INDIAN EDUCATION 111 TERMS OF PUPIL AND …arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/bitstream/10150/551672/1/AZU_TD... · prominence of cheek bone, hollow out upper front teeth, and psychological

Indian education in terms of pupil and community needs

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Authors Cronk, Leslie M., 1904-

Publisher The University of Arizona.

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INDIAN EDUCATION 111 TERMS OF PUPIL AND COMMUNITY NEEDS

■' by-Leslie M. Cronk

A Thesissubmitted to the faculty of the

Department - df.,Education

in partial fulfillment of the requirement's .for. the degree of

Master of Arts

in the Graduate College University of Arizona

1 9 3 8 ... ' '

£ e? 7 9 //<23Z/ y

TABLE OF .CONTENTSChapter Page

I. INTRODUCTION......... . ........................ 1The Problem..... ........................... 1Sources Of Data ...................... 2

II. THE CHANGING INDIAN.. ....................... 5o r i g i n . . ............Culture............. ......Leadership...........____

III. TRENDS IN THE POLICIES OF THEOFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. ............... . 19

Extermination...................... 25Segregation.............. 26Assimilation.................. ....... ......29Restoration............................ 34

IV. INDIAN EDUCATION OF YESTERDAY.... ............. 43White Man Attempts Indian Education......... 49

V. AN EDUCATION TO' MEET THE NEEDS.'. . ... . .. . . .....'. 61Rural Schools Of Mexico..................... 64The Indian’s Philosophy Of Life........ 66The School And Its Aims..................... 71Fundamental Processes........'...... ...... 75..

" Health....................................... 76Homemaking................. 81Arts And Crafts.;........_............... 85Social Studios ...... ....... 87Leisure "Time... . ........................... 91Higher Education............ 93Home's And Home Improvement. .V.............. .97

- Adult And Community Education.......... .101School Marks....... 102Guidance And Follow-Up.............. 103

VI. CONCLUSIONS......... . ...... ..................105BIBLIOGRAPHY. .................... 108

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£ MS807 '

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The ProblemCommissioner Burke says,"Practically all our work for the civilization of the

Indian has become educational."^Similar statements have repeatedly been made by others

who have dealt with Indian Affairs. With deep conviction as to the truth of this statement and with a realization of the fact that our civilization is dynamic, this paper has been written.

The thesis of this study is that the education of the Indian cannot come from the traditional type of school, but must have its inception-in the needs of the individual and of the community of which he is a part. In the past this has not been true, for the child has been uplifted from his family and community and "given" a new culture. The fact has not been appreciated that he has had readjustments to make which could not possibly be made in the lifetime of one individual.

If the Indian problem is ever to be solved it must of necessity be done by those who have a clear sympathetic

1. Lindquist, G. E. E. The Redman in the United States.Foreword by Commissioner Burke. ~ :----- -

2

understanding of the Indian and his background. Any sugges­tion for administrative policies present or future should be based on a knowledge of the patterns of culture of the indi­vidual and of the group. Because of this fact there has been a great amount of this background material accumulated for and in this paper.

The purpose of this study is to combine a knowledge of Indian culture with other data and experience in order to determine a form of Indian education that will more fully meet the needs of the pupil and the community of which he is or will become a part.

Sources of DataThe content has evolved from the interpretation and

evaluation of. data secured from three main sources.—1. Reports of investigations and surveys, monographs, pub­lications, and bulletins of the Office of Indian Affairs and particularly of the Department of Education, articles from current publications and other studies made of the Indian.;2. Course materials, several of which were planned definite­ly for Indian Education.3. Personal contact with homes, individuals, and communities which have been the result of a number of years working in an educational institution for Indians of Southern Arizona.

• CHAPTER II

. THE CHANGING-INDIAN ■ . ... - v: - , -.. Very few.people realize that the.Indian-is one of the greatest, of all mysteries, a.mystery which even the. most brilliant scientists and greatest authorities on,Indians„ have never been able to solve. No one is exactly certain whether the Indian originated in America or came to this country from:some other land. -Many have attempted solutions to these,questions and gradually bit by bit facts have been and are-being accumulated that are helpful in discovering- the past. A few of the tribal groups have traditions about the origin of their ancestors. However, many, - especially of the - Southwest when:asked about the ruins of the pre­historic culture, shake their heads and mutter, "Ho-ho-kam” or its equivalent -- "The Forgotten Ones."

OriginUp to the time our present day archeologists, scien­

tists, and anthropologists started working on the problem, popular speculations as to the origin of these people were both wild and fantastic. Many articles and books have been written in an attempt.to prove fancies of one kind or anoth­er. According to some, they were folks who evolved from lovirer animals right here in America. They were white men, Nordics from the Baltic 1 They were an extinct race of

4

dwarfs I They were descendants of the inhabitants of the .. fabledi.island of Atlantis I They were Phoenicians, whose frail barks had carried' them across the Atlantic! They were Welshmen! .They were a remnant of the lost ten tribes of Israel! And so the guessing went on-.— At present it is fairly well agreed, by most scientists that all of our American Indians are descendants of Asiatics— Mongolians, the first of whom came to America from Siberia across the Bering Strait or along the chain of the Aleutian Islands before or soon after the cold of the last Glacial Age began to abate. It is probable that they were pushed for food across the Bering Sea and once finding a wonderful country to the south, became explorers into the new found land. We may Inagine. that no one large group made the crossing at any one time, but instead a number of isolated small groups covering many centuries of time. Then for some^reason the migration ceased, probably due to changing geological con­ditions between the two continents.

While it is true that Indians were and still are divided into many tribes, speaking many languages, their physical and mental similarities indicate that they are from one major people. In all of their basic characteristics, which include range of color, peculiarity of hair and eyes, prominence of cheek bone, hollow out upper front teeth, and psychological reactions, they closely resemble types that have inhabited eastern Siberia, Mongolia and western China.

5

- When did these migrations stop? This question must of necessity be answered in approximations. Dr. Byron Cummings of the University of Arizona:has made an intensive study of the ruins of Ouicuilo, twelve miles from.Mexico City. Dr. Cummings with other prominent scientists agree that these ruins were probably from eight to ten thousand years old.If this is true then the Indians must have reached the con­tinent considerably before that time. . .

In these finds.we have proof of the babyhood of a culture that with much evidence of life showed sighs of ad­vancement, slowly it is true, but still advancing. When they first arrived in the continent they had but barely started on the long road toward knowledge. Their weapons probably included wooden clubs, sticks sharpened at one end, and sharpened bones. Fires were probably kindled with flints or with the use of wooden drills.

The type of homes used depended upon their location. Caves were often used where they were attainable. The larger caves were divided into rooms, partitions being built with stone and adobe mortar. Some had but few rooms while others contained many rooms, with the "apartment house air". Then there were some Indians who abode in the open. The more primitive of the homes were simply shallow basins or holes dug in the ground to head room height, and covered with poles and brush. Again there was another type of building, of which even the ruins are tremendous. In

6

these the entire community consisting possibly of several - hundred would live.

A great variety of interesting articles have been found in many of these ruins, which point toward the typeof culture of these pre-historic people. Beans and squash

■seeds were much in evidence. Bits of wearing apparel in­cluded parts of kilts, loin cloths, head and breast bands made of woven cotton or yuCca-fibre cloth and artistically dyed in various colors. Among the articles found by Dr. Cummings in the Cuicuilo ruins were remains of well made pottery and figures of animals, faces, and human bodies done in terra cotta. While these figurines of humans were clothed with nothing but loin cloths (neither convention or inclement weather called for clothing) still the hair was artistically arranged and necklaces about the necks. This shows ah esthetic desire for beauty and that they were well oh their way toward a desire for the better and more ap­preciable things of life.

' If the migrations came to the continent in small groups, which seems very probable, then it is also probable that the various groups journeyed southward as the weather, need of food, and inclinations drove them. Some authorities feel that the Navajos were about as far south as the Canadian border by 1492. This may be very possible for even today we find a large group in Canada belonging to the Athabascan line of which the Navajos and Apaches of Arizona

7

are. members. It is possible that.the latter for some.reason became separated from the larger group, at about that time for .there is proof that they .have not always lived In the land where we now find them". \

-The people that met the early settlers of this country reflected a young, vigorous and.growing civilization. For the most part they were in a semi-nomadic stage, the con­tinent providing their needs. They apparently enjoyed a communistic form of government. There was very little land ownership and where it prevailed it was vested in the tribe rather than the individual. The scattered tribes had little intercourse with one another except with their immediate neighbors, which gave rise to the fact that religions, languages, arid ideals became numerous and varied.• These people are usually classified in three ways:first, as to language; second, as to customs arid habits- or culture; and third, as to physical types. For the most part we find the cultures of neighboring groups very similar, of those more widely scatteredivery different.

\ ' .Culture — • / -In a paper of this type it-would be out of place to

attempt to give a full study of the culture of all the dif­ferent groups. Because of this and since interest and. __experience are within the Southwest culture area the part of this study dealing with culture will be confined to that area. The map of North America as is given on page 8 gives

8

NORTH MOIPIC a r e a ; 'j ARQTIC

AREA

EASTERN WOODLA1L AREA' f; PLATEAU:

f AREA s '

.CALIFORNIAN AEEA\

\SOUTB7EST "Xy^AREA SOUTHEASTER^-< \ \ AREA \

MEXICO l& ENTRAL XlMERICA

CULTURE AREAS OF NORTH AMERICA^ '

b. Wissler, Clark. North American Indians of the Plain5~p.ll

9

the general culture areas. The divisions marked on the map are not absolute but relative. It would of course be hard to find a tribe that did not share some of its cultural traits with its Immediate neighbors. While it is true that generally, such areas can be,marked off,*still anthropolo­gists generally agree that if a map"of physical, cultural, and linguistical types were superimposed, there would be but few boundaries in common.

In the Southwest ares there are a number of tribes that vary greatly in habits, customs, industries, and arts. Among these are some who were noted as nomadic and war-like belonging to the Athabascan group, already mentioned as having many members in Canada in the woodland and agricul­tural sections. How these Apaches and Navajos got separated from the large group is still one of the many mysteries.

Although nomadic in some ways and literally savages, the Apaches were hot lacking in\a certain culture. They were expert weavers of baskets and large blankets which showed attractive and artistic designs. The baskets were used for storing grain, dried berries, nuts, etc. Their pottery however was more crude and primitive. They had very complex religious and ceremonial customs and were, well organized socially. They ranged over a wide area and set­tled down now and then in favorable spots only long enough to raise a crop of corn and other produce.W i t h the be­ginnings of white settlement they became increasingly

10

nomadic and began to depend more and more on the results of raids on the cattle of their Mexican and Indian neigh­bors.

Originally the Havajos were as warlike, as nomadic, and as savage as the Apaches, but they were superior people in many respects. Long before the Apaches had ceased their raids these people had become peaceful sheep herders. They- have always been famed for their blankets and their silver­smith work for ornaments. It is interesting to note that these Navajos and the Araucanian Indians of southern Chile are very similar, both in physical characteristics and material culture. This is just another one of the mysteries of the Indian background that probably will never be solved.

There was another group of very different racial stock, known as the Plman-Seri-Yuman group, the members of which are wholly distinct from any other United States Indians. Among this group we find the Mohaves, Walapals, Maricopas, Yumas, Havasupais, Cocopas, Papagos, and Opatas. All of these inhabit the far southwest in Arizona, Lower California, and norther Mexico. The Pimans and their rela­tives have always been almost eonpletely sedentary, being a peaceful and vegetarian people. V/e have no record or indication that they have ever lived elsewhere than in their present location. They raised large crops of grain and gathered wild berries, mesquite beans, fruits, seeds, and roots. Although they did depend upon their crops for much

11

food, still the wild plants were used extensively. Probably the mesquite bean was the most important food supply^ There are different methods of preparing it for food. The two best known were grinding it into a flour and parching the whole kernel. , Russell,^ notes 22 plants of which the leaves, stems, or flowers were eaten, 4 furnishing bulbs or roots,24 giving seeds.or nuts, and 15 supplying fruits or berries.

The homes of the Pimas and their relatives, especially the Papagos were almost always round with an average cir­cumference of about eighteen meters. The interior support of the house was four crotched posts set in a square and heavy beams resting in the crotches for support for the roof. Willow poles were lashed onto the sides with bark and then earth piled on top and up against the sides. Doors were small, probably less than three feet in height. Few anthropologists report any kind of an opening for smoke to escape, for such was found only in a small number of the early homes. These houses were built by the men and were used largely for sleeping and protection from inclement weather. A shelter a short distance from the house in the form of a shade built of more crotched poles and covered over with arrowweed and earth really formed the work room for the entire family, especially for the cooking and serv­ing of the meals.

3. Russell, Frank, "The Pima Indian", Annual Report ofBureau of American Ethnography. 1908-26: p. 68.

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The Plman family- has always been noted for its basket­ry. One of the distinctions in the baskets of the entire group is because of the environmental influence of the materials available for use in construction. Materials vary with each group and with the purpose that the finished product will serve. Bear grass, cottonwood twigs, yucca, willow bark, arrow bush, cats claw, and sumac are some of the materials found in their baskets. .

Their pottery is rather crude although it gives a •• pleasing appearance. A fine clay is used-which when tem­pered with sand and shaped into various patterns becomes a vessel ready ibr the fire. After it has been fired for a short while it is removed and the decoration is applied, which has been made of mesquite gum. It is then restored to the fire until the decoration has become a deep black color. ' • %. ■

The social organization of the Pimas was not nearly so complicated as it was with many other tribes. Each village was governed by a chief who in turn was responsible to the head chief of the tribe, which they elected. With the chief in each village was found the village council whose decrees were broadcast by a village crier from a house top. In each village there was also-a "ceremony talker-* or master of ceremonies, whose duty it was to ar­range and control the details of the festivals and general ceremonies, which were not especially provided for by the

13

religious fraternities.During their wars they acted as a unit. They were

compact in their community and had a well organized system of agriculture, which aided them greatly in times of war.War leaders were not elected but anyone with sufficient courage and prestige could organize a war party whenever the need presented itself. His authority ended upon the return of the party from the campaign.

In general their religion was not so "showy" as those of many of the neighboring tribes. They believed in the supernatural or magic power of the animals and especially in the power of the Sun. The Sun was addressed in the morning when prayers were offered and the Darkness in the evening. Sun by its magic power killed those dying during the day, and Night killed those dying during darkness.Their religion after having been in touch with Spanish and white men had included Earth Doctor and Elder Brother.Many of their myths have been adopted from the Papagos.

Diseases were caused according to Piman belief by many different outside forces. Animals, birds, and rep­tiles were the greatest causes. If no cause could be found, then relatives, medicine men, or friends might be thought of as the cause. Special songs of each animal causing that disease were always called into use by the medicine men. Cigarette smoke was blown over the body of the afflicted in order that he might "see" the disease and thus be able

14

to diagnose the cause.The myths and traditions of the Pimas were kept by

those who shov/ed special aptitude in remembering them. As instructors these men v/ould receive boys regularly to whom they would relate the entire narratives of their history. These stories included, how the world was peopled; whence the Pimas came and how they struggled with demons, monsters, and savage enemies. Only on rare occasions were these stories told in the presence of women and consequently only fragments of the stories could ever be told by them. The myths were never told in the summer because of the rattle­snake. Their myths included, The Creation, Origin of the Horse, Coyote, and many Nursery Tales.

