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REPORT ON INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS FOR INDIANS AND HALF-BREEDS.
Orrawa, 14th March, 1879.
To the Right Honourable
The Minister of the Interior.
Sir,—I have the honour to submit the following report on the working of Industrial Schools for the educa- tion of Indians and mixed-bloods in the United States, and on the advisability of establishing similar institutions in the North-West Territories of the Dominion.
In accordance with your directions of the twenty-eighth of January, [ went to Washington. His Excellency Sit Edward Thornton, the Honourable Carl Schurtz, Secretary of the Interior, and the Honourable E, A. Hayt, the Com missioner of Indian Affairs, secured for me every facility for becoming acquainted with the establishment, cost ani practical value of industrial schools among the Indian populations of the United States,
The industrial school is the principal feature of th policy known as that of “aggressive civilization.” This policy was inaugurated by President Grant in 1869. But, as will be seen, the utility of industrial schoois had long ere that time been amoply tested. Acting on the suggestion of the President, Congress passed a law early in 1869, provid- ing for the appointment of the Peace Commission. This Commission recommended that the Indians should, as fer as practicable, be consolidated on tew reservations, aud pro- vided with ** permanent individual homes ” ; that the tribal relation shoul! be abolished ; that lands should be allotted in severalty and not in common; that the Indian should speedily become a citizen of the United States, enjoy the protection of the law, and be made amenable thereto ; that, finally, it was the duty of the Government to afford the fudians all reasonable aid in their preparation for citizen- ship by educating them in industry and in the arts of civilization. After eight years’ experience of the partial carrying out of these recommendations, the Board pressed for a still more thorough policy ; they urged, among other things, that titles to land should be inalienable frem the fumily of the holder for at least three generations, From 1869 vigorous efforts in an educational direction were put forward. But it was found that the day-school did not work, beetftige the influence of the wigwam was stronger han the influengy of the school, Industria] Boarding Schools were therefor, established, and these «re now
merous and will soon be universal. The ery from the \vencies where no boarding industrial schools have been established is persistent and earnest to have the want supplied.
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The experience of the United States is the same as our own as far as the adult Indian is concerned. Little can be done with him. He can be taught to do a little at farming, and at stock-raising, and to dress in a more civilized manner, but that is all. The child, again, who goes to a day school learns little, and what little he learns is soon forgot- ten, while his tastes are fashioned at home, and his inherited
aversion to toil is in no way combated.
There ave two ways of conducting the industrial boarding schools. In the one, the Government carries on the school through the Agency ; in the other, by contract. A contract is made, for instance, with the Episcopal Church authorities, or the Roman Catholic Church authorities, or with the authorities of any other body of Christians, to carry on an industrial boarding school among the Indians. One hundred and twenty-five dollars a year is paid for each pupil boarder, when the attendance at the school does not exceed thirty ; in larger schools, one hundred dollars ; and even less when the school is of con- siderable size. The Honourable the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is not in favour of the contract system, be- cause the children at schools under contract do not, as a rule, get a suflicient quantity of food. The contractor, in addition to supplying the food, prepares the clothing, the raw waterial of which is found by the Government, The Commissioner was emphatic in his testimony as to the happy resulis which had attended the industrial schools wherever established. Experience has demonstrated that it is better to have the dormitory separated from the school. The school is now, therefore, always erected about ten rods from the dormitory. Thus the children are
kept from spoiling the building.
The accompanying plan (Appendix A, Nos. 1 & 2), is a design for one of the schools of the cheapest kind. The cosé ot erecting such a structure does not exceed $1,000. In Canada, where, as a rule, we have plenty of timber, a build- ing of the same class could be erected for eight hundred dol- lars or thereabouts. At the industrial school, in addi- tion to the elements of an English education, the boys are instructed in cattle-raising and agriculture; the girls in sewing, breadmaking, and other employments suitable for a farmer’s wife. In the case of the boys, agriculture is prin- cipally aimed at, cattle-raising requiring but few hands. Very many of the schools raise herds of cattle. Thus, at the Cheyenne and Arapho Agency there is a large herd belong- ing to the school, The stock, which is constantly increasing
in number and value, is as follows :—
Value.
On hand in 1877, 211 head ot all kinds, ........ $1,882 00 On hand in 1878, 859 head. ...ccccecceeeeesereeees 3,332 00
Increase of 148 head.........ccceceeeees seseeeceeeeee $1,450 00
Derived as follows :—
By increase in value by growth,....sccccceeeesseesee 8500 00 “s stock, 100 calves....s..c0 « seeseee 500 00
eran = . és Sieg aa seemnenscatates n> sige 3 Spars HEPES e SYED seen
3
By domations......+0+ sscsescnseecseeereecersessaceeees 142 00 “ earnings of school and sale of pork.......+. +4 442 00
value of ponies bought... cccccecsee ceveeeevees 110 00
Total’ asssceicierce:ssvernaeasensiions WEVGRE OO
Less 6 head died and 10 turned over to boys
leaving SChOO]....66 cescecerseeee eeeeeerc cee eee 224 00
$1,470 00
Of the 359 head of stock of all kinds, 53 head belong to individual school children. The balance is common pro- perty. It is contidently expected that this school will be self-supporting in a few years. It is obvious that with such a stock, the yearly increase must be considerable, with com-
mensurate profits.
