increase was granted to enable districts to employ trained teachers and add courses in shop instruction, agriculture, or home economics. It is not possible to estimate the special aids in terms of daily tuition, as some children receive no such aid while others require lunch, transportation, books, and possibly some other help. No tuition was paid for children having less than one-fourth Indian blood nor where the taxable land owned by parents or children in the district is in excess of nontaxable holdings of the family. With a few exceptions tuition is not paid for children living in incorporated towns having a population of 500 inhabitants or more. We pay tuition to districts for children coming from other districts or living without the corporate limits of towns. There has been no tendency to extend the flat-rate-tuition provision. The amount used under the provision was very small. We have continued the arrangement with the State of Oklahoma whereby a uniform rate of 28 cents a day is allowed in the western portion of the State. One-half of the daily tuition in that area goes into the general school fund; the other is used for improvement of the program to meet the needs of Indian children. In addition a small allowance is made for lunch when needed. Tribal funds of the Cheyenne River Tribe amounting to $9,757 were used for tuition payments. Distribution of public school aid, fiscal year 1941 7. State cooperation contracts, $405,215 (increase, $44,375).—This amount is composed of the following: Minnesota ($44,375 from Chippewa in Minnesota fund).—The education of all Indian children enrolled in public schools in the State of Minnesota is covered by a contract with the State rather than handled by the usual agreements with individual districts. Of the total, $44,375 is paid from Chippewa tribal funds as follows: In the past there has been available for expenditure an accumulated sum of interest on the Chippewa fund but in more recent years there has been a continual depletion of the funds of these Indians to a point where a considerable portion of these expenditures is coming from the principal fund to the credit of the tribe. Because of this depletion of funds the Tribal Council of the Consolidated Chippewa Tribe refused, in the spring of 1940 and again in the spring of 1941, to approve the use of their funds for the continuation of the State contract. The State department of education declined to sign a contract in a smaller amount. Because of the Minnesota continuing teachers contract law, teachers' salaries cannot be reduced and the only reduction that could be made would be in the items of lunches and transportation. While the State of Minnesota could not exclude Indian children from its public schools many of these schools are without tax support and largely dependent on Indian tuition money. The State assumed responsibility for schools formerly operated entirely by the Indian Service except the nonreservation school at Pipestone, contingent upon continued financial support of these institutions in accordance with the contract. The Indian Office has promised the tribal council that the importance of transferring this amount to gratuity funds would again be presented in our annual budget. Minnesota (additional information).—The increase in the number of Indian children in attendance and the improvement of educational services to Indians in Minnesota during the past 5 years has been such that we feel there is full justification for an increase in the amount of the contract. We present for the record the following information: In 1938 there were 2,282 Indian children attending public schools in Minnesota, which on the basis of $100,000 was 24-plus cents per day per pupil. There has been a steady increase in enrollment, and in 1941 there were 3,216 Indian children enrolled in public schools of Minnesota, making the rate per pupil 17-plus cents on a basis of $100,000 for the year. The average daily rate for tuition, exclusive of special aids, throughout the Service is 41 cents. With the increase requested the daily rate in Minnesota will average $0.244 or a little more than half the average rate throughout the districts receiving direct payments. The State of Minnesota is giving excellent service to the Indian children under the contract, but cannot continue such services indefinitely without additional aid. The contract provides for education of Indian children under the same terms as white children, but with the requirement that their special needs shall have consideration and that instruction in schools preponderantly Indian shall be adapted to the needs of the children of the locality. The education program in the public schools in Minnesota attended by Indian children is more in line with the program in our own Indian schools than the average public school and is designed to meet the special needs of the children. Most of the children live in areas where daily school transportation is a necessity. Due to extreme winter climate, a substantial lunch is served the children when needed. High school attendance has increased as a result of better facilities and a large proportion of the boys and girls who complete the eighth grade take advantage of the opportunity to go to high school. The salaries paid teachers in the so-called Indian schools, while improved, are not yet comparable to salaries paid to teachers in strictly white communities. 8. Tuition grants for higher education, $15,000.