Plans for Improving the Natives. 47 



Territory, and for the civilizing of the native population, with a view to thei"^ 

 permanence and prosperity as an integral part of the nation. 



I ngard any survey of Alaska as incomplete without an impartial considera- 

 tion of this whole subject; and I therefoie propose to present it in the form of 

 an address and petition to the President of the United States, with a view to 

 Congressional action.* 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SCHOOLS 



is a principal part of our plan for ihe civilization of Alaska, and altogether in 

 dispensable. 



The Russo-Greek Church introduced schools at several places in the south- 

 western curve of the great arch, and a few of these still exist. A skijtch of 

 these schools, which I received from a Russian ecclesiastic, shows that in some 

 of them only the simplest elementary branches were attempted, and that the 

 children of the original native stock were not kept under tuition long enough 

 to make a permanent impression. 



Their school at Siika, long ago disbanded, was cited as an example. Schools 

 among the Aleutes were more successful. I think no injustice is done by stat- 

 ing that the degree of attainment in these schools was exceedingly low, and 

 foredoomed to be ineffectual by poverty of aim and influence of surroundings. 

 The lever was too slender to hoist the children out of the slough in which their 

 parents were wallowing. 



It was n.")t the policy of the Russian Government to train its subjects to in- 

 dependent thought; nor of the Russian Fur Company to develop the minds of 

 their hunters, except in sagacity to outwit the game ; and Russian ecclesiastics, 

 however desirous to enlighten the native population, would have found the task 

 beyond their strength, being overborne by the combined influences of tempora 

 and spiritual despotism, traffic and general apathy, or ethnical aversions. 

 Hence the chief aim of these schools seemed to be to proselyte the children 

 and make them familiar with the Manual of the church worship. 



The very moderate results of these schools are cited as decisive objections 

 o all efforts to educate these people, on the ground that they are incapable of 

 mpro\ement, and must therefore be left to suffer all the evils of ignorance. 

 This inference was urged by an intelligent Russian priest, and is entertained 

 by a few of the old residents of Alaska. I refer to it to check the growth of a 

 pernicious error, which has other roots besides a misguided proselytism. 



Whenever the aim of those schools was catechetical instruction and not in- 

 tellectual training, the results which followed could have been foreseen. The 

 tasks were irksome to the scholars; the mind was left undisciplined; the prac- 

 tical knowledge for which some of those youths were hungering was not com_ 

 municated ; and as soon as the school-pressure wa:. removed, the lapse into the 

 old state of ignorance was inevitable. 



We cite the results of our Schools as already providing a confutation of thi* 

 error. The results have not yet acquired the force of protracted trial, nor the 

 *See No. V. Letter to President Hayes. 



