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Show XXIV REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. ings erected to meet the needs of ten years ago must still be made to suffice, and others too dilapidated and worthless to be repaired must' still shelter children who therein are expected to become accustomed to the decencies and comforts of civilization, and to acquire habits of thrift and enterprise. Since only $25,000 was appropriated this last year for erection and repair of school-buildings, no ext,ensive work has, of course, been done. The Shoshone, Menornonee, Sis~etona, nd Siletz buildings, which were commenced in the previous Fear, have been completed and occupied ; also the three new training.schoo1 buildings' at Lawrence, Chilocco, and Geuoa ; and a bnilding begun some years since at White Earth, Minn. The flourishing Albuquerque school has moved iuto new quarters after three years of wait,ing in rented buildings, supple-mented by temporary make.shift additions, put up one after the other as the:pupils crowded in. This building waa intended for 168 pulsiltr, and the snperintendent of the school is asking for the ilnmediatc erec-tion of another building to house the 50 additional pnpils who will ask for admittance this fall, and the 100 others who m ~ i ei asily be obtained. The $40,000 appropriated this year for buildings will be needed for the Crow, Devil's Lake, Wichita, Quinaielt, and Port Peck buildings, and repairs and additions aZ other points, and ~ i b u ~ u e r q nmeu st wait another year, as must also nine other places where there are either IIO buildings at all or else buildings which need immediate enlargement. There is no obstacle to progress in Indian education with nhich this office has had to contend so great as the mant of nlouey to furuish suita-ble aud even deoeut school buildings. As stated above, if all the Indian day and boarding school buildings, belonging to Government or ot,her parties, had been filled, only one-fourth of the Indian school l~opulation would hare been provided for. The sofferirg at Fort Peck and Black-feet agencies might have heen made a golden educational opportunity for those tribes. Hungry children would need little urging to become inmates of boarding schools with well-spread tables. There has been money on hand to buy food for pupils, but none to put up shelters for them, and iguoranc.e and wretcl~edness mush continoe unmodified and nnrelieved. Toadd to itsother embarrassmeuts, Congress has still furtherrestricted the officeb y p~,ovidingth at ddoriog this year no Indian boarding-scl~ool building shall cost, including furnisl~ingo, ver $10,000. The Cllilooco buildings, for I60 pupils, cost, exclusive of furnishing, and in a location where materialsare easily accessible, over $20,000, or overs125per pupil.' A smallerbuildiug would somewbatincrease the rate per pupil. Three evils are therefore left open to choice: (I) To limit the number of pupils to less than 75: (2) to put up a'shabby structure, unoomfortable and in-convenient, and which will rcsquire extensive repairiu:: and remodeling in thenear future, and get will never be what it should be; 'or (3) to erect one small building one year aud attach another to it during the succeed- |