-The first specific recognition of the need of higher education for Indians was in the 1933 act which appropriated $10,000 "to be expended for the tuition of Indian pupils attending higher educational institutions." For each succeeding fiscal year the appropriation has been $15,000, an amount inadequate for the increasing number of well-qualified young Indians who should have the advantage of professional education and training. The number of students using this fund increases a little each year, even though the amount appropriated annually has remained the same since 1934. One hundred and forty-two students were aided from this fund in 1937; 157 in 1938; 179 in 1939; 164 in 1940, and 166 in 1941. The average amount granted students during the current fiscal year is $82 and the individual allotments run from $30 to $552. Good high-school facilities are now available to Indian young people generally and this accounts for the increased interest in preparation for higher education. The demand for assistance in obtaining certain types of professional training in the fields of agriculture, medicine, law, social welfare, business administration, architecture, and engineering has grown correspondingly in recent years. This year we have a student in medical school where the tuition is $552 per year which we paid for him from the above-mentioned fund. Several students in good agricultural schools are receiving $100 each from the above fund. Students are not usually given the full amount of tuition as there are so many qualified students asking for aid that the individual grants must be kept to a minimum. Colleges and universities located in the same towns or cities as Federal Indian boarding schools are being utilized by the Indian Service for higher education of qualified Indians through payment of tuition and permission to live at the Indian boarding school while attending the nearby college or university. The students pay for this privilege by furnishing to the Indian school certain types of needed service. 9. Tuition, deaf, dumb, blind and otherwise incapacitated Indian children, $20,000.-In 1933 the annual appropriation for aid of deaf, dumb, blind and mentally deficient children was increased from $10,000 to $15,000 and the fund was made available for any physically handicapped Indian child. For the fiscal year 1938 the amount was increased to $20,000. During the fiscal year 1941, the $20,000 available for expenses of these children was used as follows: Agency Number of defective children Amount Purpose Eula Ramon, blind girl. 7 3 240.00 231. 33 Frank Hunter, deaf boy. Robert H. Johnson, partially deaf boy. 5 feeble-minded children. Frank TeSam, crippled. 2 blind girls, 1 deaf boy. George Newman and Ivan Manuel, mentally Lillie Moffet, mentally deficient. Physically handicapped. Minnie Bartlett, school for deaf. Gertrude Dupuis, physically handicapped. Doris Beaulieu, deaf, John La Prairie and William Morsette, feeble-minded. Mentally deficient. 3 feeble-minded, D. Hopkins, Francis Panga, and considering two additional feeble-minded and one deaf-J. W. 7 children orthopedic school. blind girls, R Buckley. Boney and G. Lee. deaf and 3 blind. Care and incidental expenses, 2 deaf and 2 Expenses of handicapped children. Wallace Savings in the amount of $521.60 which were reported at the end of the year will bring the actual expenditures within the $20,000 limitation (Fort Totten $355.20; Truxton Cañon, $166.40). We continue wherever possible to secure free care and education for defective and handicapped children in State institutions by having counties and States assume the obligation for payment. Each year, however, many worthy cases are presented for consideration, but because of lack of funds, we have taken care of only the most urgent cases presented. Some of the people whom we assist are those who have been injured in accidents. These handicapped young people have been enabled by this aid to take college work or in other ways fit themselves for self-support. We have thought it unwise to burden handicapped boys and girls with educational loans and have been willing to assume responsibility for their expenses while they attend college. Not all of those we assist are able to make outstanding successes, but we are confident that those suffering physical handicaps have been given an opportunity to become useful and self-sufficient to such an extent that expenditures for their assistance have been worthwhile. A change in the language of the appropriation act to eliminate the limitation on the amount used for expenses of handicapped children is desirable. To date we have authorized $19,014 from this fund and have additional requests pending amounting to $1,800. It is apparent that we will not have sufficient funds to meet all requests, as all jurisdictions participating in the distribution of this fund last year have not submitted their requests. It is always necessary to reduce requests for allotments from this fund, which should be increased by at least $10,000 to meet demands. 10. Mission contracts, $95,000 (decrease $88,850).-There follows a tabulation showing the schools with which contracts have been in effect in past years, and which we propose to pay for care of pupils in 1943: Prior to the fiscal year 1936, funds appropriated pursuant to treaty provisions and funds belonging to various Indian tribes, were used to provide care for Indian pupils enrolled in mission contract schools. These institutions, owned and operated by various religious bodies, have been established on Indian reservations over a long period of years. The religious organizations were, in fact, invited by the Government many years ago to go on the reservations and to establish schools along with their other missionary undertakings, so that boys and girls would have an opportunity to acquire an education. In earlier years considerable sums appropriated by Congress were used to subsidize these organizations. A number of boarding schools were erected at heavy expense to the various interested bodies, and educational facilities were thus provided for many Indian children who otherwise would not have been able to attend school. Some of these schools have long since been abandoned because of a lack of Government or private support. Other schools have been retained and have been able to operate through funds provided in the annual appropriation acts. Most of these schools are in the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming. |