TABLE I.-List of training schools with their location, date of opening, and capacity.

TABLE 2.-Showing attendance, cost, etc., of training schools during fiscal year ended

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, Congress has made liberal appropriations for these schools which will help the Office to put them on a broad basis, and thoroughly equip them for their important work. With the improvements now being made they will be able next year to care for not less than thirty-three hundred students.

In estimating the work done several things should be carefully borne in mind: These institutions are not universities, nor colleges, nor academies nor high schools. In the best of them the work done is not above that of an ordinary grammar school, while in most it is of the primary or intermediate grade.

The pupils come to them for the most part ignorant of the English language, unaccustomed to study, impatient of restraint, and bringing with them many of the vices and degraded habits of camp life. From the very necessities of the case, the length of time which most of them have been kept in school has been very short. The time required for children in the public schools to complete a course of study embraced in the primary, intermediate, grammar, and high school is from fourteen to fifteen years. It has been heretofore commonly supposed that three years was long enough to educate an Indian and fit him to compete with his white neighbor, who has enjoyed so much greater advantages.

The work, embracing as it necessarily does, the supplanting of a foreign language by the English, the destruction of barbarous habits by the substitution of civilized manners, the displacement of heathenish superstitions by the inculcation of moral principles, the awakening of

sluggish minds to intellectual activity by wise mental training and the impartation of useful knowledge, has been undertaken by these Indian teachers almost single-handed and alone, unaided by those potent factors outside of school which play so large a part in the education of our own children. (See page CXL.)

It is a fact not to be forgotten in any discussion of popular education that the most important factors in the development of our American civilization have been in the colleges, universities, and professional schools. Without these there would have been no common schools. If the average of intelligence among the Indians is to be brought up to the level of that of the other peoples which compose our nation, and they are to be prepared to compete in life's struggles on an equal basis, provision must be made whereby those among them who are specially gifted with talent, ambition, and energy may procure a higher education than is offered to them in the reservation and training schools. Already a very considerable number have shown both the desire and ability to pursue higher studies. Several are now successfully teaching, or fitting themselves to teach, others are practicing medicine, some are preaching, and still others are preparing for the practice of law. The desire for these higher studies is steadily increasing and only needs a little fostering to be productive of the best results. A common school, industrial education for all, a liberal and professional education for the worthy few, with a fair field and free competition, is all that is asked for Indians as for others.

The outing system which brings Indian youth into intimate and vital relationship with civilized communities is now steadily developing and is productive of the most hopeful results. During the past year Carlisle has accommodated nearly eight hundred pupils, more than half of whom have had the inestimable advantage of living and working, for periods varying from a few weeks to several months, with Pennsyl vania farmers and others, who have paid them a reasonable compensation. Their work has been very satisfactory, and the school has been unable to meet the demand made upon it for help. When the present plans for increasing its capacity are completed, not less than a thousand pupils can be cared for at this one institution, and so far as I can now see it will be entirely feasible to carry perhaps double this number. Every Indian boy or girl who secures a place to work at fair wages has become a producer, and is practically independent and self-supporting.

The superintendent of Haskell Institute writes me that he expects to be able, when the present plans for that school are completed, to care for one thousand students, and to provide homes for a large number of them among Kansas farmers. How far it will be possible to extend the outing system in connection with these training schools I am not prepared to say, but the system seems to have great possibilities, and its development shall receive my constant and careful attention.

These training schools, removed from reservations, offer to the pupils opportunities which can not by any possibility be afforded them in the

reservation schools. The atmosphere about them is uplifting, they are surrounded by the object-lessons of civilization; they are entirely removed from the dreadful down-pull of the camp. If the entire rising generation could be taken at once and placed in such institutions, kept there long enough to be well educated, and then, if such as choose to do so were encouraged to seek homes among civilized people, there would be no Indian problem.

RETURNED STUDENTS.

It should be especially remembered that the oldest of these training schools, that at Carlisle, Pa., has been in existence only eleven years, and last year graduated its first class. Very few of the graduates have returned to their homes and none of them have as yet had any opportunity to show what they can do. The unfairness of some of the criticisms upon returned students, who are inaccurately denominated "Carlisle graduates," or "graduates of the Carlisle University," is apparent. There has been no time in which to estimate from practical experience the influence which has been exerted upon these pupils. The time has not been too short, however, to show that, notwithstanding all the hindrances under which the work is carried forward, Indian children, under equally favorably conditions, are just as susceptible of education as any other class.

Relatively to the Indian population, a very small proportion of boys and girls have yet been brought under the influence of these schools. The few who have returned home have therefore found themselves in too many cases isolated by their dress and habits, out of sympathy with their surroundings, ostracized by their companions, and too frequently prac tically helpless. The remedy for this is two-fold. First, the universal education of the rising generation, so that there will be a common bond of sympathy and mutual helpfulness between them. Second, the encour agement of pupils who have finished the course of study in the training schools to seek for themselves homes and employment among civilized people.

Pupils in these schools should be taught that they must depend upon themselves and not expect to be furnished employment by the Government. Ample opportunities are afforded them for acquiring an education, with the expectation that they will prepare themselves to earn their own living. There is no necessity of their returning to the reservations, except as a matter of choice, for all who are intelligent, industrious, honest, and thoroughly capable can secure honorable and remunerative employment among civilized people, which they should be encouraged to seek. (See page CXXXIX.)

