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Show A contract has heen made for the erection of a new dormitory at the Mount Pleasant school, Michigan. This building will replace the one destroyed by fire June 14, 1899. It will restore the capacity of this school to 300 pupils. Owing to the difficulty of securing a suitable site for the Hopi (Moqui) training school in Arizona, plans have not been perfected for making most desirahle and necessary improvements in the school for these Indians. Continued efforts will be made, however, to solve the problem. In an act of Congress approved June 6, 1900, an agreement with the Fort Hall Indians, Idaho, was ratified, and to carry out the same it provided in section 2 of the act that $75,000 should be appropriated for the establishment of a modern school plant near the agency, and $75,000 additional may be expended by the Secretary of the Interior for the educational needs of these Indians. Upon the request of this office, June 23,1900, United States Indian Inspector Walter H. Gravcs was directed by the Department to make an investigation of all available school sites near the agency. He has filed his report recommending a site about five miles from the agency. It is on a bluff about 30 feet high overlooking a broad expanse of meadow land lying to the east of Snake River, known as "Fort H d Bottoms." Within a few hundred feet is the famous "Big Spring," which discharges not less than a million gallons of water per hour. This seems to he an ideal location, and plans are now under consideration for the early establishment of a complete modern school plant. It can not be opened for a year, however. A new dormitory and improved water and sewer systems have been prepared for the Umatilla hoarding school in Oregon and are now under contract. Under the Tongue Kiver Agency for the Northern CheyenneReserva-tion in Montana there is no Government hoarding school, only a day school with a capacity for 40 pupils. Although the educational needs of this trihe of Indians have been urgent, in view of unsettled matters concerning the reservation, it was considered unadvisable to make any move with reference to a boarding school pending certain uegotia-tions with settlers on the reservation. United States Indian Inspector James McLaughlin in his report submitted to Congress at its last session relative to buying out these settlers referred to the educa-tional condition of the Northern Cheyennes, recommending that a school be built for them. On a second visit to this reservation he recommended the "Busby Ranch" of 160 acres as a proper school site. This ranch is 18 miles southwest of the agency on Rosebud Creek and 32 miles from the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad. The ranch is well watered, has 100 acres under cultivahon, wells for domes-tic water purposes, and is in every way suited for an Indian school. A plant with a capacity of 150 pupils will he erected here during this fiscal year. |