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Show ) VI REPORT OF THE COMMISSIOXER OF INDIAN AFFAIES. The sum of fonr thousand dollars per annum is recluired for the snp. port of the Flathead boarding-school, of which nearly half must be taken from the general appropriation for schools. This appropriation must also be used for the erection and furnishing of new school buildings, and the enlargement of those which are already overcrowded. In roropli:~t~enci.t h the nppeald frorn ne#lccte~al getloes, the offire l ~ n ~ made arruugcmeut3 for ererting elerro iwanll~lga hool l,uil~linpsd or-ing the coming season, and for the establishment of thirteen new board-ing- schools. These will be the first schools of any kind ever provided for the eight t'housand San Carlos Apaches and Western Shoshones, and t,he first boarding-schools opened for twentyfive thonsand Indians at nine other agencies. where small and irregularly attended day-schools have hitherto met with indifferent success, and made litcle impression upon the tribes amoug which they were located. But few of these schools will be fairly in operation till toward the close of the corrent fiscal year, and the expense of their lnair~tenanoew ill not be burdensome until the -. following year. Increased provision for the support of schools will then be absolutely necessary, and I trust thatnot less than $150,000 will be appropriated for that object by Congress at its next session. The importance of having at least one good boarding-school at each agency need not be argued. After the thirteen boarding-schoolu above referred to hare been opened, thirteen more agencies will still remain , unprovided for. L/At not more thau fifteen out of s&ty.six agencies can the government be said to havemade adequate provision for the educa-tion of the children of the tribes belonging thereto ; and at very few of the remaining fifty-one agencies will the schools, both boarding and day, accommodate 50 per cent. of the school population. The necessity for increased and increasing appropriations to enable the office to keep pace with the demands of the Indians for educational facilities is mani-fest and urgent. An Indian boa.rding.scboo1 similar to that at Carlisle has been estab- I lished during the year at Forest Grove, Oreg., for t,he benefit of Indians on the Pacific coast. It is under the immediate charge of Lieut. M. 0. Wilkinson, U. a. A., and has been in operation since February last. Two bi~ildingsw, hich will accommodate 150 pupils, and anot,her which it is proposed to subdivide into workshops, in which various trades will be taught., have been erected-the latter biiilding entirely by the labor of Indian boys nuder the direction of one of the teachers, who is a prac-tical mechanic.iForty pnpils are now in attendance, representing six different tribes. For Indialis like those on the Pacific, who are already in close contact with the whites, and who have adopted to a large ex-tent the aress and habits of their white neighbors, the training which such a school gives is especially needed, in order toprepare them for the ! . competition with white civilization, which must soon be inevitable. The . number of pupils in the school will be increased during the year as far |
