Another of the best evidences of the success of our labor efforts was a petition signed by a very considerable number of laborers and others of the community asking that I be estopped in the putting of the Indians out to labor in competition with other classes, as I was taking bread from the mouths of those who were dependent upon such labor for their living, etc. In the spring of 1878 the authorities at Washington determined to release the prisoners and permit them to return to their homes. There were 22 of them who preferred to remain East and get a better knowledge of civilized life and more education before going home. The expenses of these 22 young men were undertaken by different charitable people. Gen. S. C. Armstrong, of the Hampton Normal Institute, received 17 into his institution, while four went to Paris Hill, near Utica, N.Y., under the immediate charge of Rev. J. B. Wickes, an Episcopal clergyman, encouraged by Bishop Huntington, all the expenses being undertaken by Mrs. Burnham. One was taken to Tarrytown, N.Y., in Dr. Caruther’s own family. Hampton Institute being an industrial school, furnished the most seasonable and practical education of any institution I was able to find. The remainder of the party were returned to their respective agencies, and such was the effect of their training in Florida during their three years’ absence, that they at once became the best element for progress in their tribes. At this time, while a few have gone back to the blanket condition, most likely from necessity, because no other way was open to them, there is abundant testimony in the reports of their respective agents during the past four years that they are still a useful and leading industrious element among their people.
A few weeks after the arrival of the party at Hampton Institute, General Armstrong was so favorably impressed by the conduct and progress of the 17 he had undertaken, that he was willing to increase the number by adding 50 more, and including girls. Mr. Schurz and Mr. McCrary, then Secretaries of the Interior and War Departments, accepted the proposition, and I was sent, in the fall of 1878, to Dakota, and brought away 49 children from six different agencies of the Sioux, Gros Ventre, Mandan and Arickeree tribes. These, together with the former Florida prisoners, were placed under training in all the varied systems of literary and industrial pursuits. Hampton Institute provides liberally for its colored students, and side by side with those colored pupils the Indian boys and girls, in perfect harmony with the new life, demonstrated their capacity to hold their own in improving the best of chances. It was very much desired by the friends of this new movement, and particularly General Armstrong, that I should remain with it, and a clause was introduced in the army appropriation bill, which passed Congress in the spring of 1879, for the detail of one officer, not above the rank of captain, for duty with reference to Indian education.