The plant at Carlisle has been extended year after year until there are at present fifty buildings. There are upwards of one hundred instructors, clerks, and other employees.
Carlisle produced the first newspaper printed by Indian boys. This, The Indian Helper, became in later years The Red Man. The Indians are trained in every conceivable industry necessary to the welfare of Indian men and women. The following trades are taught in well-equipped buildings: tailoring, carpentry, blacksmithing, wagon-making, printing, dairying, stock-raising, general agriculture, gardening, engineering, irrigation, brick-laying, plumbing, etc. There is also a shoe shop, tin shop, paint shop, etc.
There is instruction in music, and the Carlisle military band is a feature of the parades and entertainments. There is a gymnasium, and outdoor recreation, exercises and athletics have had a beneficial effect on the student body. The football and baseball teams, as well as the track squad, have made Carlisle a formidable rival of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Mercersburg and numerous colleges and schools. The famous athlete, James Thorpe (See page [39]), was trained at Carlisle and at the time of the Olympic games in Stockholm, was awarded first prize as the ranking athlete in the world. The sturdy football eleven has on more than one occasion been pitted against the best football material produced by Harvard, and the West Point eleven, during the annual fall contests. Apropos of these games an interesting story was told me by an interpreter in Minnesota. He had played on the Carlisle eleven many years ago. At that time most of the team was composed of Ojibwa (Chippewa) with a few Sioux and other Indians, practically all of whom understood more or less of the Ojibwa language. The signals were, of course, called out by numbers, but during one of the plays, the quarterback became confused. The play was misunderstood and the opponents gained. He became angry, dropped his numerical system and called out to the other players in Ojibwa what they should do. The succeeding play was a success and from that until the end of the game, the quarterback called out his signals in Indian, and the game was won.
In all schools girls are trained in the domestic arts, and this covers every conceivable duty connected with home-life. Both boys and girls are thoroughly grounded in primary education which includes the common branches, and a sufficient training in the handling of moneys and accounts, the buying and selling of produce, and general mercantile affairs to enable them to cope with the white people in managing their farms.
What is said of Carlisle is also applicable to the great Chilocco school in Oklahoma. Chilocco Indian School was established May 17, 1882, and opened January 15, 1884, with 123 pupils from Kiowa, Comanche and Wichita, and Cheyenne and Arapaho Agencies.
The school is located at Chilocco, Oklahoma, and was established primarily for the Poncas and Pawnees and other Indians of Oklahoma, exclusive of the Five Civilized Tribes. However, the student body has for years included youth from all parts of the country, and since 1910 restricted numbers of the Five Civilized Tribes have been admitted. W. J. Hadley was the first superintendent. A dozen other men held this office, and April, 1911, Edgar A. Allen, Esq., was appointed, and still remains. The school, under his management, has done excellent work.
The maximum attendance at any one time at this school during the past year was 561 and the total attendance 692. Since the school was established in 1884 it is impossible to tell how many students have gone through it, but it is likely that the number would not be fewer than 5000.
In addition to the non-reservation schools conducted by the Government, there is the school at Hampton, Virginia, where both colored and Indian youths are trained. The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute was established in 1868 by General C. S. Armstrong. After ten years of success in training negroes, Indians were included. Since that time about 1500 boys and girls have been trained at this place. It is stated that five-sixths of them are industrious and are a credit to the institution. The academic course covers four years. There are normal courses, and business, agriculture, and the trades. In connection with the school there is a stock farm of 600 acres, together with a model farm, dairy, orchards, poultry yards, gardens, etc. The equipment is about sixty buildings. The Government pays $167 a year for each of its 120 Indian pupils. There never has been any discrimination against the Indian on account of his color. This is seen in many of our Eastern institutions where Indian boys are received on the same footing as Whites. But there is a feeling against the negro—not a feeling of hostility, but a general disinclination to associate with him on terms of equality. That is seen in some of the schools. The negro is received as a student, but not as a social equal. I have always thought that the mixing of negroes and Indians at Hampton was unnecessary. Hampton is not a Government school, but is maintained by private subscription and the Government pays a certain sum per pupil for Indians who are there educated. The system has worked satisfactorily, and Hampton has turned out many excellent and worthy graduates. But it would be better, it seems to me, if the Indians and the negroes were educated in separate schools, just as today we do not consider it advisable to educate Whites and negroes in the same school. At Harvard University, colored students are admitted, and in the classes and through the general University life, there is no discrimination made against them, and they are on an absolute equality with the white students. But in the real life of the world there is a line drawn between them, and no man or woman can blind himself or herself to this fact.
The association of Indians and negroes in Oklahoma has not helped the Indian, and a careful study of the situation there would lead one to suggest that the policy be discontinued in the best interests of both the races. The union of the negro and the white is not to the advantage of either, and it is even more true of negro-Indian marriages, according to my way of thinking.
It was found that the boarding-school and the non-reservation school did not entirely supply the needs of the Indians, and so was organized the day school. Mr. Leupp, who made a great improvement in the administration of day schools, hit the nail on the head when he stated:—