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CHAPTER XVII.

EDUCATION IN ALASKA.

REPORT OF THE GENERAL AGENT FOR THE YEAR 1889-90.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, ALASKA DIVISION,

Washington, D. C., June 30, 1890.

SIR: In compliance with the rules and regulations for the conduct of schools -and education in Alaska, approved by the Secretary of the Interior, April 9, 1890, I have the honor of submitting the following, as the annual report of the general agent of education for the year ending June 30, 1890:

A.-NUMBER AND GENERAL CONDITION OF THE SCHOOLS IN ALASKA.

Alaska has 15 day schools, supported wholly by the Government, with a total enrollment of 1,110 pupils: 9 contract schools, containing 302 pupils, which are supported jointly by the Government and the missionary societies: 10 mission schools, with an enrollment of 297 pupils, which are supported wholly from the funds of the churches, and two schools sustained on the Seal Islands by the North American Commercial Company, under contract with the Treasury Department, and containing 79 pupils, making a total of 37 schools and 1,788 pupils.

I. PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

1.-UNALASKA DISTRICT.

Unalaska (John A. Tuck, teacher).—Enrollment, 30; population largely Aleuts. Prof. Tuck reached Unalaska in September, 1889, and renting a house from the Alaska Commercial Company, opened school with an average attendance of 6 pupils. In the absence of any school building, one end of his residence was fitted up as a schoolroom. So much interest was developed in the school that the pupils, with but few exceptions, continued at school during the Russo-Greek Church festivals, which are very numerous. Among the pupils were the grown-up daughters of the Russian priest.

Prof. Tuck reports that the rate of progress was almost all that could be desired.

With the opening of the next school year it is expected that the ladies of the National Home Mission Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church will enter into an agreement with the United States Bureau of Education to take charge of the school, several thousands of dollars having already been raised for that purpose.

The building they propose to erect will be known as the "Jesse Lee Memorial Home."

Unga (John H. Carr, teacher).- Enrollment, 24; population, Russian and Aleut.

Gratifying progress was made in the usual school studies and in temperance hygiene by those who were regular in their attendance.

The teacher pleads earnestly for some rule to secure more regular attendance. The ladies of the National Home Mission Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church have purchased and shipped to Unga the materials for a teachers' residence, to be known as the "Martha Ellen Stevens Cottage."

2-KADIAK DISTRICT.

KW. E. Roscoe, teacher:.-Enrollment, 67: population, Russian. At the solicitation of the parents. Mr. Roscoe commenced his school a week in advance of the regular time of opening. The progress of the pupils proved very satisfactory, and the attendance fairly so.

Mach inconvenience resulted from the number of holidays of the Russo-Greek Church. These are more than 20 during the year, and they greatly interfere with the regular attendanes of the pupils.

During the year the Government erected a comfortable school building, which was greatly needed.

Joynak John Duff, teacher.-Enrollment, 38; population, Russian and Ekimo.

The Rev. James A. Wirth, who had taught the school from the beginning and was greatly beloved by parents and pupils alike, resigned on account of the health of his wife. His resignation was received so late in the season that there was no time to procure a teacher from the states, and Mr. John Duff, who was already in that region, was appointed.

School was resumed on the "d of October with 16 pupils, the attendance increasing to 24 during the first week.

From the first many of the parents took an interest in the school and scarcely a day passed that one or more were not visitors.

Geographical exercises on the map were an unfailing source of interest: pupils that did not know half of their letters could point out the States of the United States and give their names correctly.

The ordinary school books speak of so many things that neither the children nor their parents have ever seen that it is difficult for them to understand what they are reading about. To remedy this somewhat Mr. Duff proposes to form a museum of common things in connection with the school and thus give the pupils object lessons in connection with their books.

An interesting feature of the year was the attendance of a number of children from outside villages.

The school has suffered greatly from intemperance, many of the children being on the verge of starvation because the parents had traded off the living of the family for liquor.

Frequently, in visiting his pupils, the teacher found them hungry and shivering in the corner of the room, and both the parents dead drunk."

A comfortable school building and teacher's residence were erected by the Government during the year.

Karluk. A good school building and teacher's residence were erected during the year at this important point, and a school will be opened at the beginning of the next school year.

