It is unnecessary to go into details, and we should not blame the authorities at Washington. The whole matter of education was largely an experiment; and mistakes must needs be made.
A great deal of the tuberculosis and trachoma is, beyond question, due to the crowding in these schools. There is absolutely no excuse for such system and it is surprising that it continued as long as it did. The fact that children came home from these schools to die, or to become permanently disabled, had a deterring effect on the Government’s educational policy. It was quite natural that Indian parents did decline to send their children to school under such conditions. No white parent would send his son or daughter to a school if by so doing that child contracted disease. Yet we were expecting the Indian to cheerfully accept a scheme of education which we would not countenance among ourselves for a moment.
I have tried to ascertain the number of children sent away to school who came home and died. It has been impossible to secure any reliable statistics. Miss Caroline W. Andrus of the Indian Record Office, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, under date of September 2d, 1911, writes me that:—
“The death rate was high among our Indians for the first few years, but no physical examination was then required before they left their homes, and a good many died within a few weeks or months after they arrived. Homesickness probably had a good deal to do with it, but some were certainly far gone with tuberculosis when they reached here. Any statistics we might get together would be for so small a number that I think they would be useless, particularly as we have never used large dormitories, but have an average of two students in a room, and therefore no over-crowding.”
In a table of statistics presented in a later chapter will be observed that under Question IV, “In your opinion has there been a high percentage of deaths among children suffering from tuberculosis sent from schools to their homes the past ten years?” we addressed a great many persons, including teachers, and asked their opinion. Many of these can give no accurate information, having been recently appointed. Others think that the death rate has not been very high, whereas others claim that many Indians returned from school merely to die from consumption or to become blind from trachoma. It would have surprised all of us, I think, could statistics be compiled with any degree of accuracy. For instance, during the long period that Carlisle has been maintained, it would be illuminating to place before the public in tabulated form how many of the Indians are living and how many have died. Charles F. Lummis, Esq., of California, who has devoted a great many years to the study of Indian problems, is of the opinion that in the early years of our educational system we made almost as many consumptives as educated Indians. He has uttered this opinion in several of his articles in past years. Be that as it may, at present the physicians in charge of the schools and physicians on the reservations are doing all humanly possible to end this evil.