Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/11

Rh belonging to various bauds of the Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches, Pawnees, Menomonees, Iowas, Sac and Fox, Lipans, Poncas, Nez Percés, Wichitas, Apaches, and Pueblos. About two-thirds of them are children of chiefs and prominent men. A school committee of chiefs and headmen from nine Sioux Agencies on the Missouri River visited Carlisle and Hampton last summer. Likewise delegations from the Lake Superior Chippewas, the Crows, the Shoshones and Bannacks of Idaho, and the Cheyennes and Arapahoes of the Indian Territory. They were all highly delighted with the care taken of the children and the progress they had made in the arts of the white man, and promised their active support and co-operation.

The favor which these schools find with the influential men of the different Indian tribes is of great importance as to the effect to be produced upon the advancement of the Indians generally. Formerly it was thought that Indian children so educated would speedily relapse into the savage habits of their people as soon as they returned to them. This was true as long as all the home influences to be found among the Indian tribes were hostile to the education of any of their members, and those who had received such an education found themselves therefore isolated and despised. This obstructive spirit has now been superseded by a very general and anxious desire of Indian chiefs and influential men to see their children raised in the scale of civilization, and the same influences which formerly were so effective in driving educated Indians back into the savage habits of the multitude surrounding them are now employed in turning the education received by a comparatively few to the advantage of the many. The circumstances surrounding the educated Indian when now returning to his tribe are therefore radically changed. In the old time the educated Indian would have found his people thinking of nothing but their savage pursuits and pleasures, incapable of appreciating his superior knowledge and accomplishments, rather inclined to deride them as useless. Now he will find multitudes of parents anxious to have their children educated like him, and, if possible, to employ him for that purpose. An Indian wagon or harness maker returning to a wild Indian tribe years ago would have found no wagons or harness upon which to practice his skill; but sent back there now, when wagons and harness are in general and profitable use, that skill will be in active and general requisition. And so it is in many other things. I therefore feel warranted in saying that the results gained by this system of education will no longer be apt to pass away as before, but, if properly pursued, will be lasting and generally beneficial. It is, under such circumstances, scarcely necessary to characterize the charge recently made, that Indian children were taken to Hampton and Carlisle by force, against the will of their parents, as utterly groundless. On the contrary, the number of applications on the part of Indian parents to have their children admitted to these schools has been far in excess of our means to accommodate them.