RESERVATION SCHOOLS.

Boarding schools.-The following is a list of the sixty-three Government boarding schools on reservations:

Arizona-Colorado River, Fort Mojave, Navajo, Keams Cañon, Pima, San Carlos; California-Fort Yuma; Idaho-Fort Hall, Fort Lapwai,

Lemhi; Indian Territory-Quapaw, Seneca; Kansas-Kickapoo, Pottawatomie, Sac and Fox and Iowa; Minnesota-Leech Lake, Red Lake, White Earth; Montana-Blackfeet, Crow, Fort Peck; NebraskaOmaha, Santee, Winnebago; Nevada-Pyramid Lake, Western Shoshone; New Mexico-Mescalero; North Dakota-Fort Stevenson, Standing Rock (2); Oklahoma-Absentee Shawnee, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kaw. Kiowa, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, Sac and Fox, Wichita ; OregonGrande Ronde, Klamath, Siletz, Sinemasho, Umatilla, Warm Springs, Yainax; South Dakota-Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Lower Brulé, Pine Ridge, Sisseton, Yankton; Utah-Uintah; Washington-Chehalis, Neah Bay, Puyallup, Quinaielt, S'Kokomish, Yakima; Wisconsin-Green Bay; Wyoming-Shoshone.

Concerning these schools it may be said: They have been for the most part poorly equipped. The buildings in many cases were small, cheap, inconvenient, often inadequately furnished, frequently very deficient in ventilation, heating, and water supply. Many had been grossly neglected and were sadly out of repair. During the past year an earnest effort has been made to improve them by repairs, additions, or new buildings, and by supplying water or heating facilities, as needed. There still remains much to be done, however.

If the work is to be made at all adequate to the necessities of the case, there should be a very considerable increase in the number of these schools, and at an early day new schools should be established at the following places:

Arizona-Fort Apache on San Carlos Reservation; Papago Reservation, Navajo Reservation, and among the Moquis; California-Hoopa Valley Agency, Mission Agency, Round Valley Agency; ColoradoSouthern Ute and Jicarilla Agency; Montana-Blackfeet Agency, Tongue River Agency; New Mexico-Zuni Reservation; OklahomaCantonment, Jesse Bent's ranch, and Seger Colony on Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation; South Dakota-Pine Ridge Reservation, Rosebud Reservation; Utah-Ouray Agency; Wisconsin-Oneida Reservation, and four of the reserves of the La Pointe Agency.

The limit heretofore placed by law upon the cost of the buildings$10,000-has been so low that it has been impossible to provide proper accommodations. To establish a boarding-school involves making provision not only for school rooms proper, but for dormitories, kitchen, laundry, bath-rooms, hospital, and other necessary rooms for pupils, and also of suitable quarters for all the employés, superintendent, teachers, matron, cook, laundress, seamstress, etc. The original cost of the plant is a comparatively small part of the outlay. It is a poor economy to put up inferior buildings and fail to make proper provision for the work expected, which can not be satisfactorily done with such poor facilities. The limit of cost now fixed is $12,000, which is still too low.

These schools are surrounded by influences which necessarily hamper

them very seriously in their work. They are far removed from civilization, feel none of the stimulating effects of an intelligent public sentiment, and have little helpful supervision. The parents have ready access to them, and often prove troublesome guests by reason of their clamors for the return of the children to their tepees. It is exceedingly difficult to break up the use of the tribal tongue and to teach them to use the English language. Notwithstanding these difficulties, however, they are doing a good work, directly upon their pupils and indirectly upon the older people of the reservations, and there goes out from them a civilizing force whose strength and value can scarcely be overestimated. (See page CXXXVIII.)

To render them still more efficient they should be increased in number, be better equipped, more closely supervised, and subjected to more rigid discipline. The teachers should be selected with care, have a reasonably secure tenure of office, and have pay equal to that received for a similar grade of work in the public schools of the same State or Territory. These schools should be feeders for the training schools, and deserving, capable pupils should be regularly and systematically promoted.

Day schools. During the past year there were in operation at the various agencies 106 day schools with an enrollment of 3,967, and an average attendance of 2,367.

Of these schools I wish to say that I found them in existence when I assumed the duties of the office; 11 new ones have been established, and 3 of the old ones have been abandoned. Of the whole number 81 are conducted by the Government and 25 are carried on under contract. The teachers labor under very great disadvantages. The houses are poor and the furniture scanty. The accommodations for the teachers are very primitive; the isolation and deprivations are hard to bear; the influences of the camps are often wholly antagonistic to those of the schools; it is extremely difficult to break up the use of the tribal language; many of the children are poorly fed, scantily clad, untidy in their habits, and irregular in their attendance.

On the other hand, it must be said that a good day-school well administered is an object lesson of civilization in the midst of barbarism, for the children carry home daily some influence which tends toward a better life. It permits the parents the presence of their children, to which many of them attach great importance, and to whose prolonged absence they could not be induced to consent, and there is gradually being produced, no doubt partly at least through these schools, a public sentiment among the camp Indians more friendly to education and progress in civilization.

I believe it is possible to raise the character of these schools by providing better houses and facilities for work, by introducing some form of elementary industry, and by paying more attention to supervision. The effort to do this is now being made, which, if it is successful, may lead to the establishment of others on a better basis.