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Show . . COMMISSIONER INDIAN AFFAIRS. ' 35 The exhibit was considered by competent judges to be the best display of Navajo blankets ever seen in that section of the country, and the keenest interest was shown by the Indians, traders, and vis-itors. About $10,000 worth of blankets were sold. Another contest along similar lines will he held in the near future. The Navajo Indians, usually the men, also make large quantities of silverware from Mexican coin. A large number of Indians on various reservations are more or less extensively engaged in the making of baskets, beadwork, and pottery, from which they derive $100,000 or more annually. LACE MAKING. Lace making is becoming a very important industry in some locali-ties, especially among the Mission Indians in Southern California. This industry not only enables the women and children to utilize their spare time in the home and derive from their laborsan income to aid in their support, but the very nature of the work has an ele-vating and refining influence upon them. The following circular concerning native industries mas issued: To sugerimtendmts and sugervlaors of Indian schools. GE~TLEMERA:s you are doubtless aware, the Indians on the rarious reser-vations derive a considerable income from the umdncts of native industries. I Such as blanket weaving, basket, pottery, and lace making, and beadwork, their eB.rQiUgS during the fiscal year 1913 amounting to approximately $700,000. I desire very much to do and to have done in the field everything possible to encourage the Indians to improve the products of native industries, so as to make the articles produced very largely of n useful and practical sort, and then to 5nd the best market for disposing of the products to the best advantage for the Indians. To obtain the maximum and best results every employee at the schools er on the reservations must, and ia here directed, to take advantage of every opportunib to encourage Indians engaged in native industries to make better articles and aid them to dispose of what they make to the best advantage. Superintendents and 5eld matrons in particular are in excellent positions to accomnlish much -m od alon-e this line. I In order to enable me to determine just what further action is necessary on the part of the office in the improvement and marketin-g of the products of the Indians, please submit at your earliest convenience answers to the following inquiries, supplemented by such further information as may be available, and your recommendation as to the course you feel it would be proper to pursue: 1. What native industries are the Indians at your Jurisdiction now engaged in? 2. Is the work done by the old or the young; by the women or men? 3. Are the Indians engaged in native industries throughout the year or only during spare times or when in special need of funds or supplies? 4. What means are now employed to encourage improvement in the articles made, and are the young Indians to any extent engaging in the native indus-tries 7 5. In some localities lace making is becomlng an important and profitable industry among Indians, especially the women and children. What, if auy-thing, is being done among your Indians in this respect, and do you think lace making can be satisfactorily developed? |