Commissioner of Indian Affairs in issuing orders forbidding the teaching of the vernacular to children in Indian schools. The position of the Indian Office was stated by my predecessor in his annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1887.

Protests from many religious bodies were sent to the President, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Indian Commissioner, all based upon the assumption that it was the intention to forbid the reading of the Bible in the vernacular. To correct this impression, the Commissioner published, in pamphlet form, under date of April 16, 1888, "Correspondence on the Subject of Teaching the Vernacular in Indian Schools." This pamphlet was generally circulated among the friends of Indian education and others; and it is believed that the dissemination of the information contained therein has given to the public a correct impression of the purpose of the orders. But, in view of the widespread and apparently deep-seated misunderstanding in regard to the bearing of these orders upon the use of the Bible published in Indian vernaculars, it may be well to state that it is not the intention of the Indian Bureau to prohibit the reading of the Bible by any Indian in any language, or by anybody to any Indian in any language or in any Indian vernacular, anywhere, at any time.

SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

In further comment upon the subject of Indian education, I may say that while the general condition of the schools during the year has been good, special attention ought to be called to the fact that the attendance at the Government reservation schools has increased to such an extent that there is, practically, no room in them for more pupils. As a rule, Indians among whom schools have been established are now willing to send their children to school, and, in not a few cases, are asking for more school facilities. Many Indians who, only a few years ago, positively refused to allow their children to learn the "white man's way," and who are yet unwilling to have their children sent for a term of years to remote schools, are now not only ready, but anxious, to have them educated in reservation schools not remote from their camps.

That additional schools have not been established, in accordance with the reasonable wishes of these and other Indians, is due largely to the construction that has been given to the provision of the annual appropriation act that limits to $10,000 the amount that may be expended in the erection of a boarding-school-building. The construction put upon this provision is that all the buildings necessary at a boarding-school must be erected at a total outlay of not exceeding $10,000, and that this includes the furnishing of such buildings. It has been held by the Second Comptroller of the Treasury that it would be contrary to the spirit and intent of Congress to use building appropriations for an addition to, or for the alteration or completion of, a school-building, if its 12798-IND 88—ii

entire cost, including furniture, had reached $10,000, unless the additional expenditure contemplated could be included under the head of repairs.

It is true that $10,000 is sufficient to erect suitable school-buildings in some localities, but in most localities that amount is entirely inadequate; and this limitation, thus construed, has prevented this Bureau from furnishing suitable and adequate school-building accommodations upon many reservations where they are much needed. For instance, the Ute Indians, on the Uintah Reservation, Utah, have 250 children of school age, and until recently they have sullenly refused to have their children educated. Every effort to induce them to send their children to the school at Grand Junction, Colo., which was estab. lished in part for their benefit, has been unsuccessful, and at this time not one Ute child is in attendance thereat. "We will not," they said, "send any of our children away to the Grand Junction or any other school, but we will send all our children to school if a good school is established at our agency." To test their sincerity, a competent teacher and some school supplies and furnishings were sent to the agency, where there is a school-building, but a building that is in every respect unsuited for its purpose. This building can not properly accommodate even twenty-five pupils; but thirty-six have been crowded into it. Observing this desire for educational advantages, which patience and hard work on the part of the agent and school superintendent had succeeded in awakening in these non-progressive Indians, and being anxious to give it fair opportunity and scope, plans and specifications were prepared for the erection of a boarding-school-building large enough to accommodate seventy-five children. The plans were for a plain building, to be erected with all possible economy consistent with stability and comfort. Bids were advertised for, according to law, and the lowest received was $13,000 in excess of the building limitation of $10,000. This instance is cited to show how difficult it is, while acting under the restrictions of such a rigid policy of economy, to do prompt and effective work in the pending attempt to educate the rising generation of Indians.

As stated above, the $10,000-building-limitation provision has been construed to mean that not more than that amount can be expended for school-buildings at any school, and it has been held that no addition can be made to any building upon which $10,000 has already been expended. It may be said that, if the policy of erecting large school-builddings were abandoned, $10,000 would in most cases be sufficient for the erection of any one building; but in the event of such a change in the character of school-buildings more than one building would be needed for every boarding school. There are good reasons for the belief that such a change should be made, some of which may be stated.

