The Contract for Indian Education
Federal authorities push to integrate Indigenous children into public schools to swell local district funds.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In order that Indians who break up their tribal relations and settle upon allotted lands may have opportunities of educating their children, the interior department at Washington is ready to enter into contracts with school districts for the tuition of Indian children at a rate of $10 per quarter. Out of this, districts are expected to supply necessary textbooks. The district must contract to give each Indian child all the opportunities and attention afforded to white children, and so far as possible, prevent their white playmates from ridiculing or discouraging them.
“The school district will contract distinctly to give to each Indian child all the opportunities and attention which are given to the white children.”
This 1890 directive illustrates the assimilationist policies that forced Indigenous children into government-sanctioned systems. It marks a painful era in Washington history where 'education' was used as a tool to dismantle tribal life, a precursor to the systemic dispossession that continues to resonate in modern debates over tribal sovereignty and educational equity in the Yakima Valley.
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