The number of villages of civilized Russians in this district requires many more schools than can be established with the amount appropriated by Congress for this purpose.

Professor Duff, of Afognak, estimates that there should be at least twenty additional schools in the Kadiak district.

3-SITKA DISTRICT.

Sitka, No. 1 (Miss Ann D. Beatty, teacher).-Enrollment, 68, or one more than the total number of white children of school age in the village; population, American and Russian. Among the pupils of this school are the children of the civil and naval officials who are stationed at the capital of the Territory.

Sitka, No. 2 (Miss Gertrude Patton, teacher).-Enrollment, 83; pupils, native Thlingets.

With 280 native children between 5 and 17 years of age in the village, there ought to be some way of securing a larger attendance than 83. A simple obligatory attendance law would work a great improvement in school attendance among the native population.

Juneau, No. 1 (Miss Rhoda A. Lee, teacher).—Enrollment, 33; pupils, Ameri

cans.

This is one of the most advanced schools in the Territory. Year by year the public sentiment of Juneau is improving. More families are moving in, and the white school reaps the benefit of this growth.

Juneau, No. 2 (Miss Cassia Patton, teacher).-Enrollment, 51; pupils, natives. The best portion of this school and the pupils that made the most rapid and gratifying progress in their studies were those that came from the Model Home,

conducted by Rev. and Mrs. E. S. Willard and their assistants, Miss E. Matthews and Miss Jennie Dunbar, of the Presbyterian Mission.

Douglas City, No. 1 (Mrs. W. S. Adams, teacher).-Enrollment, 50; pupils, Americans.

During the year a comfortable school building was erected by the Government. Owing to delay in its completion the school was not opened until the 1st of February, 1890. The opening of this new schoolroom for the whites allayed the friction of last year, when the children of the whites and natives were compelled to use the same room or not go to school at all.

Mrs. Adams reports that her advanced pupils, in addition to their ordinary studies, have taken up natural history, botany, and simple lessons in mental science.

Douglas City, No. 2 (C. H. Edwards, teacher).-Enrollment, 92; pupils, native. Douglas Island being the principal center of the mining interests, many natives come from distant villages to secure work for a longer or shorter period. They are constantly coming and going.

This creates great irregularity in the attendance of the children and greatly increases the work of the teacher.

Killisnoo (Miss May Ransom, teacher).-Enrollment, 32; pupils, Russians and natives. Wrangell (Mrs. Lyda McA. Thomas, teacher).-Enrollment, 84; pupils, natives. During the year the chief of the village acted as special policeman to look after all truants from school. The result was good, securing greater regularity in the attendance and more rapid advancement in their studies.

Klawack (Mr. Henry C. Wilson, teacher).-Enrollment, 66; pupils, natives. After the resignation of Mrs. Currie, in the summer of 1889, no teacher was secured until the following spring, when Mr. Wilson reopened the school on the 1st of May, 1890.

Jackson (Miss Clara A. Gould, teacher).-Enroliment, 87; pupils, natives. During the winter a number of parents moved into the village for the purpose of placing their children in school.

Metlakahtla (William Duncan, teacher).-Enrollment, 179; pupils, natives. This school is of more than ordinary interest from the fact that this settlement is composed of Tsimpseans, who, a few years ago, came over in a body from British Columbia to Alaska in order to secure greater religious and political freedom.

Mr. Ivan Petroff, special agent for Alaska of the Eleventh United States Census, in his report to the Census Bureau, commenting upon the school attendance of the Sitka district, says: "Considering the nature of the population, widely scattered in small settlements, the showing of 1,049 scholars in attendance out of a total of 1,755 persons between the ages of 5 and 17 years is certainly a remarkable one. The number of natives speaking English does not much exceed that of the scholars enrolled."

II.-CONTRACT SCHOOLS.

1.-SITKA DISTRICT.

Sitka Industrial Training School, Presbyterian (Prof. W. A. Kelly, principal with 17 assistants).-Boarding pupils, 164: natives.

Professor Kelly reports: "The past year has been one of marked progress, both in the schoolroom and in the industrial department. It is surprising how quickly the pupils learn English when deprived of their native tongue. "Our school is distinctively coeducational. The boys and girls recite in the same classes, dine together in the same dining-room, and, under wholesome restraint, have opportunities for social intercourse.