LeadershipIt is generally thought that there is a great lack of

leadership among the Indians. In their own social-orderthere has never been such a lack of leadership. Lindquist

4says,—"Indian history is replete with examples of

leadership and organization in arts and crafts, civil and military, domestic and agricultural, political, social and religious. Perhaps no primitive race can be found in history with more definitely organized social and religious life."

The chief did not acquire his position by birth but by arigorous training for such conducted by his predecessor.After acquiring this position, he was constantly held in

4. Lindquist, G.E.E., The Red Man in the United States,p.77

15

/check by medicine man, council, and priest. The early his­tory of this country points to the friendly relations of the Indian leaders with the colonists. Powhatan, head of the Virginia confederation was noted for his kindness in ruling the more than forty tribes under the confederation. Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags also showed much ability in friendly leadership. Had it not been for the friendli­ness of these fine leaders, it is very probable that the development of American civilization would have been much different. As time passed these friendly leaders became leaders in another realm, for misunderstandings were aris­ing, that they could not understand. Land transactions in their opinions wore only for the purpose of sharing their hunting domains. They did not know what land ownership meant, for they had never experienced It. Consequently when the white man began to deprive the Indian the use of this land, that in the mind of the Indian he had only shared with the white, trouble was bound to arise. These same friendly Indian leaders became leaders in campaigns of battle. To name a few of these we would include:Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, who won the respect of all the tribes from the Ohio to the Mississippi rivers; and Black Hawk, a chief of the Sac and"Fox Indians, who fought because he loved his country, which is now partially the State of Illinois. . Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces is said to have cried out as he was being hunted for the last time.

16

"Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk and think for myself, and I will obey every law and submit to the penalty."5

Many more might easily be listed as leaders in campaigns which they felt was their only hope if they were to stand as a race. *

Along with this long list who led their people against those who received kindness and in return cheated, stole, and drove back, there are those who were leaders in other fields of endeavor. There are but few tribes today who cannot point with pride to Christian leaders among their own people., Many have heard of and have accepted the white mans* Christ and are telling others of Him. There are a number of Indian physicians of national reputation, among whom are, Dr. Susan Picotte-~Omaha, Dr. C. A. Eastman— Sioux, and Dr. Carlos Montezuma--Apache. A few who have gained fame in public office are: R. L. Owen as Senator, .Charles Curtis as Vice President of the U. S., C. D. Carter and V/m. Hastings as Congressmen. From a long list of Educators probably the name of Henry Roe Cloud, Winnebago, stands out as one of the greatest present day Indian edu­cators and philosophers.

Ho is a changing Indian. Changes have been slow for- ■ - . i ’ / V • v ■ ' ' - . . . ■

5. Lindquist, G. E. E. The Red Man in the United States^

17

he has not been changing from one static civilization into another of like character but rather it has been into a very dynamic civilization. The entire situation has been , summed up very well by an Indian vocational guidance of­ficer:

"The Indian was in the Stone Age when the white race, then already in the Iron Age, came along. The Indian had to skip the generations which the white race went through before it reached the Iron Age.It was those generations that produced the pres­sure, speed and complexity of modern American life, and the Indian is asked to hurry through those generations."6

This changing has been hard for the Indian. Vdiere once physical courage and endurance of hardships answered for success now it is something very different.

In following the white man in his attempts to help solve what may be termed the "Indian Problem" for lack of a better term, the schemes almost equal those of "get- rich-quick" individuals who see no reason why the task can not be abbreviated in time, as a result of their own schemes. It is a well known fact that the United States Indian Service has not been altogether successful in its handling of Indian Affairs. Probably the greatest fault has been that the Indian race has never been treated as a people who were capable of caring for themselves. At this point the question arises, "What did the poor Indian do for a guardian before the white man came to his rescue as a

6. Hulbert, Winifred. Indian Americans, p. 29.

18

self-appointee?" Apparently the general policy of this "self-appointee" has been to take over the Indian as a parent does an infant, for it can not care for itself. It is possible that the conscience of the white man has been made to feel better by this guardianship after the Indian was "put out of the way" but it has certainly not been a solution to the genuine problems facing the Indian of today.

' ; ' : CHAPTER III ^ ^

TRENDS IN THE POLICIES OF THE,OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS When the white man first came to the shores of this

great land, he found a people that represented an entirely now culture. This culture ,had grown slowly, as have all cultures, but it was well on its way toward a more abundant life. It is true that society was in a more or less static condition, for the people in that society had not as yet become dissatisfied with life and the things that were around them.

The continent as the white man,found it was literally one of great abundance.. Moses,would truly have named it, the land flowing with milk and honey. Great forests of hardwood and conifers covered more than a billion acres: in the prairie country the grass reached well up onto the body of the horse: after crossing the Missouri River the tight sod of the buffalo grass covered every inch of the soil to the Rockies. In each of these sections, forest, prairie, plain, and mountain game was in superabundance. Streams and rivers were filled with fish despite hook, spear, and net.For thousands of years the Indians had lived in this,abun­dance and had lived from it without disturbing it in any way. Without destructive forces nature was able to main­tain the balance needed to continue this land of milk and

20

honey.Immediately upon the arrival of the white man a

destructive force was turned loose.To him every natural- resource was "inexhaustible”. Eighty percent of the forests were chopped down and nothing was done to bring about a new crop of trees. The game that filled each section of the country was either killed for fun or profit. The rivers were robbed of their fish in unreasonable numbers until nature could not restock at such a rate of speed.

To many the plow is the emblem of peace, order, and plenty. In the United States on hundreds of thousands of square miles it has been an instrument of destruction. To make room for its blade, the brush, tree, and grass cover was removed from half the continent, leaving the fertile top soil at the mercy of the wind and rain.

This ruthless destruction of the continent began as soon as the white man could get started and has continued against the better knowledge of many people, for apparently no one knew what to do. Someone has finally called out, "Lets give it back to the Indians”. There'is no little amount of sound thought in such a statement, for while the Indiana managed it according to their method, the fertile top soil increased In depth, the supply of game and fish was maintained, and the forest and grass covers held their own.^ 7

7. Woehlke, Waiter V., "Let's Give It Back To The Indians",Indians at Work, Dec. 1, 1934, p. 13.

21

In recent years steps have been taken and are con­tinuing, to make a few of these wrongs right. It is hoped that such a policy may be kept up, for at the best it will take many more years to undo the wrong than it has taken to do it.

While this condition has been throughout the entire country, one would expect that Indian lands would be free of such destruction but this is not true. At once, it appears that there is and was something wrong. Can it be possible that this has been caused by the method of handling the Indian?

• Our Federal Constitution provides that Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes.Under Constitutional and Congressional authority and since the beginning of our government the Indians have been, treated as wards of the Government and the United States has acted as the guardian of all restricted Indians,— . a people that once had their own culture, but by reason of the "kindness" of an incoming race was to be robbed of all self-respect, initiative, and self-support.

On March 11,-1824, a Bureau of Indian Affairs was or­ganized in the War Department. Thomas L. McKenney was at the head of the Bureau and was charged with the administra­tion of the fund for the civilization of the Indian, under regulations established by the department; the examination of claims arising out of the laws regulating the intercourse

22

with Indian tribes; and the routine correspondence with the representatives on the field,- the superintendents, agents and sub-agents. On September• 30, 1830 Samuel S. Hamilton became the second chief.

The Office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs was created in theWar Department by the act of July 9, 1832.He was subject to the Secretary of War and the President and was to have, "the direction and management of all Indian

8Affairs, and of all matters arising out of Indian relations."■ Seventeen years later the Bureau of Indian Affairs

passed from military to civil control. The Department of Interior was created by an Act of Congress on March 3, 1849 and the Bureau was immediately transferred.

All historians agree that the first contact of the Indian and the white man was in every respect,friendly and cordial. It is possible that a part of this friendliness on the part of the Indian was due to the fact that Columbus and his followers were regarded as messengers sent by the Great Spirit. It is interesting to note that this fact is, recognized in the official seal of the State of Florida.Many stories have been repeated of the kindness shown to the new comers by the Indians. As the so-called explorers and adventurers began to arrive in increasing numbers there was less regard for the rights of others, and especially

&. Lindquist, G. E. E. The Red Man in the United States,Appendix V, p. 436, Section 463, Revised Statutes.

23

those of the primitive people, who were at a total loss, in either understanding the policies of the white man or in protection against him. It was not long untilfthe Indian was not thought of as a friend, but rather:as an obstacle in the way of the progress of the New World. .

: The one deplorable fact which stands out most in the relations between the Indian and the Government is probably the lack of a comprehensive and settled policy. Mr. Lind­quist^ refers to three periods: Extermination, Concentra­tion, and Assimilation that have marked the white man's - relations with the Indian. Since this statement was made another policy has come into effect through the Reorganiza­tion Act of 1934 which we will call the beginning of the Restoration period. Commissioner Collier says,

"The essence: of the new Indian policy is to restore the Indians to mental, physical, social, ahd economic health; and to guide: them, in friendly fashion, toward liberating their rich and abundant energies, for their own salvation and for their own unique contribution to the civilization of America."10 r

ExterminationThe first period was really that of occupation by

conquest and extermination. It was generally felt that the only good Indian was a dead Indian. This attitude was not solely because of his cruel nature, which he was acquiring 9 10

9. Lindquist, G.E.E., The Red Man in the United States,p.3710. Collier, John, A Birdseye View of Indian Policy historic

and Contemporary. U.8.T.3. Monograph #liuyby “r*

24

from the whites but because it was the best way to gain ownership of his lands. Treaties and agreements teemed v/ith promises‘of good faith and good intention. In looking over these treaties one is struck by the fancy and exag­gerated language in which the terms are made in contrast to the simple, elemental vocabulary which characterizes the Indian language. The entire machine of the Indian Service was so scattered from Washington that even those who wanted to be honest with the Indian found it hard to keep in touch with the Office and its plans. It was a cumbersome machine lacking in human contacts and unable to express itself in delicate shades of meaning when such were required or to yield to compromise when such a course would have been wise and expedient.

One great difficulty in adhering to any sound policy was the constant change in the personnel of the government. The agreements and treaties were made by commissioners usually composed of honorable men who aimed to secure jus­tice for the Indian, but when their particular work was accomplished they had no further voice in the faithful execution of the compact by the government. This fact is illustrated by the treaty of Guadalupe- Hidalgo which was ratified in 1848. A Commission was.appointed with instruc­tions to make provisions for;the land rights of the various bands of Mission Indians in California. The Commission for some reason failed to do its duty. The case was carried to

25

the United States Supreme Court by the Indian Rights As­sociation in an effort to prevent the eviction of these Indians from their ancient homes. A decision was rendered in this case to the effect that as the Commission had been appointed under authority of Congress it was to be presumed that the instructions given them had been complied with.

In the period from 17*78-1871 there were recorded 370 important treaties many of which v/ere made with the express purpose of entangling and tricking the Indians away from their lands. Gradually the land was stolen, villages burned and the Indian driven further from the home of his.fathers. This is probably one of the greatest blotches on the records of these United States, General Andrew Jackson was the most powerful exponent of this plan. Agents and commis­sioners were scattered throughout the.desired land and sup­plied with paper, quills, and ink with which to bind the Red Man to give up his land. Indians were called into councils and gorged with pork, beef, and whiskey. Threats, bribes, arguments, and persuasion were all used. Thus the Government inaugurated Indian removal. The period has been called the Century of Dishonor. An official of the Govern­ment reviews the situation very ably:

"Preeminent among the difficulties in the way of carrying out a just, humane, and consistent policy, has been and,still is the antagonism, born of the ignorance of both races of each other's mode of thought, social ideals, and structure, and cus­toms, together with the persistent contention about lands, one race defending its birthright, the other

26

race ignoring native claims and regarding the territory as vacant. As a result, a dual condi­tion has existed— on the one side, a theoretic government plan, ideal and worthy; on the other, modifications of this plan, in. compliance with local ignorance and greed. The laws and regula­tions of the United States Government applying to the Indian tribes, with few exceptions, have been framed to conserve their rights. The Wars, which have cost much blood and treasure, the enforced re­movals, the dishonest practices and degrading influences that stain the page of history have all. come about in violation of these laws and of solemn compacts of the Government with native tribes."H

- SegregationThis period had its real beginning as an experiment

with what is known as the Five Civilized tribes. In the north weaker and more primitive tribes yielded with com­paratively small resistance to the power of the white man. In the Southern States it was not so easy. Several of the tribes had so far advanced in learning and culture as to establish themselves permanently on the soil. They had built houses and had their farms under a fine system of crop management. The cotton raised on these farms was card ed, spun, and woven in cloth with which they clothed’ them­selves. They laid outroads, built mills, and sent their children to schools established by missionaries'. They had even gone so far as to establish representative govern­ments modeled on those of the states. It was only natural that they, were actually aware of their prior treaty rights

11. Lindquist, G. E.:E. The Red Man in the United States, footnote, p. 32, Handbook of American Indians,Bureau of Ethnology.

27

with the government and at once resented any move on the part-of the whites to push them out. Eventually there came the experiment of the government in transferring by force several of these southern tribes, --Choctaws of Mississippi, the Cherokees and Chickasaws of Tennessee, the Creeks of Alabama and Georgia, and the Semlnoles of Florida to the Indian Territory west-of the Mississippi"or what is now known as eastern Oklahoma.When the Governor of Mississippi put on record his reasons for wanting to eliminate the Choctaws from his state or at least to destroy their tribal life, he said, ; -

"The prosperity of the State is greatly re­tarded -by such a large portion- of fertile lands remaining in the possession of savage tribes of Indians > who as they progress in civilization become attached to the soil and cannot be in­duced to move by the policy heretofore used of treating them as a sovereign people, and who will eventually set up for themselves a government professing to be an independent sovereignty within our limits in defiance of the authority -of the State. These things cannot be tolerated, they are not consistent with our best'interests, honor, and safety."13All of this not only all but destroyed the Indian but

it destroyed his culture. Forced into a new environment, with no organization, and no means to protect themselves or to gain a living from the soil, these people, the once proud rulers and owners of this great land, existed like cattle.

Thus far the idea of segregation was only an experiment.

12. Foreman, Grant Indian Removal. Foreword.13. Ibid. p. 47. , . .

28

but it had served so well to get rid of the Indians that public "opinion began to demand such removal.

President Grant’s famous "Peace Policy" really in­augurated the Segregation or reservation period. In his message to" Congress, under date of December 6, 1869 he said,

"From the foundation of the Government to the present the management of the original Inhabitants of this continent— the Indians— has been a subject of embarassment and expense, and has been attended with continuous robberies, murders, and wars. From my own experience upon the frontiers and in the Indian countries, I do not hold either legislation or the conduct of the whites who come most in con­tact with the Indians blameless for-these hostilities. The past, however, cannot be undone, and the ques­tion must be met as we now find it. I have attempted a new policy toward these wards of the Nation (they cannot be regarded in any other light than as wards), with fair results, as far as tried, and which I hope will be attended ultimately with great success."

