CHAPTER XIII. REPORT ON EDUCATION IN ALASKA. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, ALASKA DIVISION, Washington, D. C., June 30, 1905. SIR: I have the honor to submit my twentieth annual report as United States general agent of education in Alaska, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905. During the school year, outside of incorporated towns, there have been maintained 51 public schools with 62 teachers and an enrollment of 3,083 pupils. SOUTHEAST ALASKA, Haines No. 1.-Miss Amy S. Gaddis, teacher; enrollment, 28; pupils, white. Haines No. 2.-Miss Mary Mackintosh, teacher; enrollment, 44; pupils, native. A letter from the teacher states that the children had improved in their personal appearance so much that they could hardly be taken for natives. Native families remained at Haines all the spring for the purpose of keeping their children at school. The girls have been taught needlework. Hoonah.-Miss Minnie S. Ross, teacher; enrollment, 174; pupils, Thlinget. As illustrating the civilizing effect of the school, the teacher states that on Christmas eve exercises were held in the church and there were recitations and singing by the children. She says that the children are bright and eager to learn, and can be more easily led by kindness than compelled by punishment. Their main fault is in not being punctual. They are passionately fond of music and are willing to attend school for the sake of the singing. The boys are good in arithmetic, while the girls prefer reading and writing. Jackson. Miss Byrde Darby, teacher; enrollment, 53; pupils, native. The teacher writes that the native children at this place are slow in acquiring English, as they hear it only at school. They are sensitive and proud. The school work is not far advanced, being confined to chart, primary, and intermediate classes. The children are quick in elementary arithmetic, but slow in forming sentences on account of their limited vocabulary. The parents were desirous of having their children go to school. Kake. Mrs. Anna R. Moon, teacher; enrollment, 95; pupils, native. There is the same complaint of irregularity in attendance here that is met in the other reports from Alaska-due to the boys joining their fathers in their avocations of hunting, fishing, etc. The teacher speaks of the ambition of some of the young men who are not satisfied to know only reading and writing, but desire to pass on to other studies. The girls are taught needlework, knitting, basket making, etc. School opened with only 8 pupils. Kasaan.-Arch R. Law, teacher; enrollment, 49; pupils, native. This report states that the attendance was regular after the school had fairly started, the parents fully and heartily supporting the teacher in this respect, as they desired their children to go to school as much as possible and regretted the necessity of taking them away on fishing trips. At the close of the third year the children could all speak English fairly well and understood it perfectly. Their composition was naturally limited in scope of ideas and expression. A number of the girls had been to the industrial school at Sitka. The effect of attending the training school and the missions is very apparent in the comparative refinement shown in the houses of the natives whose children have had the advantage of those schools. Moreover, the natives are beginning to appreciate the school training as a preparation for the increasing competition with the whites. Mr. Law says that already there are school-trained natives who are prepared to compete on an equality with white men in the occupations that can be followed in the region about Kasaan. The education of the young natives should therefore have a practical industrial turn, and above all must inculcate deliberate perseverance. Killisnoo.-Mrs. Catherine Kilborn, teacher; enrollment, 94; pupils, native. No report. Klawock.-Miss Nell G. Edgar, teacher; enrollment, 70; pupils, native. No detailed report. Klinquan.-Samuel G. Davis, teacher; enrollment, 36; pupils, Hydah. A letter mentions the fact that a night school was kept five nights in the week for the parents and young men. Those who attend this school take an interest in the day school and desire to have their children attend it. The older natives are indifferent to the school. Klukwan. Miss Thena A. Brookman, teacher; enrollment, 36; pupils, native. The teacher reports that most of the children were away with their parents the greater part of the year, either at Sitka or hunting and fishing, so that the attendance was small. She writes that the children learn remarkably well, and if their parents could be persuaded to leave their families behind when going on expeditions there would be some hopes of a native population growing up which could speak English. Petersburg.-Mrs. J. V. McCullough, teacher; enrollment, 54; pupils, white and Thlinget. This is a fishing community, and many of the children go to school by boat. Both boys and girls learned needlework and knitting, the latter art being important in the fishing industry. The school sent an exhibit to the Portland fair. The teacher remarks upon the difference between the native idea of color and that of the whites. The natives would imitate correctly the colors of a landscape, etc., set them as copies, but when left to themselves would add colors of their own to trees and flowers without any regard to nature, but more like conventional colors which may have some significance to them. Saxman. Mrs. John L. Myers, teacher; enrollment, 63; pupils, native. No detailed report. Shakan.