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Show REPORT OF TEE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. XXI placing his child in school, but for want of room his request was re-fused. Other chiefs have rendered personal and yaluable assistauce to the teachers in bringing under the necessary disc~plinea nd restraint of school.life the 184 children in their charge. The marked success attend-ing the year's eilort is shown by the following extracts : Last year the Arqaho aohaol-boys (the Cheyennes had not yet sent their children to school) r a i d quite a quantity of corn, whiohwas converted by the school-superin-teodent into clothing and cattle. This sgriog Big Horse, White Shield, Boll Bear, and other Chegewe chiefs placed their ohildren in echool, and with them ave robes to the superintendent to be exchanged for cattle, to place them on an equal foot-ing with Arapaho boys, which was promptly done; and as a resnlt we have a mission-herd, the property of the iudividu+la who labor, amounting to over 25 head, to be kept at the mission until the hoys are sufficiently ~ntelligent and enlightened to take care of stock themselves, and at the same time the sohool is to have and does receive a benefit from the use of the milk, each boy milking his own cow. It is the agreement this year, as tne Government had no farm-bborers, that the ~~hool-boyBrsa to receive one-half of the corn an the 110-acre agency-farm, whloh they have plowed, planted, and cultivated in a systematicmmner, and that the Government is to receive the other half in the field, whioh. I believe, will be sufficient to feed the agency.stook during the coming winter and spring, while the Indian hogs intend selling their share and invest-ing the proceeds in cattle and bett,er clothing, as they did last year. The object is to establish this school on r basis that eventoally will be self-supporting, and at the same time furnish its inmates a. *' startnin the world when they are at liberty to withdraw. The girls are t~aughtiu all the braoolies of the oulinary end household departments, ~ n sdom e of tham o o ~ ~kl dee p s, very fair house to-day if afForded the opportunity. They have also made shirts for the traders, the funds thus derived being expended by them under the oversight of the matron or teacher for extras, generally articles of clothing. All this labor has been done by daily or weekly detailafrom theschool-roam, and each ans has had eqnsl advantages, indoors and out of doors. Our school for the Kiowas and Comanches opened in November and continued through June. Our difionlty vas not in gettingenough children, but io confining the number to the capacity of the hoose. The parents and frientla of the ohildren meni-fested s, great interest in the school; seldom rs day passed that some of them weye not there. On the laat day a large number were present and showed great interest in the exercise gone through by the children, aud seemed as proud of their success as any-body could be. The proceeds of the sale of ponies confiscated by the military have been invested in 700 cows and calves and 3,500 sheep. These have been distributed, to the great satisfaction of the tribes. It is to be regretted that the want of funds prevented the agents from taking a11 possible adrantage of the industrial interest in farming which manifested itself in the earl^ spring. Agent Miles says: The reward for the viuterk hunt of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes wawnly shout 3,500 robes and the saving of a. large amoont of subsisteooe to the Oovernment. After their return to this agenay, and fully realizing that the buffalo were f a t disappearing and the necessity for them to turn their attention to other pursuits than the ohme for a means of support, very earnest appealls wwe made to me for farm-implements, both by Arapnhoea and Cheyennes, and anoh other sasistanoe as wonld enable tham to en-gage to some extent in farming; and1 feel sssurad that, could I have furnished them with p l o ~ sh,o es, &c., three-fourths of the Inanns now a t this agency would have gone to work heartily, and, aa the Season has been very ft+vorable, would have been successful, and consequently encouraged and stimulated to further effert. Owiug to the absence of any great nnmber of farm-implements and the ready cash to pur-ohase them with, only a, few could be accommodated outside of the schools. Notwithstanding these obstacles, 1,026 acres have been cultivated by Indians at the two agencies, agains* 590 acres reported last year. When it is remembered that the Kiowas, Comanches, and Cheyennes hare hitherto been classed with the Sioux in wildness, intractability, and hostility; the following extracts will furnish gratifying evidence that the civilization of these tribes is not only practicable, but is already in progress, and mill demonstrate the wisdom of encouraging by liberal assistance these feeble beginnings in civilized labor of a people who, by the extinction of the buttalo, will speedily be throwu entirely upon the Government for support, unless in the short intervalthey are furnished the means and are taught how to support themselves. |