At this time agreements entered into with the various tribes took the place of treaties. In general, these were in­fluenced by public opinion and by humanitarian motives.The belief was, that the solution of the problem arising between the white and the red races lay in keeping them as far apart as possible. Consequently such areas were set apart for the sole occupancy of the tribe or tribes, and " this land, at the outset at least, was held in common by the tribal members.

While it is without doubt that President Grant andmany of his men were sincere in their Indian policy, it is*unfortunate that some of the officials failed not only to understand the Indian nature, but were ready to ignore

29

existing treaties, and agreements. The idea of "steady concentration of smaller bands of Indians upon the larger reservations” also grew very rapidly at this time, because it would be more economical from the administrative stand­point. This concentration policy led to the Modoc Y/ar in 1872-3 and to trouble with the Sluox in 1876, with the Hez Perces in 1877, and with the Ghiricahua Apaches and other tribes in Arizona. :

It was not long until the Government realized that the supposedly settled Indian problem was becoming more of a problem than ever.■ With the passing of the Indian Bureau from military to civil control when the Interior Department was created the dole system became ever more popular. As food was doled out, clothing was furnished, and the Indian had no need to work, there was really nothing for him to do but deteriorate. The gold rush to California had left the western country becoming even more popular and the reserva­tions were becoming surrounded with greedy landseekers.By this time anyone with an idea in regard to what to do with the Indians could receive a hearing. Eventually, the thought grew that if they could only be absorbed into the white race, then there would be no problem. Assimilation, — that would be the solution I

AssimilationOn February 8, 1887 the general allotment Act, gen­

erally known as the Dawes Act was approved by Congress.

30

Optimism _ran high, for the Indian "problem" was on the way out. The Commissioners Report of 1891 was full of it, land allotments and boarding school education were .to be the solution.—

"If— ---there could be•gathered by the end of1893 into well-manned and suitably equipped schools nearly all of•the Indian children, and they could be kept there for ten years, the work would be substantially accomplished; for within those ten years there would grow up a generation of English- speaking Indians, accustomed to the ways of civ­ilized life and sufficiently intelligent and strong

• to forever after be the dominant force among them.. . --- The great forces now at work; land in severalty

with its accompanying dissolution of the tribal relation and breaking up of the reservation; the destruction of the agency system; citizenship, and all that belongs thereto of manhood, independence, privilege and duty; education, which seeks to bring the young Indians into right relationship with the age in which they live and to put into their hands the tools by which they may gain for themselves food and clothing and build for themselves homes, will, if allowed to continue undisturbed a rea­sonable length of time, accomplish their benefi­cent ends."14

- The Allotment Act was ostensibly intended to lead the Indians into the individualistic property system of the; white man and thereby, automatically, into the white man’s civilization and economic life. Actually and intentionally also (with many who worked for its passage) it was put into law as a mechanism whereby, under cover of legality, the Indians could be gradually divested of tho lands inviolately secured to them through treaties and through valid grants.

14. Excerpt from Commissioner’s Report of 1891, Indians atiWork, March 15, 1937, p. 20.

31

A color of protection was thrown about the allotted Indians through the. provision of a-twenty-five-year trust period before the allottees"would:become 1hard-working and hard-boiled, propertied individual citizens. But this beneficent theory was never put into action. In all the . talk of "land use" there never has been an adequate system of, education to fit the:Indians to become farmers, stock- men, or rural workers of any-kind. The plan was to make them become individual property owners and thus destroy their tribal, group, and family property sense. The Indians did not, in fact, successfully become individualized property owners; As a result- of the allotment system,, during less than a half century they have lost about ninety million acres of their:lands. That is two-thirds of all - % their land in area; four-fifths, at least, in value. They have lost it through the sale of their fee patented allot­ments, through the sale by the Government of their inherited allotted lands, and through the cession to, or seizure by the Government, for settlement by.whites, of the so-called "surplus" lands, namely, the lands that were supposedly not needed by the Indians after each member:of the tribe had his allotment, usually, a meagre allotment of grazing land. •. ; :■ r :

By a process of natural selection, the whites saw to it that;they got the.best and richest of Indian lands. At least half the remaining Indian landed estate consists of

32

very low grade grazing lands of the semi-desert type.The evils of allotment were not confined merely to

the loss of land as recorded by diminishing total quantities of land. Allotment and subsequent alienation checker- boarded many reservations to the extent of making the land unusable by Indians and forced its leasing to white cattle­men or farmers. It is true, that there were some good ex­cuses for the system where good agricultural land was available, but there was no justification whatever for the allotment of grazing and timber lands, which generally can be productively managed only in large blocks.

The unfeasible real estate situation caused by allot­ment has further been complicated by the fantastic heirship system which automatically has resulted from allotment. On the death of the original allottee, the allotment was par­titioned among his heirs. If it could not be partitioned it must be sold or broken down into bookkeeping equities distributed among heirs frequently numbering scores, even hundreds. In many cases, the only solution has been either to sell the land and partition the proceeds, or lease the land to the whites. There are allotments with as many as two hundred heirs, thus requiring two hundred signatures for the leasing of a small parcel. Rental payments of a few mills each quarter year to Indians are carried on the books of the Indian Office. The leasing of allotments.and of heirship equities on many reservations and other nonproduc-

33

tive allotment operations, consumes as much as forty per­cent of the time of the entire reservation official staff. Through all of this the Indian owners have become by such a system a group of petty landlords living on pittances of rentals.

It is interesting to note, how, along with this policy of individualizing the Indian in regard to property, he was considered in old treaties that recognised their.independence as a tribe. The Commissioners Report of 1891 said,

"It is also worthy of consideration that in the past we have made agreements which later developments have shown to be unwise and undesir­able both for them and for us. Such are all those treaties which recognize the autonomy and perpetual independent nationality of the.tribes.-- --There is no place within our borders forindependent, alien governments and the Indians must of necessity surrender their autonomy and become merged in our nationality. In requiring this we do not ask that they concede anything of real value to themselves, but only that for their highest welfare they abandon their tribal organ­izations, their provincials, their isolation and accept in lieu thereof American citizenship and full participation in all the riches of our civilization. By this great transformation they are the gainers, rather than we ourselves."ISThe allotment system and boarding school education

was to make the Indian take one great leap from his native culture to that of the white man. It was generally felt that even though it had taken the white man hundreds and even thousands of years to make the progress in civiliza­tion that he had arrived at, that due to this system the

15. Excerpt from Commissioner's Report of 1891, IndiansAt Work, March 15, 1937, p. 21. _ --- ----

34

Indian could jump that period of time and therefor be the gainers.

RestorationIn 1923 the allotment system or "individualization”

scheme was first successfully challenged. That was when Senator Hiram Johnson and elder Senator LaFollette defeated Secretary Fall's Indian omnibus bill. In 1927 we find the beginning of the study of Indian Affairs by the Institute for Government Research. It took much time and patience even to secure an appropriation for this research. However the flood of light which this study poured upon Indian education, Indian health, Indian family conditions, and thetechnical aspects of Indian administration has been the

; : - • ■ . ■ ; , ■ . ; . . . . . . _ :beginnings of the reorganization of Indian Service in all directions.

This report is generally known as the "Merriam Sur­vey" of 1928. The staff upon investigation found that,"the Indians are not adjusted to tho economic and social system of the dominant white civilization." This, of course is a far reaching statement and a great amount of added material is necessary to make it worthwhile. Accord­ingly, such topics as. Health, Living Conditions, Economic Conditions, Causes of Poverty, Education and many others are thoroughly discussed.

16. Merriam, Lewis, The Problem of Indian Administration,p. 1. ' —

35

It was only to be expected that after a thorough digest of this survey that added effort would be made to stop as soon as possible the evils, of the allotment act. Such active men as. Senator King of Utah, Senator Frazier of North Dakota, Senator Wheeler of Montana, and Congress­man Howard became well-known in-connection with the ,need for a.change of Indian policy. Accordingly, these men with many others working in connection with the newly appointed Commissioner, John Collier, drafted a bill and later pre­sented it in both houses of Congress. The final step of making this bill a law was made on June 18, 1934 when President Roosevelt signed what was called the "Y/heeler- Howard Indian Rights Bill." — It has more recently been called the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

This Act in its main structures is simple. It declares and provides that Indian land losses must stop.It requires that timber, grass, soil, and water on Indian lands must be preserved. It starts the re-vesting of landless Indians with land for subsistence. It provides for the advanced schooling of Indians. It gives, to Indians a preference in their own Indian Service employment. It establishes a credit fund and system for Indian agriculture and industry. It gives to the tribes a moderate amount of local self-government. It gives to the tribes a veto- power. over the leasing or disposal of their natural re­sources and over the expenditure of their moneys held in

36

government trust, and an advisory status' with respect to Federal appropriations for Indian benefit. Finally, it gives to organized tribes the right to go into court to defend their own civil and property rights.

The sections of the Act dealing with land are of course of extreme importance. Most important are those sections that tend to stop the leaks through which trust lands have been seeping out of Indian ownership. The Clapp Act of 1906 permitted any Indian of mixed blood or any Indian who would swear that he was a mixed blood Indian, to receive a fee patent for his lands. A majority of these Indians then sold their lands. The new; act provides that these restricted lands are to be sold or transferred only to the Indian tribe or Tribal corporation from which the land was derived.

The so-called surplus lands after the allotments were all made, of course, lost to the Indians a great amount of their lands forever. However there is one section of the new act that provides that all 'surplus’1 lands still in the hands of the government are to be returned to the tribe from which they were taken, if that portion has sufficient value to make it worthwhile. '

Section 5 provides that the Secretary may buy or acquire in any desireable way land within or without the present reservations including trust-or otherwise re­stricted allotments whether, the allottee be living or

37

deceased, for the purpose of providing land for the In­dians. The Treasurer is authorized to pay two million dollars annually from.regular funds for the purchase of such lands.

The,land still owned by the Indians is of course of little value in its raw state. It takes a great amount of money-and credit for any farmer to become successful. Realizing this fact Congress provided in Section 10 a re­volving fund of ten million dollars-from which the Secretary may make loans to Indian chartered corporations who in turn are to give credit to individual members.

. A special Indian Civil Service is also established within the Act. This is for the purpose of allowing qualified Indians to fill positions within the service.This does not mean that an Indian can secure the job just because he is an Indian but it does provide that he will get it if qualified. In the past they have been too often excluded in the management of their own personal and tribal affairs. The Forestry Division gives a fine, example of this fact. It is a work ideally fitted to the Indian’s love of nature and his outdoor temperament. In a total personnel of 149, there are only 31 Indians, all, of whom are minor employees, and none of whom fill any of the higher adminis- trative or technical posts. This is an extraordinary fact

17. Collier, John, A Birdseye View of Indian PolicyHistoric and Contemporary. C.S.I.S. Monograph #110969. :

38

when It is considered, for example, that the entire Phil­ippine Forest Service, with the exception of the Director, is manned by technically trained Filipinos and that many other colonial forest services systematically train native foresters.

The fundamental cause of this general failure to develop an intelligent and competent Indian personnel for the administration of the Indians * own services goes back to the old idea that the Indian is incompetent and inferior. Probably the causes more nearly are that, first, we have failed to adopt any systematic educational program whereby Indians could be trained for these services and, second, the requirement that Indians must compete with whites in the regular Civil Service examinations for Indian Service which are worked out with white education and white pro­fessionalism in view. Section 11 provides for an annual appropriation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for loans to Indians for the purpose of paying tuition and other expenses for vocational and higher education. This will of course make it possible for many promising young Indians to attend schools of agriculture> medicine, nursing, business, forestry, etc. -

. In an extreme effort to decentralize the power that has been in Washington, the Act in Sections 16 and 17 pro­vides that any tribe accepting the provisions of the Act may organize for its common welfare, and may adopt an

39

appropriate constitution and bylaws. In addition to all powers vested in the tribe or in its tribal council by existing law, the constitution adopted must give the tribe or council the rights and powers: To employ legal counsel;to prevent the sale, disposition, lease, or encumbrance of tribal lands, and the Secretary is required to submit to them all estimates for the budget in the way of appropria­tions before such estimates go to the Bureau of the Budget and Congress.

John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, says of the Indians in regard to the Act, "It is in their power to make of the new Act a foundation stone and an opened door to a great future." ^

The entire Act has of course been criticized from' every angle. It has been said that the Indian communities would revert back to conditions found among them when the white man first came to this country: ancient customs,rites, traditions, and ceremonies were to be restored and the Indians maintained as a sort of a national monument. Others said that high protective walls were to be placed around the reservations and the Indians were to live as a nation within a nation. In defense of the new Indian policy which includes the Reorganization Act, Mr. Collier says,

"It has three chief objectives:

18. Collier, John, Indians At Work, July 1, 1934; p. 1

40

Economic rehabilitation of the Indians, principally on the land.Organization of the Indian tribes for managing their own affairs.Civic and cultural freedom and opportunity for the Indians.

"This policy, expressed in these objectives, has been misunderstood by some and misrepresented by others as a radical policy. But it is not a radical policy. On the contrary, it is a conservative policy. It goes back to the simple principle of treating Indians as normal human beings capable of working out a normal adjustment to and a satisfy­ing life within the framework of American civili­zation, yet maintaining the best of their own cul­ture and racial idiosyncracies."^The object of all work with the Indians must in

general take one of two courses: either to merge into thesocial and economic life of the prevailing civilizationas developed by the whites or to live in the presence ofthat civilization at least in accordance with a minimumstandard of health and decency. There are Indians for bothgroups, but for the most part the solution will be solvedsooner if the slower method is used. There are those thatare proud of their race and are devoted to their cultureand mode of living and have no desire to be as the whiteman is. They wish to remain distinctly Indian and insofaras possible escape from the ever increasing contact withwhite civilization. This group is supported by-many whiteswho find real merit in their art, music, form of government

19. Collier, John, A Birdseye View of Indian Policy Historic and Contemporary. KJ.S.I.S. Honograoh #110969

41

and other things that may be covered by the broad term culture. Of course. It would be Impossible as well as Im­practical to set the Indian up in a glass case apart from all contacts with whites. It does seem, however, that if he is ever to make good it must first come from a confidence within himself that he does have certain assets well worth preserving and not from a spirit of feeling that everything of his in the past was wrong, Man evolution rather than a transformation."

It stands to reason that those who planned and worked for the enaction of each of the general policies mentioned were in general very sincere in their beliefs in regard to the solution of the problem. Due to this fact it is un­reasonable to expect everything of an old "regime" to be wrong when new policies are planned and considered.

The present administration has been accused of at­tempting to forget the fact that the Indians in most cases are living right up against white civilization and are saying that assimilation is taboo. It is true that they do not feel it to be the solution to the problem but neither is it cast aside in its entirety. On the other hand they do not feel that the policy of clinging to heritage will bring the solution. If in some way the two ideas may be brought together, assimilation and heritage, then a great advance step will have been taken. This is the policy of the present administration. Mr. Collier says, "Because

42

heritage has been neglected assimilation has failed.---The Indian must not choose assimilation and not heritage, but must ardently and skillfully choose both.

