l8 GEN. R. H. PRATT: 



false stories about alleged returned students, reinforced by the 

 official vagaries and unfounded allegations of a recent Com- 

 missioner of Indian Affairs. He said he had a dozen Sunday' 

 newspaper stories alleging criminal conduct and worthlessness 

 on the part of alleged returned students, and not one of them 

 was true in any sense. He then read from the Annual Gov- 

 ernment Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 

 1898, that the Indian Office had made investigation that year 

 covering the worth of all returned students, which showed 

 that the character and usefulness of 76 per cent, of them com- 

 pared favorably with educated white boys and girls under 

 similar conditions ; that their actions after they had returned 

 to the reservations showed that they had gained capability for 

 and practiced a career of usefulness similar to that of the 

 average educated white man. 



He read another extract from the Annual Report of the 

 Indian Office for 1901, showing that the Office had again 

 made a more thorough investigation and found that the pro- 

 portion of "excellent" in character, ability and usefulness 

 had risen to 10 per cent., and of the remainder those rated as 

 " good " had increased to 76 per cent., " showing that in all 

 respects the useful effect of non-reservation education upon 

 young Indians was fully equal to the influences of good edu- 

 cation upon the young of the white race." He suggested that 

 those interested read the Indian Office Reports for 189S and 

 1 901 on this subject. 



Mr. Walter H. Corkran asked, " Do the Indians tliem- 

 selves want to become civilized?" The General replied, 

 "The Indians have been held aloof from civilization, and 

 therefore have had no fair chance to determine what they 

 wanted in regard to it ; " that all his experience showed they 

 did want our civilization, whenever they came to an under- 

 standing of it, but that it was not a question as to their 

 wishes in the matter. The Government had assumed guar- 

 dianship over them and their affairs and was allotting them 

 lands individually, thereby clothing them with citizenship. 



