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Show 42 REPOET OB COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AEFIURS. The capacity of the 167 was 5,982; the enrollment was 5,535, an increase of 405, and the average attendance 3,974, an increase of 304. Since 1905, when I took charge of this office, the number of day schools has grown from 138 to 167. This is in pupuance of the policy set out in my former reports, of gradually withdrawing from the Indians the gratuitous support which has been so demoralizing an influence with them, and of carrying civilization to them as a people instead of carrying a few individuals of their race to civiliza-tion. Planted almost at the door of thehome, the influence of one of these schools is not limited to the children who attend it, but reaches to the parents also, and eyeq day leaves its permanent mark. Mean-while, the natural and normal relation between parents and children is not interfered with as it must necessarily be where the children are placed in a boarding school at a distance, no matter how welh organized and conducted such school may be. The number of these home schools is to be further augmented dur-ing the current fiscal year, and preparations are now in progress for 46 new ones. At a number of places there has been delay, due to the cumbersome process of procuring title to the lands needed for the purpose; but new regulations are now before the department which, if adopted, xi11 partly remove this difficulty. In 31 instances all the preliminari'ks have been settled and either the buildings are now undergoing construction, or negotiations for building contracts are pending, and it is expected that all which are not opened before winter sets in will be ready for opening before the close of the fiscal year. Sites for the remaining 15 will probably not be secured in time to permit any building to be done before spring. I expect to estab-lish also, in October or November, four or five day schools among the needy scattered bands of northern California, if suitable buildings for the purpose can be leased. Orders have been issued for the discontinuance of boardmg schools on the following reservations: Siletz, Oreg.; Winnebago, Nebr.; Potawatomi, Kans.; Flathead, Mont., and Panguitch, Utah. In place of each of these one or more day schools are to be set up. Under authority of law the Arapaho Boarding School in Oklahoma has been discontinued, the buildings and lands will be sold, and the proceeds of the sale of these and a part of the agency reserve will be used in putting the Cheyenne Boarding School into good condition and fitting it up to accommodate the Arapaho children too. This school will then be known as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Boarding School. The same act which authorized this change proviiles also for such day schools as may be necessary out of the balance of the proceeds. |