The Indian Service is recognizing to an increasing degree that its work in all fields is primarily educational The one most heartening fact about the entire new outlook of the Indian problem, if only one were to be named, is that there is a definite and conscientious attempt to under stand the Indian’s philosophy of life and to admit all the good possible in the native culture.

20. Collier, John, Indians At Work. Editorial p. 5, Feb. 1, 1936.— ~

CHAPTER IV

INDIAN EDUCATION OF YESTERDAYMany years ago Carlyle wrote that the best educated

man Is the one who has touched life. In the most places.Indian education before the time of the white man

actually touched life in a great many ways. It was neces­sary for this to be true for they must plan to meet life as it was. .They lived in a static society.and when taught to secure food, clothing, shelter, and protection .in a certain way they could be reasonably sure that these methods would continue in practice throughout their life time.

The savage child established habits which would help him to meet existing conditions; modern schools try to help the child to cope with new and changing conditions.

Imitation and memory were tho chief ways of primitive learning. Primitive people always have been a conserva­tive group; they trust the beaten path. Always the advice of the savage to the young is, "Follow the customs of your father." At its best, primitive education was an effective tool for accomplishing desired results. It established habits that helped the growing child survive amid the con­ditions of his life. This was no small accomplishment.

The strongest emphasis in their training was placed

44

on the actual needs of the prospective adult. It was In­tensely practical, for vocational and physical education were the chief interests. They did not think of educa­tion as a gradual growth and change. It was more of a transformation than it was a growth. Many savage tribes followed processes or ceremonies which they firmly be­lieved changed a child into an adult within a few days or weeks. They realized that by some means the child must change but how it was to take place or what laws governed it they did not know. The process practised usually ended with a great ceremony which varied with the tribes.Usually they attempted some physical transformation. This was done by bathing, sweating, and scrubbing the body with sand. Cuts were made with a knife to let the "child" blood out. This was followed by endurance tests. After all this it was believed that the child had suddenly be­come a new and mature individual whose education had been completed and he was welcomed back into the tribe as an adult.

A Sioux Indian gives us the following account of his training.

"My uncle who educated me up to the time I was fifteen years old, was a strict disciplinarian and a good teacher. When I left the tepee in the morning, he would say: 'Hakadah, look closely toeverything you see;1 and at evening on my return he used to catechise me for an hour or so. ‘On what side of the tree is the lighter colored bark? On which side do they have the most regular

45

branches? How do you know .there are fish in yonder lake? * ’Because they jump out of the water at mid-day.’ He would smile at my super­ficial reply. ’What do you think of the little pebbles grouped together under the shallow water? What made the little curved marks in the sandy bottom and the little sand banks?Where do you find the fish-eating birds? Have the inlet and the outlet of a lake anything to do with the question?’"21After an examination of this kind would come in­

struction in the arts of hunting. But this was the easiest part of a boy's education. All boys were expect­ed to endure hardship without complaint. In savage warfare a young man must of course, be an athlete and used to undergoing all sorts of privations. He must be able to go without food and water for two or three days - without displaying any weakness, or to run for a day and a night without rest. He must be able to traverse a pathless wild forest or plain without losing his way either in the day or night time.

Evidence has been gathered by the Anthropology Department of the University of California that shows the Indians of the Pacific Coast in pre-historic days had a definite educational system. Mr. E. M. Loeb of the Department gives the report which comes from a long study of conditions in the Southern Eel River District of the

21. Beard, Charles A., "Before Schools Began", Journal of Rational Education Association, Vol. 25, Hov. IW54,p. 201. ~

46

Yurki, Kato, and V/ailaki groups.Their entire system of education, which was on a reg­

ular basis, was on the order of two secret societies. The group Which was of an elementary nature consisted of boys only. It was probably introduced into America at least ten thousand years ago. It dealt with the ceremonials, dances, rituals, and songs. All boys must pass rigid tests in all branches of this training before becoming initiated as members of the group.

The more advanced training was on a co-educatlonal basis, boys at about eighteen years of age and the girls earlier. The chief of the tribe was the head of the school and he cared for the boys while his wife cared for the girls. The content of the training was of a professional nature, and consisted of the rituals of kukou or "big head" re­ligion which all men and women doctors and all prospective chiefs had to know. They were also instructed in the mysterious art of healing the sick.

As with most of the other tribes the Pima youth re­ceived much of his education by the method of imitation and apprenticeship. In addition to this, careful oral instruc­tion was given by the elders in other matters, including moral and religious. While yet quite young the Pima lad was taken up in his father’s arms at daybreak and held there while he was told something of the mysteries of the

22. Loeb, E. K., "Primitive Indian Education," School andSociety. Vol. 32, 1930, p. 356.

47

great Sun. As he grew too big to be held in the arms he had to sit up straight and pay strict attention while his father or guardian lectured to him on the proper conduct of a Pima warrior and citizen.

He learned that he must be ever alert and ready with bow and arrows to repel the attacks of the Apaches. Day by day this lesson was taught by precept and example until it became the strongest habit of the youth to be ready and watchful. He was taught to either go on scout duty or to look after the livestock before he partook of his morning meal. It was well for him to accustom himself to cold food and to that which remained after the family had satis­fied their hunger, for it was only by the practice ofsparing diets that.he could hope to be fit for the long

23war trail into the barren Apache stronghold.The father gave advice such as,

"If you are wounded in battle don’t make a great outcry like a child. Pull out the arrow and slip away or if hard stricken, die with a silent throat. Fight not at all with your comrades; preserve your strength for the combat with the Apaches. Then, if brave, will come to you high honor. Be unselfish or you will not be welcome at the fire of the friendly. The selfish man is lonely and his un­tended fire dies.”

Thus the lad was taught fortitude, courage, forbearance, unselfishness, industry— qualities that might well be adapted to the changed conditions and used today, for where

23. Russel, Frank, 26th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. ItiO. ~

48

can higher ideals and aims than these be found?Every youth when about twenty years old was told the

ancient traditions. For four days,and four nights he re­mained with the keeper of the legends who was usually a man selected as tribal historian because of possessing a good memory.

The girls were not lacking in vocational training. The mothers often neglected their daughters and left the full responsibility to the father. His words were,'

"Stay at home with your mother, watch and help -her handle the pots, the mortar, and metate, that you may know how to prepare the seeds of Pimeria. Keep the fire alive and have wood ever ready. See that the drinking olla is never empty. If you do these things well, you will not gad about after you are married and leave your hearth vacant so that your husband may come home to find the fire out or to put it out- to your discomfiture; for it is the office of man to kindle the fire but the part of woman to keep.it burning." .The Indian did not lack for a system of education

and neither did he lack for something to teach. It isdoubtful if any primitive people in the world have everexceeded them in child training. It began with theearliest moments of infant understanding and the entiresystem of their social order was indelibly interwoventhroughout their whole life. But, as this education wasonly for the actual needs of tho prospective adult in astatic society it is of little value in a dynamic societywhere the problems of tomorrow are not known.

49

White Man Attempts Indian Education White man’s efforts to bring education to Indian

youths began with the earliest missionaries, who carried with them into the wilderness not only the Bible but also the textbook. We find evidence of an early interest in Indian education in Harvard’s charter of 1650, which dedicated the college to "the education of English and Indian youth - in knowledge and godlyness." The second building at Harvard, erected in 1654, was called "the Indian College." There were some Indian undergrad­uates at Harvard in those early days but only one seems to have*taken the bachelor’s degree, a Caleb Cheeshateau- muck, in 1665. DartSmouth’s royal charter, granted In 1769, provided

"that there would be a college erected in our said Province of Hew Hampshire, by the name of Darts- mouth College, for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian Tribes of this land, in reading, writing and all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civil­izing and Christianizing children of pagans as well as in all liberal Arts and sciences, and also the English youth and any other."24

Even while the Revolution was in progress Congress voted money for the training of Indian boys at Dartsmouth.

The first definite appropriation for Indian education was made by the government in 1819. The President directed that the plan of education, in addition to the usual sub-

24. Lindquist, G. E. E. The Red Man in the United States, p. 39.

50

jects, should include "the practical knowledge of the mode of agriculture and such of the. mechanic arts as are suited to the condition of the Indian." He also contemplated that the girls should be instructed in "spinning, weaving, and sewing." For many, years these appropriations were distrib­uted among various mission schools for their support. The system was different in various localities. In some places the missions owned the schools and the Indian Bureau paid the teachers. Sometimes the government supplied the plant and the church boards the service and in other places the . government paid tuition for Indian pupils at a mission school.

There was no supervision over either the-processes or results. The frequent good results were due to devoted and fine individuals rather than the encouragement they re­ceived from outside, either moral or financial.

As government appropriations grew, the American theory of the division between church and state was to have a new field of application. The conviction gained power that the schools supported by public moneys should be wholly govern­mental institutions; while the mission schools should be completely supported and managed by their churches.

The change dragged out for many years, but in time It was accomplished. Some churches agreed whole-heartedly while others wero inclined to hold on to the bitter end.The latter group even went so far as to take it to the

51

Supreme Court. - The Court ruled that Congress could refuse aid to the religious bodies but that the Indian tribes, if they had funds held in trust for them by the government could request that such funds be appropriated for use in the mission schools. Accordingly today, a score or more denominational institutions where Indian tribal funds are received each year for the support and education of the pupils are found. . ; ,

When this change came in regard to Indian education there was the problem of what general system to use; Among many of the tribes, particularly among the plains Indians, it was felt that boarding schools were the only feasible method. An Indian village was too movable. - The children might come to school one day and be far removed bn the next. Besides this, the teachers felt that a few hours of instruction were too few to cope with the Influence of the tepee life, the dirt, the idleness, and the incitements to savage ways. -

The first appropriation for "a definite government ed­ucational system came in 1877 and was ^20,000. This educa­tional program was launched on the theory that the Indian child should be removed from his tribal life and environ­ment and brought up like a white child under civilized

pcconditions. '

25. Seymour, Flora Warren, The Story of the Red Man,p. 352.

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In 1878 Lieutenant R. H. Pratt brought to Hampton Institute, Virginia, a group of Indians from the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa reservations in the Indian territory who had been held as prisoners of war in the South. Here they were taught the more practical subjects and the experiment appeared to be very successful. Y/lth the permission of the authorities Pratt visited the Sioux reservations and en­rolled a number of students, both boys and girls.

At Carlisle, Pennsylvania was an old army barracks which had been idle for many years due to the lack of In­dian war troubles. Lieutenant Pratt was enthusiastic over his new scheme" of Indian education. Eventually the idle barracks at Carlisle and Pratt got together. He borrowed the place and opened an Indian boarding school. He has since become known as the "father" of the government Indian school system. His slogan wherever he went was, "Get the Indians away from the reservation into civilization, and when you get him there, keep him."

Carlisle gave its pupils far more than formal educa­tion- -training in industry and various ways for a more useful and worthy livelihood. It is only to be expected that the influence of Carlisle with all its enthusiasm was far reaching. Today one may trace in the adult Indians of many tribes the good results of this institution.

For a time the example of Carlisle set legislators and administrators to establishing non-reservation

53

boarding schools throughout the country. Within five years after Carlisle was established other non-reservation board­ing schools were built at Salem, Oregon; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Genoa, Nebraska; Chiloco, Oklahoma; and the Haskell Institute at Lawrence, Kansas. The theory was that the Indian would be so attracted by his environment, that, after his education was completed, he would be contented to set­tle down in some white community and never return to his own people. It was a fine idea, except that it failed to take account of certain facts such as primitive instincts and natural affections. It did not work out in practice. Next, came a surge of thought for boarding schools on the reservations where parents could send their children and still see.them at occasional intervals.

We had just passed through the Civil War and Recon­struction Days and there was a high tide of nationalism.The general idea was that everything in America was good and so make the Indian a part of the nation. The great Allotment Act had just been passed, which along with boarding school education caused the Commissioner to write in 1891,--

"Perhaps one of the most mischievous fallacies is the assumption that because the Anglo-Saxon race has been centuries in developing its present proud civilization it is therefore necessary that the same length of time should be consumed by the Indians in passing through the successive stages of economic and social evolution. Time as an element in human progress is relative, not ab­solute. Indian children taken away from a life which represents Anglo-Saxon barbarism of more

54

than a thousand years ago may, if placed at an early age in proper relations with modern civilization, enter very largely into partici­pation of the best results of nineteenth cen­tury life. A good school may thus bridge over for them the dreary chasm of a thousand yearsof tedious evolution."26The first Indian day school under the government among

the Pima Indians was opened,by Dr. Charles H. Cook in 1871. After eight years it was. changed to a boarding school and definitely located at Sacaton, the Pima Agency. In January 1888 the Tucson Indian Training School in Tucson was first opened by the Presbyterian Mission Board. This was and still remains the only Protestant boarding school for Pima and Papago children. It is co-educational.

Although many children attended day and public schools during this period nevertheless the boarding schools con­stituted the most prominent feature of Indian education.The number of schools and the number of children enrolled grew steadily until in 1931 there were eighty boarding schools with an enrollment of 25,000 pupils.

The problem arising out of this system of education of the returned student became appalling. To uproot a child from his natural environment without making any ef­fort to teach him how to adjust himself to a new environ­ment, and then send him back to the old, especially with a people at a stage of civilization where the influence of

26. Excerpt from Commissioner's Report of 1891, Indians at Work, March 15, 1937. p. 20.

55

the family and home would normally be all controlling, is to invite disaster.

Education of a native people by representatives of another culture is essentially a re-education or a re­conditioning process regardless of how it may be consider­ed or what may be attempted. When he gets to school he is taught by means of a language other than his own. He has already absorbed a great deal of the attitudes and sentiments of his parents and is a genuine student of his native culture. Suddenly he is put in an environment de­manding a readjustment of attitudes and sentiment, all of which is perplexing to him. Dr. Mekeel very ably states this fact. He says---

"-- With a white child, school is but a continuumof configurations and attitudes with which he is already partly familiar, and formal education is harmonized with his experiences outside the class­room. The fact is not properly appreciated that any integration the Indian child may attain as a human personality under our American system of education will unfit him for his own culture, and

. yet prevent him from a complete adjustment among white people. He will be a peg too square for a round hole, and too round for a square hole--a splendid misfit. His only chance for successful adjustment is either to complete identification with an American community or with his own. In the latter case, he would be throwing off his education and settling back into the configura­tions and sentiments first known in childhood; in the former, he would struggle to assume alien patterns and attitudes among an alien race— a •long process of approximation and readjustment entailing discouragements, failures, economic hardships, and social aloneness."27

27. Mekeel, H. Scudder,"An Anthropologist1s Observations on Indian Educat ion,*”' Prbgre*s"s"Ive "Education /March ~ 1936, p. 157.

