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Show OFFICE o r THE SUPERINTENDENOTE INDIASNCH OOLS, Washidqton, D. C., October 20, 1898. ! SIR: The annual reoort of the ~upeiintendenot f Indian Schools is I respectfully submitted. - I took charge of this office June 20, 1898, and July 12, by your direction, proceeded to Colorado Springs, Colo., for the purpose of holdinz the Indian School Service Institute. At tge close of this institute, which was in session for three weeks, by your further direction, I visited Indian schools in the West, among them being the Wind River Boarding School, situated 130 miles from the railroad, one of the schools where the present appropriation pro-vides forextensive improvements; the St. Stephen's MissionBoarding School, in Wyoming, 150 miles from the railroad; the Crow Agency School, in Montana; the Shoshone Mission Boarding School, and the Big Horn (subissue) or St. Xavier Mission School, which are also some distance from the railroad. I have been in office so short a time that I refrain from making rec- . ommendations until I can have personal knowledge of the needs of the schools under your charge. THE INDIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM AND ITS DEVELOPMENT. The office of Indian School Superintendent was created by Congress in 1882. Before theRevolution efforts were made to educateIndian boys, and Indians were maintained at the College of William and Mary shortly after 1692. The Continental Congress in 1775 passed a bill appropri-ating $500 for the edncation of Indian youths. In 1794 the first Indian treaty in which any form of education was mentioned was made with the Oneida, Tiiscarora, and Stockbridge Indians, who had faithfully adhered to the United States and assisted them with their wars during the Revolution. This treaty provided that the United States should employ one or two persons to keep in repair certain mills which were to be built for the Indians, and to "instruct some young men of the Three Nations in the arts of the miller and sawer." The second Indian treaty of 1803 provided that- Whereas the greater part oE said tribe has been baptised and received into the Catholic Church, to which they are much attached, the United States,gll glve annually for seven gears $100 toward the support of a priest of that rellg~onw ho will engage to perform for said tribe the duties of his office, and also to Instruct as manv of their children as ~ossiblein the rudiments of literature. The first Congressional appropriation for Indian educational pur-poses was made in 1819, when the President was anthonzed to employ |