The Choice to AssimilateThe decision to end war and begin assimilating Natives Americans to White ways of life was the best choice “from a national defense perspective,” as it reduced violence while still promoting the ideals of cultivation and Christianity. [4] Assimilation to White lifestyles made Native Americans “good citizens of the United States,” by eliminating their savage customs, and replacing them with new, mandatory ways of life. [5]
“It is in full accord with the desire of the nation to do away with the Indian Problem by assimilating the Indians within the body of the United States” Government policies now focused on the cultural elimination and destruction of Natives, as “it [was] cheaper to educate a man to self-support… than raise another generation of savages and fight them.” [6]
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The White Man's WayThe Transformation of the Savage
Despite years of continued violence and removal, Native Americans survived. Because war did not eliminate the population, nor end their ‘savage’ tendencies, the government would seek out new options and policies focused on controlling the ‘Indian Problem.’ [1] To end the violence and eliminate Natives without bullets, the United States would have to kill what made them savage; their culture.
This section will discuss the concept and implementation of assimilationist ideologies and institutions. Specifically, it will discuss the creation of Native American boarding schools, and their use in the eradication and elimination of Native cultures and identities, and their determination to “Kill the Indian,” and “Save the Man." [2]
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This 1870 political cartoon [Image 2.] by Thomas Nast depicts the desired outcome of Native American assimilation, with a variety of objects within the image illustrating traditional White customs – such as a plow and rake for cultivation, a Bible verse for Christianity, and paper granting the ‘civilized’ Native the right to ‘vote’ and pay ‘taxes.’
Racialization of the Native
Scientific racism, sometimes called Social Darwinism after the evolutionist Charles Darwin [Image 3.], was the belief that ‘other’ or inferior populations [Image 4.] were biologically different than Whites. These claims were based on variances in skull size [Image 5.], skin color, and cultural tendencies. Social Darwinist views argued that if inferior populations, like Natives, wanted to survive in a world dominated by the biologically superior, they had to adapt to the dominate culture's customs and ways of life, or risk extinction. [8]
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“Pseudo-science on Native Americans focused on their physical and intellectual inferiority.” |
Richard Henry PrattThe discussion of assimilationist policies and the implementation of Native American boarding schools would not be complete without the discussion of the founder of ‘Indian education;’ Richard Henry Pratt [Image 6.].
“A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one… I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man” Like many men his age, Pratt joined the military during the Civil War. [10] After the war’s conclusion, Pratt remained in the army and would be stationed at Fort Gibson [Image 7]. in ‘Indian Territory,’ (now present-day Oklahoma), where he encountered and worked alongside Native American scouts – beginning “his lifetime association with the American Indian.” [11]
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Through these encounters, Pratt realized Native Americans were not “uneducated savages,” and were capable of learning and preforming tasks done by Whites. [12] Pratt began to see the potential in Native Americans and believed they “could be transformed” and stripped of their savage tendencies if removed from their homelands and educated in White customs and values. [13]
Pratt believed with proper education, “Indians could achieve full assimilation” into White society “within a single generation,” successfully ending the nation’s perpetual Indian Problem. [14][15]
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Pratt's Assimilationist Experiment
In 1875, Pratt was assigned to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. [16] There, he supervised ‘the most hostile’ of Native American fighters detained as prisoners of war. [17] While overseeing these prisoners, Pratt conducted ‘experiments’ on assimilationist techniques that would later become the model for Native American boarding schools. [18]
Pratt believed that “the only way to save the Native was to separate, educate and eliminate” their Native culture and identity. [19] At Fort Marion, Pratt began to ‘rehabilitate’ and ‘save’ Native prisoners from their savage tendencies by “cutting the men’s long hair, putting them in uniforms, and forcing them to learn English,” all while “subjecting them to strict military protocol” and standards. [20]
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Seeing success in the prisoners’ willingness to adopt White customs, Pratt begin an ‘outing-system’ – a technique that would later be duplicated at many Native American boarding schools. This system trained Native prisoners in disciplines such as blacksmithing and farming, and sent them to learn and “labor among the White population.” [21]
Pratt, the local community, and government officials found this system to be a win-win proposition, as it made Natives productive members of society and helped them experience and “absorb the mannerisms and characteristics of White, Protestant Americans.” [22]
Four years after his arrival at Fort Marion, Pratt would apply the findings of his assimilationist ‘experiment’ to the entire Native American population.