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We have learned in all education, and the lesson needs to be especially applied in regard to the Indian, that no educational process is complete with the mere finishing of a certain school or course of study, that for young people the public educational organization must make the transi­tion from school to outside as carefully as possible, only gradually releasing youth to undertake full responsibili­ties. Young Indian children have no choice but to fit into the reservation life as well as possible but they usually remain maladjusted. They may attempt to go out into the cities and earn a living in competition with white men, but the difficulties are usually too great.There are no friends, no place in which they can find help to compare with the way the government has helped them. They have no Harlem like the negro, no Chinatown like the Chinese, and are truly strangers in their own land. Accordingly they drift back to the reservations.

The enthusiasm for the Allotment Act of 1887 and boarding school education rode high for a number of years but results were not forthcoming as promised and the Indian problem was still unsolved, there were those who were groping for something better. As early as 1907 Commissioner Leupp stated his opinion of the day school, lie said,--

"The more I see of the influence of well- educated day-schools upon both the young and the old Indians, the more confirmed am I in my be­lief that the day-school system far outstrips

57

any other in stimulating interest among Indians at large— parents as well as children— and in

• presenting our civilization to them in the most natural and attractive way......

"Should your attendance at your day-schools be adversely affected by drawing on the district : for children to fill the boarding school, you will remember, from this time on, that the day- schools are to be maintained without any refer­ence to their effect on the boarding school at­tendance; and where day-schools have been estab­lished for the Indians of any particular district, or where there are public schools within easy distance, the wishes of the parents and their preference for day, public, or mission schoolsshall have first consideration."28The boarding schools and-Lieutenant Pratt’s slogan

were to die hard. The Kerriam Survey of 1928 gave the last blow to boarding school education. Since that time there has been a right about face in educational policy. Dr. Vi. Carson Ryan, Jr. was appointed Director of Indian Education and he set about, immediately to develop more .. adequate day and public school facilities.

A number of boarding schools have been closed, others have been turned into consolidated day schools, still others are accepting only orphan children or children with no school facilities. A number of the larger non­reservation schools such as Haskell, Chilloco, and Santa Fe, are adapting their programs to give specialized in­struction in skilled trades of agriculture, arts and crafts, or community leadership.

2 8 . "Official Correspondence of Commissioner Leupp," Indians At Work, Dec. 15, 1954, p. 25.

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Except for sections where good public schools are open to Indians, the government day schools offer the best op­portunity available at the present time for the education of Indian youth. The chief advantage of the day school for Indians, whether maintained by the national government or by the state, is that it leaves the child in the home en­vironment , where he belongs. In this way not - only doe s the home retain;its rightful place in the whole educational process, but whatever worthwhile changes the school under­takes, to make are soon reflected in the home. The;boy or girl from boarding school goes back to a home often un­changed from what it was, and the resulting gulf-between parents and children is usually more or less tragic. In the day school, on the other hand, the youngster is in the home and community far more than in the school. Some, con­nection is bound to exist between the home and the school, frequently constant and close connection; ideas of cleanli­ness, better homekeeping, better standards of living, have their influence almost immediately in the home and commu­nity. : , ... : ■ - ; - ■

The elimination of the boarding school does not in itself bring value to the problem but only in so far as the day school definitely becomes a part of the community. It was, however, the first step to be taken in reconstruc­tion of the Indian education program in terms of basic needs. Without doubt some boarding schools will have a

59

place in the final plan. A great deal has already been done in studying the actual situation around many of these schools. Many have already become specialized schools for the vocations and special institution's for the care of orphans, etc. -

• Along with the new policy of day schools has come the increased effort on the part of the government in regard to public schools.: Nearly 60,000 Indian children attendschools of this kind.' The Federal government is attemnt-- • • . .. . . - ~ ■ - - - • ... . ; ... _ .... . ' "ing in three ways-to improve the quality of education of­fered by these public schools-where Indian children are enrolled. In the first place tuition paid to many dis­tricts. These payments are to substitute for Indian- owned lands which are non-taxable. As a second method of securing better public school education for Indian children, the Johnson O ’Malley Act authorizes the Federal government to enter into a contract with the states under provisions of which the state will take over the education of Indian children. The Secretary of Interior has already made such contracts with the States of Washington and California. Finally, Congress has appropriated large sums for the betterment of public school plants in which Indian children are enrolled.

Indian education that sought to educate the youth away from the reservation is definitely of the past. .At present it is attempting to develop those attitudes, appreciations,

60

and skills that are essential for creative living in one’s own community. If this is accomplished, then he will be the master of his environment rather than its victim as has been true of so many periods in the past since the white man entered the field of Indian education. Dr.Willard:W.'Beatty, Director of Education Office of Indian Affairs, says of the present policy,—

"The Indian schools have at times concentrated on vocational education leading toward urban employ­ment instead of preparing the young Indians to make the maximum use of their own assets. The present policy is to prepare Indian young people for econom­ic self-sufficiency in the use of the Individual and tribal assets

"The present administration believes that a distinctive and valuable contribution to our national culture will come through the preserva­tion of the best elements of these indigenous cultures. For this reason more and more emphasis is being given in our Indian schools to:the study of Indian history, Indian customs, and Indian arts and crafts.1129 29

29. Beatty, Willard W., "Revising Ideas about Indians,'1 Educational Digest, Vol. Ill March, 1938, p. 21.

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TABLE I. INDIAN SCHOOL POPULATION AND ENROLLMENT DURING FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 50, 1957“ (Arizona)___________ ___Indian

children6-18

Totalnumber

Public

Federal Non-Res. boardingFederalRes.boardingFederalday

Mission private and ! State:day & boarding

Sanatorium & Special

Not enroll­ed in any school

Informa­tion not available

Under 6 and over 18

Total U.S. 101,544 79,356 48,105 12,283 6,014 5,334 7,016 604 8,561 1,531 2,157Total Arizona 12,036 7,888 495 5,700 1,863 584 1,188 58 3,729 480 259Navajo 6,120 2,609 55 955 1,279 154 167 1 3,218 336 63Hopi 887 818 5 603 31 128 50 1 74 . 28Fort Apache 775 747 43. 257 286 30 130 1 43 - 27Mohave 189 175 123 19 14 15 4 - 2 14 6Pima 1,553 1,386 61 939 37 108 194 47 107 52 41Fort McDowell 28 28 1 23 4Gila Crossing 150 151 69 27 52 3 2Maricopa 68 62 1 39 9 13 4 1Sacaton 944 802 52 586 22 16 128 18 98 49 24Salt River 363 343 27 222 ' 15 52 1 26 5 3 14San Carlos 875 616 18 309 63 36 186 4 214 18Sells 1,236 1,208 108 546 41 58 452 3 44 30 61Colorado River 266 220 152 19 22 23 4 3 44 7Truxton Canyon 201 182 ■- • 51 92 34 4 1 17 5^Department of Interior; Office Of Indian Affairs.

CHAPTER.V '

AH EDUCATION TO MEET THE NEEDS”A school that draws its curriculum vitally

. out of the society it - serves occupies a position in relation to human progress unparalleled by any institution in society."50During the last few-years the belief that this state­

ment holds a world of educational wealth is receiving widespread recognition. If in some v/ay the needs of the individuals may be recognized and satisfied then the de- . mands of our broader social order will be cared for.

Though this is true in regard to all education, it is especially true in the education of people situated as are the American Indians. Methods and standards must be adapted to individual abilities, interests, and needs. A standard course of study, routine classroom methods, traditional types of schools, even if they were adequately supplied--and they are not— would not solve the problem. Not every effort of past administrations for the education of the Indian has been a failure. In fact, it seems that from many angles of the question a very fine job has been accomplished. Of course, much that was done was of an experimental nature and even if it were for the best at 30

30. Hefferman, Helen. "In Current Curricular Trends in Elementary Education," 9th Yearbook, California Elementary School Principals Association May, 1937, p. 22, Progressive Education, Feb. 1938, p. 118.

62

that time, that does not make it the procedure for them today. The question becomes, what type of education will best fit the Indians to cope with their own environment and to adjust their changing culture to a dominant white cul­ture that is also changing?

Indian youth faces real problems and if they can be helped by an intelligent, understanding, and sympathetic group of white friends to realise the reality of these problems, then they will have gone a long way in the solu­tion of the Indian question. They must not feel anything but pride in that they are Indians, They must have con­fidence, courage, and a pride in their history, lore, and culture .* Unless they can lift up their faces in confidence and joy all the education in the world will be useless in facing their problems. They must in some way be given the ability to take with pride the best of their culture of the past and look to the future for an integration of this into the world of science and industry.

In the past it has been said to the Indian child in acts which spoke louder than words: "You should be ashamed of yourself for being an Indian.” V/e cut off his long hair to mako him look more like the uninteresting con­ventional white; we took off his soft moccasins and sub­stituted the hard leather shoes made in federal prisons; we punished him when he spoke in his native language and

65

forced him to forget if (and all the time v/e were saying that an educated person should be bilingual): we taught him about the Mayflower, and the geography of South America or Australia— and in many Instances we so thoroughly did our job that there was nothing for the Indian child to do but hang his head in shame.

A great deal has been written recently in publications of all kinds about the conflicts of modern youth in ad­justing to the changing social order. It is seldom noted that Indian youth must not only adjust themselves to the conflicts within white civilization, but find that white civilisation is in even greater conflict with their native culture.

Indian young people find it not easy to decide what to do when they find that customs of the white man are directly opposed to what their own people have done for hundreds of years. For example, with many of the plains Indians, the measures of leadership have for centuries been personal bravery and individual generosity. White man’s culture has deprived him of all opportunity to dis­play his bravery, and in competition with the profit system of his white neighbors, his generosity becomes a liability rather than an asset.

The problem is, and especially for the youth, if he is to succeed in adjusting to white civilization he must betray all of the finer feelings which would distinguish

64

him as a member of his own race. 'The white man has never failed to condemn patterns of

Indian conduct which are not in accord with his ideas, but has failed to substitute any social pressure to enforce ideals set up by the white race. Such a policy has produced in many instances a lawless generation owing allegiance to neither the traditions of their own race, nor the laws of the country of their adoption.

Rural Schools of MexicoThe Indian problem is not one that should be of in­

terest to citizens of United States alone for if a solution can be worked out in co-operation with other nations that have similar problems, then, all are to be helped. In fact, the problem is small in comparison with many others, for there are only about three hundred thousand persons that are reported as Indians. Because of this, there should be an honest study of policies in other nations, Mexico in particular, due to its fine efforts and its closeness geographically.

In recent years Mexico has been attempting to cope with her problem through educational channels.

Mexico’s Indians were generally speaking reduced to peonage a thousand years before Cortez. The magnificence which they must have possessed, as tribes north of the Rio Grande still do, had been surrendered to aristocratic, warrior, and priestly castes, very long ago. So they

65

endured to the revolutions of the last hundred years, until in 1910 the eight million Indians reconquered Mexico. Of these eight million Indians more than one million even today speak only their Indian language.

Poverty has been the ally of Mexico’s rural schools and rural development. It forced Mexico, in developing a new educational system for the Indians, to use attraction in place of compulsion, to cast upon local groups the main burden of work. Poverty became itself creative, through the use which the revolutionary Mexico made of it. ■

Dr. Saenz says that Mexican education in its social aspect is,

"an effort to weave a civilization out of the varied cultural strands that comprise our Mexico. The school of the past— the school of the Three R ’s, of fragmentary, bookish, rote-learning— has been dis­qualified. In its place we have set up an institu­tion which is bravely attempting a plan for integrated civilization which includes children and adults as well. Let the people create..... Children as well as adults must do creative work— but more so the adults than the little ones, for the adults have need of self-expression, and they have in theirkeeping the virtue of a creative tradition.... Letus respect the traditions, the beliefs and the cus­toms of our people. In dealing with them let us not use force but humility. Let us be ready to com­promise , remembering that the Mexican ideal and the Mexican standard are in the process of formation."31The life of primitive peoples centers around four

cardinal principles, even as civilization in its more complex levels does. They are: How to preserve life; 31

31. Saenz, Moises. "The School and Culture," Progressive Education, Feb. 1932, p. 99.

66

how to earn one’s living; how to establish a home and family; and how to enjoy life. If this is true, then the essential educational program should be built around them. This seems to be the base for this rural school of Mexico. It is not a part of the community but instead it is the community.: It exists only incidentally as a school, it is a promotion center for a multitude of activities dealing with life and how to live it in the community. Thus, the teacher becomes the community leader.

There can be no doubt as to the special importance of these activities in Mexico for our Indians. Mexico is, in the first place overwhelmingly Indian, and the record of what the Indian race can do under any and all circumstances is there to read. But the main point is that Mexico is making a valiant effort to give rural people a real oppor­tunity. These schools are not only class-rooms but they include a variety of activities. The adults are found using the school almost as much as the children.

The Indian's Philosophy of LifeTo make any educational system effective the teacher

must have an intimate knowledge of the past life and ex­periences of her pupils, which includes a knowledge of homes and home life from which they come. This is partic­ularly true of the education of a orimitive people. It goes even further than this, for the teacher should have as thorough a knowledge as possible of the actual

67

philosophy of life of the people with whom work "is being attempted. Some one has said, ’'to know the real Indian is to enter into his mind". This is of course almost an im­possibility^ but with an honest study and a sincere atti­tude there will be a much better understanding of the real Indian than just the casual person that passes judgment from but one viewpoint.

Throughout the history of the Office of Indian Affairs it has managed almost perfectly in not using the results of the labors of the Bureau of American Ethnology. If such practical findings were used more by those working with the Indians it is very probable that there would be a much better understanding. The reason for the establishment of the Ethnology Bureau is found in the following statement.

"From its inception the Government has had before it problems arising from the presence within its do­main, as dependent wards, of more than 300,000 aborigines. In the main the difficulties encountered in solving these problems arose from a lack of know­ledge of the distribution, numbers, relationships, and languages of the tribes, and a real appreciation of their character, culture status, needs, and possibilities. It was recognized that a knowledge of these elements lies at the very foundation of intelligent administration and thus one of the im­portant objects in organizing the Bureau of Ethnology was that of obtaining such knowledge of the tribes as would enable the several branches of the Govern­ment to know and appreciate the aboriginal popula­tion, and that at the same time would enable the people generally to give intelligent administration sympathetic support."32

32. Handbook of American Indians, Part 1, p. 172,Indians at Work, July 1, 1934. p. 11.

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Evory people develops Its own philosophy of life.This grows partly from its geographic environment and the’ world of Mature with which it is acquainted; the hunters of the forests will not have the same outlook as those by the sea, or as the mountaineers, or as the farmers of the plains region. Partly it grows from human associations and traditions; for ways of looking at things not only change as ideas pass from people to people, but they develop from" tho history and experiences of every community. Underneath all this is human nature, which brings all men into common understandings, and forms the foundation of a universal human philosophy.

The Indians living in America long before the white, formed their own philosophies of man and nature, and ex­pressed them in their own thought and action. To understand the Indian it is necessary to know something of his tradi­tions and human contacts and what the natural world about meant to him. To find this one must study his history, traditions, beliefs, arts, rituals, and symbols.

In brief, a few of the symbols that are more common to all Indian tribes and their philosophies will now be - given.

