 In 1900, and again in 1904, the Catholic Bureau applied to use "trust assets" from certain tribes to educate some of their children in Catholic schools.In 1900, the Indian Office rejected the applications when opponents criticized this apparent breach of the separation of church and state.However, in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt decided that with Native American approval, trust assets could be used for private schools and the Indian Office issued contracts to the Catholic Bureau for eight schools.