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Image 10. and Image 11. are two drawing created by Bear’s Heart, a Cheyenne prisoner of war at Fort Marion. These images artistically depict Bear’s Heart life as a prisoner, and shed light on the experiences of those subjected to Pratt’s assimilationist ‘experiment.’ Image 10. depicts the prisoners journey to Fort Marion by steamboat, while Image 11. depicts a group of similarly dressed prisoners fishing under the supervision of Army officers.
The Creation of Carlisle – the Boarding School Model
Using his experiment at Fort Marion as a model, Pratt went to Congress “to request funding for the similar education of all American Indians.” [24] In 1879, with the permission and funding of the United States government, Pratt was granted use of a deserted military base in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as the location for his continued experiment – a Native American assimilationist factory, a boarding school. [25]
Pratt modeled the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the nation’s “first federal off-reservation boarding school,” after his successes at Fort Marion. [26] However, unlike the fort, Pratt focused his assimilationist techniques on the most impressionable sections of Native society - children.
Shortly after securing funding, Pratt headed to the ‘Dakota Territory,’ where he recruited children from tribes the United States deemed the most ‘savage’ and ‘hostile’ – many of these tribes were the same ones that initiated and engaged in violence during the Indian Wars.
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“The solution to the ‘Indian Problem,’... lay within the context of highly formalized and ritualized education designed not only to stamp out all things Indigenous but to teach Indian youth their role within American life” Tribal chiefs and parents were “reluctant to send [their] children to be trained in the ways of the man who had violated their treaties and trespassed” on their lands. [27]But Pratt was persistent and convinced tribal members by arguing if Native communities had been able “read the White Man’s words, treaties would have been better understood and such violations” would not have happened.[28]
After visiting dozens of communities, Pratt returned to Carlisle with hundreds of students, the first of thousands that would be stripped of their Native American identity and culture at the school.
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The Spread of SchoolsCarlisle would be the first of hundreds of boarding schools opened for Native American children, as the method of assimilation through education became the solution to the ‘Indian Problem.’
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“Child removal sought to accomplish the original aims of warfare… by the severance of tribal and land connection, the fragmentation of indigenous communities, and the training of indigenous children to serve their colonizers” – Historians Victoria Haskins and Margaret D. Jacobs [29] |
With just four boarding schools in 1884, the United States government opened over 177 boarding schools at the turn of the century; teaching and assimilating 10% of the total Native American population by the year 1900. [30][31][32]
With the belief that assimilationist education would finally eliminate the nuisance population and their savage tendencies, government funding for Native American boarding schools increased exponentially, from just $60,000 the year Carlisle opened in 1879, to $2,936,080 by 1900. [33] The United States hoped its investments in Native American education would result in the abandonment of savage lifestyles, and the acceptance of the White Man’s Way. [34]
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Page Citation:
[1] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs. “Stolen Generation and Vanishing Indians: The Removal of Indigenous Children as a Weapon of War in the United States and Australia, 1870-1940.” Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 238.
[2] Richard Henry Pratt. “1892 Speech: Kill the Indian, and Save The Man.” Kill the Indian, and Save the Man: Capt. Richard Henry Pratt on the Education of Native Americans. Accessed November 2016. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/.
[3] Annalee G. Good. “‘Unconscionable Violence:’ The Federal Role in American Indian Education, 1890-1915.” Studies in the Humanities 33, 2 (December 2006): 284.
[4] Annalee G. Good. Studies in the Humanities 33, 2 (December 2006): 285.
[5] Ann Piccard, “Death by Boarding School: “The Last Acceptable Racism” and the United States’ Genocide of Native Americans.” Gonzaga Law Review 49, 1 (December 2013): 152.
[6] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs. Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 230.