Tho Peace Pipe has been one of the most impressive symbols of the Indian race. The men who smoke the pipe wish to signify thoir faith in the Powers which preside over Maturo. This is shown in tho blowing of the smoke to

69

the four quarters of the Earth. There is an extreme de­pendence upon Nature by people who live in such close con­tact with its natural forces and gifts. Nothing is too minute to carry significance or to be read as a symbol of Nature's meaning. -

The number four is often thought of as the lucky number for Indians. It too, has a meaning. In his think­ing there are four ages: infancy, youth, maturity, and theold ago. These four ages are pictured by many Indians as being Four Hills. To surmount those Hills one must have the aid of the Powers which preside over all Nature.

A third symbol or trait in their philosophy is the stress upon manhool and self-reliance; upon courage and endurance as a man's best means of meeting and fulfillinghis destiny.33

It should not be hard for anyone attempting to work with people of those beliefs to get an appreciation of tho real value of a thorough study of such traits and symbols in planning an education that is suited to their •needs.

Dr. Mekeel says in regard to the education of a native people, - .

"It is difficult, if not impossible, for one race to have a full and complete understanding of . another because of differences in the patterns of thought and behavior. For this reason there must

33. Alexander, H. B. "The Indians Philosophy of Life",Indians At Work, May 15, 1935, p. 8.

70

bo much study and research before a satisfactory system of education can be imposed on people of an alien culture....Each administration of a native people is based upon a definite philosophy, im­plicit or explicit, into which the people fit.Such ethnic groups may be regarded as a potential labor supply, as pagans largely in need of Christianity, as destitute people needing an economic base, as an alien people whose cultural values are worth preserving, and so on. Obviously the educational goals will vary according to the way in which the native peoples are regarded.".... "White administration should understand and utilize the native culture in the educational system. Social institutions, reinforced as they are by emotional drives, cannot be damned out of existence, nor can natives be completely accul- turated through formal education."34

; ; - . ' :■ f ■■ . :

It has boon true in the past that Indian education has gone along the general theory that the child must be up-rooted from everything that is Indian and 'planted* in white civilization. This is not true of the present and neither should it be. The first sentence of the chapter on education in the Merriam Survey is, "The most fundamental nood in Indian education is a change in point of view."34 35 36

"You can not adapt a new faith or a new cul­ture to a people unless you know their background. You can not build a successful, self-respecting society on an inferiority complex."36

34. "An Anthropologist's Observations on Indian Education,"Progressive Education, March 1936, pp. 151 and 159.

35. Merriam and Associates. The Problem of Indian Admin-istratlon, p. 346.

36. Cole, Fay C. "Relation of Anthropology to IndianAffairs", Science, Vol. 71, p. 249 March 1930.

71

Tho School and Its AlmsTho day school offers the best opportunity available

at present to furnish schooling to Indian children and at the same timo build up a needed home and community education. In the day school the youngster is at home far more than in school, because of this some connection is bound to exist between the home and the school, which of course is healthful for both. If the classroom work is effective, much of the benefit which the children re­ceive in their education is carried into their homes and benefits the entire family. Lessons in the practice of personal cleanliness may be cited as an example. Other instances may be mentioned in the home gardens, poultry work, and the performance of household duties carried out at thoir homes, under the direction of the classroom teacher in tho school.

"Wo have learned that removing the child from his environment and exposing him during the period of his youth to a pattern of life differing widely from that of his home has failed utterly to lift the level of Indian existence, or to supply to our Indian tribes an adequate leadership in their struggle for adaptation. Gradually it has become apparent any real education or real adjustment of the American Indian to the life about him must take place within the life of tho Indian community.Indian children are now seen to possess that same right to live at home and participate in a school experience centering around the home that is assumed to bo tho birthright of every American youth."37 37

37. Beatty, V/. W., "Education For The Whole Community." Indians At Work, Juno 15, 1936, p. 28.

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Indian schools must become the center of Indian activities. They must be "The House Of The People".The workers must in some way.bring about Indian activity of the adult as well as the child. Commissioner Collier says, "Indian schools should be made into instruments by • which Indians--children and adultS'— explore, understand, and master thoir environment."^®

The day schools offer real opportunities to break away from the more or less formalized type of education. The "Three R ’s" may bo correlated with life training through prevocational activities, home making activities, health activities, and cultural activities. The importance of reading, writing, and arithmetic can not be underestimated, but it must be remembered that these subjects have but little value unless in some way they are made usable and continued in use during the entire life time of the pupil. The more ability to read, for instance, has little value unless the ability is used In after life. Reading for pleasure is of course, an asset. Reading for information is a greater asset. However, ability to read and interpret printed instructions and to put into operation the instruc­tions in life improvement is a much greater asset.

There are those who think that the mere ability to acquire a proscribed course of study is a sign of the

38. Editorial, Indians At Work, Feb. 1, 1934, p. 2.

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ability to bo educated. But, what of that! Education is far more than that,— "Education is the total of one1sreactions to all one’s experiences."39

"It is historically a mistake to say, as the old Indian School Course of Study did, that ’from primitive times reading, writing, and arithmetic have formed the foundation of education.’ They have been tho tools undoubtedly, but long before they were used as tools there was education of the most important sort. The real goals of education are not ’reading, writing, and arith­metic’— not even teaching Indians to speak English, though that is important— but sound health, both mental and physical, good citizen­ship in the sense of an understanding participa­tion in community life, ability to earn one’s own living honestly and efficiently in a socially worthwhile vocation, comfortable and desirable home and family life, and good character. These are tho real aims of education; reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, and other subjects or skills are only useful to. the extent that they contribute directly or indirectly to these funda­mental objectives."40 •Indian schools must plan to equip boys and girls to

take up life in their own communities, there to be con­structive citizens. Since it is the early years of the lives of those children that are really the primary determinant in tho development of their lives and since it is the parents that make these conditions then the school should exist for the family and community as one of its primary purposes.

There are certain factors that must be considered in the education of such groups as we have for our problem. 39 40

39. Wann, Harry A., Social Planning in a Community, p. 97.40. Moriam, Lewis, The Problem of Indian Administration,

p. 373.

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"Tho first essential is to relate the type of education to the local conditions, including not only the geography and economics of the people, but also their social organization and traditional ideas. The second is to relate it to the ideal which you. have for their future development. And the third is to relate it to the general culture of tho world."41

"Education of a native people must take into consideration three factors,— the background or previous cultural environment, the present social and economic condition, and the goals the admin­istrators wish to attain."42In an Indian Education Conference in Washington Mr.

A. C. Monahan said,"The objective of the educational program must

be kept constantly in mind: To give the Indianchildren the best that education can provide, having in mind their needs, their abilities, their background and their futures. The work must be based on the best pedagogical principles, but it „ must bo put into application mixed with a very liberal dose of ’horse sense«.43Formal education for the Indians has been tried and

has failed, in its place there must be one that is definitely usable. The course of study can not be, that is, as it is usually thought of. It must be only as suggestion rather than as prescription. The needs of one community may be far different from those of another. For example, schools for the Papago Indians should stress 41 42 * * 45

41. Huxley, Julian, "The Education of Primitive People",Progressive Education, p. 122. Vol. IX Feb. 1932.

42. Mo keel. Scuddor H., "An Anthropologists ObservationsOn Indian Education," Progressive Education Vol.XIVMarch 1936, p. 151. — — — — '

45. Indian Education-Conference, Indians At Work, Jan. 15, 1935, p. 20. “

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stock raising probably more than any other one thing while the Pima schools have a far different problem in,their irrigated land use.

Fundamental ProcessesAs ideal as it would be to get away from these so-

called fundamentals, it is Impossible; they are absolutely necessary. Much drill work is necessary and regardless of the contentions of certain groups all experiments have failed or have been named something else in order to give the word a more pleasant sound, in attempting to avoid this foundation work.

However, it does seem that "two birds should be killed with one stone" while doing this drill work.. There are innumerable individual and community problems about which the drill could be formed. For example, the readers used in most Indian schools are those designed for white children. These books are full of fairy stories familiar to the white child, but certainly very uninteresting to tho Indian child. This is only one of many Instances where material should be adapted to the group with which work is being done. It would be far more valuable if these children were to read, write, and figure about things that actually matter.

"Ultra-progressive contentions not-withstend­ing , tho elementary curriculum must make provision for drill, but it should be far more functional

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than is usually the caso at present."44 English should be taught with the greater emphasis

upon the oral phase of it. This is due to the fact that for the most part they will have but little use for written English after school days. However, it does not mean that there is no place for written English in their lives. The ability to road and appreciate good reading should play too large a part for this to be true. There should be more stress on the actual doing rather than too much time spent on the "rules and whys" of the language.

HealthHealth Education has been defined as,"the sum of experiences in school and elsewhere which favorably influence habits, attitudes, and knowledges relating to individual, community, and racial health."45Health education is without doubt the most important

need in the schools. Before the white man came there is every evidence that the Indian race was one of the health­iest in the world. But, he had neither a natural nor an acquired immunity to the diseases that were brought to him, and this fact has almost entirely been ignored.Today tho fact is recognised that the death rate among 44 45

44. Bruner, Herbert E., "Some Requirements of the Elemon-tary School Curr.", Tho Education Digest, Vol. 5,Feb. 1938, p. 55. ” .. ~ —

45. Cowell, Dr. C. C ., "Physical Education and Its Relationship in the High School", Journal of Health and Physical Education, Vol. 4, I,larch 1933, p. 34.

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the Indians is very high, among young Indian children it is nearly twice that of the children of the general popula­tion. The deaths due to tuberculosis in each thousand of the estimated Indian population are seven times those for the rest of the United States. Tuberculosis, trachoma, syphilis, and infant mortality are all major problems in the matter of Indian health.

The prevalence of tuberculosis among the Indians is ten times greater than among the white population. Twenty- six surveys were conducted on as many reservations, the findings were; of 19,359 Indians of all ages that were examined 9.5 percent wore found to have the disease. Re­ports of one entire year show that 51,635 of. the estimated 500,000 Indians of the United States were treated for this dread disease. Ho one knows how many more that needed treatment did not report.

In March 1955 arrangements were made for a survey in the Papago tribe. The San Xavier Sanatorium was used as a base with groups of Indians from five points being tested. Five hundred and thirty Indians, including school children and adults, were tested with tuberculin. This group came from the San Xavier Sanatorium, the San Xavier Mission, Soils Agency, Santa Rosa, and the Tucson Indian Training School. About 00 percent of the entire group were positive to the test, meaning,' they presented evidence of at sometime In their life that they had been infected.

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Even in the children under ten years of age 60 percent were found to bo positive. This test of course does notshow whether the infection is serious or not, and it wasnecessary to follow it up with X-Ray. Of the 530 tested results wore as follows: 314 showed no evidence of thedisease in the chest; 59 showed only old evidence, which did not affect the health; 8 showed shadows of the disease beginning; 20 in early stages, and 28 in advanced stagesof the disease. Those figures show a very high rate forthe disease but there is one encouraging fact about it, that is, the lesions as seen in the film were of a chronic type, showing good resistance. This suggests that with early diagnosis and proper care these Indians should . overcome the disease' about as easily as the v/hite peo­ple.46

Trachoma is another of the major problems. It often becomes so bad as to cause blindness. This disease was probably unknown to the early Indian but today it is scattered throughout all the reservations. The Jicarilla- Apaches in Mew Mexico are affected with it only to the extent of 2 percent while the Mavajos are affected as high as 50 percent. It is a contagious disease and is spread by the transfer of secretion from an infected eye to one that is healthy. A definite cure has not been

46. Townsend,IhJ.5,‘‘Tuberculosis Among Indians," Indiansat Work, Doc. 1, 1935, p. 35.

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found for this infection but a number of preventives and aids to tho cure have been found which may be administered through tho school vory largely. .

Syphilis is a disease that even less has been done about. ’’Education in social hygiene, within and without the schools and hospitals, is as yet almost wholly a thing of tho futuro."^ A survey was made at the Zuni Pueblo,New Mexico; of 080--adults given the ’Vasserman test 124 or 18.63 percent reacted positively.

Infant mortality is known to be very high, however it is something that is very hard to make a survey of among the raco for there are so many that do not report births much loss go to a hospital. There is little concern in regard to this among tho Indians themselves for it is much as a field nurse among the Papagos recently'said, "they take this high mortality rate as:the hand of God in con­trolling tho nizo of tho family." Of 1,815 Indian women that did submit to the hospitals for medical treatment at tho time of child-birth a study was made by Dr. Blanche Sterling. Her report shows that' within - the first w'eek after birth of the"1,429 infants born alive, 38 died, 16 of whom died the first day.48 : : . 47 48

47. Roport of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1934, p. 92.48. Public Health Records, Vol. 48. No. 20. May 19, 1933

p. 5*22 Reprint #1572— Maternal, Eotal, and NeonatalMortality Among 1815 Hospitalized American Indians.

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Moot reports and surveys do not attribute their dis­turbing findings to extreme poverty but to bad health habits, lack of early diagnosis and treatment, and lack of health education.

The genuine community school should play a large part in the health program of the community. In fact, the en­tire program should center in and about the school. Health education can not bo thought of as any one school subject or a specific skill, but it is a way of living. The child must bo allowed to practice good health in every respect and in the practice of these habits he must see that they answer some emotional drive or desire.

A number of Indian schools are giving the Red Cross courses in First Aid and Home Hygiene. This is a fine ad­vance stop and should be encouraged. Safety Education is beginning to receive a place in the thought of educators and should continue to got much attention.

Even in the lower "grades health can be made very real through dramatization, reading, spelling, and oral English lessons based on simple health problems. Health posters and a continual follow up of their meaning give another outlet for roal health education.

"Health is a way of living— mentally, emotion­ally, socially, and physically and as such can not bo taught except to a very limited extent as a special subject,--but must grow out of all child

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experiences in school, home, and community."49

HomemakingOne of the early errors of"the Indian Service was to

base its education in home economics and healthful living on the assumption that middle-class American standards could be duplicated in the Indian home. The standards of the Indian homo are not up to this level yet and will not be for some time. It has been proven unwise to attempt to educate too far above the actual standard, for advance­ment of any group of people in civilization must come as a gradual growth rather than by long leaps.

The present education of girls in the Indian schools seems intended primarily as preparation for homemaking rather than for wage earning. Preparation for homemaking is by far the most important task for the schools so far as numbers are concerned. Since nearly all girls at some time become housewives, training in homemaking is likely to be useful eventually to everyone.

Homomaking should center around the actual home and its problems. It may consist of a number of specific . fields, ouch as: diet and foods: preparing and servingmealsj budget; practical buying; child care; home nursing; practical sewing; homo laundering; home sanitation; gar-

49. Hartley, Horshel 0., "Constructing a Health Education Curriculum," Journal of Health and Physical Education. Vol. 4, Sept. 1935, p. '32'.

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doning. All such training must take into consideration the Indian heritage, his present standard of living, and the highest standard possible for him to attain within his present or expected social and economic position.

Many of those home problems can be the actual life of the school room. There is no reason at all why such things that roally matter aro not used more to read, write, and figure about.

