Page images
PDF
EPUB

the habit of saluting, I spoke to the children and told them that if their parents wished them to come to this school no one else had anything to say about it. I was only sorry that I could not say to the parents that according to the laws of the United States they must send their children to learn English, or American, as they term it. In January there was great feasting and dancing in the native village in honor of the visit of a hundred visitors from Hoonah, which interfered considerably with our attendance. Then came an epidemic of whooping cough and the usual spring exodus for fish eggs. Immediately after Christmas I offered prizes to be given on Washington's Birthday to those whose attendance was good until that time; seven were worthy of dolls or mouth organs, and one, whose record was excellent, I deemed worthy of a suit of clothes, and a very happy boy he was, for I believe it was his first whole new suit. My next effort to increase the attendance and punctuality was to buy a number of toys which I allowed the children to play with before each session.

For the last three years I have distributed garden seeds during the last months of school, thus keeping the children in attendance and interesting the parents. Through the kindness of Dr. Jackson and the Agricultural Department, I was able to distribute a greater quantity this year. In this work I have been very much assisted by my father, who is a practical farmer, and has allowed me to bring my classes to his garden, where he showed them how to plant and weed. The great drawback to their gardening is that they have had the habit of planting on distant islands, only visiting them from time to time. A beginning has now been made in making gardens in the Sitka village. If they continue to do this, I believe it will tend to make them build their houses farther apart, which will be an improvement from a sanitary point of view and perhaps tend to break up the custom of several families living in the same house. I have yet a further interest in this gardening. My father is experimenting in the raising of flax, which, I believe, is just the thing for this country. I have had a wooden loom built, which the natives, who are apt with tools, can copy, and I propose to teach the women to weave rag carpet. These carpets will make their homes more attractive; and if the flax is a success, the industries of gardening and weaving will be open to them. Of course this will be slow work, but as the fishing and hunting diminish we need to have industries in which they are interested ready for them."

Juneau, No. 1.-S. A. Keller, teacher; enrollment, 86; population, white. Juneau is the largest town in southeast Alaska, and the school is working on a course that will soon reach the high-school grade. However, with only one teacher it is difficult to plan the work so as to give each pupil the training necessary for individual intellectual growth. About 20 per cent of the children of school age are on the streets. A law for compulsory regular attendance at school would be a great benefit.

Juneau, No. 2.-Miss Elizabeth Saxman, teacher; enrollment, 26; population, Thlinget. Miss Saxman writes: "The spirit of emulation that prevailed among the children during the entire term was indeed encouraging. The boys and girls seemed more wide-awake and enthusiastic than ever before. More than a little rivalry was manifested. The lack of this used to annoy me considerably, as some of the largest pupils did not seem to care whether they made any progress or not. In many cases it is difficult to get the native parents to send their children to school. They give you faithful promises when you go to see them, and say that they will send their children to-morrow' or next week-in fact, say anything to settle the question for the present. However, I feel that we shall surely reach them satisfactorily this winter, since Mr. Fred Moore (a native graduate of the Sitka school) has been appointed chief of the native police. He is doing a grand work among his people.'

Jackson.—Miss C. Baker, teacher; enrollment, 84; population, Thlinget. Miss Baker reports as follows: "At the commencement of the term but few of the natives had returned from their summer hunting. After the village had filled up I went around and talked with each family of the importance of sending the children to school regularly. As a result, every child in town that was large enough came to school. I used every effort to increase their interest and keep them in school, and succeeded beyond my expectations, the irregularity in the cases in which it occurred being the fault of the parents and not of the children. We have kept the schoolroom well filled, well cleaned, and well ventilated throughout the term. The interest and progress have been commendable, arithmetic and writing being the favorite studies. The discouraging feature of the work is the continual coming and going of the natives from village to village, which greatly interferes with regularity of attendance. However, I think we have had an excellent school."

Fort Wrangel.-Miss Anna R. Kelsey, teacher; enrollment, 64; population,

Thlinget. This is the oldest of the schools in Alaska, having been established in 1877. From that time until the present it has continued to be a means for the uplifting of the natives in this region. Here the native chief, Shakes, has been of considerable assistance in securing the attendance of the children.

Saxman.-J. W. Young, teacher; Miss M. J. Young, assistant teacher; enrollment, 75; population, Thlinget. Mr. Young gives the following account of the year: "The year has made a great change in the size of the community, and if that is to be a test, we have succeeded very well. When I arrived here in the fall of 1895 to build up a temperance, self-governing community there was no building here except the schoolhouse. Now we have a village of 24 houses, with a population of 120. As you know, the Thlingets do not remain in one place during the entire year, but go to their hunting and fishing grounds at the proper season. During the months of December, January, and February we had quite a good school, and the pupils made good progress in their studies, especially the younger ones. Some of them did not know a single letter when they came in the fall and now they are in the Second Reader. We find it difficult to get the older ones to attend with any degree of regularity, consequently their progress is slow.

"We have had some encouragements in our work. The natives have been very kind and even generous to us, doing what they could to make it pleasant for us. But we have had some discouragements as well. Although we have succeeded in keeping intoxicating liquor out of the village, yet the effects of its use elsewhere have reached us. In February the natives became intoxicated at Ketchikan, and in a drunken fight a Cape Fox native struck a Tongas native on the head with a rifle, from the effects of which he died. The Tongas tribe demanded pay for the life of their tribesman and the Cape Fox people gave them 200 blankets. Then the Tongas men demanded the life of a Cape Fox chief, as the murdered man had been a chief. The Cape Fox tribe refused, and their warriors armed themselves to resist the threatened attack of the Tongas men. Some of the latter came down from Ketchikan in their war paint, with rifles and knives, bent on killing. The women and children crowded into the schoolhouse, in terror. However, when the attacking party found that our people were ready for them and determined to make a stout resistance, they returned without firing a shot. This trouble is very unfortunate for Saxman, as it has made hard feeling between the two tribes that we were gathering together, and I fear will keep a number of the Tongas people from coming to Saxman.

"I found that there was great need for a store in our new settlement, so I put up a suitable building and sent for my son, who laid in a stock of goods and is conducting a successful business. It is a great help to the community."

TABLE I.-General statement of the expenditure of all appropriations

[blocks in formation]

made by the Government for education in Alaska from 1884 to 1897.

1889-90. 1890-91. 1891-92. 1892-93. 1893-94. 1894-95. 1895-96.

[blocks in formation]

$50,000.00 $50,000.00 $50,000.00 $40,000.00 $30,000.00 $30,000.00 $30,000.00 $30,000.00

390,000.00

[blocks in formation]

50,000.00 50,000.00 | 50,000.00 40,000.00 30,000.00 | 35,000.00 | 35,000.00

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

a These balances are reserved awaiting the acceptance of the school building at Unalaska.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

NOTE. In addition to supporting the above public schools, the Bureau of Education pays the salaries of three industrial teachers in the Sitka Industrial School, which has an enrollment of 150.

« PreviousContinue »