[7] Heather Winlow. “Strangers on their own land:” Ideology, Policy and Rational Landscapes in the United States, 1825-1934.” Cartographic 48, 1 (2013): 51.
[8] David H. DeJong. “‘Unless They Are Kept Alive:’ Federal Indian Schools and Student Health, 1878-1918.” American Indian Quarterly 31, 2 (Spring 2007): 274.
[9] Richard Henry Pratt. “1892 Speech: Kill the Indian, and Save The Man.
[10] Lindsay Peterson. “‘Kill the Indian, Save the Man,’ Americanization through Education: Richard Henry Pratt’s Legacy.” Honors Theses at Colby College (2013): 21.
[11] Dickinson College. “Richard Henry Pratt: 1840-1924.” Accessed November 2016. http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/studentwork/indian/2_pratt.htm.
[12] Lindsay Peterson. Honors Theses at Colby College (2013): 21.
[13] Kevin Whalen. “Findings the Balance: Student Voices and Cultural Loss at Sherman Institute.” American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[14] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[15] David H. DeJong. American Indian Quarterly 31, 2 (Spring 2007): 257.
[16] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[17] Barbara Landis. “Carlisle Indian Industrial School History.” Accessed October 2016. http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html.
[18] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 228.
[19] Kevin Slivka. “Art, Craft, and Assimilation: Curriculum for Native Students during the Boarding School Era.” Studies in Art Education 52, 3 (2011): 226.
[20] Amy Lonetree. “American Indian Boarding Schools: An Exploration of Global Ethnic and Cultural Cleansing.” Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabee Culture and Lifeways (2011): 5.
[21] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[22] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[23] David H. DeJong. American Indian Quarterly 31, 2 (Spring 2007): 257.
[24] Amy Lonetree. Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabee Culture and Lifeways (2011): 5.
[25] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 130.
[26] K. Tsianina Lomawaima. “Domesticity in the Federal Indian Schools: The Power of Authority over Mind and Body.” American Ethnologist 20, 2 (1993): 229.
[27] Barbara Landis. “Carlisle Indian Industrial School History.”
[28] Barbara Landis. “Carlisle Indian Industrial School History.”
[29] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs. Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 238.
[30] David H. DeJong. American Indian Quarterly 31, 2 (Spring 2007): 259.
[31] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs. Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 229.
[32] Native American Public Telecommunications, “Interactive Map – Boarding Schools,” Indian Country Diaries. Accessed December 2016. http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/history/interactive_map.html.
[33] The United States, Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. “Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899.” Government Printing Office (1899): 32.
[34] Amy Lonetree. Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabee Culture and Lifeways (2011): 6.
[1] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs. “Stolen Generation and Vanishing Indians: The Removal of Indigenous Children as a Weapon of War in the United States and Australia, 1870-1940.” Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 238.
[2] Richard Henry Pratt. “1892 Speech: Kill the Indian, and Save The Man.” Kill the Indian, and Save the Man: Capt. Richard Henry Pratt on the Education of Native Americans. Accessed November 2016. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/.
[3] Annalee G. Good. “‘Unconscionable Violence:’ The Federal Role in American Indian Education, 1890-1915.” Studies in the Humanities 33, 2 (December 2006): 284.
[4] Annalee G. Good. Studies in the Humanities 33, 2 (December 2006): 285.
[5] Ann Piccard, “Death by Boarding School: “The Last Acceptable Racism” and the United States’ Genocide of Native Americans.” Gonzaga Law Review 49, 1 (December 2013): 152.
[6] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs. Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 230.
[7] Heather Winlow. “Strangers on their own land:” Ideology, Policy and Rational Landscapes in the United States, 1825-1934.” Cartographic 48, 1 (2013): 51.
[8] David H. DeJong. “‘Unless They Are Kept Alive:’ Federal Indian Schools and Student Health, 1878-1918.” American Indian Quarterly 31, 2 (Spring 2007): 274.
[9] Richard Henry Pratt. “1892 Speech: Kill the Indian, and Save The Man.
