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Show I 2 REPORT OF THE SECFS3TAEY OF THE INTERIOR I 350,000 Indians, it administers educational institutions and sana-toria, purchases all kinds of articles and supplies, and employs a wide range of personal service, inclu$ng that oflaborers, farmers, teachen, ' nurses, physicians, afid lawyers: It br&ts &d maintains roads, bridges, buildings, and irrigation pmjects. Its forestry service has custody' of some of .%hi countfls' most ialitable timber reserves. The.bureau:buys and~sellela nds. As $rugtee :fo~Ind.iaa~s wqingbe ne-ficial interests in real and ;personal property, it supervises individud and tribal values aggregating $1,700,000,000. Legd questions, too, are, involved in. much pfthe bureau's, currbnt . work! Directipn and' supervision of I n d l ~ ~in@ in dustry, in agriculture,a @ stock.raising, and in other pursuits are influential factop.ig the'efforts of the, bureau to assidate Indians with our population snd to help them to economic independence. < , : . In furtherance of such .purpose, thebureau has constructed school-houseg and has employed teachers.;. Wherever conditions permit, 1 i Indian,,cMldren me. plwed .in, public schools, locd districts, being reimbursed for, tuition., Last yea; there were about 35,000 Indiana in public schopls,.,but the totd appropriation of 35~,000fo r tuition Jaas soan exhausted asd many applications were refused. An ,appro-p+ tion of $375,000 :vs secured for, the c q n t year, but that fund is alrehdy pearly: exhausted, No tuiti0.b is paidfor children of less than onefourth Indian blood, nor for those of families whose taxable holdings .+thin the district exceed their nontaxable holdings. ::It has. been iouqd $hat *&tendance of Indian children in i&ools near their. homes benefits both.children and their families. Incidentally, it effects a saving of pub.Lc. funds, as many 6f the chil-rJ&' for whom' tuition,% otherwise ,*odd be placed in Govern-ment boarding schools at Gove~nmente xpense. ,, However, the segregation on reservations of Indian children during their earlier pews, the nomadic life. of the* pm-ents and of .a large proportion of the population, and the frequent controversies and I +omglications as to, property rights make it impossible. for approx- 1 imately one-half the Indian children to be provided with public-soh001 facilities. Consequently, the Indian Sewice now maintains , for these.children 204 schools, with a ,capecity of 26,000 pvpils, and about 5,000 pupils attend mission schools supported by religious i deno&ati&. The appropriati+last year. for Indian education, exclusive of public-school tuition, was $5,923,000.. D&ig the last six years Co@ress has increased appropriations in support of Indian education by $2,898,825, +hi& hasmade it po.%ibieto improve school buildings; to increase the number of grades, to raise the standard of teaching, and to, place more children in school. . . But there is opportunity for greater advanbedenntift methods of Indian education and for improvement of the facilities provided for |