The Industrial Boarding School is conducted by a Principal, who has one or more assistants in proportion to the number of scholars. What religion shall be taught in the school is generally easily settled, as the rule is to per- mit but one sect on an Agency. There is an exception to this rule, as will be seen, and the wisdom of it may be
questioned.
The Friends, the Orthodox Friends, the Methodists, the Roman Catholics, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the United Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the Protes- tant Episcopalians, the Reformed Episcopalians, the Uni- tarians, the Christian Union, and the Evangelical Luther- ans, have one or more of the seventy-four agencies allotted
to them.
When an agent is to be appointed, the candidate is chosen on the recommendation of a representative of one or other of these religious bodies. —his, I was assured, worked well, and secured a superior class of agents
Appointing men for political services had proved a failure.
At Hampton (Virginia) there are fifty Government pupils, for each of whom one hundred and sixty-seven dollars, yearly, is paid, for board and tuition. This school is of a bigh grade, and the pupils sent there are in- tended for interpreters. The present Indian interpreter, as a rule, belongs to a degraded class, and translates the
dialects very inefficiently.
At the ordinary industrial boarding school, managed by the Government through the Agency, each pupil costs, on an average, one hundred dollars a year. Tue yearly outlay on an industrial school for fifty children would. there- fore, be about five thousand dollars a year. But for the first year the expense would certainly be more. The aim, however, would be to make these schools self-support- ing, and when the sums properly chargeable to capital account had been spread over a number of years, the school meanwhile being conducted on economical and _ profitable
principles, even less than five thousand dollars might be foun io meet every demand, The items are as below :—
pees yet ee —— > a ‘ : pe Rees ay stag: REEL EIR RIEL NN BUTTE AT EY
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SEEMS whic sitet
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Driers Ear aaa ares
School ...sseee eeeee ‘vigivenes edegneaserres Dormitory, crrcsssrveccccrecreseve sen eoeee
Furnivurve ....ccececeeee
Salary of Principal, 8800, or say. ...ee
L Assistant, 8600, “ Matron, $24 per month for 10 months Cook, $20 “ “ Laundress, $20 “ fs Seamstress, $20 « A . 3 waggons, at B54 each. ....ccceeeeeeee oe
6 sets of double harness, at $22 each.
7 breaking ploughs, at $15.90. ........
10 stirring “at $2.85 each..... 3 harrow “at $5.50 each..... Ldtillaiscdesisrasentiednaeares shivicerceapess 2 sewing machines, at $30 each. ..... i
Clothing material for fifty childven... LOR QAN: Kececyeeneicieeseadsarenteaecseeces Cattle, a few head....... ccccee-ceseeeeenes Sheep and pigs, if sheep and pigs san
he raised. ccc seceeee ir weebevencee HOLGER: Gissssegecs easveseovinced
Flour, 375 lbs. a week for 10 mos. at
1} cts, per Ib... eeseeees deeaens Corn meal, 125 Ib. a week for 10 mos. at 34 ets, per Ib. cececceeceee cece ee Beef, fresh, 350 lbs. a week for 10 mos. at 9 cts. per Ib.ee ceceeee a eeeees Pork or bacon, 50 lbs. a week for 10 mos. at 10 cts. per Ib....c.sceceeees
Coffee, green, 124 lbs. a week for 10 mos. at 28 cts. per Ib......... iene Tea, Congou, 14 Ibs. a week for 10 mos. at 37 cts per Ib..eeeeceneee oe Sugar, 30 lbs. a week for 10 mos, at 12} cts. per Ib........... ee WN oadise'ves Beans, rice, or hominy, 25 lbs. a week for 10 mos, at 8 cts. per Ib....... Dried fruit, 25 lbs. a week for 10 mos. at 10 cts. per Ib....... 0. veeee Valesess Syrup or molasses, 24 galls. a week for 10 mos. at 85 cts. per gallon. Vinegar, 24 qts. a week for 10 mos. at 75 cts. per gall....ccssceeeeee oe Salt, 125 lbs. a week for 10 mos, at 2 COB POR Di asides apie iiaaed, aeeereastaws Soap, 12} lbs. a week for 10 mos. at 8 COB. POP TOv ss cose des deesersdsuessevcees Baking powder, 2 lbs. week for 10 mos. at 42 cts. per Ib...... 0.0.4, ve
Deduct as belonging to capital
$800 00 800 00
600 00
———— $2,200 00 1,000 00
700 00
250 00
200 00
200 00
200 00
~——-—— $2,550 00
up amt 9 @
162 00 132 00 111 30 28 50 16 50 20 00 60 00 750 00 86 00 100 00
50 00 200 00 — $1,716 30
282 19
187 91
1,354 50
215 00
36 12
$2,769 74
HOGOUNEG sce eiiveelcccedes $2,200 00 $9,236 04 1,716 30 rien $3,916 30
$5,319 74
» There are, as a rule, blacksmith and carpenter and even shoemuker's shops on each Agency, where boys ave
taught a trade, but these are charged to the Agency.
