In January of 1911, Superintendent
Carr was succeeded by Superintendent Lewis E. Cooley, another of the
triumvirate of pioneer Imperial Valley teachers. At the time
Superintendent Cooley began his work in the county office Imperial
Valley had come to "blossom as the rose," agriculturally and
educationally. Thirty-four elementary school districts were employing
sixty-three teachers and had an enrollment of seventeen hundred ninety
pupils. There were five union high schools, employing twenty-six
teachers, and with an enrollment of two hundred thirty-eight pupils. The
educational foundation had been laid and the superstructure started. But
big and worth while work was yet to be done. For four years
Superintendent Cooley gave of himself liberally and well in the handling
of the mighty tasks that fell to his lot. He was then succeeded by the
writer in January, 1915.
Figures are not yet available for the
year 1917-1918, but the annual report of the year 1916-1917 shows a
remarkable growth when compared with those of the first year of the
county's history.
Imperial county now has fifty
elementary school districts and last year employed one hundred
sixty-seven teachers, with an enrollment of four thousand one
pupils. She spent $167,848 for maintenance of them and $58,372 for
buildings, sites, and equipment.
She has five union high schools and
last year employed fifty-eight teachers, with eight hundred
thirty-six young men and women enrolled. She had one evening high
school that enrolled five hundred men and women for study in
branches mainly applicable to their own needs in daily life. She
expended for maintenance $118,709 and $112,588 for extensions of
union high school plants.
The elementary schools owned school
plants valued at $593,004 and the union high school plants valued at
$611,321.
Most of these schools are located on
tracts of land varying in size from three to eight acres in area.
Careful attention has been given to the construction of the
buildings and equipment to make them modern and well adapted to the
educational needs of those whom they are designed to serve. Most of
these schools have either an auditorium or two or more rooms with
accordion doors between, making these rooms convertible into an
auditorium. Practically all of them are adorned with trees, vines
and shrubs. In some cases groves have been set out with the idea of
making picnic grounds, as well as to serve the usual needs of the
schools.
On the whole the school districts
are large. It is the hope that these districts may be kept large,
thus obviating the necessity for the much-heralded consolidations of
schools that such great lengths have been gone to obtain in the
eastern and middle western states. It is not unusual to see ten to
fifteen horses - and often several burros - hitched about one of our
schools, often-times in sheds that have been erected for their
protection. The writer has seen as many as twenty-seven horses and
burros about one school; all of them had carried or drawn precious
burdens to a rural temple of learning. In a few of the elementary
school districts transportation is provided at public expense.
Doubtless the next few years will see a considerable expansion of
the transportation facilities of school children.
Transportation of high school pupils
is now carried on by each of the five union high school districts;
all of them own automobiles of their own; most of them pay certain
individuals for transportation of themselves and some of the pupils
from neighboring families, and some pupils are transported by
contract. In a few instances pupils are transported from homes
fifteen miles distant from the high school. Thus are the homes kept
intact, the pupils enabled to retain the benefits and pleasures of
home life and home environments.
Imperial County is seeking the best
in courses of study for both the elementary and high schools.
Essentials are striven for and nonessentials eliminated as far as
possible. Our schools attempt to securely fasten the worth while
parts of the formal subjects. In addition, we are stressing the
teaching of agriculture, nature study and school and home gardening,
and a strong beginning has been made in Agricultural Club work.
Nor are our schools neglecting the
newer subjects demanded of the schools. All of our high schools and
many of the elementary schools have well taught courses in drawing,
art, manual training, home economics, music, - including, in some
cases, both vocal and instrumental - and from time to time other
desirable and needed courses are given.
An article prepared by Principal W. T.
Randall of the Central Union High School will give an idea of the
real breadth of our high school courses and the courses in the other
four union high schools are similar.
"The school provides instruction in the
following lines: English, four years, with an extra year in
commercial English and another in journalism; history, four years,
with a year in civics and economics and debate; the foreign
languages are Latin and Spanish; in mathematics, a year's work in
practical business arithmetic and four years in the higher and
advanced subjects; music includes chorus, glee club, orchestra,
piano, sight singing, harmony, and history; the sciences, involving
full laboratory practice and interwoven with the practical affairs
of life, are agriculture (together with a competition club), botany,
chemistry and a year of qualitative analysis, physics, physiology,
hygiene, and zoology. The vocational subjects meet the needs of two
classes of students: those who elect these subjects in an academic
course, and those who are studying them for immediate use in
business. The commercial subjects are bookkeeping and stenography,
with their arithmetic, English, law, geography, history, penmanship,
and typewriting. Drawing is both free-hand and mechanical. Household
arts at present are confined to cooking and sewing. Shop work as yet
extends only to some of the simplest forms of carpentry, cabinet
work, a little forge work and automobile repairing. Some excellent
practice in the use of a library is given by the efficient teacher
of that subject, who has at her service the collections also of the
city and of the county. An exceedingly homelike cafeteria is
provided."
Each of the five large towns of the
Imperial Valley are maintaining well equipped and well taught
kindergartens.