Miss Margaret Parker of the Tucson Indian Training School has developed an Indian Cook Book in her sixth grade "English" class. The same children have illustrated it by using linoleum block prints which they made in their art class. Sample pages of this booklet may be found on pages 85 and 84. One may actually speak of ’value received’ in work of this kind for there is almost no limit to what a teacher may do, once a real interest has been aroused. Thus, home activities and problems become those of the school.

The only occupation open to a large number of the girls who stop school or to those who finish the number of years of schooling offered by the average boarding school is domestic service. They are not educated for homemaking under primitive conditions and so domestic service is about the only thing they have to look forward to until they "revert" to tho reservation to bo married. This type of occupation is all right for some but care must be taken

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I

SAHUAHO CACTUS SYRUPTake two bucketfuls of the fruit from the sahuaro

cactus. Have two pans, a wooden spoon, and a dish towel.Build up your fire and put a bucket on the fire to

heat, two times as large as your amount of fruit. Take the skin off and get the inside of the fruit, put this into tho bucket over the fire and leave until all the juice comoo out of it. Don't let it boil over.

Take it off of the fire and squeeze all the juice out. Wash the bucket, put it back over the fire with the juice in it. Stand by with your wooden spoon and keep it from boiling over.

Watch it until it gets like any other syrup; do not lot it scorch. Take it off and let it cool before you put into bottles.

-- Annie Raphael

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INDIAN TORTILLAS2 quarts of flour •}: cup of lard 1 quart of water 4 teaspoonsful of salt 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Sift thp flour well, add the baking powder and salt and sift again. Add lard and mix well before adding water. Knead the dough until it is similar to chewing gum. Let set ten minutes.

Pinch tho dough off into round ball about the size of a hen’s egg. Flip this ball of dough back and forth on the hands and pat it occasionally until it is very round and thin. Give it a pull on the edges every now and then. Bake right on tho top of a hot stove being careful that there are no wrinkles on the edges and watch carefully to keep it from burning. Turn it over and brown on both sides.

Serve, either hot or cold, as bread.-- Bernice Edwards

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that all are not fitted for it. Domestic work, though not essentially degrading, carries a social stigma. This may be one reason why it is a morally hazardous occupation. Certainly among Indians a reason for the moral hazard is the social isolation imposed by the conditions of the work. This condition is partially cared for by the government.The Indian Service employs several field and outing matrons who spend part or all their time in selecting homes suit­able to the girls and in looking out in various ways for their welfare.

Arts and Crafts"That which is fundamental in an art or a

handicraft is possessed of a beauty eternal, and nothing that the white man has introduced since his arrival has made less beautiful those arts of which the Indian has been peculiarlythe master."50There is much significant symbolism in the Indian art.

It is the product of an early culture peculiar to the various Indian tribes and is acknowledged by anthropolo­gists and artists to be worthy of preservation.

Much has been said and written in the last few years in regard to a definite revival of Indian arts and crafts. Along with this movement has come a great amount of so- called relief for the Indian which has given him more money than over before and has taken the economic reason for

50. Beatty, V/. V/., "Greatest of Indian Resources,"Indians At Work, May 1, 1936, p. 27.

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for keeping alive his crafts. To the Indian, his crafts were only a source of livelihood and now for that purpose they are not needed. It is doubtful as to whether they will ever again be the only source of income for the family, certainly they should not, at least in most of the families. They will, however, give a definite avocation and a small Income.

There are those individuals in every school that have unique art ability. Those with such ability should be given every opportunity necessary to develop it.

Indian designs, which are only one phase of the art work, can become extremely interesting and useful to the teacher if she will only make use of them. Acquaintance with the designs will help to give one an appreciation of the cultural background of the Indians and may awaken a wholesome race pride in the student. The designs lend themselves to use in the embroidery of house furnishings and dress accessories as well as to the native handicrafts. For example, geometric designs offer effective motifs for dress trimmings, pockotbooks embroidered in wool, hooked rugs, and for woven squares and bags. Use of the designs may lead to a wide awake interest in the lives of the pre­historic Indians and in the studies that continue to reveal added facts relative to the early life of a gifted race.

The government Indian boarding school at Santa Fe,How Mexico is giving special attention to the teaching of

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the arts and crafts. Outstanding work has come from this institution in the last few years. The Office of Indian Affairs has also created an Indian Arts and Crafts Board for the express purpose of encouraging such work and help­ing to create a ready market for the supply.

Most of the native industries utilize raw materials that are to be obtained at little or no monetary cost, such as roods, roots, osiers, grasses, corn husks, and other vegetable fibre, clay, the skins of wild animals, and native woods and minerals. Most of these things have little or. no market value. The total value is created by the Indians’ labor. The time spent in this labor need not be taken from any other useful occupation. The selling price of the article is therefore as a rule clear gain, the return for the labor that would not otherwise have been market­able. It is difficult to see how some Indians are ever to achieve a reasonably satisfactory standard of living in their present locations without the fostering and develop­ment of these native industries.

Social StudiesIn the past there has been little or no effort to

teach these people to govern their own affairs. The schools gave only that material that would be of interest and benefit to white children. The real things that In­dians wore experiencing and that had everyday significance wore considered not uplifting for the assimilation theory.

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Until very recent years the old-time "Civil Govern­ment" long since abandoned in better American public schools wan taught. Needless to say, it was meaningless to the Indian children. They need their own tribal, social, and civic life used as the basis for an understanding of their place in modern society. Interesting opportunity abounds for Indian geography as a substitute approach for the formal geography of continents, oceans, and urban locations. Indian history may also be used as a means of understanding other history and for its. own Importance in helping Indians understand the past and future of their own people. There could be no better course in Economics on a secondary school level than one which starts with the land utilization problem of the particular tribe in rela­tion to the whole world problem of economic adjustment. Community problems should offer excellent material for class discussions and thus create a better understanding of the real problems of life and their relation to citizen­ship. Certainly a thorough study and discussion of the new tribal constitution and its Importance to the present and future lives of the members of the tribe will help them to realize their obligations "as citizens of that particular group.

An Interesting and worthwhile project was recently carried on by Miss Angelina Badger of the Tucson Indian Training School in an activity program with fourth-grade

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children.Duo to the lack of material on Indian history of the

grade lovol desired, the question arose, why not write a history of our own? Hero was an excellent opportunity for English, spoiling, geography, and art as well as history.

The completed history book is spiral bound and written on drawing paper twelve inches by eighteen inches. At the beginning of each chapter the children have painted a picture illustrating the written work. On the outside is a pen and ink Indian design drawn by one of the boys.

"When the class had finished writing a chapter in the history, the best stories were chosen, and parts taken from them to make a chapter for the big history.

"When the parts had been chosen one child took the books, sometimes two, sometimes four or more, and put them together in.one paper. - Another nut it in manuscript writing in the big book. There*was opportunity for every child to have some part in it. Some did the best work with the drawing and painting and their pictures were used; some wrote the best stories, and their stories were used; others ex­celled in manuscript writing and some, who were represented in no other way, went over the writing with India ink or measured and drew lines on the paper in pencil so the writing would be straight."51The following are examples of the same story from

two different children and the way it was finally put intotheir book from parts taken from the work of several.

The Pinas and Papagos. •;The Pinas and Papagos lived here a long time ago.

They didn't livo in houses like they do now. They lived 51

51. Badger, Angoline, An Activity Program For Indian Children, p. 76.

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in puoblos. They had an enemy that came and destroyed their puoblos. They could not build them again because there were not many of them. Because so many of the people were killed when their enemies came to fight them.

Some of them think that the Hohokams lived here and the Fimas were their enemy, that came and destroyed their pueblos.

--- Listine PabloIndians of Arizona.

The Indians wore the first people who lived in Arizona. They lived in pueblos. The Pimas and Papagos wore friends to everybody but the Apaches. When the Spanish people came, they saw the pueblos broken down to pieces. The Pimas called themselfs ’A a* tan* and they called the river *Akimalt.*

The Apaches were enemies of the Pimas and Papagos. Sometimes if the Pimas got one of the Apaches they took care of them. Sometimes they even married them. Some­times when the Apaches had a chance they burned the Pima house. And sometimes they stole their horses.

--- — Johnson Saraficio. The Early Pimas and Papagos.

The first people in Arizona were the Indians. The first Indians that lived in Arizona lived in pueblos. We don’t know who built the puoblos, but we think the Hohokams, which means "All Gone People", built the pueblos and the Pimas and Papagos came and destroyed the Hohokams.

The Pimas and Papagos lived here when the Spanish people came. They wore living in round houses.

The Spanish people called them Pimas and Papagos.They also called the Papagos, "Bean People”, and the "Desert People". The Pimas called themselves "A a ’ tan" which moans "people". The Pimas and Papagos were kind to the white people and gave them food; they had one onemy whom they fought. That enemy was the Apaches.

When the history was completed at the end of the year, it had the following chapters: The Early Pimas andPapagos-- Contact With The White People-- Foods of theDesert-- Tho Pima Round House-— Pottery Making---The Homesof Today-- Indians at Work---Indians at Play— -Legends.

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Education became a reality to this group of children for they v/ero writing, speaking, drawing, and working about things that actually mattered to their people and to them­selves .

Caro must be taken to teach these children the value of their own race and its achievements and possibilities. This is essential as a basis for any social and economic advance. They must have pride in their own race if they are to make a sound and permanent adjustment to modern life.

Leisure TimeThe most world-wide of all "problems" is probably that

of the use of leisure. In the last thirty years the whole western world has come to recognize the use of leisure as one of the most pressing and urgent of problems. As yet little has been done about it although much thought is being given to the problem. Partially the reason lies in the fact of the commercialization of recreation and with the breakdown of the old neighborhood bonds.

Indian schools have done very little in regard to this problem. About all that has been done has been in the way of athletic activities. For the most part, as these activ­ities go at the present time they are the worst offenders in isolating young people from their responsibilities and problems. One views with alarm the large number of Indian young men coming from our colleges with majors in physical education and so few with majors in Government, Sociology,

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Soil Conservation, Agriculture and the like. -Extra-curricular activities are tremendously -worth­

while . Probably the most valuable experiences of the school are the group experiences coming from these activ­ities. Varsity and intra-mural sports, music and social affairs, dramatics and hobby clubs are worthwhile. Hot only do they provide recreations and skills for creative leisure but they provide close contacts with associates and compel one to learn to get along with others, and to adapt one's self to their interests, likes, and dislikes. But if these activities get in the way and demand the first attention of the students away from their obligations and responsibilities then they are dangerous.

"If our Indian young men who have 'majored in ; physical education could understand tha£ there can

be no physical education without better housing and better living conditions— that principles of ' hygiene are far more important than principles of the "double wing back" and that balanced diets for children produce stronger men than balanced lines— there would bo need for everyone of them to work with their people."52Indians scorn to cling to thoir old group activities

the longest. This must be because they like to come together in large groups for all kinds of celebrations.This habit or custom has at times been extremely hard on their economic situation. It often matters little if the crops need caro or the stock need attention at the time of 52

52. McCaskill, Dr. J. C., "The Indian School and the Young Man," Indians At Work, Hov. 15, 1955, p. 45.

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a celebration within going distance. Because of this love to gather in groups at almost any kind of a meeting the day school should provide local recreation activities for the smaller groups within their educational areas.. If recreational features could be introduced generally along with local industrial activities, then the Indians might cease to fool so great an urge to congregate in large bands far from the responsibilities of home. -

Higher EducationThe earlier belief that a high-school program should

be offered to Indian young people which gave the tradi­tional academic opportunities preparatory to the American college is gradually giving way to a more realistic ap­proach.

"When the Allotment Act first became law it was the hope to give such training as would rapidly assimilate those young.people into the industrial fabric of the country. Such a policy was not well founded. Indians like whites, generally go home after their school life has been completed and make a home in the general vicin­ity of their parental home. The general aim of the Act and the training given the young people did not go to­gether.

With the successful replacement of the elementary boarding schools with elementary day schools, enrolment has increased rapidly and the tendency to remain in school

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for a longer period of time has also increased. This tendency to remain in school longer is also very noticeable with the second and third generation children that many schools have today.

With a definite need for higher grades for greater numbers has come the question, of what shall the work con­sist? Surely it should not be definitely planned as a college-preparatory station, although those few who show ability and inclination to enter college should be prepared for such. In general these high schools should be geared directly to the economic program of the community of which they are a part. The education offered must assist the student to become a well rounded citizen in school and out of school, now and later.

In speaking of a program of secondary education Dr.W. Carson Ryan, Jr. says,—

"A good modern program of youth education (11 Secondary Education") would cover at least the following fields of modern living (character implications included).

1. Health; physical education, recreation.2. Social Sciences; Economics, Sociology,

Political Science, etc.3. Natural Sciences; Biology, Chemistry, Physics,

Mathematics, etc.4. Fine Arts; Art, Music, Dramatics, etc.5. Language and Literature; Vernacular and Foreign6. Practical Arts; Agriculture, Industry, Home

Economics, Crafts."The chief difference between a good modern

school and a conventional high school is that in the conventional high school one gets a few formal­ized courses in mathematics, language, and science

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an a main program with only incidental attention to the other elements, whereas in the program indicated above first things come first--that is, there is an attempt at a basic approach through enriched living rather than through mere intellec­tual courses of an academic type.53

It is perfectly possible to use the usual labels that are indicated in this list and at the same to provide a real education for our Indian youth. There could be no better course in Economics than one that starts with the land utilisation problem of the tribe in relation to the whole world problem of economic adjustment. A course in Sociol­ogy might well attempt to explore tribal life, the present program of Indian organization, and the relation of these to the- other forms of present-day social organizations.The problems of the soil could easily be given in a course in Chemistry or Physics. There should be no trouble at all in adapting the Practical Arts to the actual needs of the community.

Little evidence has been shown that Indian youth have the inclination to take college training. "Little more than one per cent of tho Indian high-school population has ex- hibited any desire to go on to college." However the in­creasing number of boys and girls that are now found in the high schools will without doubt increase the number 53 54

53. "Can We Create A Real Youth Education in IndianSchools," Indians At V/ork, June 1, 1955, p. 14.

54. Beatty, V/. W. / '"Government Plans for Indian Education,"V/omon and Missions, Sept. 1937, Vol. XIV, p. 184.

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that soolc tho more advanced training. This should be encouraged, not, however, by setting up special institu­tions of higher learning for Indians, but by furnishing adequate secondary schooling and scholarship and loan aids where necessary for Indian students. The Reorganization Act is attempting to care for this by a revolving loan fund for this purpose. A number of these loans have been made to worthy young men and women who are taking advanced work and plan to return to their reservations or away from them to take their place in life.

A large part of the advanced training for Indian youth should be of a specialized type. They should be trained as soon as possible for the work they wish to take up be­fore too many discouragements may come to distract. This should be and is tho place that many of the old boarding schools are filling. The school at Santa Fe, New Mexico is giving special emphasis on the arts and crafts and the Chilocco school in Oklahoma is specializing in Agriculture.

