OCR Text |
Show 62 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFF&S. home localities. Another important factor is thnt the nomadic student ac-qnfres no lasting interest in the institution where he attends school; he ia thus robbed of thnt benntifnl relationship shich should maintain and ought to engender a life-long pride in the school where he received his'edncation. No industrial Indian boarding school should buy its butter, eggs, chickens, fruit. or vegetables.. No Indian reservation with farm ficilities shouldpurchase hay and feed for the horses and school dairy herd, or beef and flour for school, agency, 'and issue purposes. How enn we espect n boy or girl to learn industrial effl. cienw when he has been educated at a nouresrrvation or reservation board-ing school where the methods, if adopted in private business, would promptly lead to bankruptcy? During the last two years we have industriously under-taken to work out n program which will make such things impossible in the fnture. It is indefensible for an I$inn school or reservation to purchase anything, soil and climate considered, that cnn be produced. It is of the highest impor-tance thnt the Indian MY and girl be made to realize and fully understand the importnnce of .economy. production, and self-support. They should huve a con-tinuous object lesson justifying the expenditure for their education. The time must comequickly Then the Indians are producers rather than altogether consumers. In this connection it is gratifying to announce that our agricultural and stock-raising efIort.9 are meeting with general and splendid success. The Indians on numerous rexervations are demonstratiue their cauac-ity for stock raising: they are i'nereasing their crop acreage rapidly: as iudicnted by the fact that this Year they used eererol times as much seed as durin-g an.y previius year, and thnt their cattle, horses, and sheep are being nphred, in-creased, and cared for in n husinessljke and profitable manner. I firmly believe that if the industrial progress of the last 2 years is continued for 10 years our Indians wil! be prnctically self-supporting, with correspondingly -- reduced congressional appropriations. I -The use of the tern'" surplus land" as applied to Iudiuu reservations some-times makes me tmpntient. It too often nienus that the lands remaining after the Indians of a tribe have been allottecl shall be separated from them without sufficiently taking into consideration the fact that many times such allotments are wholly unfit for agricultural purposes or insufficient to insure a subsistence when no additional provision is made for grazing and stock-raising opportunities. I know of lmny allotments depending entirely upon which an Indian family wonld starve to death and where no white family could he induced to nttempt to make a living, uud'yet under theae'cirmmstanees an unsuccessful Indian farmer Is apt to he.declared n failure.. There nre.thowds of acres sf land on Indian resehations where 1W hundred acres would not feed a rabbit. I suggest that hereafter we -n hoto-nao-h the "oainted desert" more freaueutlr and less often the small alfalfa patch on a grent reservation. We should at least tell the whole trnth. It is -u rel- udicial to the Indian to emphasize the small Dart of their ~ o s - sessions that are productive andwithhold from the public the very large un-productive portion. In this wise it beeopes wrongfully understood that they huve vast and valuable possessions unused by themwhich should be otherwise utilized. A few words on the moral side of our service: Every employeein the Indian Service should be a constant object lesson of sobriety, thnt the Indian may by , iomparison understand the demoralizing and disastrous effects of the use of In-tokicnnts by whatever name they are known. After I addressed my letter to the employees of the Indian Bureau pronouncing liquor the greatest menace to: the American Indian I received aS~comrbunfcation.from~ttH1eo n.:?Joseph Choate wxrmly commending the sentiment and saying: "You are absolutely |