Hearings

The Shoshone tribal funds are depleted, and it is necessary to transfer this item.

Mr. JOHNSON. What is your next item?

CARE AND TRAINING OF DELINQUENTS

Mr. DODD. The next item, calling for $10,000 increase, is for the care and training of delinquents, and we have made a reduction of $10,000 in our item for boarding-home care for them so that that item. in reality is not an increase. It provides for the taking care of delinquent children in special institutions.

Mr. JOHNSON. Please explain the next increase.

SUPERVISION ON LOCAL RESERVATIONS

Mr. DODD. The next item is for supervision on local reservations, amounting to $3,920. That includes principally certain increases in pay that have been granted plus an additional field agent on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and an instructor of agriculture in the Choctaw jurisdiction in Mississippi. We drop our superintendent of education at Pine Ridge and an Indian assistant at $1,080 at the same station and transfer them to the next item. Mr. JOHNSON. What is the next?

GENERAL SUPERVISION

Mr. DODD. The next item is general supervision in the amount of $23,160. That is discussed and set up at some length at page 54 of the justification.

We have switched the designation of some of those positions. For example, we have switched the designation of some of those positions so that the "Supervisor, elementary education", has become "Superintendent Indian education", and so on.

Mr. FICKINGER. In the case of the superintendent of Indian education of the Sioux area, this position was carried on the local reservation pay roll and we transferred him to this other pay roll merely because his territory had been enlarged beyond the one jurisdiction. It is purely a transfer of funds there.

The position of superintendent of Indian education for California is provided for in this item but no new funds are involved since the item for the State contract shows a corresponding decrease; thus it is merely a switching of funds.

The superintendent of Indian education for Oklahoma was omitted last year from the Budget. You will probably recall Mr. Wells. That item has been picked up this year.

Mr. DODD. And it also includes three clerks.

Mr. JOHNSON. I think it might be well to state that Mr. Wells is doing an outstanding work and there was no intention to slight Mr. Wells or to eliminate his salary.

Mr. FICKINGER. That is correct; it was merely an oversight, and we carried him along.

Mr. JOHNSON. Explain the next increase.

SUMMER SUBSISTENCE, INDIAN STUDENTS

Mr. DODD. The next item is a $15,000 increase for summer subsistence for pupils in the boarding schools.

We have discussed at the table here this afternoon the necessity of keeping a number of these boys and girls at the schools throughout the

summer months. In other words, this is an additional use of the boarding schools.

You have provided heretofore $45,000 for summer subsistence, az i we are asking for an increase of $15,000 to take care of these chi.dry: throughout the three recess months of the school term.

The $335 per capita allowance contemplates only 9 months of boarding care for the children in school.

We have to feed them under this scheme 365 days a year and we need that small increase.

Mr. JOHNSON. There has not been any increase in nonreservati a schools, as I understand.

Mr. Dopp. No; there has not been any increase in the nonreservation schools. However, even in nonreservation schools we keeping a larger number of pupils for the entire summer months. Mr. JOHNSON. This item used to be $60,000 or more.

Mr. DODD. It used to be $90,000. It was cut several years ag to $45,000. Due to the many orphan children enrolled in te schools and the special training in agriculture which requires 12 months attendance on the part of these children, this additional money is required.

Mr. JOHNSON. What is the next item?

APPRENTICE TEACHERS

Mr. Dopp. The next item shows an increase of $10,000 for appren tice teachers, and I turn that item over to Dr. Beatty to discuss.

Mr. JOHNSON. I would like to have a brief statement from D: Beatty on the next increase requested, which as I understand is fr employment of untrained teachers.

Dr. BEATTY. As the committee undoubtedly remembers, we have been attempting to increase the native Indian personnel in our schow „s, as teachers for various purposes. We found that although th teachers have been trained in American colleges when they were in full charge and responsibility as teachers after graduation from t.e State college they have not made a success and that was what n have been expected. One of the ditheulties has been these youngsters have been unable to secure employment in the State publie :during that period that is required to meet the civil-service res, .." ments. The civil service requires that they have 2 years of trait experience. So we have been trying to take care of those youn Ste and have been experimenting, taking them on as assistants in schools as apprentices and paying them $720 a year and letting item work with a very superior teacher, so that they learn the trade the next year we employ them at $1,200 and then the third year we put them on as full-fledged teachers at the regular salary

Mr LEAVY. Do they have to take special examinations
Mr. BEATTY. They do.

Mr. LAMBERTSON. Referring back to page 54 of the justit nat: -. those are all new positions that you have hsted there, are they not Dr. BEATTY. If you will look at that list you will see that the six positions have been abandoned and the next six will be the sa positions with a new title. In other words, we had these men c.ass as supervisors and we changed their title to superintendents are actually the same people.

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1937.

CHANGES OF LANGUAGE OF APPROPRIATING ITEM

Mr. JOHNSON. Suppose you explain, Mr. Dodd, the change of language in this item, on page 153.

