Educating Indian Children In The U.S.

1900

The People's Forum

Can you give me the latest information concerning the education of Indian children in the United States? — H. I. M., Philadelphia, Pa.

Miss Estelle Reed, the superintendent of Indian education, answers our correspondent in an interview taken by William E. Curtis. In this interview Miss Reed says: "There are 50,000 Indian children in round numbers, and perhaps 35,000 or 37,000 are of school age. The enrollment for 1899 was 25,203. Since 1877 there has been a rapid increase in the allowance for the support of the Indian schools. In 1877 the appropriation was $20,000; in 1887, $1,211,415; in 1897, $2,517,265, and the allowance for the present fiscal year is $2,638,390.

"The movement to educate the Indians commenced before the revolution, when a few were maintained at the college of William and Mary at Williamsburg, Va., shortly after 1692. The first appropriation of which we have record made by Congress was passed in 1775 and carried an allowance of $500. The first Indian treaty in which any form of education was mentioned was with the Oneida, Tuscarora and Stockbridge Indians in 1794, and provided that one or two persons, besides keeping in repair certain mills built by the Indians, should instruct the young men of the three nations 'in the arts of the miller and sawyer.'

"I advocate legislation to compel Indian children to attend school, and I regard this of the first importance. I also advocate a change in our methods so that the children will be instructed more in industrial pursuits and less in the arts and sciences. The results accomplished at Hampton, Va., are gratifying, and emphasize the benefits to be obtained by Indians working under skilled instructors in mechanical schools. The Indians are much better educated than people generally suppose. An average of one in four can read, and even a larger percentage can talk enough English for ordinary purposes."

—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 8.