The aim of the old boarding schools was to give training for a definite vocation that would take them to the urban industrial districts. It was apparently for­gotten that it has been extremely hard for many white men to maintain a desirable standard of living in these localities. Also that the Indians tend to return to their parental homos. The idea of land allotments and vocational training other than land use did not go together. There

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should be definite training for the use of the land. Even in tho elementary schools there is much that could be done along this line such as, gardens, grazing, planting, and tho like. For tho upper grades, especially at certain seasons of the year it would be very advantageous to build much of the school curriculum around land use and those things that would go with it for that immediate community.

Homes and Home ImprovementHomos and home improvement constitute an important

place in the responsibilities of the school. In general, Indian homes are of a very low grade. These housing condi­tions are conducive to bad health. Education in housekeep­ing and sanitation has not preceded far enough so that the Indians living in those homes practice ventilation and domestic cleanliness. Both in the primitive dwellings and in the majority of more or less permanent homes which in some places have replaced them, there is great overcrowding so that all members of the family are exposed to any disease that develops, and it is virtually impossible in any way even partially to isolate a person suffering from a communicable disease.

Meriam and his associates made a few generalizations in regard to the housing conditions:

1. The dirt floor is still the rule in primitive homes2. The most primitive structures are better ventilated

than tho great majority of the dwellings that have replaced

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them.3. Font houses need far more light than they now

afford. .4. The arbor, a roof of brush or.reeds supported on

upright posts is worthy of preservation for health reasons.5. The building of the present houses has probably

not improved sanitary conditions for they are used for a longer period of time than.the primitive dwelling which was often destroyed by fire after a serious sickness or death.

6. Room congestion is extremely serious.55Before a great improvement can be expected in Indian

health and social conditions their homes must be improved. The school stands in an advantageous position-to aid in helping in this situation. First, there must be an educa­tion in the need and desire for a better home. Second, there must be training in the planning and building.of better homos and home improvements.

The writer who for a number of years has worked in the Tucson Indian Training School has attempted to give definite training in the more practical construction and repair of homes, by plan and by practice. At the presenttime plans are being drawn for the construction of a model• : •Indian homo. Caro is being taken that plans are not too elaborate but are at the same time a definite improvement

55. Feriam, Lewis, Problems Of Indian Administration, p. 556.

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over ovon tho better homes found on the reservation... Girls.as well as boys are making these plans. 7/hen completed, tho girls will go ahead and plan for the furnishings in the way of rugs, linens, curtains etc. In the sewing de­partment of the school they will make these furnishings using materials that are at hand and inexpensive. The boys will figure the c.ost of construction using native materialsas much as possible. As soon as this is done they willbuild tho home as a school project. Two of the floor plans:! ............. i ................ ; ̂ : ' / 1as drawn by these students are shown on'page!. 100. i

Tho same group of boys and girls have used this cot- tage as a theme topic in their English class. The follow- ;ing are quotations from some of these papers.--

"One of the improvements of the Indian tribes of | the Southwest is tho building of homes, in beauty and conditions. 1

I believe that modern homes should be built by all Indians to keep up with the world in style, for "wo” Indians aro a part of the world and therefore : we ought all to modernize our homes.

This now house that we students are planning to build next year may and will help us'to build homes 'like it in the future years. This house will cut :down cost and still be a good house to live in. It should also be built right so if we need more rooms addod in the future we would not have:it look like something that nobody would like to be proud of.

I beliovo that more Indians should build homes ; first and then buy other things instead of other things first and homes last." ' i

— Raymond Jackson ;"......Indians have been trying to make progress intheir homos. Their homes, compared with the homes

; their ancestors lived in, have improved.It Would do us boys and girls good to build a •;

house on the campus at a'ti little expense as possible ; ! and fix it as we would on the reservation. Boys

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Sleeping ServicePorch Porch

(To be addpd later)

Bedroom Kitchen

Living Room

-- Grace Lopez

Kitchen Porch(To be added

later)

- Living Room Bedroom

- Karvin JonesFloor plans of model Indian homes as drawn by Indian students.

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would learn how to make bricks, foundation of the house and how to get things with little money, but still make the house attractive and comfortable. Girls will be taught how to arrange furniture and make it attractive with few furnishings......”

———— Grace Lopes.

Adult and Community Education Mo educational program is complete that does not in­

clude efforts to reach adults as well as children. This is especially true with Indians, where the rate of illiteracy is high; where the economic betterment is largely dependent upon better agricultural methods; where health conditions aro serious, and where in the past the plan of education for the youth has tended to isolate the parent from the youth thus forcing an almost static condition among the adults.

The day school must provide for community activity in its plans and purposes. Adult education should as one of its most important objectives provide for the teaching of interdependence and the reliance of the people upon their own efforts. For generations these people have been misled along these lines.

All community organizations should be based on the principle of participation by Indians. The newly developed tribal councils on most of the. reservations should be among the best natural training schools for citizenship in the community. Due to the Indian innate desire for congre­gational meetings the formation of farm chapters, adult

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clubs of various kinds, and women's auxiliaries should meet with real success.

School MarksIn the past there has been much of teacher's and

administrator's time spent on the everlasting question of school marks. A great deal has been written on the subject, pro and con. After all, the whole system becomes extremely subjective and the student can easily say, "If that other teacher had given me my mark, it would have been different." Then too, the question arises what is the purpose of school marks and the answers are as varied as the marks.

For record and promotion purposes some form of the 5-point system is usually favored. For other purposes a more objective statement form is more practical. Recently this thought has been applied in the marking system of the school the writer is connected with and it has proven to be very popular with pupils, parents, and teachers. The following are illustrations of statements found in reports of this type.Frank, your work is a little below average in my class, I beliovo you can do better. Use your study periods to bettor advantage. -— — A. T.Your History work has been good, but Josephine, you ought to do excellent work.-- - L. L.Amelia, if your conduct were as good as your classwork I could be even more proud of you. — — A. M. P.Your work in my class is not as good as it should be because you do not like to be corrected, do not be your own worst enemy.--- A. T.

Your work in the Shop is very good, keep it up. -- L.M.C.Romomber we cannot always work at the desirable tasks; try to cultivate more interest in the undesirable duties.

——— L.M.C.Your attitude is fine, Mary. You are needing some extra help, come and make an appointment with me. --- L.M.C.Never be satisfied with average work when you have the ability to be "Tops'*. -- L. L.

Guidance and Follow-UpIndian young people, like all other young folks, are

faced today with bewildering economic and social changes. Those changes may mean opportunity for real accomplish­ment or they may spell failure. Much will depend on the relation of their interests and abilities to these changes. The school should accept the responsibility of helping to guide those young people into the right channels. This is of course a delicate task and certainly it should not be undertaken by someone who has a mere interest in the In­dian. Y/horo successful programs have been set up in the public school systems for guidance and placement it has been built around trained people who had charge of the . work.

The tost of education is the job. When school train­ing is over and the student is "on the job" will he be a success? The school to be occupying its full place in the community must not stop at tho giving of a formal education or at the giving of vocational training, but it must con­tinue through a wo11 organized follow-up program. If a

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boy has oloctod to become a farmer, the school could easily continue his training on his farm through sugges­tions and encouragement.

"The responsibility for his placement must rest in large part upon the school, for the school must continuously adapt its curriculum in terms of the demands of the community. Not till it faces the problem of placing its students will the school become sufficiently sensitive to these demands."56Education to meet the needs of Indians both young and

old must come from sound-thinking individuals who are ableto realise facts and conditions as they are and deal withthem in a sane and practical manner. This education mustof necessity coincide with the general purposes of theIndian policy that is being attempted.

The crying demand of democracy is that the school willinculcate desirable habits into those individuals it comesin contact with. If Indians are ever to acquire certainof those habits and through them be able to break away fromthe maternal "apron-strings" of the government, it must bethrough educational channels which give complete lessonsin health, citizenship, etc.

The "GOLDEN RULE" purpose of education has been statedas,-— "to teach pupils to do better the desirable activitiesthat they will perform anyway."5?

56. Beatty, V/. W., "The Test of Education Is the Job,"Indian Education, No. 26, March 1, 1938, p. 2.

57. Briggs, Thomas II., The Junior High School, p. 157.

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSIONSSince this paper is largely one of proposed policy the

conclusions can not be a statement of results, but rather they must be a summary of that proposed policy.

If the Indian is to be helped materially there must be a definite belief in the Indian, in that he is capable of taking his place in the world as is every other normal individual regardless of race. Largely through such an attitude on the part of those working with them there will be set up that certain pride of the individual and race that is necessary for success. They must be taught to face the facts of their present situation not as though it’were an impossible problem but with the fullest of expectations that they must and will help to pull themselves into a - higher standard of social and economic life. The Indian will rise to just that level that is expected of him. Be­cause of this there should be a genuine belief in him and his ability. They must be given the ability to take the best of their culture of the past and look to the future for an integration of this into the world of science and industry.

The day school must become the "house of the people". When this is true it will serve the community as well as

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the pupil. It is extremely hard to distinguish the needs of the pupil from those of the community, for the pupil is and will in all probability continue to be a part of that community. The curriculum of such a school must be built around the main purpose of a more usable and practical education,— a living education.

Whatever is done for and with the Indians should be based on the general policy of participation. Everyone learns by doing. In the past there has been too much done for them; instead of allowing and urging them into com­plete responsibility, they have been handled as though they wore children. It has been claimed for the present policy that it aims at this very point, that is, decentra­lization of power in the Indian Service with participation of the Indian in the management of his own affairs.

The present policy of the Office of Indian Affairs is certainly a step in advance. It has been built around the Reorganisation Act of 1934 which is the general outcome of a number of surveys and reports of Indian affairs, the Merlam survey of 1928 being the most outstanding. Dr. Byron Cummings of the University of Arizona recently stated his opinion to the writer in regard to this new Indian policy as being, in general, good, although there is evidence that it is being pushed too rapidly for the good of the Indian. Views differ widely in what of the old culture is good and should be preserved. Personally the writer can

not agree with the revival of the old pagan dances and religions in a Christian America. It would sound ridicu­lous if it wore suggested that the white race should go back and gather up the old static culture. Just so, the Indian must go forward realizing-that progress can never be made if he is found and remains in a glass case.

If those working with the Indians can appreciate that their task is a long and slow one extending over many years and that the culture of any group cannot be quickly ex­pelled out of existence there will be cause for more op­timism. The only way is to take them as they are with what they have and patiently guide and slowly build,-having faith that in the fullness of time devoted and intelligent service will bring results.

"Those whose -interesting lot it is to be con­cerned with the education of primitive peoples are much more likely to make a success of their job if they put no limit to the improvement which can eventually be effected in them* by education, but realize that education is a social process which can only oxert its proper effect cumula­tively after a series of generations, and must have its own orderly and not too rapid processof development."58

58. Huxley, Julian, ."The Education of Primitive People," Progressive Education, Vol. IX Feb. 1932, p. 122.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Books1. Badgor, Angoline

An Activity Program for Indian Children.Thesis In.A. University of Colorado, Boulder, 1937.

2. Beals, Ralph L.Material Culture of the Pima, Papago, and Western apache." “ ~~

U. S'. Dept. of Interior, National Park Service, Field Division of Education, Berkeley, Calif. 1934.

3. Briggs, Thomas H.The Junior High School.'Houghton Miflln Co., New York, 1920.

•/4. Colton, Mary Russel F.Art for the Schools of the Southwest. An Outline for Public and Indian Schools. "

Northern Arizona society of Science and Art. 1934.5. Dellenbaugh, Frederick S.

The North Americans of Yesterday.G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1906.

6. Foreman, GrantIndian Removal.University of Oklahoma Press, 1932.

7. Lindquist, G. E. E.The Red Man in the United States.G. ll. Doran, New York, 1928.

8. McCaskill, Joseph C.The Boys1 Adviser in the Government Boarding Schools For Indians. ~ ' — ' ~ ' " ....... , -Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kansas. 1934.

9. Meriam, Lewis and AssociatesThe Problem of Indian Administration. .The John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 1928.

10. Robinson, Will H.Under Turquoise Skies.The McMiIlian Co., New York, 1928.

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11. Russell, Frank26th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. "United. States Government Printing Office, Washington,D. C. 1908.

12. Seymour, Flora WarrenThe Story of the Red Man.Longmans, Green and Go. New York, 1929.

13. Verrill, A. HyattOur Indians.0. P. Putnam’s Sons, Hew York, 1935.

14. Wilkinson, John F.■ The Papago Indians and their Education.Thesis, M. A.,' University of Arizona, 1935.

15. V/issler, ClarkNorth American Indians of the Plains.American Museum of Natural History, Hew York, 1912.

B. Periodicals16. Beard, Charles A.

"Before School Began."Journal of N. E, A.,Vol. 23, p. 201.

17. Beatty, Willard V/."Revising Ideas about Indians."Educational Digest, March 1938, p. 21.

18. Beatty, Willard W."The Test of Education is the Job."Indian Education. No. 26, March 1, 1938, p. 2.

19. Beatty, Willard W."Government Plans for Indian Education."Women and Missions. Vol. 14, Sept. 1937, p. 184.

20. Bruner, Herbert B."Some Requirements of the Elementary School Curriculum" The Educational Digest. Vol. 3, Feb. 1938, p. 55.

21. Cole, Fay C."Relation of Anthropology to Indian Affairs."Science. Vol. 71, March 1930, p. 249.

22. Collier, John. EditorIndians At Work.Office of Indian Affairs. Sept. 1933--Mar. 1938.

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25. Cowell, Dr. C. C.I!Physical Education and It’s Relationships in the High School."

Journal of Health and Physical Education. Vol. 4,Mar. iy3o$ p. 34.

•24. Hartley, Her she 1 0."Constructing a Health Education Curriculum."Journal of Health and Physical Education.Vol. 4, Sept. 1953, p. i32.

25. Hefferman, Helen"In Current Curricular Treads in Elementary Education" Progressive Education. Feb. 1938, p. 118.

26. Huxley, Julian"The Education of Primitive People."Progressive Education. Vol. 9 Feb. 1932, p. 122.

27. Loeb, E. M.."Primitive Indian Education."School and Society, Vol. 32, p. 356.

28. Mekeel, H. Scudder"An Anthropologist’s Observations on Indian Education" Progressive Education. March 1936, pp. 151, 157, 159.

29. Saenz, l/ioises"The School and Culture."Progressive Education. Feb. 1932, p. 99.

50. ’Vann, Harry P."Social Planning in a Community."Progressive Education. Feb. 1938

31. "A Birdseye View of Indian Policy Historic andContemporary."Office of Indian Affairs. ;'-1109G9.

32. Athapascan Family"Excerpt from Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico."

Bulletin #30, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1910.33. "Education of Indian Children."

Excerpt From the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior. 1937 Office of Indian Affairs.

34. "Excerpt from the Annual Report of the Commissionerof Indian Affairs," 1934.Office of Indian Affairs.

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35. "Facts About the New Indian Reorganization Act."Office of Indian Affairs. #90027.

36. Table 3, Indian School Population and Enrollment.Department of Interior, Office of Indian Affairs.

37. United States Public Health Service."Maternal, Petal, and Neonatal Mortality Among 1815 Hospitalized American Indians."Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.

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