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Show COMMISSIONEB OF INDIAN BFBdIBS. 11 One Indian school sent representatives to the Associationof Alumni Secretaries of the United States at New York City, November 2, 1914, and a delegate will represept the alumni association of one of the largest Indian schools at the San Fr&ncisco meeting of that association. A member of the alumni association of one school went to San Francisco as a delegate to the international council of nurses, before which organization she read a paper which was commented upon in the newspapers of California as the best paper read before the con-vention. Another association has raised a fund whereby a few ambitious students have been assisted pecuniarily in pursuing their studies after completing the course at Indiin schools. Return students' organizations are maintained at 32 schools and ' agencies. Every reservation in the United States has organizations composed of ex-students and nonstudents; local churches have or-ganized Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., and C. E. organizations, the Broth-erhood of St. Andrew, the Daughters of the King, and the Holy Name Society, while the Indians conduct agricultural fairs, stock exhibits, farmers' improvement associations, athletic associations, and musical organizations for personal pleasure. INDIAN EMPLOYMENT. Over 300 boys from schools in the Southwest have been placed on ranches, and with sugar-beet and melon growers, in Colorado and Kansas for agricultural work during a portion of the summer. Many of the pupils of the nonreservation schools are placed in fami-lies in the vicinity for farm and household experience. This brings the training of the school into actual contact with the practical work of life and enables the pupils gradually to comprehend the purpose of vocational training; Remunerative employment has been found for many boys and girls who have been graduated from Indian schools. NATIVE INDUSTRIES. Baskets, pottery, and bead work are still made by Indians, but the most comprehensive and remunerative industry is the native manufacture of Navajo blankets. As the Indians work in a very desultory way in fashioning articles of their own handicraft, the instability of the supply prevents a systematic marketing of their products. In a sense this may not be a complete disadvantage, as the work of the Indian partakes largely of the sentimental, which is lost when the craftsman commercializes his output along conven-tional linea Many good baskets and excellent blankets are still made. |