| OCR Text |
Show t h ~ tth ey have already cleared, ready for cultivation, several thousand acres of new land, and this settlement will within a year swell to approximately 1.000 Indians, covering in the neighborhood of 10,000 acres of irrignted lnnds. This progressive colony is made up largely of returned students, who are par-ticularly anxious to demonstrate what they can do on their own initfntive a s f$,rruers by irrigation in this locality. Their fences and dltchea, with the excep Lon of the main ditches, will be placed upon sectional lines, and their homes and other improvements will be built as nearly as possible out of the material at hnnd, but in n sanitary, up-to-date manner. Some of the men taking great Interest in this new plan are of the older type of Indians, and are unable to spe:,k English, but all are experienced farmers by irrigation. They have recently suggested to me the propriety of giving them an Indian farmer, prom-ising to stir up what should be a splendid competition between this entirely Indian dlstrict and other districts which are under the supervision of a whlte farmer. Special attention has been devoted during the year to efforts look-ing toward improvement in the personnel of the farming service by the elimination of inefiicient employees of this class with very good results. Actual fignres are not yet available in regard to the number of Indians engaged in farming or the crop production on the various reservations during the fiscal year 1914, but it can safely be stated that both the number of Indians farming and the cultivated acreage were increased on practically all of the reservations. INDIAN FAIRS. Indian fairs were held during the year on the following reser-vations: Blackfeet. Red Lake. ' . Cheyenne and Arnpaho. Rosrbud. Colorado Rix~?r. Sln Carlos. Crow Creek: Snu Juan. Fort Ridwell. Santee. Fort Tctteu. Shi\.nlts. Keshenn. Sis~eton. La Pointe. Standing Rock. llnlki. Tongue River. Pima. Tde River. rille Ridge. Yankton. It is deemed desirable to bring the Indians into direct compett-tion with their whiteneighbors, when they are sufficiently advanced to (lo this xith profit to themselves, and with this end in view exhibits of Indian agricnltural products were shown during the year at conreniently located State and county fairs by the following reservations : Fallon. Snc and Fox (Iowa). Fort Lanwai. Si~l tR iver. Leech Lake. Snu Xavier. Xeeradn. Union. |
