OCR Text |
Show ~p~-~ -- ~ - -- i I COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 2s to farm, to adopt modern methods, etc., and (2) providing the nec- I e s s q equipment and facilities to this end. . . The' spirit of rivalry and object lesson is a strong incentive to success,, and one of the best agencies in developing the agricultural ~ .e~lthusiasmo f the Indians has been the Indiau fair. Fairs were held in the fall of 1914 on 38 reservations. - As the Indian is ultjmately to be absorbed into the body 6f Ameri-cm; citizenship,the next logical step after the strictly Indian fair on the reservation is participation by the Indians in conveniently lo-cated county and State fairs. Accordingly, Indian exhibits from many of the reservatiohs hive been, shbwn at county fairs in direct competition with the products of white farmers, a number of prizes having been won. Wherever a State or county fair is held near an Indian reservation, it is planned to arrange an exhibit of Indian products. . . The first systematic effort to have an Indian exhibit at these ilisti-tutions on an extensive scale was at the Oklahoma State fair:last fall. About 30 different schools and tribes were represented atthis' exhibit, which was shown ina building set apart for the purpose by the fair association and which proved to be one of the most attractivefea-tures, being visited ljy about 75,000 persons and attracting cuch ' favorable comment from them. ' Indian exhibits were also shown at the Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin State fairs on s small scale. The officers of the State and county fair associations have, in each . instance,,,responded enthusiastically to the suggestion for Indian ex- ' . ' hibits, and have promised their hearty support and cooperation to this end. We coddently expect to make a notable shoving of fair exhibits I in t.he fs,U of 1915. Advantage has been taken of other methods of arousing the inter-est of the Indiads + farming, such as the organization of Indim farmer dubs, the inauguration of boys' and girls' clubs in conjunc-tion with the Federal and State agricultural departments under the provisjons of the Smith-Lever Act for cooperative agricultural ex-tension work, and plans are also being formulated for cooperation between the county agricultural agents appointed under that act and the farmers of this service in behalf of the Indians. Schools of inin-stfiction in modern canning methods, domestic economy, etc., are held all over the country as another feature of this cooperative work. Representatives of the Cherokee and Wahpeton Indian schools re-cently attended such schools, under detail of tliis oftice, and it is planned to extend this work as rapidly as possible. ' The first prize in the 1914 Arizona Boys' Corn Club contest (cpn- &ting of i$lW scholarship in the State ilniversity) was won by Victor Bail, a papago Indian boy.from the San Xavier Reservation, near |