[10] Lindsay Peterson. “‘Kill the Indian, Save the Man,’ Americanization through Education: Richard Henry Pratt’s Legacy.” Honors Theses at Colby College (2013): 21.
[11] Dickinson College. “Richard Henry Pratt: 1840-1924.” Accessed November 2016. http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/studentwork/indian/2_pratt.htm.
[12] Lindsay Peterson. Honors Theses at Colby College (2013): 21.
[13] Kevin Whalen. “Findings the Balance: Student Voices and Cultural Loss at Sherman Institute.” American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[14] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[15] David H. DeJong. American Indian Quarterly 31, 2 (Spring 2007): 257.
[16] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[17] Barbara Landis. “Carlisle Indian Industrial School History.” Accessed October 2016. http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html.
[18] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 228.
[19] Kevin Slivka. “Art, Craft, and Assimilation: Curriculum for Native Students during the Boarding School Era.” Studies in Art Education 52, 3 (2011): 226.
[20] Amy Lonetree. “American Indian Boarding Schools: An Exploration of Global Ethnic and Cultural Cleansing.” Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabee Culture and Lifeways (2011): 5.
[21] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[22] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 129.
[23] David H. DeJong. American Indian Quarterly 31, 2 (Spring 2007): 257.
[24] Amy Lonetree. Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabee Culture and Lifeways (2011): 5.
[25] Kevin Whalen. American Behavioral Scientist 58, 1 (2014): 130.
[26] K. Tsianina Lomawaima. “Domesticity in the Federal Indian Schools: The Power of Authority over Mind and Body.” American Ethnologist 20, 2 (1993): 229.
[27] Barbara Landis. “Carlisle Indian Industrial School History.”
[28] Barbara Landis. “Carlisle Indian Industrial School History.”
[29] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs. Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 238.
[30] David H. DeJong. American Indian Quarterly 31, 2 (Spring 2007): 259.
[31] Victoria Haskins, and Margaret D. Jacobs. Excerpt from Children and War: A Historical Anthology. New York University Press, New York (2002): 229.
[32] Native American Public Telecommunications, “Interactive Map – Boarding Schools,” Indian Country Diaries. Accessed December 2016. http://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/history/interactive_map.html.
[33] The United States, Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. “Annual Reports of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899.” Government Printing Office (1899): 32.
[34] Amy Lonetree. Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabee Culture and Lifeways (2011): 6.
Photo Citations:
[Image 1.] Photograph titled Indian Cheifs who had Council with General Miles and Settled the Indian War 1. Standing Bull, 2. Bear Who Stands and Looks Back, 3. Has the Big White Horse, 4. White Tail, 5. Living Bear, 6. Little Thunder, 7. Bull Dog, 8. High Hawk, 9. Lame, 10. Eagle Pipe by John C.H. Grabill, 1891. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
[Image 2.] Political Cartoon titled Robinson Crusoe Making a Man of His Firday by Thomas Nast, published in Harper’s Weekly, February 12, 1870. HarpWeek, The New York Times, New York City.
[Image 3.] Photography of Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867. Reprinted in Charles Darwin: His Life Told in a Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters edited by Francis Darwin, 1892.
[Image 4.] Illustration titled The Five Races of Man by G. Ellka, published in Meinhold und Söhne, C. C., Dresden, 1911. Unknown archive.
[Image 5.] Illustration titled Blumenbach’s Five Races by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach published in Treatise on “De generis humani varietate native” 1795. Unknown archive.
[Image 6.] Photograph titled Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt, Founder and Superintendent of Carlisle Indian School, in Military Uniform and with Sword by John N. Choate, 1879. National Anthropological Archives. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
[Image 7.] Photograph of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma by unknown, undated. Charles J. Brill Collection. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
[Image 8.] Photograph of Richard Henry Pratt with Native Prisoners at Fort Marion, Florida by unknown, undated. Unknown archive.
[Image 9.] Photograph titled Native American in uniforms confined at Fort Marion – St. Augustine, Florida by unknown, 1875. Florida Memory. State Archive of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida.
