Third Session. Thursday Morning, October 22, 1903. The Conference met at ten o'clock, and Mr. Smiley introduced ex-Secretary Long as President of the Conference. Ex-Secretary Long then took the chair, and was greeted with applause. can Ex-Secretary LONG. As I went through the agony of Mr. Smiley's introduction, an agony which only a modest man appreciate, I thought that Sam Weller's question, which occurred to him with regard to learning the alphabet, might occur to you,— whether it is worth while to go through so much to get so little. I am reminded of a story which I read in a religious newspaperI would not refer to any other here-of a lady of great wealth who was spending the winter in Paris, and had her portrait painted by one of the most distinguished artists in France. She had many sittings, but he would not let her see the portrait until it was finished. When at last he unveiled it before her gaze a look of uncertainty and bewilderment came over her face. The artist, disappointed, said, "Zee lady doesn't like zee picture?" "Like it," she said, "it's the most beautiful face I ever saw! Whose is it?" Now I begin, and you know what the first words of a presiding officer always are; they are words either of self-depreciation, which I will not utter if you won't, or of thanks, which I will if you will. Beginning again, therefore, and this time I do it most sincerely, I thank you for the honor you have done me in asking me to preside at a Conference which is made up of such earnest and high-minded people, which has become a most beneficent national influence, and the work of which is recognized the whole country over as the work of a wise benevolence. There are many things which conduce to the reputation which the Lake Mohonk Conference has attained, and among them we must not forget the very beautiful surroundings in which its meetings are held,-this family roof where the principles of equal rights are taught in very deed and fact, and where the charm of a sober, sweet life, combined with all the delights that nature or personal hospitality can afford, mark it among the most mentally and physically healthful resorts of the world. I share with you great interest in this work in which you are engaged in behalf of our Indians, and I share still more in the liberality with which you extend that work to all dependent people, recognizing that here you carry out the family idea, to which I have said the hotel itself is consecrated, the one family of our common human brotherhood. We are all dependents, and you recognize that fact by your generosity toward all, by the liberality with which you include all denominations, people of all ways of thinking, representatives of all the varieties of our national and local life. I began my interest in this work many years ago, when, as Mr. Davis and Mr. Wood and some others remember, we were much interested in Boston over the treatment of the Poncas. From that day onward the good work has gone on of promoting the welfare of the North American Indians. I shall not stop to review that work; the best review of it is yourselves. It is worth while sometimes to consider what it has accomplished. The result has been the citizenship of the Indian, the ownership in his own right of the soil which he cultivates, the schools where his children are educated, and his gradual emancipation from ignorance and from the condition of a dependent and often defrauded ward into the broadening lines of American citizenship. It is of course right that we should deal with the evils that still exist; it is right that we should emphasize them; it is right that you should hold our public servants to their responsibility. And yet I think it would be well if there also, on the other hand, might be presented-as undoubtedly there is at your Conferences the things that have been accomplished, the advances that have been made, and the securely upbuilt steps on which we now stand, although you do not propose to remain on them, but propose to go on upward and onward. I said I was glad that our work is extending to other dependents. I was especially interested last evening in what was said in regard to our foreign dependencies. I appreciated very much the remarks of Dr. Abbott with regard to the importance of furnishing the largest education for our dependencies. I wish he had emphasized -of course he is familiar with the fact-what we have already done and are doing in that way. Porto Rico and the Philippines and Hawaii have to-day beneficent institutions of learning and common schools, with thousands of American and of native teachers. It is, however, a question whether all these great educational institutions should, as suggested by Dr. Abbott, be consolidated in one great Bureau in Washington, or whether we should not rather extend to them the right to manage their own affairs and to have the charge of their educational establishments as is done in our States. Some of us think that there is no more reason that their educational control should be taken away from them and centralized in a Bureau at Washington than there is that the educational system of Massachusetts should be taken out of her own control. The hopeful thing is that all this present progress on behalf of the North American Indian, all this rapid progress in our new territorial possessions, is the evolution of the idea which you represent here, the idea that the United States, the American flag, the American system, shall stand for the development of the man, whether it be the white man of the North, the colored man of the South, or the dusky islander of the sea. I am aware, however, that the best contribution which a presiding officer can make is to set the example of brief speaking. I am here to help you so far as I can, and that will be only so far as you help me, for as your presiding officer I am only one of those "dependents" who are candidates for your sympathy. Referring to the program this morning, the first topic in order will be a resume of Indian work during the past year. This paper was prepared in the Indian Bureau in Washington; it will be read by the Hon. Darwin R. James, President of the Board of Indian Commissioners. 