Mr. DODD. The changes in the text are more for the perfection of the language than anything else. This item has been carried for years, and we have been hacking away at this text trying to get it worded more satisfactorily. In line 5 we have inserted the word "public", and in line 6 we have added the words, "and other assistance." This appropriation has been used for years to pay publicschool tuition and to give some assistance to Indian children in public schools. More recently, with the abandonment of some boarding schools, we began to make contracts for what we called boarding home care. We explained that fully to this committee, and some approximately $96,000 actually appropriated for that purpose. That went along for about 3 years. This last year the Comptroller General picked this up and said there was no authority of law, notwithstanding the fact that the hearings showed that it was the intention to use the fund for that purpose. It was held that the language of the item did not provide for that, and so we have added the words, "and other assistance", which will cover boarding-home care under the item.

We have discussed the increase of $5,000 for the deaf, dumb, and blind.

The next change is the bracketing out of the limitation on the provision for education and civilization of the Alabama and Coushatta Indians in Texas. Those Indians have accepted the terms of the Indian Reorganization Act, and we feel that the limitation is no longer necessary. We make provision for that money in our appropriation for public school tuition.

The next change is on page 154, beginning in line 3, where we request authority to make payments in advance. We would prefer to have inserted instead of the words, "in advance" in line 4, the words "from the date of admission." Our statement in the justifications is quite complete as to the need for all those changes.

Frequently, through delays and uncertainty, the public school districts are not able to get their contracts in at the beginning of the school term. We have something like 1,000 of those contracts, and there is a lot of work attached to them. Sometimes they run along until the end of the first quarter of the school year before all of the contracts are disposed of. The districts, however, in the meantime, have rendered the service, and we feel that they are entitled to payment for the time the pupils were enrolled in the schools. We have been meeting that partly for the last year or so by increasing the amount of the tuition payment from the effective date of the contract to cover the payments that have been earned prior to approval.

Mr. LEAVY. Let me see if I understand that: Using a concrete illustration, an Indian child goes into a public school, and you want permission to pay tuition on the date of entry, rather than wait until the end of the school term.

Mr. DODD. Let me put it this way: The youngster enters school on the 15th of September, and the public-school contract is not approved

until the 1st day of December: Under the present method of operation we can pay that school district nothing for the amount that has been earned from September 15 to the date of the approval of the contract, because the contract is not retroactive. This language will permit us to pay for the full school term. We pay on the basis of actual attendance and not on the basis of enrollment. So if a contract is made, say, for 80 pupils at 50 cents per day, the attendance may be equivalent only to 65 pupils for the quarter and we make payment on the quarterly basis.

Mr. LEAVY. It would not result in the Indians overpaying under any circumstances?

Mr. DODD. No, sir; not at all. There is another factor, and that is sending some youngsters to correctional institutions or other types of institutions where we have to pay for the service. Sometimes we have to move with some speed in those cases. The Government's procedure in getting contracts through is slow, and it is costing us more in the end. As we see it, it would be good business to be able to make the contracts and have the Government meet its obligations fairly.

Mr. O'NEAL. What is being done with the deaf and dumb Indian children?

Mr. DODD. In 1936 we spent about $13,000, and this year we have authorized expenditures amounting to $14,857 from gratuity funds and $4,200 from Indian tribal funds. We have children in schools for the feeble minded, we pay a tutor for a crippled girl, and we have children in schools for the deaf.

Mr. O'NEAL. Where are those schools located? Are they State institutions?

Mr. DODD. Yes, sir; they are State institutions pretty well scattered throughout the Indian country. A full statement of that is to be found on pages 37 and 38 of the justifications. The demands for this type of service have been so great in the last 2 years, that we are asking for an increase in the limitation of $5,000.

Mr. O'NEAL. Is deafness as prevalent among Indians as among white people?

Mr. COLLIER. It is about the same.

GROUPS ABLE TO DISPENSE WITH GOVERNMENT CARE

Mr. O'NEAL. What Indian tribes or groups have now reached such a stage of development, both financially and otherwise, as to be capable of separating themselves from Government control or guardianship, or are in a position to assume the full obligations, duties, and privileges of citizenship?

Mr. COLLIER. The best answer I could give to that would be to furnish a list of the tribes to which, in my judgment, it would be wise to submit that question.

(NOTE. This information has been filed with the committee.)

ABANDONMENT OF BISMARCK, N. DAK., SCHOOL

Mr. JOHNSON. Is there anything further on this item?

Mr. DODD. There are three items in connection with the general school-support fund that I would like to call to the attention of the committee. There are two items which we did not have included in

the estimate, and which we are not asking for, but which we will consider in connection with the 1939 budget.

We propose the abandonment of the school at Bismark, N. Dak. We have made no provision in this budget for a caretaker, but we will absorb that charge of $3,000 this year.

DEFICIENCY IN ESTIMATE

Then, in our calculation of public school tuition and day school operations with the Budget Bureau, we were short-changed to the extent of $7,155. We simply want to make a record of that at this time, as we will have it up for consideration next year.

PER CAPITA COST OF PUBLIC SCHOOL TUITION

Earlier in the hearings, we discussed the amounts paid for public school tuition in the various school districts from this appropriation, and we were requested to prepare a statement for insertion in the record showing the number of pupils in each district, the rate paid for the fiscal year, and the per capita cost in the various local public school districts. I offer this statement for printing in the record at this point, in compliance with that request.

(The statement is as follows:)