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Show 342 REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOLB. ten months, as is the case now, and these devoted people should be provided by the Government with such furniture as simple housekeep. ing may demand, as well as with such additional help as their case may require. During the past year 12 new day schools were organized and 2 were closed, yielding a gain of 10 of these institutions. FIELD XAlSBONS. The Government supplies agencies liberally with farn~erws hose duty it is to teaoh and assist I~ldianm en in their farming operations. This is indeed a wise proviuio~~bu, t i t is only half wisdom. In fact, when it is remembered that among the Indians, the wife aud mother gives shape and direction to all that concerns the home and its attitndc toward the scl~ool and civilization, the small provision made by Con-gress for field matrons who may teach and assist the Indian woman ill better ways of living is quite inexplicable. I t is claimed by those who . havc opportunity to know, on the one hand, that the stubborn adher. ence on the part of the indiail home to t,ribal habits and customs is due chiefly to the influence of ignorant Indian women, and, on the other hand, that it would be a oomparatively easy task to change this pernicious conservatis~u into eager helpfulness if t.hese women could be properly instructed by :in efficient corps of field matrons. The appointment of field matrons sufficient in number to keep under con. staut iuflueooe every home whose children attend a day school woiild be one of the most profitable investments in the entire field of Indian wort;. Every dollar thns npent, by emphasiziug and rendering permanent the lessons ol' tllo (ley 8cl1ooli n all that pertains to dolne~tiee cononly, moralitv. :lntl sociiil dntv. would illereaee s 111111drefdo ld the \vorl;inc value of'cvery dollar n& spent, not only in these day schools bnt ill the boardiug schools that draw pupils from these localities, hastening the day when the LLIndiaqnu estion" shall be no more. With a corps of e&cient field matrons, as suggested above, a decade would suffice on a majority of reservations to render 111dian savagery unpopular among the Indians geuerally, to establish decency and thrift in the honsehold, to fill every.Iudian boarding school on and oE reser-vations with pupils who come unsolicited, and to remove the "cruelty" from the praotice of returning educated Indian youth to their people. It is to be sincerely hoped that Congre~sw ill grant sutticieut fuuds to the Indian Office for this most i~uportaopt urpose. TRANSFEE OF YUPILS TO NONRESERVATION SCHOOLS. Much ronfnsion and I~ardfeelinah ave beeu occasioned by urevailinp mode* of o b t ~ i n i ~ ~ g p ~f~orpniolnrri' ;wr\.atio~s~rh ools, a11d I E~ i l ~ r a t ~ ~ l a tZ yam npon your detr~m~uatioton briog abont a change in these. Herr-tolore a.c. cnts of the rcsnecrivc n o ~ ~ r c ~ e r v a~t(i~oI~io~o hlasv c vidted the agencie*, ~nakings t r e~~~;eofufosr ts to secnre pupils for their respective ~chools. It is e\.ident that ~nelal inetllod l~oldsm ally t~.mptilrionsfo r ill considered pron~isesr, ash statements concerning rival schools, and olher injudicious acts. I have, therefore, at your suggestion, deviseda definite plan of transfer of sufficiently prepared boys and girls to non-resrrvatio~ s~ul ~ools.w hich will do a\rav with the exnensive trips of collecting agents, dnd conseque~itlyw ith the jealousi6s and hard feel-ings ocoasioued by their visits to agencies. |
