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Show 371.) REPORT OF SUPERIBTEXDENT OF IXDIAN SCHOOLS. nlomlv: bnt a school well condncted. and face to face with an Indian t h e ; kill liir rl~ar tribe sIt,wly 11ot snrely. Tllid proccds applies tl~e le\.er clour to rl~cL R ~ V11.1 111( loes etfcctive civili7,ing work. If rile Go\.- ernment will introrlt~cea snfficient number of good schools, and main-tain them well, the 111ass of the Indiams mill be lifted. To send off a few boys and girls for a half doze11 years, and return tl~emo ue by one to t l ~ ere servatio~tt,o enco~uiterth e disgust of the Indians at the new ways of the pnl~ils,a nd the distrust because of the rejectionof the old customs, aud to expect these returned students to gain a livelihood on sterile reservations nhere they can find nothing to do, and no chance to apply what has been learned, is a great absurdity. I t is said Il~rlian children call be taught English bet,ter, if taken from the home influences of speech: and can be lifted quicker and higher. Very true, but this is only a part of the story. The reservation remains at its low level. If those pupils are expected to go back, three or four a year, a l~dle aven a lnnrp of 1,000 to 5,000 camp Indians, we ~uusot onclnde the impossible is expected. Wl~ntevern lay be done iu training suhools outside of reservations, nevcrtheless I mou~lcl ra111r the reservation schools as first in impor-tance, to be developed and sustained ill the most efficient manner, and not to be outnu~nberedb y the other schools. The reservation sohools, day and boarding, are the ylaces where the great ?rims of the i7hdia~b clhCldre1~s l ~ o ~bled e rlt~caterla, nd mhere the Government should concen-trate its best eflorts. Three and oue-half years ago, when I had been t~ year in the India,u school service, I wrote from Fort Defiance, N. Jvfes., to the Commissioner of I n d i ~ uA ffairs, and to the Secretary of tlle Interior, as follows: On lny arrival at this place, I entered rug thirty-thircl Indian reservation, in all of which I hove studied to the best of my ability the question of Indian education. Kot alittle time h i ~ v been spent in eaoh of the larger training schools, hut mnch mare time face to fibco with the great neods of the reservations, whiel~p resent the primary phases of the Indian edooational problem. As tho result, soma ideas hold -tentatively at first have heen settling into olexrsr and more decided oonviotious. Having thus studied thia problem i z ~th e,fleld, in personal ooutsot with the living issues, I respeotfillly svsil ~uyselfo f tho ac1visor.y functions of my office, and speak with nreater confidence upon some lnstters than heretofore I have dona. W&U I left Washington the attention of the office waii much clireoted to the enlargement of the great training sohoola-Carlisls, Haskell, Genoa, and Chilocoo, ;lud to the building of another such at Pierre, 5. Dak. I ttaoitly sssented to the thounh rot without grave doubtsastoits,wisdon~a,t this time. I t i snot from lack of faitgin those sohoolu, for I lrsve the fullest oonfidenee, bnt from s growing conviction that the present most important and urgent work is in reservatiou 8chools: greatly need to be eularge<l and mnltiplied, and which, I fear, will be hiuaered, am1 possibly prevented, by the absorption of 80 muoh of the limited appropriations granted by Congress, for those large ssohools. The time has come to build more st the base nnrl less st the apex. The heart-breaking noeessities of the reservation mnst be relieved. Simply edncating a few children at Eastern sohools andreturning them to the reser~ationsis like attempting to fill the bottomless pit with shavings. ~t is not a little painful to me to 6u<l some of the worthiest %gents in the Indian service, i~ponso ~neo f the larger reservations, having within then' hound8 more ohil-dreu of school ego than there are popila in all the great soltools combined, g crimped to the most meager smus in their appropriations for shundretl pupils, while the great reooive their money far additional sohool accomu~odntiona by the tens of thousands. At almoat every step of my progress in this tour of visitation I have been oon- &antly metby thepainful realities of this question-among the Pimss, the P;apagoes, +"I.-- "- Ar--n-a..c, .hea. a n 4 now the Sn~s ioe sa, ll ereat tribes with meeeer sohool faoilities-and I must speak emphati,tio~lly." It is ti& to oall a k< in thelarge appropriations for n few favorite schools, until these larger an* more urgent needs, lying st the T > S . ~ "..f. m,r Tnrlien sol1001 s r s ten~a, re met and sumlied. ~ . ~ . I I , , l~p.~r t ? t8o~i tt. a tallc,\v $ < l t r l l 10 EuGirn srl~ool<* lill iva\rs lltu fatal g r , , v . ~ , , ~o~r' ol,a:~ rlmrisn~~u ~wh t ~ ~ ~'rlkwc ~wl!.a hIi.hntent ui gum1 ,t,lt%4~8 , wi r l l 11," brrr :al,l~ , ~ ! ~ I ~ Lit!O 1I1.Iv I~%n i ~OlC ~ritle irdrl~~atil)nwsil l 1 ~ r ;nz ~ . . ~ r i l i ttlhie~ ~~) t l~vl . |