Butter, eggs, milk, garden vegetables, raised and pro- duced on the farm, may be used in addition to the above. The ration is @ maximum, which the agent is directed to
reduce when practicable,
On the Agencies, it may be remarked, in pass'ng, Indian Police are employed with excellent results. Those I saw were, for the most part, cf mixed blood. The Indians sub- mit to their surveillance with more readiness than they would to that of whites, These police are paid $5 a month
and their rations and clothes.
The happy results of Tndustrial Schools are strikingly shewn in the case of the five “civilized” nations, the Cherokees, the Chickasaws, the Chocktaws, the Creeks and Seminoles, who are all making undoubted progress in agri- culture and in education. They number in all about sixty thousand, and occupy reservations on what is known as the “ Indian Territory,” where it is the policy of the United States to settle as many Indian tribes as pos- sible. This territory lies, roughly speaking, between 34 and 37 latitude and 96 and 100 longitude. A large proportion of the income of these nations is devoted to educational purposes, They have their own schools ; a code of their own; a judiciary; a national council which enacts laws ; newspapers in the native dialect and in Eng- lish ; and they are, in effect, five little republics within the Republic, but of course without the higher functions of empire, The Honourable the Commissioner arranged that I should meet some of the principal men of these nations, Colonel Pleasant Poiter and W. D. M. Hodge (Creek Nation) ; Colonel Wm. P, Ross and his brother, Mr. D. H. Ross (Cherokee) ; Mr. Charles Thompson, the Chief of the Cherokees ; ex-Judge Stedham (late of the Supreme Court of the Cherokee Nation), and Colonel Adair ; also Colonel Brown, of the Seminoles, They had all come up to Wash- ington to watch the Indian Bills, which were before Con- gress, They made a remarkable group. But I am bound to say there was not one of them of pure Indian blood. Even the Chief, Mr. Charles Thompson, who looked the Indian, had a very slight Scotch strain in him. Colonel Pleasant Porter was in part of Irish descent, and looked like a Spanish grandee, or as the Commissioner said, like a Bank Director with a deep olive complexion. Colonel Wm, J. Ross had in his features scarcely a hint of Indian blood.
Indeed he might have passed for a clever Scotchman.
Colonel Pleasant Porter had been educated at what he called the ‘ Manual Labour School,” and gave the fol- lowing account of the progress of education in his nation,
an account which, on verification, proved to be correct :—
“Up to twenty-two years ago,” said Mr. Porter,
“the schools of the Creek nation were under the manage- ment of the United States Government. The Government
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contracted with either the Presbyterians or Methodists to earry on Manual Labour Schools, as far lack as thirty-
two years ago. I am thirty-eight years of age, and
was educated at one of these schools. About twenty
years ago the control of the schools was transferred entirely
to the Creek nation. The schools were still carried on by
teachers appointed by the religious boards, but under con- tract with the nation, (that is, the Creek nation). Since
then, we have established what is called the neighbourhood
schools system—day-schools in fact—among the five civi-
lized nations. Day-schools carry no disadvantage, because
the chiid’s home is a civilized home.”
Mr. Porter here assured me that the five “ civilized ”
a nations were accurately so described. But Colonel Brown, 4 of the Seminoles, stated that they never could, in his i" opinion, cope with the white man in either cunning or / industry. The Principal of the school, Mr. Porter added,
was always a white mau. The children made good progress
in the ordinary branches of an English education, but not
in the higher branches of study. Tt was impossible to show
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the Indian the utility of advanced studies.
“ What,” repeated Colonel Porter several times, “the
Indian needs most is to be taught to work, and to appre-
r
hend values. When the Indians settle down and farm they accumulate property, cattle, hogs, and cereals, Our people are a farming people, but they never farmed until they were educated. When first the Indian is set to work, he takes hest to raising stock, and then he gradually passes on to agriculture. ‘The first animal he wants is a horse, then
cattle, after a time he wants hogs and sheep. It is hard to get him to raise wheat. But he comes to it after a time. He likes to work with his hands. It is hard for him to understand machinery. Cotton is becoming quite an indus- Pe try with us. Last year we ra‘sed $40,000 worth. The
Creeks do not hunt, save for pastime.”
Colonel Wm. P. Ross, (Cherokee), spoke as follows : % “T was President of the Board of Education last year.
We had in operation about seventy-eight primary schools, (that is, neighbourhood or day schools), where the children are taught the ordinary elements of an English education, We have two high schools tanght by white
teachers—one male, the other female; in each there are two departments, one primary, the other academic. Last
year we had an aggregate attendance at all our schools of
2,800 children, and an average of something less than 2,000.
Sa
We have a Board of Education, consisting of three mem-
bers, who have charge of all the schools in the country ;
they examine teachers and pay them, or rather they give
certificates upon which they draw their pay from the trea
sury through the Chief. We support our schools out and
out, and the majority of our teachors are Indian teachers.
