To all superintendents:

JULY 29, 1919.

The rules for the Indian school service, approved July 14, 1913, are hereby amended by adding thereto, following paragraph 9, page 4, the following provisions:

"9a. There shall not be enrolled in Government nonreservation schools any Indian children who are not under Federal supervision, without prior authority from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

"9b. There shall not be enrolled in any Indian reservation boarding or day schools any Indian children not under Federal supervision, except such as are entitled to share in the benefits of treaty or trust funds from which the school is maintained without prior authority from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

"9c. Except as to reservation schools supported from tribal funds or under specific treaty stipulations, Indian pupils who have ample financial resources or whose parents have such resources sufficient for the payment of all or part of the expenses of the pupils' education, whether or not the parents are wards of the Government, shall be required to pay their transportation, and all or part of the actual cost of their support and education, not to exceed $200 a year, or at the rate of $20 a month or a fraction of a year. Superintendents will enforce this regulation.

“9d. All pupils above the sixth grade entering a vocational school shall be enrolled for four years or for a sufficient term to complete the vocational course provided by the school.

"9e. Pupils thus enrolled for the vocational course shall be permitted to return home for vacation once only during such term of enrollment, at their own expense ordinarily unless in exceptional cases the superintendent finds it just or advisable to pay their transportation; otherwise the pupils shall remain at the school during the vacation months, or, if allowed to depart, shall pay a charge of $25 per month for each month's absence, unless in especially meritorious cases the superintendent shall grant not to exceed 30 days leave."

The scope and purpose of the amendments were explained in a letter of instructions accompanying the same, which appears below: JULY 29, 1919.

To all superintendents:

The accompanying amendments to the school rules restricting enrollment of pupils to those who are under Federal supervision demand more than passing notice. For several years attempts have been made to eliminate from the Indian schools pupils whose parents are citizens, particularly those possessing only a small degree of Indian blood. Notwithstanding past efforts in this respect, there are still enrolled in many of our Indian schools a large number of near-whites. In many cases, these pupils live in towns or in communities where there are at least average public school facilities. The justification usually given for the enrollment of such pupils in Government Indian schools is that they wish to have the benefit of the vocational training offered or that the parents are poor and in need of assistance. Superintendents frequently accepted such explanation as satisfactory, provided the applicant possessed as much as one-fourth Indian blood. Superintendents of nonreservation schools contend that they must rely on the statements made by the reservation superintendent as to eligibility of the pupil, but sometimes pupils are first enrolled and the justification for their enrollment supplied at a later date. This is particularly true as respects the enrollment of pupils who are not living under the jurisdiction of a superintendent or agency. Greater care must be exercised in this matter in the future than has been practiced in the past.

In order to carry out the requirements of these rules, there must be the closest cooperation between the superintendents of reservations and superintendents of nonreservation schools. Reservation superintendents should not approve applications

of pupils unless they have definite information regarding them and have satisfied themselves that without Government assistance the pupil would be deprived of school privileges. It is not a sufficient justification that a child would be better off in a Government school or that it would be desirable for such child to have vocational training, but the question should be "Does such Indian boy or girl have the same school privileges in the community in which he or she lives that other children enjoy?" If they do there can be no real justification for the enrollment of such boy or girl in a Government school, except possibly in rare instances where other factors enter which might justify waiving the rules. Furthermore, where the Indian children are entitled under State law to attend its public schools, it should be first ascertained whether there are good and sufficient reasons for their not so attending, before they are received in a Government school.

In all such cases the applications should be first forwarded to my office, accompanied by a full statement of the facts, and the applicant should not be admitted to the school until the approved application has been returned to you. It may be necessary to make exception for full bloods or in case of some special classes of Indians who are technically nonwards and citizens, but who are, nevertheless, practically under governmental supervision, as, for instance, the Eastern Cherokees of North Carolina, or the Choctaws of Mississippi.

