REPORT OF CHILOCCO         SCHOOL.                  221 
versal that broad and liberal opportunities for education and industrial
training, and 
association with the other masses of our people, is the bounden duty of the
self-con- 
stituted guardian Government to its involuntary wards. The less than 25 per
cent. 
of Indian youth now maintained imperfectly in schools is not calculated to
rapidly 
perform that part of the work of Indian elevation devolving upon schools,
nor is it, 
in view of the treaty obligations of the Government to the Indians, aside
from the 
obligations of humanity and statesmanship, creditable to the United States.
The 
time is favorable and there seems to be no obstruction in the way except
the apathy 
of the Government itself. 
IN CONCLUSION. 
From the beginning of America until this present the example overshadowing
all 
other examples of ours to the Indian has been that of murder and murderous
intent. 
For every man of us the Indian sees quietly following the pursuits of industry
and 
peace, we place before him ten armed men. We spasmodically dole out to him
ho- 
meopathic doses of the peaceful and industrious elements of omrr civilization,
but keep 
him continuously saturated with Thompsonian doses of our savage elements.
That 
the homeopathic doses have little effect, or that the patient sickens and
dies under 
the irritating process, is a natural sequence. If example has any force,
the Indian is 
instigated and inspired by us to be and continue just what he is. His inherent
qual- 
ities and his heredity are not near as potent as the ever-present grinding,
debasing 
systems and examples to which we subject him. Instead of receiving recognition
as 
a man and a brother, and being surely placed under some continuous uplifting
policy, 
he has always been, and is still, the shuttlecock for every community, Territory,
and 
State organization within whose limits he falls. The driving-out policy has
been 
the only popular one since the landing of the pilgrim fathers, and thus driven
away 
from every substance, and shadow even, of encouragement to escape from his
old 
savage life, we hold him to-day under far more degrading influences than
those in 
which he was held by his untutored savage state before we came and assumed
moral, 
physical, and intellectual responsibility over him. 
Many thousands of the failures, discontents, paupers, and criminals of all
nations 
under God's bright sun annually arrive among us, on invitation, and find
open doors, 
open arms, and the rights and homes of freedom and freemen anywhere and every-

where. In two hundred and fifty years black, exotic savages are transplanted
and 
increase to seven millions in this land. They grow out of barbarism and barbaric

languages into the knowledge, benefits, and abilities we possess, because
of and through 
no other reason than that they were forced into the open doors of experience.
The 
Indian, only two hundred and sixty thousand strong, constantly driven away
from 
experience and back upon himself, remains his old self, or grows worse under
the ag- 
gravations and losses of the helps to his old active life. Any policy which
invites 
him to become an individual, and brings him into the honest activities of
civilization, 
and especially into the atmosphere of our agricultural, commercial, industrial
exam- 
ples, assures to him mental, moral, and physical development into independent
man- 
hood. Any policy which prolongs the massing, inactive, herding systems continues

to lead to destruction and death. It is folly to hope for substantial cure
except there 
be radical change in the treatment. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
R. H. PRATT, 
Captain Tenth Cavalry, Superintendent. 
The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 
CHILOCCO INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, July 15, 1885. 
SIR: In accordance with instructions contained in circular letter of July
1, I here- 
with submit the annual report of this school. Chilocco Industrial School
is located 
in the Indian Territory, near the south line of the State of Kansas, and
five and one- 
half miles south of Arkansas City, Kans. The location of the school is in
most respects 
unfavorable. Itis almost entirely isolated from all society, thus depriving
the pupils 
of the benefits of direct contact with civilized life, which has been found
to be so 
beneficial in the schools situated in the States. The location of the school
also being 
immediately on one of the principal thoroughfares leading from the Indian
agencies 
to the State of Kansas, causes it to be visited by hundreds of Indians during
the course 
of the year, and as many come during the winter and in stormy weather, and
have 
children in the school, they cannot be turned away; but their presence is
in every way 
detrimental to the best interests of the school, as it is not uncommont for
seventy-five 
to be here at one time, and they all want to board and sleep in the school
buildings 
thus for the time being, creating disorder and confusion, and in many instances
they 
cause discontent among the children.