About $75,000 a year is expended for educational purposes. The first public schools the Cherokees had, west of the Mis- sissippi, were established in 1842. There were schools
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amongst them previously to that time, but they were par- tially or entirely supported by missionary institutions, But since 1842 we have had our own system of public schools, under the control end management of the Cherokee nation. We pay the Principal $700 a year and board in the institution ; he is generally white. High school assist- ant teachers are paid $600 and board for the school year of ten months, and we pay our common school teachers, one class $50 a month, the next class $40, the next $30, or $500, $400 and $300, for ten months of a school year. As to the cost of the schools, the primary are, as a rule, put up by the neighbourhood. The boarding schools are generally solid brick buildings, and cost about $2,500. We have a regularly-organized government, and we elect our Chiefs and Judges, who used to be hereditary. Our population is about nineteen thousand, and we are increasing. We live by agriculture and stock-raising. We have $3,000,000 in trust with the Government.”
Judge Stedham said the cost of boarding a child, among the Cherokees, was $7.00 a month, or $70.00 for ten months. He added that the children were made to work two hours a day and half the day on Saturday.
All the representatives of the five civilized nations declared their belief that the chief thing to attend to in dealing with the less civilized or wholly barbarous tribes, was to separate the children from the parents. As [ have said, the Indian Department, at Washington, have not much hope in regard to the adult Indians, but sanguine anticipations are cherished res; ecting the children, The tive nations are themselves a proof that a certain degree of civilization is within the reach of the red man while illus- trating his deficiencies,
At the suggestion of the Commissioner, I visited the White Earth Agency, Minnesota. I found the school well attended, and the answering of the children creditable. But the quickest and brightest were mixed-bloods.
The Principal of the school is a mixed-blood ; his Assis- tant is an Indian. The dormitory was plainly but comfort- ably furnished, and the children, whom I saw at dinner’ were evidently well fed. The Episcopalian clergyman is a full-blood Ottawa, and is an able preacher. On the Reserve, there is also a Roman Catholic Church, and two Roman Catholic clergymen, and everything goes harmoniously for- ward. Mr. Ruffee, the Agent, who is an able man, and who knows the Indian character well, made a memorandum re- garding Agencies, the gist of which may be given, as bearing not remotely, on the subject of my inquiry,
Mr. Ruffee deemed it necessary, first of all, that an Indian Reservation should have manual labour schools, or, in other words, boarding industrial schools ; mills, both saw ond gist ; blacksmith and carpenter's shops ; that all the young men of a tribe or tribes, who aesired it, should be taught some trade ; that missionaries of all denominations
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should have equal advantages ; thav a first-class physician should be employed ; that, as soon as possible, tribal relations should be abolished; that chiefs should be recognized, if at all, only for meritorious conduct and industry ; that the Indians should be dealt with in severalty ; that money or goods should be disbursed for an equivalent in labour ; that in the first year farming implements, cattle, hogs, sheep and the like should be supplied ; and dnally that, Indian (that is with some Indian-blood, more or less) police should be employed. They work admirably and cannot be dispensed with—is his emphatic opinion.
There wece, on this Reserve, some excellent farms culti- vated by pure-blood Indians. One would be struck by the progress made in ten years by a full-blood Indian pair— Mo-che-ge-wence and his wife, who had come to the agency wild, and whose smoky wigwam, where they first lived, was within a stonethrow ot their comfortable home. Passing through a kitchen, where stood a good cooking stove, you entered a large room—at once a sitting and sleeping apart ment—and you noticed around the walls, little chromos in tasteful frames made by the squaw. The room was well furnished. The Indian said he had twenty acres cleared on which he had grown wheat last year. He had had no help. His stock consisted of one yoke of oxen and one yuke of steer, two milch cows, one pony. He had built the house himself. The rule is to give the Indians tools, and let them build their own dwellings, in fact to make them do as much as possible for themselves. Mo-che-ge-wence can neither read nor write. He is a member of the Epis- copal Church. In the wigwam he used to inhabit some five years before, were found, amid the dirt and smoke and elcseness of the loge, a few Indians lately come to the Ke- servation. In ten years an immense stride had been made. The stables were good. There was the Indian pony vom- fortable and clean. The stable, which was of fair size, also contained roomy stalls for oxen. ‘There was another building—the store-room full of seed, wheat and flour, ground in the mill of the Reservation, from wheat of this prudent Indian’s own growth. He had an ice-house. He had also a quantity of reeds and birch bark to aid him in making maple sugar in the summer. “ This man—this farmer,” said Mr. Ruffee ; “is a fair sample and not the best. He is a zealous churchman. He had distinguished visitors here last Sunday, a Sioux chief and part of the chief’s following, and when the collection was being taken up he put half a dollar on the plate.” This man, like all those on the Reservation, belongs to the Chippewa nation—a large branch of which we have in Canada. White Cloud—the: great orator of the Reservation—expressed the high esteem his nation had for the Government of the Queen, recalled the kind treatment the Indians, and more especially his nation, had always received at the hands of the British, and bade the Canadian visitor give his people in Canada this message—to travel along the white man’s way, and
educate their children.
