The Education of Indian Children
The government has intrusted the education of 70 Indian boys and girls to General Armstrong, of the Hampton (Va.) Agricultural Institute. The General says that 250,000 of our 350,000 Indians are anxious to educate their children in the learning and arts of the whites. It would be a much more consistent policy for a Christian people to educate these sons of the forest than to exterminate them. The tenth annual report of the Board of Indian Commissioners states that the 250,864 partially civilized Indians in the United States, instead of roving about and living in huts, now own 33,060 houses, while ten years ago they had only 8,646 houses. The schools have increased from 148 in 1868 to 366 last year, with pupils in proportion. Ten years ago they cultivated 179,071 acres of land; last year they cultivated 373,018 acres. There is a corresponding increase in the number of cattle, sheep, and swine owned by the Indians.