Any one who thoughtfully considers the subject of Indian education must conclude that industrial training should be the principal feature

in every Indian school; and by "industrial training" is not meant the mere teaching of the trades and arts. The Indian child must be taught many things which come to the white child, because of environment, without the school-master's aid. From the day of its birth the child of civilized parents is constantly in contact with civilized modes of lifeof action, thought, speech, dress-and is surrounded by a thousand beneficent influences that never operate upon the child of savage parentage, who, in his birth-hour, is encompassed by a degrading atmosphere of superstition and of barbarism. Out from the conditions of his birth he must be led in his early years into the environments of civilized domestic life. And he must be thus led by the school-teacher. But under the present school system, with its large boarding-schoolbuildings crowded with pupils, and its many-bedded dormitories and great dining-rooms, the Indian child can not receive an adequate idea of civilized home-life. At the schools conducted in large buildings, matrons, cooks, seamstresses, laundresses, and other employés, who should teach the girl pupils the difficult art of the housekeeper, are too busily occupied in keeping up their respective departments of work to devote the time necessary for the painstaking training of awkward or ignorant girls in the skillful performance of the numberless duties which appertain to civilized housekeeping and home-making; and of just this sort of instruction these pupils stand more in need than they do of literary attainments. For a large boarding-school it would therefore be better to have a main building, which should contain only the recitation rooms, with perhaps quarters for the superintendent and literary teachers, and to have other buildings which should each accommodate a small number of children. Each of these buildings could be made the home of the children domiciled therein, and in this home the girls could be taught, by actual practice, how to cook, to wash, to make and mend clothes, to sweep, to make beds-in short, could be instructed in all things that are taught to white girls in the homes of civilized communities; and the boys, while thus enabled to enjoy the advantages of home life, could be taught farming and trades suitable to their various localities. Gardens attached to these homes could be cultivated by both boys and girls.

The effect of such an industrial school system would be to build up a community, a little village, in which the children would become acquainted with and would actually practice the customs and habits, the arts and the trades, which, at least in part, distinguish civilized life from barbarism.

The adoption of an industrial-school system of this sort would necessarily require a larger number of employés than are now in the service, and would be more expensive than the present system; but certainly the American people would not, therefore, hesitate to adopt such a plan of Indian education if they could be assured that by its adoption the Indian race would be lifted out of darkness and superstition into the light of Christian civilization.

EMPLOYÉS AT INDIAN SCHOOLS.

In the management of the schools controlled directly by this Bureau there were employed 757 white persons and 137 Indians-in all, 894 regular employés-as follows:

TABLE 13.-Showing the positions and the number of white and Indian employés in the Indian school service during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1888.

TABLE 13.-Showing the positions and the number of white and Indian employés in the Indian school service, etc.-Continued.

In addition to the regular employés above enumerated a large num ber of persons are irregularly employed in connection with the schools. The great majority of these irregular employés are Indian pupils engaged in learning trades, to each of whom a few cents a day are paid. These payments are justified by the fact that the pupils work more willingly and industriously and learn more rapidly under the incentive of small wages than they would if they were not thus recompensed for their labor; and, moreover, they thus learn the value of small earnings and small savings.

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOLS.

Formerly all school employés, excepting the superintendents of the industrial training schools at Carlisle, Pa.; Lawrence, Kans.; Genoa, Nebr.; Salem (Chemawa), Oregon; and Chilocco, Ind. T., were appointed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, upon nominations made either by Indian agents or by the superintendents of the industrial schools referred to above. But by the act making appropriations for the Indian service, approved June 29, 1888 (section 8), it is provided that the Superintendent of Indian School's "shall, subject to the approval of the Secre tary of the Interior, employ and discharge superintendents, teachers, and other persons connected with schools wholly supported by the Government."

This and other additions that have been made by the current appropriation act to the duties of the Superintendent of Indian Schools has raised certain questions concerning the relations of that officer to this Bureau.

Heretofore the Bureau of Indian Affairs has had, subject to the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, authority to do the following things in reference to Indian school matters:

(1) To disburse all gratuity appropriations made for Indian education and also all Indian treaty education funds. Under this authority the