9
The zeal and enthusiasm and life on this Reservation is due to Mr. Ruffee’s energy and his determination to surround himself with half-breed assistants. Every em- plové on the Reservation is of mixed blood. A mixed- blood family named Beaulieu, two generations of which took a deep and warm interest in the Indians, must be of the
greatest assistance to him.
At Winnipeg, I met most of the leading men, clerical and lay, who could speak with authority on the subject of tle inquiry, and to the experience, knowledge and courtesy of Mgr. Taché, Pére Lacombe, Hon. Jas. McKay, and
many others, this report is much indebted.
Among the Indians there is some discontent, but as a rule it amounts to no more than the chronic querulousness of the Indian character, and his uneasiness about food at this time of year will unfortunately leave no trace in his improvident mind when spring opens and fish are plentiful. The exceptions are furnished by one or two chiefs whose bands are starving, that is in the Indian sense of that word, without a certain prospect of food in the future. Distress will always exist among improvident people, and undoubt- edly distress and misery exist in nany Bands. The attitude of the chiefs reterred to, and the language held by the chief on the occasion of a visit to the St. Peter’s Reservation— language which showed that he was in communication with the unsettled Bands—open up, in the event of the disappear- ance uf the buffalo (a disappearance no protective legisla- tion can long retard), a prospect which demands the serious consideration of the Department. No race of men can be suddenly turned from one set of pursuits to another set of a wholly different nature without great attendant distress. But, suddenly, to make men long accustomed to a wild unsettled life, with its freedom frum restraint, its excitement and charm, tuke to the colourless monotony of daily toil,
the reward of which is pros»ective, is impossible.
The half-breeds or mixed-bloods are thoughtful, if not anxious, regarling the Government's intentions respecting them. But the problem before ‘he Department cannot be settled by the issue of scrip. That provlem can be solved only by gradually educating Indians and mixed-bloods in
self-reliance and industry. | ye
Colonel Porter’s testimony given above, that of Mr. toss, the position of these gentlemen and the position of the other leading men of the five “civilized” nations are instructive. Not merely is the only effective means of educating the Indians in self-reliance and self-support point ed out; the inference is not far-fetched that the mixed. blood is the natural mediator between the Government and
the red man, and also his natural instructor.
, The lesson would also be taught, were that lesson necessary, that the mixed-blood or half-breed is a man of capacity, intelligence and power. But that lesson does not need to be taught in the Dominion, where we have leading
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barristers and competent statesmen from that interes! ing and useful class of our fellow-citizens, The Indian himeelf is a noble type of man, in a very early stage of development. His temperament is tor the most part lymphatic, That temperament might or might not be modified by advance in civilization in the course of generations, This tempera- ment, united with the nervous or nervo-sanguine tempera- ment of Saxon or Celt, a type is produced of great staying power, often highly intellectual, vigorous, of quick percep-
tions and large resource.
There is now barely time to inaugurate a system of edveation by means of which the native populations of the North-West shall be gradually prepared to meet the neces- sities of the not distant future ; to welcome and facilitate, it muy be hoped, the settlement of the country ; and to render its government easy and not expensive.
I would respectfully warn the Department against listening to alarmists who would press them to act in a manner which would develop, with tropical rapidity, in every chief, the pestilent character of the demagogue. But as far as we can judge from approximate returns, there are some twenty-eight thousand Indians in the seven territorial divisions cov red vy treaty. There are about twelve hun- dred half-breed families. Chief Beardy and Big Bear are malcontent. Beardy’s Band is put down in the official re- turns as not more than thirty-nine. His Band is, however, many times larger than this. We have warlike and excited refugevs within our territory. A large statesmanlike policy, with bearings on immediate and remote issues, cannot be
entered on too earnestly or too soon
The Indian character, about which some persons fling such a mystery, is not difficult to understand. The Indian is somtimes spoken of us a child, but he is very far from being a child. The race is in its childhood. As far as the childhood analogy is applicable, what it suggests is a policy that shall look patiently for fruit, not after five or ten years, but after a generation or two. The analogy is misleading when wea come to deal with the adult, and is of course a mere truism and not a figure of speech when we take charge of the Indian in the period of infancy. There is, it is true, in the adult, the helplessness of mind of the child, as well as the practical helplessness ; there is, too, the child’s want of perspective ; but there is little ot the child’s receptivity ; nor is the child’s tractableness always found. One of the prime conilitions of childhood is absent—the abeyance of the passions. Anybody who has tried to educate grown- up civilized men, with untrained minds, as are the minds of most civilized men, will understand the disturbing and dwarfing influence of the complex interests which crowd in oa the adult. The {ndian is a man with traditions of his own, which make civilization a puzzle of despair. He has the suspicion, distrust, fault-finding tendency, the insincerity and flattery, produced in a!l subject races. He is crafty, but conscious how weak his craft is when opposed to the
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superior cunning of the white man, Not to speak of him
-even some of the half-breeds of high intelligence are ineapable of embracing the idea of a nation—of a national type of maun—in which it should be their ambition to be merged and lost. Yet he realises that he must disappear, and realizing this, and unable to associate himself with the larger ard nobler idea, the motive power which inspired a Pontiac and a Tecumseh, is absent. The Indian's stolidity is in part assumed, in part the stupor produced by external novel ant distasteful conditions, and in both respects has been inanifested in white races at periods of helplessness and ignorance, of subjection to, und daily contact with, the power and superior skill and refinement of more advanced races, or even more advanced branches of the same race, We need not, therefore, recall the names of T[adian heroes to make us respect the latent capacities of the red man. We have only to look to the rock whence we were hewn. The Indian, I repeat, is not a child, and he is the ‘ast person that should be dealt with in a childish way, He requires firm, bold, kindly handling and boundless pa. tience, He exacts, and surely vot unreasonably, serupulous honesty. There ought to be a special exemplary punish- ment provided for those persons who, when employed by the
Government to supply the Indian with stores, cheat him.