-Fred Chase, teacher; enrollment, 44; pupils, native. The teacher says that the children understood and talked English a little among themselves. Some of them could read the hymns at the religious exercises. They voluntarily kept the schoolhouse clean, washing and scrubbing it out about once a month. Sitka No. 1.-D. M. Daum, Miss C. Duncan, and Miss R. McCaleb, teachers; enrollment, 89; pupils, white. Mr. Daum reports that during the year the school was placed, so far as possible, on a graded basis. At the beginning of the year a high school was organized with a three-years' course, and 8 pupils in the first year, 2 in the second, and 2 in the third. The course of study included Latin (three years), algebra, physical geography, general history, literature, plane geometry, rhetoric, composition, and German. Exercises in debating and parliamentary law were also held. Miss McCaleb writes: Many of the children are very deficient in numbers, writing, spelling, and the correct use of the English tongue. During the year special effort has been made to remedy this defect and the effort has been, in a measure, successful. Tardiness and nonattendance are bugbears which confront the teacher and interfere with efficient work. There are many outside attractions (such as church holidays, potlatches, etc.) which appeal to the mind of the Alaskan small boy, and girl as well. However, during the Russian lenten season the average attendance was in no way reduced. The pupils yield quite readily to authority, and at no time, to the knowledge of the teacher, has her right to discipline been questioned. Much of the trouble along all lines is due to habits of carelessness acquired by the children, not only since babyhood, but by way of inheritance. When this is educated out of them many other annoyances which face the teacher will cease to exist. Taking everything into consideration, the year's work has been one of progress, and the outlook, so far as the children are concerned, is encouraging. Sitka No. 2.--Miss Jeannette Rice, teacher; pupils, Thlinget; enrollment, 60. The attractions of fishing and hunting and the indifference of parents, besides several epidemics, interfered disastrously with the attendance. Nevertheless, the testimony of the teacher is that the native children are naturally bright and able to learn. They like music and learn to sing by note; some learn to draw readily. The few who attended steadily learned to read simple English. Tee Harbor.-H. de Witt, teacher; pupils, native; enrollment, 15. At this place the teacher makes the usual complaint of irregularity in attendance. The natives support themselves by salmon fishing and seal hunting most of the year and take their families with them. The pupils who attended regularly made good progress. The children here, as in other schools, take part in the daily devotional exercises. The teacher makes this noteworthy remark, that some of the former pupils of the school, now grown up, are successfully supporting themselves at different avocations, as fur buyers, clerks, interpreters, some even having stores of their own. WESTERN ALASKA. Afognak.-Teacher, Miss Hannah E. Breece; pupils, native; enrollment, 102. The teacher describes the hostility between the Aleuts and mixed bloods and whites. Quarrels, vituperation in Russian, and disorder were the rule at the opening of the year, both in the school and on the street. This was all changed in a few months, and the excellent conduct of the school pupils became a subject of remark in the town. At the beginning of the year no young man in Afognak could read or write or converse in English. Before the year was out, what with the day school and the night school, many could read English. The natives are beginning to see the desirability of knowing English instead of Russian. Miss Breece taught the girls housekeeping, cooking, etc., and the social side of life was cultivated by evening exercises (singing). The ladies of the Baptist home missionary societies of the United States sent books, pictures, cards, etc., which have contributed to giving an air of refinement both to the school and to the dwellings of the natives. "A native entertainment. ED 1905 VOL 1- -21 Carmel.-Joseph Kahlen, teacher; pupils, native; enrollment, 35. No detailed report. Chignik.-James J. Potter, teacher; pupils, half-breeds; enrollment, 20. School opened with 7 pupils and eventually increased to 20, mostly halfbreeds. All started with the primer and made good progress; arithmetic and spelling offered more difficulties than reading and writing. Attendance could be increased if the parents could be interested. Copper Center.-Mrs. G. S. Clevenger, teacher; pupils, native; enrollment, 25. The work of the school not only covered the routine work of the primary grades of the public schools, but also took a practical direction, the women being taught to make figures for bead work, cut and make garments, etc., while the young men were taught to make change in small currency and to compute the sale of skins and write their names. The children learn as readily as white children and are obedient and yield to kindness readily. Ellamar.-Miss Mary Owen Stevens, teacher; pupils, white; enrollment, 20. Half the school population are half-breeds. The teacher finds that neither whites nor half-breeds do well in the same school with the full bloods, and she criticises the intellectual capacity of the half-breeds, remarking that they have difficulty in expressing themselves in English and have no conception of number and no power of concentrating their thoughts. Hope.