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Show 4 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAIT APFAIRS. dren enrolled in public schools in cases where districts are poor and Indians do not pay taxes. It will not be necessary to build any more Government schools, except in the Southwest and possibly in Montana. Schools in other sections should be liberally supported and in a few instances some-what enlarged, as at Chilocco and Haskell Institute, which are situ-ated to serve the large Indian population in Oklahoma and the Southwest. Arizona and New Mexico, with their school population of between 11,500 and 12,000, without any kind of school facilities constitute the big educational need among Indians. The United dtates Gov-ernment more than 50 years ago made a treaty with the Navajo Indians pledging that for every 30 children a school would be pro-vided. Generations of children have grown up in ignorance and superstition without having the promise fulfilled, and now, while many of their children are well provided for large numbers are neglected the same as were their fathers and motLers. Having heard echoes of the Navajo prayer for more enlightenment since the be-ginning of my administration, and believing the problem of that section to be among the most worth of attention, I left Washington late in April accompanied by the cxief supervisor of Indian educa-tion, Mr. H. B. Pairs, and spent almost seven weeks traveling, mostly by automobile, throughout New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, and southern Colorado, visiting Indian reservations, agencies, and schools, meeting, talking with, and listening to indi-vidual Indians and representative groups, observing their home life, investigating their industries, and conferring about their desires and needs. Our party traveled nearly 3,000 miles overland visited every reservation in New Mexico, all but three small ones in Arizona spent three days in California, and one and one-half in Colorado. Almost all of the country visited is arid or semiarid, and New Mexico and Arizona particularly are best adapted to sheep and cattle raising u on which the Indians chiefly depend, following their flocks oi! s I? eep and goats and their herds of cattle over large areas of country to find feed for them. 'These conditions make their home life miser-able and retard progress. They also create a difficult and expensive school problem. Practically all education must be in boardin schools where the children can be cared for, becanse the home, suc f as it is, must move with the flocks according to the seasons. Another obstacle in the way is the prevailing custom of having the little boys and girls from 6 years of age up help their mothers herd the sheep, and little children not yet in their teens may be often seen trudging along after the flocks away out in the desert, miles from home or habitation of any kind. I t is a pitiful picture, and when it is realized that hundreds, possibly thousands,,of these little children spend days, weeks, and months at such labor instead of going to school as they should. it intensifies the feeling that the Government has not kept .a faith with these people. When we visited the schools that have been provided and saw the groups of bright, clean, well-dressed children, heard them rea$ and sing, saw their superior writing and drawing, their handi-work, and watched them in their drills and in them play, and then thought of the thousands out on the desert following the flocks and |