It would be travelling beyond the record to comment on our Indian poliey and our treaties with the Indians, though I have formed very decided opinions respecting both. But this remark is pertinent. Guaranteeing schools as one of the considerations for surrendering the title to land, was, in my opinion, trifling with a great duty and placing the Government in no dignified attitude. 1t should have been assumed that the Government would attend to its proper and pressing business in this important particu- lar, Such a guarantee, moreover, betrays a want of know- ledge of the Indian character. It might easily have heen realized, (it is at least thinkable), that sne of the results would be to make the Chiefs believe they had some right to a voice regarding the character and management. of the schools, as well as regarding the initiatory step of their establishment. Chief Prince is giving some trouble on this head. There are cases where a denominational would be more suitable than a secular school, and vice versa; there are other cases where no Government school is needed, and where the true policy is to utilize the mission schools, The establishment and conduct of schools ave matters which should have been left in a position to be considered apart from the disturbing, and sometimes designing predilect'ons of a Chief; the needs and aptitudes of the settlement are alone worthy of being weighed. The moment there exists a settlement which has any permanent character, then educa- tion in some form or other should be brought within reach of the children. This is not merely a matter of policy. Tt
is that, of course, in the highest degree. It is a sacred duty.
One ill result uf promising the Indians schools, is that the Church Missionury Society is withdrawing its aid to the
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tnission schools—-a step which adds to conditions already sutliciently imperative, calling for a prudent, far-seeing and vigorous educational policy.
The first and greatest s’.ne in the foundation of the quasi-civilization of the Indinns, wherever seen, was laid by missionaries, men who had a supreme object and who did not count their lives dear unto them, Schools are scattered over the whole continent, wherever Indians exist, monuments of religious zeal and heroic self-sacrifice, These schools should be utilized as much as possible, both on grounds of efficiency and economy, The missionaries’ experience is only surpassed by their patient heroism, and their testimony, like that of the school teachers, like that of the authorities at Washington is, thatif anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very young. The childven must be kept constantly v ithin the circle of civilized conditions, Mgr, Taché in his work, “Sketch of the North-West of America”—points out that the influence of civilized women has issued in superior char- acteristics in one portion of the native population, This in- fluence in and out of the school must be constantly present in the early years. “ Hitherto,” says Mr, Meeker, a man who could speak with authority of a large portion of the Indians of the United States, “young men have been boarded and clothed and instructed, but in time they were off to the hunting ground, The plan now is to take young children, give them the care of a mother, and have them constantly in hand.” Such care must go pari passu with religious training.
There are, as we have seen, some twelve hundred tuilies of half-breeds—or mixed-bloods—in the North- West. Some of these are men of education and settled pursuits. But the great majority of them live under con- ditions which tarn on the vanishing axle-tree of the buffalo’s existence, It is no reproach to these wen and their chillren to say that they will require training, whether supplied from within or without, before they can happily and effectively settle down as farmers, Archbishop Taché's sketch of the virtues and vices of the mixed bloods (Sketch of the North-West of America, pp. 98—1L10) a sketch drawn at once bya masterly and loving hand, can leave no doubt on the mind that training will be needed. Nor, as I have said, is this a reproach. The same thing has been true of men belonging to the best white races, and in modern times, The mixed-blood has already in high development many of those virtues which would make him a useful offi- cial, where activity, intelligence, horsemanship and fidelity were required, But if the mixed-blood is to hold his own in the race for existence, which will soon be exigent, in lands where, even yet, for the greater part of the year, primeval silence reigns, it is not enough that he should know all the artsof the voyagenr and trader; not enough even that he should be able to doa little farming ; he must be educated, and become susceptible to the bracing influences of complex wants and varied ambitions.
x : Me 5
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I should recommend, at once, an extensive application of the principle of industrial boarding schools in the North- West, were it not that the population, both Indian and half- breed, is so largely migratory that any great outlay at pre-
sent would be money thrown away.
