Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/824

 INDIAN

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INDIAN

The office of assistant director, vacant since 1890, was successively filled by Rev. B. J. Kelly and Rev. E. H. Fitzgerald. The treasurer, appointed in 1894, still remains in office (1909), as also the secretary, who, as private secretary to General Ewing, has in reality served as secretary of the Bureau from its incipiency.

Work of Die Bureau. — The Indian Peace Policy was in force from 1S74 to 1882, but even after its discon- tinuance the need for the Bureau remained imper- ative. Being constantly in touch with the officials of the Indian Office, the Bureau has been instrumental in ameliorating the condition of the Indian, and in making tolerable the lot of the missionary, who, at all times, has been under close and galling Governmental supervision, and, in numerous instances, subjected to annoyances, humiliations, and petty persecutions on the part of Indian agents and agency employees. From 1874 to 1879, the Government authorities refused to concede to all religious denominations an equal right to go upon Indian reservations. For this sole reason a Catholic missionary was expelled from a reservation assigned to Protestants, and in 1880 the Indian Office declared itself unable to grant a permit for a Catholic missionary to go upon a Protestant reservation, though the fact that a reservation was under Protestant control did not signify that the Indians were Protestants. The same year, by order of the Department, a Protestant missionary was ex- pelled from a Catholic agency (Devil's Lake). This wrought a change in popular sentiment, which, to- gether with the agitation kept up by the Bureau, caused the recognition, rather theoretical than actual, of religious liberty for Indians and Indian missionaries. Even yet the rights of conscience, so far as Indians are concerned, are often violated, particularly in the case of Catholic Indian pupils attending Government schools.

A fund known as the Catholic Indian Mission Fund, created chiefly by the Catholic Indian Missionary Association and partly by charitafjle donations and bequests, provided support for the Bureau up to 1887, and supplied it with means to assist the missions. During the twenty-two years following its organi- zation it received and disbursed from this fund $48,717.88. All the officers of the Bureau serve with- out salary, with the exception of the director, secretary, and field-lecturer. The salaries and running-expenses of the Bureau since 1887 have been provided out of the annual lenten collection for Indian and Negro missions. The influence of the Bureau for good has steadily increased. President Roosevelt recognized the value of the institution and during the present administration (1909) it has received marked con- sideration.

Impartial ob.servers of Indian affairs admit that the greatest good accomplishefl for the Indians has been through the agency of religious schools and partic- ularly of Catholic schools, and it is in this cause the Bureau has done its best work. In 1873 Catholic missionaries and Sisters had charge of seven Govern- ment schools (two boarding and five day), supported out of the U. S. treasury at a cost of .S8000. Only in this way was help received from the Govern- ment by Catholic missionaries and Sisters until 1877. Catholic Indian mi.ssion and school work was kept up in a measure by funds collected and dis- bursed by the Bureau. In 1877 the Bureau made application to the Government for contracts for the support and tuition of Indian pupils in Catholic mission schools. This aj>plication was favourably received and the "Contract Scliool System" came into being. Not less than Sl,r)0,000 to erect and equip Catholic mission school buildings were furnished by the daughters of Francis A. Drexel of Philadelphia, particularly by Mother M. Katharine Drexel, the foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Coloured People. In 1883 the Catholic

mission boarding schools numbered eighteen and re- ceived from Government allotments $39,175. The highwater mark in the number of schools (forty- three boarding and seventeen day) was reached in 1890 and of Government compensation ($397,756) in 1892.

The remarkable success of the Catholic schools aroused great opposition, Protestant denominations suddenly changed their policy and declined to accept Government help for their mission schools, popular sentiment unfavourable to the idea of the contract school system was created by the American Protective Association (q. v.), with the result that Congress in 1895 began to curtail its appropriations for education in mission schools, and in 1896 declared it " to be the settled policy of the Government to hereafter make no appropriation whatever for education in any secta- rian school", and in 1900made what itdesignated "the final appropriation for sectarian schools". During the term of the contract system, the Bureau secured from the Government for the tuition and support of Indian children in Catholic mission schools the grand total of 34,540,263. Since the discontinuance of the con- tracts some schools have been closed; on the other hand, new missions and new schools have been estab- lished. Most of the existing schools have been sup- ported by the Bureau, which also aids in m:iint:iining the missions and in providing priests for the work of instructing Catholic Indian pupils of tiovernment schools. At present Catholic Indian educational work, inclusive of .Alaska, comprises fifty-three board- ing and seven day schools. The Bureau furnishes support to forty-one of the.se boarding schools besides providing for the education of a number of Indian boys in an institution for whites. In 1907 it dis- bursed to the missions and schools $231,517.31. This may be taken as an annual average of its work in this line.

The most important achievements of the Bureau within the last decade have been: (I) the revocation of the "Browning ruling" (1902) which denied the Indian parent the right to choose a school for his child, the Indian Office arrogating that right to itself;

(2) the restoration of rations (1906), amounting ap- proximately to $20,000. to pupils of mission schools entitled to them by right of treaty, these rations hav- ing been denied the mission school children in 1901;

(3) the securing of contracts, which produce to the contract schools an average yearly income of SlOO,- 000, for the support and tuition of Indian pupils in certain mission schools payable out of Indian tril>al funds, these contracts l)eing granted by order of President Roosevelt (1904) and sustained by a de- cision of the Supreme Court of the United States, IS May, 1908, in conse<iuencc of which the tuition and support of the pupils of the Catholic mission schools of the Menominees (Wisconsin), Sioux (South Dakota), Northern Cheyennes (Montana), Osages and Quapaws (Oklahoma), which tribes have tribal funds, are paid out of the moneys of the.se tribes: (4) the recognition of the right of Catholic Indian p\ipils in Government schools to be exempted from attending Protestant worship and instruction, and to be provided with opportunities for Catholic worship and instruction; (5) the securing of the enactment by Congress (1909) of a law granting patents in fee simple for the mission and school lands on Indian reservations (aggregating over 10.000 acres) which have been held by the Church as tenant at will.

Of the annu:d amount disbursed by the Bureau, Mother Katharine Drexel contribvites more th:in half. In this way from 1S9S to 1908 she expended $799,- 157.37. Prior to 1891 no part of the annual Lenten collection was granted the Bureau for its educational work. Since that time it has received from that collec- tion and disbursed to the schools $276,286.74. The remainder of the funds disbursed by the Bureau have