Indian population in the United States and Alaska. 1910 - RootsWeb

One of the most interesting social phenomena in
American history is found in the development of the
system of Indian schools upon the part of the Government,
and in the development of an appreciation
of schooHng upon the part of the Indian. To secure
a common language has been the first great object
of the Indian school. Both races have profited
through the mutual understanding which a common
language and culture bring about. In their first
report in 1869 the Board of Indian Commissioners dis-
cussed at some length the barriers in the way of
sympathetic relations between the red and white races,
and found them in differences of race, custom, and
language. They went on to say that:
By educating the children of these tribes in the English language
these differences would have disappeared and civilization -would
have followed at once. Nothing then would have been left but the
antipathy of race, and that, too, is always softened in the beams of a
higher civilization. * * * In the difference of language to-day
lies two-thirds of our troubles.
Appropriations for Indian schools.—While the total
Indian appropriations have increased only slightly
more than threefold since 1877, the appropriations for
Indian schools by the National Government have
increased one hundred and eighty-seven fold in the
same length of time, as shown by Table 70 prepared
from the reports of the Indian Oflace, giving the
annual expenditures on account of Indian Affairs,
exclusive of trust funds, from 1877 to 1910, inclusive.
It is practically true that an increasing proportion
of national expenditures for Indians goes each year
into Indian education. The apparent fall in the per-
centage during the last few years is caused by the
consistent funding of our treaty obUgations, only
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
the interest on which has generally been provided
in the past. With the funding nearly complete the
real progressive substitution of welfare for administra-
tive purposes will again become apparent.
Table 70