The children of Indians who have received their patents in fee to their allotments are to be excluded from enrollment in a Government school supported from gratuity appropriations unless in a given case the Indian child should be a Federal ward, irrespective of the status of the parents. You are directed to accept hereafter no Indian pupil of the classes indicated, and to take steps to eliminate such pupils from your present enrollment at the end of the school year or at the end of the definite term of enrollment of each such pupil. If doubt exists as to the status of any pupil or any applicant, such case accompanied by all attendant facts and information must be presented to me for a decision. Responsibility for elimination from the schools of nonward citizen Indian children rests upon the superintendent. Inspection officials are hereby instructed to make, at each school they visit, careful investigation of the eligibility of the pupils enrolled and report to me all violations of the school rules and of these instructions. Superintendents who negligently permit or approve the enrollment of ineligible pupils in Government Indian schools will be held personally responsible. It follows, therefore, that the utmost care must hereafter be exercised, both by the reservation superintendent and by the nonreservation superintendent, in order effectively to enforce these rules.

Frequently pupils in the prevocational grades have been transferred at Government expense to schools located at great distances from their homes when the only justification for such transfer was the wish of the pupil or parent, or the desire of an employee to take a trip as escort at Government expense. This practice must be discontinued. No pupil will hereafter be transferred to a distant school or accepted for enrollment in a nonreservation school until he has completed the highest grade in the reservation school, except in cases where the reservation school is overcrowded, and then as a rule such pupil should be sent to the nonreservation school nearest his home. Specific authority must be obtained for any deviation from this rule and only in very special cases will authority be granted to pay transportation of pupils in the prevocational grades to other than nonreservation schools nearest their homes.

I wish to again impress upon superintendents, and particularly upon reservation superintendents, the importance of giving special attention to the matter of requiring Indians who are financially able to do so to contribute more toward defraying the expenses of the education of their children. Where parents or pupils have sufficient incomes of their own, they must hereafter be required to bear all or a part of the cost of their education. More and more Indians must be taught and required to rely on their own resources and to depend less and less upon the Government.

The purpose of this circular and the amendments herewith should be made generally known both to pupils in schools and to their parents and guardians. I regard this as an important matter and in direct line with the declaration of policy, promulgated April 17, 1917.

In this connection I will further invite your attention to sections 246 and 247 of existing school rules. These requirements as to attendance of Indian children in public schools must be complied with in all cases where Indian children have reasonable access thereto and where such children may be received without valid objection from the public-school authorities, whether or not upon payment of tuition. As to Indian children not under Federal supervision, you should exercise your influence and give your assistance whenever opportunity affords toward the reception of such children by the State public schools.

An acknowledgment of this circular and the amendments should be made at this time, but I wish a full report on or before October 30, advising me just what steps you have taken, are taking, and the effect of these new rules on the enrollment of pupils in your school, as well as the results secured in getting parents and pupils to contribute toward the expense of the pupils' education and support.

CATO SELLS, Commissioner. Shortly following the announcement of the amended rules as above given, the Washington (D. C.) Post made editorial comment as follows:

A PROGRESSIVE POLICY.

The progressive policy adopted by the Interior Department with respect to the Indians has been further emphasized by orders recently issued by Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and calculated to place the Indians upon a plane of independence and self-reliance. It is proposed to remove all restrictions upon all lands owned by or allotted to members of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma of one-half Indian blood, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs has ordered that a complete list of all members of those tribes 21 years of age or over be compiled. While the Government will exercise a careful watch over these people, yet they are to have charge of their own lands with a greater degree of freedom than ever before.

Amendments also have been made to the rules governing the Indian school service for the purpose of preserving these institutions for the sole benefit of the Indian children who are under Federal control and of debarring children whose parents are fully able to provide for their education. At nonreservation schools no Indian children are to be enrolled who are not under Federal supervision, and at Indian reservation boarding or day schools no children shall be enrolled who are not entitled to share in the benefits of treaty or trust funds from which the school is maintained. Where pupils or their parents have ample resources they must pay transportation of children sent to school and must pay $200 a year tuition and board.

The reasons for these amendments to the rules are obvious. Schools supported from tribal funds are for the benefit of children of those tribes, and should not be used by others. Schools maintained at Government expense are for Indian children who have not the privilege of public schools and whose parents are not financially able to pay for their education. There is no reason why an Indian who possesses valuable lands, possibly yielding him a handsome income, or who enjoys an income from other sources should have his children educated in vocational training at Government expense, with the Government even paying the child's railroad fare to and from school.

Commissioner Sells, whose administration of the Indian Bureau has been highly successful, has in these matters given further evidence of his ability to fairly and justly look after the Nation's wards.

ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.-For the past three or four years, the wisdom of encouraging attendance of Indian children in State public schools by payment of tuition for them has been strongly emphasized and Congress has made specific appropriations for such purpose. There has been a steady increase in the number of children accepted by the public schools and in the number of contracts made for the payment of tuition. There seems to have been no prejudice against the Indian as such by the white members of the school district in most localities, and such feeling as has existed against this coeducation of the Indians with the whites is rapidly disappearing.

It is my intention to push actively the policy of reserving the Indian schools for children who are not provided with adequate free school facilities and to pay tuition for those who have access to public schools but whose parents are wards of the Government. Underlying this purpose is the firm conviction that the great common school system of our country so wisely planned in colonial times is of vital value to our free institutions and should establish the elementary principles of our citizenship. The statistics essential to military conscription startlingly revealed the need of greater mass enlightenment and the special need of a uniform language. More potent than any other constructive force in our civilization is, or should be, the free public schools as a nursery of one American speech and of the simpler but fundamental lessons of civic virtue, social purity, and moral integrity. The hope of our Democracy, now set up as a model for the world, lies in the successful teaching of these things to all classes and races of our polyglot population by a system of instruction such as the State public schools make possible. I hold, therefore, that the Indian child can have no better fortune than to enter these schools and become a learner of the knowledge and an absorber of the influences that tend to make us a unified people in all great purposes and ideals. Moreover, an important benefit to Indian children in the public schools will be the operation of compulsory attendance laws which with a single exception prevail in some form in all of the States. As a rule the Indian child will not fall behind the progress of the white pupil under regulations affecting both alike, but the parent of the former is apt to be too lenient in requiring regular attendance at school. Practically all States of the Indian country have compulsory laws covering the full school year which are, of course, applicable to citizen Indians, and I should strongly favor such legislation as would extend their control over children who are wards. enrolled in public schools.

CLOSING OF CERTAIN BOARDING SCHOOLS.-In carrying out the policies which have heretofore been indicated and which are in part embodied in the amendments to the school rules previously explained, it has been found advisable to discontinue certain boarding schools

and to use the funds to better advantage elsewhere. In Wisconsin, the Oneida Indians have reached a stage of advancement which seemed to justify the withdrawal of Federal school privileges and therefore the Oneida boarding school has been closed. Public schools will in the future provide largely for the children and it may be anticipated that additional public school districts will be organized. At Sisseton, S. Dak., public schools are numerous and easily accessible to these children. The community has become settled and developed and the boarding school there, being no longer necessary, was discontinued within the year.

For substantially the same reasons the Nevada boarding school, Nevada, and the Umatilla boarding school, Oregon, have been abandoned. A day school will be conducted at the Nevada School plant for those children of the immediate neighborhood, and at Umatilla two day schools have been provided for those who cannot attend the public schools. The Martin Kenel School at Standing Rock, N. Dak., has been discontinued because it was expensive to operate, the plant was not in good condition, and all of the pupils could be accommodated at the Standing Rock Agency boarding schools.

Under the amended school rules the end of the fiscal year virtually marked the close of the Yankton boarding school, South Dakota, and in Oklahoma of the Ponca, the Otoe, and the Shawnee boarding schools, the conditions as to citizenship and the accessibility of public schools being such as reasonably to justify this action.

It should be said that in all the jurisdictions where schools are thus discontinued special attention will be given to any exceptional cases and their enrollment in other Government schools effected; also Indian students of some degree of achievement who are ambitious for further advancement will be considered for admission to nonreservation schools.

In

These educational readjustments are in line with the settled policy of securing public school instruction for the Indian children whenever practicable, of requiring citizen and other Indians of sufficient resources to share in the cost of education, and of extending needed school facilities to those less fortunately situated. the far Southwest are still many Indian children for whom no schooling is provided and among them are many of the poorer classes. The claims of these are most urgent and public funds which can be released with no injustice elsewhere should be used as far as applicable to discharge the Government's obligations to the many who are still its wards and are as helpless as they are deserving.

CONSTRUCTION.-The abnormally high cost of labor and material necessarily impeded construction work in the service during the past fiscal year, and considerably reduced the volume of both open market and contract projects, but few awards being made for the latter,

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