-O. L. Grimes, teacher; pupils, white, half-breed, and Indian; enrollment, 15. The subjects taught in this mixed school of white, half-breed, and Indian children were reading, writing, spelling, English, geography, arithmetic, grammar, drawing, temperance hygiene, and United States history. The natives learned English partly from the white pupils on the playground; they made more progress in writing and drawing, being strongly imitative. Their teacher, like several others, insists upon the desirability of a compulsory school law to correct the irregularity of attendance. Kenai. Mrs. Florence C. Craigie, teacher; pupils, native and creole; enrollment, 15. The teacher reports little progress with the natives, owing to their irregular school attendance and the difficulty they experienced in learning English after having learned Russian. Kodiak.-Mr. and Mrs. C. I. Kerr, teachers; pupils, white and native; enrollment, 72. Seldovia.—Herbert S. Farris, teacher; pupils, white and native; enrollment, 15. The teacher states that there are nearly 50 children of school age in Seldovia, while only 5 or 6 attended school on an average. They are described as attentive, easily disciplined, and interested in their work. Seward.-Louise L. Kurtz, teacher; pupils, white and native; enrollment, 37. The teacher reports that there were only three natives under her instructiontwo small girls and a boy of 17-all the rest being white. At the close of the year they could read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, and divide. The boy was in higher fractions, had read some history and could read English with ease. He could write English compositions, draw, and construct maps and charts. Unalaska. Teachers, William A. Davis and Mary S. Davis; pupils, native; enrollment, 51. The report mentions particularly the progress in sewing by the girls and in drawing and penmanship by both girls and boys. Unga.-James C. Patey, teacher; pupils, white and native; enrollment, 31. The report states that "some of the pupils are quick to learn, easy to get along with, and willing to obey. Most of them are quite desirous of learning. They are especially interested in reading good biographies." Christmas and Washington's Birthday were celebrated with songs and speeches, as at most of the schools. At Unga the parents were apathetic in regard to the schools. They said that it required no learning to enable them to catch cod or hunt sea otter or reindeer. Wood Island.-Augusta G. Curtis, teacher; pupils, native; enrollment, 50. The teacher reports that at the close of the year several pupils of the lowest grade were ready for the second reader and the primary arithmetic. All had learned to write, while a few could write letters. Grades three and four took up advanced studies, viz, geography, hygiene, history, and language lessons. Prizes were given at the monthly examinations, and the pupils looked forward to them as important events. ARCTIC AND NORTHERN ALASKA. Barrow.-S. R. Spriggs and John H. Kilbuck, teachers; pupils, Eskimo; enrollment, 76. "The main object kept in view was to get the children in the way of using the English they had already learned. As this is an Eskimo country, and the few white people in it speak the vernacular language, the children have had very little use for English. The plan of the compulsory use of the English language in the schoolroom was introduced and proved to be quite a stimulus to the acquirement and proper use of English words. A failure to conform to the rule was punished by standing. When the rule was first put into force. nearly the entire school was upon its feet at once." Mr. Kilbuck writes of the trouble the children find in distinguishing between the consonants b, v, p, and t and d. Some of the more advanced pupils kept up their study and practice of English by writing a diary. A marked difference was noticed in the mental activity of the scholars during the sunless period, when the rooms were lighted by artificial light, and the time when the sun appeared, to dispel the gloom of the arctic night. "Another difficulty is the inability of the little Eskimo to study quietly. When they are studying the hardest the din rises almost to the proportions of that heard in a boiler maker's shop. It seems that only in this way can the white man's words be driven home to stay in the Eskimo mind. The school year was closed when several whales were caught. Then everybody, young and old, plunged into freighting meat and blubber ashore. This is the work of the women and children, and secures meat and oil for the family during the next year." Teacher and pupils are eagerly looking forward to the use of a new building next term. * Bethel. Teachers, Joseph Weinlick and B. K. Helmick; pupils, Eskimo. The industrial teacher at this place, Mr. B. K. Helmick, reports that the native boys are more or less fond of working with the saw, hammer, plane, etc., and make good progress. The branches taken up are machinery, use of tools, carpentering, boat building, net making, and fish canning, The school-teacher reports that the boys are quick in comprehending things, but the girls are slow. The majority of the pupils wrote a nice hand and read fluently. In arithmetic, division is very difficult for them to understand, and in composition their range of thought is limited to hunting and fishing. Bettles. Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Cram, teachers; pupils, Indian and Eskimo; enrollment, 68. Bettles is situated midway between the fishing grounds on the south and those on the north. It is thus the meeting place of both tribes, Koyukuks and Kobuks, when the ice breaks up so as to permit fishing. However, just to live is a very serious problem to the people, and they can spare little time for even the children to go to school. During the Christmas season both tribes had a grand celebration, which lasted just as long as the provisions on hand. |