"A few years of sedulous training have developed in some of our oldest pupils a spirit of emulation, a sense of personal responsibility, self-respect, self-reliance, and self-helpfulness which command respect. Most of our large boys, advanced far enough to read intelligently in the second reader, are learning a trade (all being in school half of each day and at work half a day), and the diligence with which they pursue their studies, the zest with which they enter upon industrial work day after day is most praiseworthy of them and encouraging to their instructors.

"All of the shoes for the pupils of our school are hand-made in our shop, under the direction of a competent foreman. Considerable custom work is also done. "Our supply of barrels and half barrels far exceeds the demand, yet we con

sider coopering an excellent trade for our young men. Owing to high freight, barrels are usually made at the fishing stations where needed, and coopers are in demand at those places.

"We are always pressed with work in carpentry. The variety and scope of work have proved a most valuable source of instruction to the boys, most of whom are aptly adapted to mechanical industry. The boys have made com mendable progress during the past year. Young men who can do carpenter work fairly well can find opportunity to ply their trade in any of the villages of Alaska.

"We have eight model cottages, six of which are occupied by young married couples from the school. These young folks have been thrown entirely upon their own responsiblitiy and resources, and they are doing right well in earning a livelihood, while their honses are kept clean, neat, and homelike. The environments of family life among the young folk, in contradistinction to that in vogue among the natives, tend to create new conditions and inspire new impulses among their own people.

"The general work of the school, patching, mending, refitting, making new garments (aprons, towels, underwear, dresses), is no light task. Each girl 8 years old and upwards knits her own stockings, and the large girls find time to learn useful tidy work in o: der that they may be able to beautify their own homes with the work of their own hands.

"The girls are trained in every department of household industry, kitchen, dining-room, teachers' room, etc. Our girls numbering but fifty, the matron and her assistants find time to give each girl individual care in the details of housekeeping, thus gradually inculcating and developing a sense of personal responsibility.

"Our boys do the bread baking for the school, while the girls in turn are taught how to bake and cook for a family. This special instruction in the art of cooking is given in the teachers' kitchen, the cooking for the teachers and employés being done by our native girls. They are also trained to wait upon the table, and they serve the teachers and guests with grace and manners. Our young boys are also trained in our school kitchen and dining room.

"Our pupils, from the children to the adults, sing with a spirit and understanding that outrivals many of the public schools.

**Our brass band of 20 members dispenses music for the school and for the town on public occasions.

"We have a military company of 35 members. The guns were kindly loaned us by the governor of the Territory.

"Lessons in patriotism are constantly inculcated. The Alaskans are a loyal, patriotic people. Rev. A. E. Austin, the veteran missionary of the school, has charge of the religious and devotional exercises."

The time has fully come when a normal department should be added to this important school, and a beginning be made in training native teachers.

2.-KADIAC DISTRICT.

As yet there is no contract school in this important district, but the establishment of one on Wood Island is urged by the teachers of the several day schools. Prof. Duff, of Afognak, writes, under date of March 21, 1890: We must have, and that very soon, an industrial school in this district, into which can be gathered and taught, the hundreds of orphans and neglected children. They are nearly all as white and as capable of improvement as the children of New England, or any other part of the country."

Prof. Roscoe, of Kadiak, writes, under date of September 29, 1890: "In every settlement through this part of the country may be found poor, defenseless children, clothed only in rags, with no one to provide suitable food or clothing, and living entirely on such charity as may be found among a heathen people. There are many destitute children, made so by the drunkenness and hence vagabond character of their parents. In addition to a kind of beer which the natives themselves make from sugar and graham flour, they succeed in buying large quantities of whisky from sailors and the more reckless class of traders. The salmon canneries are, generally speaking, a curse to the natives. The Chinese employés bring, or rather smuggle, immense quantities of "samshu into the country, and peddle it out to the natives. In the Aleut settlement of Afognak, the natives have sold the very fur bedding from their huts to obtain this vile stuff. The winter is upon them, and until recently they had been so demoralized with liquor that they had not laid in the usual winter's supply of dried fish, their main subsistence. Without money and provisions and cloth

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