fact that the parents usually resided far from the school and were always tempted to retain the children at home, in order to do something about the house or farm. If such statement is true of the civilized farmers of the Ontario "Six Nations," how much more it is of our semi or wholly nomadic tribes! Industrial schools such as this at Brantford are absolutely essential to the success of any systematic attempt at educating the Indian children of this republic. Such schools-one at least for every tribe or considerable band-is demanded as the controlling unit of any comprehensive effort.

GENERAL PROVISIONS FOR INDIAN SCHOOLS, ETC.

In Table A, hereto annexed, will be found a compendious presentation, showing, for the year 1869-70, the estimated Indian populations, the number of schools, teachers, and scholars, so far as they are ascertainable, as well as the appropriations made for educational purposes, with some of the funds contributed by religious bodies or paid by the tribes themselves for the support of schools and missions among them. This table is necessarily incomplete. Nor, can all the sums spent by the Indian Bureau for school purposes, be definitely ascertained. Superintendents and agents have discretionary power. There are large appropriations for ten or twelve tribes which include education as one of a number of objects for which the sum named is to be used. It is estimated that the total amount appropriated by the General Government was $246,418 90; that by religious bodies at $16,585 56, and by the Indians $26,022 92; being a total of $289,027 38. The number of schools is estimated at 153, teachers 194, and scholars at 6,904, while the total Indian population is estimated at 380,629 persons. Table B, also annexed, shows the liabilities of the United States for educational purposes under existing treaties. The authority, therefore, is the report for 1869 of the Indian Commissioner and the statutes of the United States for 1869-70. It appears then that the liabilities, exactly stated, (excluding Indian school trust funds,) as per existing treaties, amount to $443,400 02. Two hundred and twenty thousand dollars is added for appropriation running indefinitely or at will of the Executive. Add to these figures the Indian bonds held in trust for the schools and orphans of various tribes, ($1,441,420 69,) and we have a total liability of $2,104,320 71. The distinct educational appropriation on this total annually called for under treaty amounts to $135,831 56.

The trust funds held for the purposes embraced in this paper belongs to the tribes named and are, as set down to them, as follows:

Choctaws

$390,257 80 | Cherokees, school and orphan.. 382, 942 89

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11,000 00

2,000 00

1,441, 420 69

Taking the Indian population, as stated in Table A, at 380,629, and estimating the children and others for whom instruction should be provided, at one in three, and we have a school population of 123,543. Estimating at the rate of one in four, and we have a total of 95,132. The average between these figures will be 109,437. It may be thought that the ratio is too large, but when it is remembered that a thorough system of Indian education must necessarily include younger children than any ordinary system does, as well as those of adult age, the highest figures, rather than the lowest, will be within the mark. Contrast the necessity with what is being done. If we add, for defective information, &c., to the number of scholars now given, (6,904,) enough to make the total 10,000, which is a liberal estimate, we shall see only one child in ten or eleven receiving even the simplest rudiments of education.

Appropriations for Indian educational purposes were first made in 1806. The total expenditure is estimated at about $8,000,000, while it has been estimated that at least $500,000,000 have been expended in Indian wars. It is estimated that the educational expenditure now stands as one dollar in ten of the total appropriations for the relief and civilization of the Indians.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

The Presbyterian, next to the Catholic Church, stands foremost for its efforts at civilizing and educating the Indian tribes in the United States. According to tabular statements, furnished by the Rev. John C. Lowrie, Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, it appears to have maintained, in whole or part, since 1834, missions to eighteen tribes, besides having the charge of the New York Indian Orphan Asylum. The highest number in any one year has been 9; the lowest 2. Since 1837 these missions have received material aid from the General Government to the extent, in all, of......

The board has expended, for Indian missions, during the same period..

$429,958 27 390,100 80

Making a total of.........

820,059 07

During the period of thirty-five years, over which the efforts of this board extend there is an aggregate report of 7,730 scholars.

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* Paid by individual Indians.

3,000 00

2, 100 00 Catholic.

† $18,000 for new school and church building in the Indian Territory.

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