The recommendations I venture to submit are as
as follows ;
(1.) Wherever the missionaries have schools, those schools should be utilized by the Government, if possible ; that is to say, a contract should be made with the religious body controlling the school to board and educate and train industrially a certain number of pupils. This should be done without interfering with the small assistance at
present given to the day mission schools,
(2.) Not more than four industrial boarding schools ought to be established at first. If the Department should determine to establish more than four, the Reservation recommended by Mr. McColl, (Appendix B.) would possess many advantages. Here the population is settled and to some extent civilized, The soil is rich. The Missionary Society is withdrawing its aid from the school, which will henceforth be dependent on Government aid, and voluntary contributions. The Rev Mr. Cook assured me that here there would be no difficulty in getting a sufticient number of children from eight years old to twelve to attend the board-
ing industrial school.
(3.) An industrial boarding school should be establish- ed somewhere in the fork of the North and South Saskat- chewan, near Prince Albert, in connection with the Episco- palian Church. ‘Vhe land is wonderfully tertile. There are a gocd mavy Indians in the neighborhood. There are Bands of Indians near Carlton and near Dutch Lake, There
is plenty of fish and timber.
(4.) Inno place could an industrial boarding school in connection with the Methodist body be more properly placed than near Old Bow Fort. The Blackfeet and Stoneys, wild but noble types of Indians, would thus be reached. There are numbers of good places between the Saskatchewan and the Athabasca vivers ; but the needs in those quarters are not so pressing, as the Methodists and Roman Catholics have here been very successful, the board- ing school principle having been tried with g.eat success by the Roman Catholics in at least one instance. The want in the Blackfeet country is pressing. A Wesleyan mission exists to the east of Old Bow Fort. Timber and fish are at hand, and a vast tract of the finest grazing soil in the world. There ought to be no diffienlty here, ina few years, in rivall- ing the Cheyenne and Arapho Agency with its promising herd.
(5.) At Qu’Appelle it might well be thought we should find an appropriate site for an industrial boarding school to be conducted by Roman Catholics, The soil, it is true, is
generally poor, but where the river narrows it leaves a good
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deal of fair land. To the north is Touchwood, a trading post of the Hudson Bay Co. Around are lakes in which much fish is found, aid when the buffalo is gone the Indians will flock hither to fish. A good many half-breeds are here now. I[tisa central point. Roads run sovth and west and north. ‘lhe Hlackfeet country, or that covered by Treaty 7, is sure to be a great grazing country in the not distant future. The advantages of the route thence to Qu’ Appelle, on and alongside of the river, are unmistake- able. There is a permanent settlement. ‘There is also a Roman Catholic mission. But there is no timber, and it is said the frosts menace the crops; but this is true of a good many other places where men, not with bad results, take the risks ; and, notwithstanding these last drawbacks, I should have recommended Qu’Appelle as a site for a Roman Catholic industrial boarding school, were it not that other considerations of a weighty nature point to Buffalo Lake or some spot on the Red Deer River running by it. The advantages of Qu’Appelle should, however, be utilized in the near future, either on the contract system, or by means of a boarding school, immediately controlled by the Government, on a denominational or secular basis. On the shores of Buffalo Lake the school would have the advantage of being removed far from possible contact with whites for many years at least. Timber is sufficiently near along the river to the east and west. The land, I am assured, is good. The most pressing considerations of workableness point to those shores as the site for a Roman Catholic boarding industrial school.
(6.) An industrial boarding school, in connection with the Presbyterian Church, shonld be established on Riding Mountain. The Preshyterans have already been very success- ful here. There is plenty of timber and the land is excel- lent. There is, it is true, no abundant supply of fish in the Little Saskatchewan. In all other respects, however, the locality is every thing that could be desired. The Indians here are represented as intelligent, and the children eager to acquire.
The importance of denominational schools at the outset for the Indians must be obvious, One ot the earliest things un attempt to civilize them does, is to take away their simple Indian mythology, the central idea of which, to wit, a perfect spirit, can hardly be improved on, The Indians have their own ideas of right and wrong, of ‘ good” Indians and “bad” Indians, and to disturb this faith, without supplying a better, would be a curious process to enlist the sanction of civilized races whose whole civilization, like all the civilizations with which we are acquainted, is based on religion. A civilized sceptic, breathing, though he does, an atmosphere charged with ,Christiau ideas, and getting strength unconsciously therefrom, is nevertheless, unless in instances of rare intellectual. vigour, apt to be a man without ethical backbone. But a savage sveptic would be open to civilizing influences and moral control only through desires, which, in the midst ‘of enlightenment, constantly
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break out into the worst features of barbarism. Where, however, the poor {Indian has been brought tace to face with polemics and settlements are divided, or think they are divided, on metaphysical niceties, the school should be, as at the White Earth Agency, Minnesota, undenominational.
(7.) Some distinction should be made between the treatment of parents who send their children regularly to the day-school, and of those who are either careless whether their children go to school or not, or who are wholly opposed to their children attending school, as some are. To the first, an additional ration of tea and sugar might be given.