66 The following resume of the year's work" of the Indian Department, prepared by Miss Emily S. Cook, was read. Finance. The appropriations for the Indian service for the last fiscal year, including deficiencies, aggregated $9,172,173. For the current year it is $8,521,307, a decrease of $650,000. Forty per cent of the appropriation is devoted to the support of Indian schools. Education. The 257 Government Indian schools have enrolled 24,357 pupils, and have secured an average attendance of over 85 per cent. As compared with last year there is a slight decrease in the enrollment, which is overbalanced by the increase in average attendance. Ninety-one schools are boarding schools on reservations, and 140 are day schools. The remainder are the 26 non-reservation schools, whose capacity, 7,950, is so out of proportion to the combined capacity of the other schools that it is hard to keep them filled with the right sort of pupil material; that is, the exceptional ones who have had preliminary training in the home schools and have shown such soundness of physique and brightness of mind as to justify giving them the prolonged and expensive schooling which the non-reservation schools afford. Too often the $1,000 education is given to the one who, mentally or physically, is only a $10 youth. These figures do not include 44 boarding and four day schools conducted and supported by religious societies and attended by 3,789 pupils; nor 101 Indian pupils at Hampton; nor the Indian schools in the State of New York, which enroll about 700 pupils. In detail the school statistics for the year are as follows: The superintendents and employees in the schools numbered 2,282, of whom nearly one fourth were new appointees during the past year. Twenty-one per cent of the school employees are Indians. The outing system is spreading, and is reported by eight schools as successful, the number of pupils placed out in families varying from eight at Flandreau to 617 at Carlisle, 1,287 in all. In addition to the general Indian Institute held at Boston in connection with the N. E. A., which was of unusual interest, local institutes have been held at nine Indian reservations or schools. In this way the large majority of the educational force of the Indian service has had an opportunity to gain the new ideas and revived enthusiasm which come from acquaintance and conference with others engaged in the same line of work. The schools of the Five Civilized Tribes are not included in the figures given. The gain in the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw schools since they came under Government supervision continues both as to increased attendance, reduced expenditures and improved methods. Government school officials have gained the good will of the people, and summer normal schools have raised the standards and been well attended. In the four tribes are 374 district day schools and 33 boarding schools, academies, etc., whose total enrollment was 13,935, with an average attendance of over 67 per cent. These figures do not include the Seminoles, whose schools are under their own exclusive jurisdiction, nor the 18 invaluable schools conducted by religious societies, with an enrollment of 1,800 pupils. Comparatively few of the white children in the Indian Territory have access to public schools, and the freedmen in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations are also growing up in illiteracy, a quicksand foundation for statehood. Indians Placed under School Superintendency.-Last year twenty-one agencies were reported as having been abolished and the Indians placed under bonded school superintendents. Thirteen more agencies have thus changed hands, or rather heads, during the past year. They are: Cheyenne and Arapaho, Oklahoma. Fort Peck, Montana. Klamath, Oregon. Mission, California. Omaha and Winnebago, Nebraska. Navaho, Arizona. In the first seven, however, the agent himself was made the bonded school superintendent, and was thus brought within the classified service. Several agencies covering large areas or several tribes have been divided between two or even three superintendents in order to bring the Indians within closer range of the fire of civilization. Only twenty-seven commissioned and politically appointed agents are left in the service, the Indians of the other agencies being distributed among fifty-two bonded school superintendents who are under civil service. Allotments and Patents.-During the year 4,687 patents have been issued to Indians, 1, 190 allotments have been approved, and about 900 more allotments have been made which have not yet been acted upon. Allotments are in progress on the Cheyenne River, Crow and Shoshoni Reservations. Sixteen landless Indian families have been settled upon an 80acre tract in what was formerly Camp Independence Reservation, California. They are clustered about a day school. Sales of Indian Lands.-Since the fourth of last March inherited Indian lands have been sold to the extent of 44,494 acres at an average price of $17.01 per acre, aggregating over three quarters of a million dollars. That was the date upon which the amended rules went into effect which required that inherited lands should be sold only upon sealed bids and after ninety days advertising. These rates were from ten to fifty per cent higher than were secured for lands offered under the original rules; but under those rules no deeds were ever approved. Of course the parvenu rich Indian becomes immediately a quarry for swindlers, and it is suggested that, as a means of protecting him, the sales be made on time, payments to be made annually for ten or fifteen years, deed to be withheld until final payment, and evidence of indebtedness to be non-negotiable. This would cut off speculators and encourage home seekers, and would postpone the Indian's day of impoverishment. As a rule the legal heirs to the lands sold have been ascertained without difficulty, and little litigation has grown out of the distribution of the property. Nine small bands of Indians in Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Wisconsin, certain of whose lands are alienable, have sold portions aggregating 24,901 acres at an average price of $7.32 per acre. Last March all restriction was by law removed from the sale of Puyallup lands in Washington, and in consequence the Indians are rapidly parting with their lands at inadequate rates the victims of sharpers. Irrigation. Last year's $150,000 appropriation for irrigation was made a blessing to the Crow, Southern Ute, Pueblo, Walker River, Western Shoshoni, San Carlos, Pima, Navaho, Klamath, and Mission Indians, especially the latter, for whom thirty-five artesian wells were developed in the desert reservations of Torres and Cabazon. A Warner's Ranch Indians.-The Warner's Ranch Mission Indians have been finally moved to their new home at Pala. tract of 3,353 acres was purchased for $46,280, and several adjacent sections of unoccupied public lands have been temporarily reserved until it can be ascertained what, if any, of them can advantageously be added to the purchased lands. An irrigating ditch is under way, farming implements have been provided, and some ready-made houses have been shipped. Unfortunately it has been necessary to issue some rations. These and other Mission Indians in that part |