Thus it will be seen that Imperial
County is caring for its children in an educational way from the
kindergartens through the four years of high school and beginnings
have been made in junior college work. We expect in a short time to
put the ambitious boys and girls within two years of obtaining a
bachelor's degree without the breaking of home ties and the large
expense of four years at college.
Fort Yuma Indian School and Agency is
located on a prominence in Imperial County, California, just across
the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona. In the early days it was used
by the soldiers as a fort which was abandoned between 1878 and 1880,
at which time it was taken possession of by Catholic Sisters and a
school established for the Yuma Indians. In the year 1895 the United
States Government took possession and it was made a boarding school.
At this time the Indians were very
superstitious and it was difficult for them to see the advantage of
the school training. There was some trouble in getting the children
in school, but they are beginning to open their eyes and the
majority of the parents are anxious and willing for their children
to be in school.
The pupils are brought in at the age
of five years and are kept at the school until they complete the
primary work. They are also trained along the industrial as well as
the academic lines. The girls are given special training in
housekeeping, laundering, cooking, etc., while the boys are given
dairying, gardening, carpentry, etc.
After completing the primary work
they are transferred to non-reservation schools, namely, Sherman
Institute, Riverside, California, and Phoenix Industrial School,
Phoenix, Arizona, these being the nearest industrial schools, and
are given further industrial training where better results are
obtained through association with pupils of other tribes. The Yumas
are clannish, cling to their own language, and progress is slow when
they remain in the boarding school after completing the primary
work.
Much improvement has been made to the
buildings the last two years and the construction of new screen
porches has added sufficient room for pupils to sleep in the open
air throughout the year.
The school farm containing 160 acres
is located about one mile north of the school and is under
cultivation. The income has been very noticeable the last six months
and the garden has kept the school tables well supplied with fresh
vegetables, pumpkins, etc. A great success has been made on the
farm. The pupils are very fond of it and it is in great demand in
the surrounding community. It is predicted that this school will
produce the molasses used in most of the schools in the service
after another year.
The Yuma Indian Reservation lies to
the north and west of the school. This contains 8000 acres of
irrigable land under the Yuma Project. The soil is the best, with an
abundance of water for irrigation and domestic purposes.
Five years ago the Reservation was a
wild wilderness of desolation. The Yuma Indians were considered the
poorest in California. The government had done little for them. The
tribe, now numbering 833, of whom 779 are full bloods, lived by
raising pumpkins, watermelons, wheat and corn on the overflow lands
of the Colorado River. Sanitary conditions were very bad and the
death rate far exceeded the birth rate.
In January, 1916, the entire
Reservation was flooded, the Indians losing everything.
By Act of Congress March 3, 1911,
8,000 acres were allotted, a share of 10 acres to each Indian, and
to place these lands in cultivation about $100 per acre must be
expended in labor. After the lands are grubbed, cleared and leveled
for irrigation their equal cannot be found in this country, if in
the world. As an illustration: alfalfa is cut from seven to ten
times, yielding from three-quarters to three tons per acre at each
cutting. Alfalfa seed is a very valuable crop, yielding from four
to eight hundred pounds of seed to the acre which sells from 18 to
35 cents per pound. Two crops of seed can be made with two cuttings
of alfalfa, the second crop of seed yielding from one to three
hundred pounds per acre. Four cuttings of hay can be made with one
crop of seed. Cotton raising has also been very successful, yielding
an average of three-fourths to one bale per acre for long staple,
and one and one half to two and one-half for short staple. Milo
maize averages two tons per acre. Under the climatic conditions
anything can be grown except products that require a damp or the
extreme cold climate.
The Yuma Indian is considered the
best laborer among the Indians and he is on the road to prosperity,
which is best shown in the following statistics:
Lands irrigable
..................................................................8,000
acres
Land cultivated by Indians, March 1,
1918............................1,600 acres
Land
value.........................................................................$200
per acre
Crop values for
1917............................................................$62,075.00
Earnings, employed by
others..............................................$31,555.00
About two-thirds of the reservation
is leased to whites under the improvement plan and about 4,400 acres
of this is in cultivation.
Every effort is being put forth to
get this land cleared and in crops and at the close of 1918 all
lands will be in cultivation with the production more than doubled.
It will be one of the richest and
most productive reservations for its size in the United States and a
credit to the Service.
Health conditions have greatly
improved in the last four or five years with much credit due the
Physician, Nurse, and Field Matron. The following record will be
interesting in this connection:
Health Record
Births
Deaths Decrease
1911
17 53 36
1912 14
30 16
1913 22 28 6
Increase
1914
26 25 1
1915
28 14 14
1916
39 13 26
1917
38 18 20
Owing to climatic conditions and the
location of the Fort Yuma School and Reservation it would be an
ideal place for a sanitorium. It is predicted that in the near
future the boarding school will be abandoned, day schools
established on the reservation, and a government sanatorium
established where afflicted Indians from all parts of the United
States can be accommodated and nursed back to health.