(x.) Where practicable, some inducement of a special nature should be held out to the child.
(9.) As Bands become more amenable to the restraints of civilization education should be made compulsory.
(10). The character of the teacher, morally and intel- lectually, is a matter of vital importance. If he is mo rally weak, whatever his intellectual qualifications may be, he is worse than no teacher at all. If he is poorly iustructed or feeble in brain, he only enacts every day an elaborate farce. It must be obvious that to teach semi-civilized children is a more dithicult task than to teach children with inherited apti- tudes, whose training is, moreover, carried on at home. A teacher should have force of character, and when he presides over an industrial school should have a knowledge of farm- ing. Such a man must be adequately paid. The advantage of calling in the aid of religion is, that there is a chance of getting an enthusiastic person, with, therefore, a motive power beyond anything pecuniary remuneration could supply. The work requires not only the energy but the patience of an enthusiast. The teacher’s appointment to an industrial boarding school should be made by the Govern- ment, after consultation with the religious body immedi- ately interested, and the whole machinery should be care- fully guarded against the suspicion of having any character
of religious endowment, or any likelihood of issuing therein.
(11.) In order to secure that the education given would be efficient, there ought to be competent inspection. Failing this, when industrial boarding schools come to be widely established, large sums will be thrown into the sea, The education given in Indian schools is, asa rule, of a very poor
sort, mechanical to the last degree.
(12.) Where boys or girls, whether Indians or half- breed, show special aptitudes or exceptional general quick- ness, special advantages should be offered them, and they should be trained to become teachers and clerks in connec- tion with the Department, as well as fitted to Jaunch out on
commercial and professional careers.
(13.) The salary of a teacher must be such as will induce good men to offer themselves. The teacher should be paid according to his qualifications. In the future, when the manual labour boarding school is an established insti-
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tution, those teachers who manage their schools in a manner tending towards self-support, should have «a per- centage on the reduction in the cost of management.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant,
NICHOLAS FLOOD DAVIN.
APPENDIX B,
Winnipec, Manirosa, 25th February, 1879.
Sir,—In accordance with instructions received from the Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, dated the 6th instant, as to the advisability of estublishing an in- dustrial school in some central place, within the Manitoba Superintendency, where the Indian youth of both sexes could be taught the various industries, as suggested in my Report of Inspection of the 24th ultimo, and to indicate to you what point would, in my opinion, be the most suitable within the Superintendency at which to establish such institution ; the staff of instructors it would require to em- ploy ; the cost of the building and oftices connected there- with, as well as the management of the institution, I have the honour to offer the following suggestions, together with
my reasons for the same, as requested by yourself.
Ist. In my opinion, the St. Peter's Indian Reserve would be the most suitable location for such an institution, being the most central point between Prince Arthur's Land- ing on Lake Superior, and Cumberland House on the Sas- katchewan River, the extreme eastern and western limits of the Manitoba Superintendency, being also about 30 miles north from this city, on Red River, near the Canadian Pacific Railway crossing at Selkirk, accessible by railway and water communication from the east and west, by water communication from the north, and from the west, prospec-
tively, by railway.
2nd. It is a large Reserve, having an area of about 39,000 acres of most excellent prairies aud wood-land, the soil being of the richest alluvial deposit with an abundance of the choicest hay land and sufficient quantity of poplar, oak, spruce and tamarack for present and prospective requirements of such an institution, without denuding the Reserve of fuel, fencing and building timber for the wants of the Band, which would be a great source of economy to the Government in its maintenance. It is also well-watered by the Red River, which runs north through its centre, and drained by Devil’s, Cook’s, Muckle’s, and Netley Creeks, flowing from the east and west into said river.
3rd. It has a population of 1,646 of Ojibbeway and Cree Indians more advanced in civilization than anywhere else in the Manitoba Superintendency ; there being 200 families
cultivating an average of about 5 acres each of ordinary
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cereals, roots and vegetables ; having 300 horses, 400 head of horned cattle, 50 hogs, 400 dwelling houses, 200 stables, 1 church and 2 school-houses ; 1,160 speak English, 675 read it, 50 read Cree, and 50 the Ojibbeway.
4th. With regard to the staff of instructors and cost of buildings, I am unable to offer any suggestion, or submit any estimate, not having any data to base such suggestion or estimate on.
5th. With reference to the management of an Indus- trial School, I beg leave to suggest that, in order to accom- plish the commendable object the Government have in view, to ameliorate the condition of the Indians of this Superin- tendency, it should be conducted in such a manner so as to impart a practical knowledge of the arts of husbandry and mechanics, as well of the other useful industries, to the Indian youth of both sexes ; and that to prevent dissen- sions among the Indians and complications with the Depart- ment in the future, it would be, in my opinion, most advis- able that the institution proposed ,be conducted on strictly non-sectarian principles, and that it be absolutely under the immediate direction and control of the Government.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant,
E. McCOLL, Inspector of Indian Agency. N. F. Davin, Esq.,
ke, ke, de,
Winnipeg, Manitoba.