[Image 10.] Drawing titled Transfer from Cars to Steamboat at Jacksonville by Bear’s Heart, May 21, 1875. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.
[Image 11.] Drawing titled Catching a Shark by Bear’s Heart, July 1875. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.
[Image 12.] Photograph titled Navajo Students Who Entered Carlisle by unknown, October 21, 1882. Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
[Image 13.] Photograph of General Pratt and a young student by unknown, 1880. U.S. Military Institutes, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
[Image 14.] Photo of Pupils at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School by unknown, 1900. Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
[Graphic 1.] Figure 1: Total enrollment in reservation and non-reservation government tribal schools, data collected by U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, 1890-1920. Page 287 in Annalee G. Good “‘Unconscionable Violence:’ The Federal Role in American Indian Education, 1890-1915.” Studies in the Humanities 33,2 (December 2006): 287.
[Graphic 2.] Table No. 12 Annual appropriations made by the Government since the fiscal year 1877 for the support of the Indian Schools. Page 32 of the Annual Report of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
[Graphic 3.] Table No. 1 Locations, average attendance, capacity, etc. of nonreservation training schools during fiscal year ended June 30, 1899. Page 10 of the Annual Report of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
[Image 1.] Photograph titled Indian Cheifs who had Council with General Miles and Settled the Indian War 1. Standing Bull, 2. Bear Who Stands and Looks Back, 3. Has the Big White Horse, 4. White Tail, 5. Living Bear, 6. Little Thunder, 7. Bull Dog, 8. High Hawk, 9. Lame, 10. Eagle Pipe by John C.H. Grabill, 1891. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
[Image 2.] Political Cartoon titled Robinson Crusoe Making a Man of His Firday by Thomas Nast, published in Harper’s Weekly, February 12, 1870. HarpWeek, The New York Times, New York City.
[Image 3.] Photography of Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867. Reprinted in Charles Darwin: His Life Told in a Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of His Published Letters edited by Francis Darwin, 1892.
[Image 4.] Illustration titled The Five Races of Man by G. Ellka, published in Meinhold und Söhne, C. C., Dresden, 1911. Unknown archive.
[Image 5.] Illustration titled Blumenbach’s Five Races by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach published in Treatise on “De generis humani varietate native” 1795. Unknown archive.
[Image 6.] Photograph titled Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt, Founder and Superintendent of Carlisle Indian School, in Military Uniform and with Sword by John N. Choate, 1879. National Anthropological Archives. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
[Image 7.] Photograph of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma by unknown, undated. Charles J. Brill Collection. Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
[Image 8.] Photograph of Richard Henry Pratt with Native Prisoners at Fort Marion, Florida by unknown, undated. Unknown archive.
[Image 9.] Photograph titled Native American in uniforms confined at Fort Marion – St. Augustine, Florida by unknown, 1875. Florida Memory. State Archive of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida.
[Image 10.] Drawing titled Transfer from Cars to Steamboat at Jacksonville by Bear’s Heart, May 21, 1875. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.
[Image 11.] Drawing titled Catching a Shark by Bear’s Heart, July 1875. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.
[Image 12.] Photograph titled Navajo Students Who Entered Carlisle by unknown, October 21, 1882. Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
[Image 13.] Photograph of General Pratt and a young student by unknown, 1880. U.S. Military Institutes, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
[Image 14.] Photo of Pupils at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School by unknown, 1900. Cumberland County Historical Society, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
[Graphic 1.] Figure 1: Total enrollment in reservation and non-reservation government tribal schools, data collected by U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, 1890-1920. Page 287 in Annalee G. Good “‘Unconscionable Violence:’ The Federal Role in American Indian Education, 1890-1915.” Studies in the Humanities 33,2 (December 2006): 287.
[Graphic 2.] Table No. 12 Annual appropriations made by the Government since the fiscal year 1877 for the support of the Indian Schools. Page 32 of the Annual Report of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
[Graphic 3.] Table No. 1 Locations, average attendance, capacity, etc. of nonreservation training schools during fiscal year ended June 30, 1899. Page 10 of the Annual Report of the Department of the Interior for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.