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Show 404 REPORT' OF SUPERINTENDENT OR INDIAN SCHOOLS. NATIVE INDUSTRIES. If such schools as the Teachers' College of Columbia University, the Ethical Culture Schools, and many others of New York City consider it educative to have basket weaving and rug making taught it would seem advisable for the teachers in the Indian service to incjude as a practical part of their work the various arts for which Indians have become famous by their own unaided efforts-basketry, pottery, bead-work, tanning, blanket weaving, beaten silver, etc. As a rule, a tribe is especially expert in some particular art or craft, and we are endcav-oring to have the-respectivc schools preserve t,he industries of tho tribes to which their children belong. The blanket weaving which the Navahos and Moquis do to perfection would naturally be impos-sible to tribes remote from woolgrowing sections. Similarly, thc tanning processes of some tribes, which make the coarse hides as soft and flexlble as kid, are unknown to Indians of other sections. In basketry many tribes excel, and the fame of the old Indian basket work has become world-wide. While visiting schools we have urged personally upon teachers the importance of fostering this natural hand dexterity of the Indian and encouraging its exercise. Arrange-n~ ents have been made at a number of the schools to do this. At Oneida, Wis., the children take special delight in bead and lace work. Two days in the week they a1.e instructed in lace making, and have sent handsome specimens of their handiwork to expositions and large stores, where it has found ready sale. I n beadwork they have been instructed in making belts and pocketa, bags, purses, lan~p-shades, watch and fan chains, and collars. They take special pride in this work, and wherever specimens have been exhibited more orders were received than could be filled. At Bena, Minn., the pupils have made beaded belts and bags and useful articles of birch hark. The bead fan chains made at Chilocco, Okla., have netted a nice profit to the Indian girls and furnished them with profitable work for Idle hours. At Cheyenne, Okla., nnder the direction of the seamstress, who is an Indian, excellent beadwork bas been made. The matron at Grand Junction, Colo., has enconraged blanket weaving among the Navaho pupils. At the Albuquerque School, New Mexico, the girls whose parents are blanket wcxvers are so anxious to carry on thls work that they utilize the legs of an ordinary chair for a loom, and it IS no unusual occurrence in passing through the dormitory to find a number of chairs used as loonis on which are unfinished blankets. Many of the c,hildren at Fort Hall, Idaho, are expert beadworkers. The baskets of Round Valley and Hoopa Valley, California, are especially noted for their beauty and are in great demand. The baskets of the Pimas and Apaches of New Mexico and Arizona, although coarse in weave, are much sought after by tourists. The i~otterym ade by the Moquis of Arizona and the Pueblos of New Mexico finds read sale and the su ply does not meet the demand for this symbolic auJartis! tic ware. 8ollectors and nluseums send agents into the field to collect the best specimens of Indian work. The arts and crafts of the Indian have a far greater value than is generally known, and in many sections of the country they become efficient aids to him in earning a livelihood. When the crops of the Pimas failed for lack of water, they were enabled to provide for |