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Show REPORT OF THE cO>l>IISSIOXER OF INDIA3 -4FFAIRS. 15 Fort Berthold. The last t,hree might be ouiitted as they have training schools in such close proxiniity as to serve t.he purpose of reservation schools. The Southern Utes n-ill have to be cared for at the Fort Lewis school peuding the settlement of the question of their permanent loca-tion. The new Tomah school uear the ceiiter of Wisconsin gives insuffi-cient help to the maliy widely separated bands under the La Pointe Ageucy. The new school at Jlonnt Pleasant does the same for t,he 111- dians of Michigan who are ilot under any agency. Tulalip and Tongue River are entirely dependent upon a contract school at each agency,the former held in Government buildings and the latteriu buildingsowned by the school. The Sac and Fox Indians ill Iowaoppose schools of any sort. The Rosebud Sioux ha,17el ong complained of their failure to have any boarding school, and repeated promises of one still call for fulfill-ment. Attempts to find a desirable location with farming land and good water have thus far beeu unsuccessful. The importance of the reservation scl~ool can hardly be overesti-mated. To it the large majority of Indian youth will be inde.bted for whatever knowledge t,hey have of boolis. of the English language, and of civilized ways of living. Set down in the midst of their homes it is an object lesson for a11 families on the reservation, puts Indiau boys and girls into a new home atmosphere, yet leaves them in tonch witli the old home life, and shorn-s them ir~s it?(,h ow to do just the work which the.y must do after school days are over. With I~idians as wit11 white people, the rank and file mnst stay at home audtry to better their con-ditiou there; the leaders mnst go away and get all that newconditions, a wider horizon and lofty ideals can yield. The few must be raised to a high plane, and the mass must also feel au uplifting force; then the I few will know how to help auld the many how to respond. The reservation schools still need strengthening, equipping alid enlarging in a great many directions to enablethem to do the best and most of which they are capable. The Navajoes, for instance, have but one school which will care for only 130 out of their 3,000 children. They are as yet for the most part iudifferent or hostile to schools; yet they are an unusually intelligent people, and their conservatism mnst yield before long. When it does, a large field will be opened for new educational worlr. Rosebud has already beenmentioned. At many other points an extension of school facilities is called for. The subject of building up reservation schools shall receive my most earnest attention so far as funds for the purpose shall be furnished by Congress. I REPEXTATION DAY SOBOOLS. The increase in day schools durii~gth e year has been mainly among the Pine Ridge Sioux. The twenty schools now there and the fifteen at Rosebud, with the numerous and excellent G.overumeut boarding aud day sehools onthe other Sioux reservations, andtheFlandreau, Pipestone, and Pierre schools in their immediate vicinity, and thecontract schools |
