OCR Text |
Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 43 necessary to lock at night the principal means of exit should a fire occur. Not only have the school supervisom reported specifically in reference to fire escapes and fire-fighting apparatus at each Indian school, but they have also investigated conditions at mission and private schools at which Indian children are educated. Indian children ought not attend institutions where there is not offered ample protection against loss of life by fire. One of our newest activities is to make every effort, both in the school and among the adults on the reservations, in the direction of vocational guidance. Every Indian, like every white man, is best fitted for some one thing. We are trying to find that thing. The greatest investment the Indian service has is in its so-called returned students. These are students who have been at our larger schools and have returned to live on or near their home reservation. . Throughout the Indian country to-day there are probably 35,000 of these returned students. Superintendents frequently consider thew persons merely trouble makers, forgetting entirely that the reueon they are frequently protestants is that they have seen better things, but have not quite found their own way to them; and I am sorry to say that frequently the greatest, obstacle to their finding their way lies in the Government machinery and personnel itself. Taking into account the length of time that each one of these young people spends at Government schools and the cost per year, the Government has an economic investment in each one of these returned students of from ten to fifteen hundred dollars. Every Indian school in the country should consider it a vital part. of its daily work to imp track of the students who hare attended it. In cooperation with the systems of following up these students, which are being adopted and improved steadily by the schools, the supervisor of Indian employ-ment is performing what is perhaps his most important function. As he puts it- These returned students are the hope of the " Indian problem." * * * It is an economic waste not to follow this investnient up with at least some cor-respondence and friendly advice and, if necessary, some financial assistance, at least to the extent of assisting them to reach some favoruhle point of em-ployment once. We would hardly thlng oc spending n similar amount in train-ing a race horse and then turn him loose under unfavorable range conditions to shift for himself. We should want at least to make some use of his training. More and more Indians are likely to turn to day labor or trade for their livelihood, and it is a nice problem with every reservation superintendent to be a true friend to each Indian in his decision whether to tackle his allotment or some outside job. Every effort is being made to use Indians on our Indian servioe irrigation proj-ects, even where the result is to make these projects a little more ex- |