Extractions: In the 1880s, there was increased public awareness of the problems California Indians were confronting. While the problems were rarely analyzed, many people helped to improve the quality of life for Indians. There was an effort to improve the education of Indians through schools, and to provide them with land to better their economic conditions so that Indians could become full citizens of the United States of America. In the early 1880s, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor and sent a copy of her book to each United States congressman. She was then appointed to a commission to examine the condition of Indians in Southern California. Her visits resulted in The Report on the Condition and Needs of the Mission Indians of California, by special agents Helen Jackson and Abbot Kinney. The report summarized the problems and concerns of Southern California Indians; many of the conditions outlined in the report, however, were applicable to all California Indians. The report noted that Indians had been continually displaced from their land. She also noted that while many Indians had taken "immoral" paths, others had chosen the responsibilities of herding animals and raising crops. In her report, she also noted that the United States government had done little to right the wrongs of the past. While Jackson did not solve all the problems of Southern California Indians, her work did bring their concerns to the attention of the American public and Congress.
Extractions: Riverside County The Sherman Institute is located at 9010 Magnolia Avenue between Jackson and Monroe streets, in Riverside, California. Several buildings stand on the site, including dormitories, administrative offices, a sports stadium, and a museum. The museum is the only remaining original structure. Its style is common to railroad depots at the turn of the century, unlike the mission style of other buildings on the campus. A high chain-link fence surrounds the 140-acre area. Named for James S. Sherman, who later became vice president of the United States under President William H. Taft, the institute once occupied two locations, the Perris Indian School, south of Riverside, and the Riverside Indian School at the present location. In 1904, the two schools were consolidated, and the Perris Indian School was relocated to the site on which the Sherman Institute now stands. Sherman housed the first permanent Indian hospital in California. The U.S. Government built it in 1901 in an effort to respond to the serious health problems of California Indians. (Heizer, 1978:118) After having established educational facilities for Indians in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the U.S. Indian Service began to abandon the federal day schools in the late 1920s and 1930s. In spite of its status as an Indian school, the service also began to limit enrollment of California Indian students at the Sherman Institute. As a result of the new enrollment policy, Indian children entered the public schools in greater numbers. In 1964, a U.S. Senate investigating committee wrote a denunciation of both federal and public education for Indian youth. Regarding the Sherman Institute, it stated:
