Government Indian Money for Catholics
By Editor
Government Indian Money for Catholics.—While the government claims that the Indian trust funds are being given to the Catholic schools on the petition of the Indians themselves, the agent of the Indian Rights Association cites a peculiar situation that is not satisfactorily explained. He refers to the fact that only about $15 per child of school age would be available for school purposes among the Sioux Indians, yet the contract price with the schools amounts to $108 per pupil. Therefore the excess must be taken from the funds due to those who have not asked for such use of their money, but are protesting against it. Dr. Lyman Abbott, in the Outlook of January 28, says: For the government, which is the guardian of the Indians, to expend their trust funds for sectarian purposes, is to apply to the Indians a policy which would not be applied in dealing with any other people; a policy which is un-American, which is in direct contravention of the constitutional provisions of many of our states, which violates the spirit of the Constitution of the United States, and introduces sectarian strife among the Indians by setting Protestant and Roman Catholic Indians signing antagonistic petitions. This is but to transfer the ecclesiastical lobby from Washington to the reservation; to jump from the frying-pan into the fire.