for the purpose of filling the schools to the limit of their capacity by placing therein every child of school age on the reservation whose physical condition would justify the necessary confinement of school life. Notwithstanding these efforts it appeared that there were influences adverse to education among the older and more conservative Indians of sufficient strength to thwart the desires of this office. Outside influences also conspired to oppose the placing of the children in schools. Under existing regulations agents felt themselves powerless to overcome the strength of the opposition. Efficient means were necessary, and you were requested and did so approve the following circular, which was at once promulgated:

To Agents and Bonded Superintendents :

SEPTEMBER 9, 1897.

When notified by the superintendent of a reservation boarding school, or the teacher of a day school on his reservation, of the fact that a pupil enrolled at the agency on which the school is located has left the school without permission, the agent shall promptly return such pupil to the respective school. Should the parent, guardian, or person harboring the pupil fail or refuse to deliver him, the agency police and school employees, or either of them, are hereby directed to arrest and return such pupil under the orders of the agent. Agency police and school employees are authorized and empowered to arrest and bring before the agent for suitable punishment any person or persons who may hinder them in the lawful performance of this duty. Parents, guardians, and other persons who may obstruct or prevent the agent from placing Indian children of the reservation in the schools thereof shall be subject to like penalties; provided, that this regulation shall not be construed as authorizing the removal of Indian children from their reservations to be placed in a school outside of such reservation without the consent of the parent or guardian of the children, required by law to be first obtained.

When an agent is notified of the return to his reservation of a pupil of a nonreservation school, he shall take the necessary steps to inform himself as to the legitimacy of his return. Should he find that a pupil can not produce satisfactory evidence of proper authority for his return, a full report of all the facts must be promptly made to the Indian Office and the superintendent of the school be notified thereof.

Very respectfully,

W. A. JONES, Commissioner.

The wisdom of this course is fully evidenced in the largely increased enrollment and average attendance for these schools, to which attention has been specifically directed.

Pursuing this subject still further, it should be clearly apparent that there is a grave necessity for some legislation looking to the compulsory education of Indian children. With a view to introducing a moderate regulation in this matter, it was suggested that an item be incorporated in the appropriation law that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs should have the right to transfer advanced pupils from the various Indian schools to other and larger schools situated in other States and Territories without the consent of parents and guardians when in his judgment the best interests of such pupils would be subserved. This suggestion, however, failed to secure the approval of Congress. Future developments will undoubtedly emphasize, as the facts of the past and the experience of collecting officials have demonstrated, that a

regulation which will enforce compulsory attendance upon the schools must be enacted. The trend of public and legal thought is away from the traditional idea that the Indian is both a ward and a sovereign to the practical everyday fact that he is simply a ward of the Government; that he is in his tutelage, and requires the tender care and corrective authority which should always be lodged in the hands of a guardian. For centuries he roamed untrammeled a vast domain, his own nature and inherited tendencies drawing him away from the dignity and excellence of Anglo-Saxon civilization-away from those elements of thought and action which have made this civilization the greatest on earth; and yet, under the policy now being pursued, the old Indian, with his blanket and feathers, reeking with the feverish traditions and aspirations of a past glory, gauged by the scalping knife, attuned to the barbaric music of the war dance and buffalo hunt, is permitted to stand in the pathway of his child's entrance into that civilization— to obstruct by ignorance and hereditary impulses the material welfare and prosperity of his offspring and hinder the Government in its efforts to prepare the younger generation of Indians for their incorporation into our complex political organization. The natural love of the Indian father and mother for their offspring is fully recognized, and no violence is done to those bonds of humanity; but no parent, whether red or white, has a moral or legal right to stand in the way of his child's advancement in life; no nation has a similiar right to permit a portion of its embryo citizens to grow up in ignorance and possible vice.

Under the present policy of the Department, and of Congress, as soon as the Indian has arrived at that state of advancement when he can be trusted, although partially, with his own material interest, he is urged to accept an allotment. It is difficult to teach the old Indian the value of education with reference to that allotment. It is not so difficult to prepare his child, and therefore it is axiomatic that the duty of the Government requires, if necessary, its strong hand to force an ignorant parent to allow his child those advantages which will be, not only of absolute benefit to himself, but also an element of safety to the perpetuity of its own institution. All over this broad land public schools are preparing the white boys and girls for the active duties and responsibilities of real life, but, notwithstanding our advancement and learning in this direction, it has been found necessary in some States to enact compulsory school legislation. If such a course is necessary for the white parent, it is of far more importance for the red parent. Remedial legislation along these lines is especially desirable if the full benefits to be derived from the expenditures made by order of Congress are to be attained.

NONRESERVATION BOARDING SCHOOLS.

The location, date of opening, number of employees, rate per annum, capacity, enrollment, and average attendance of the nonreservation Indian boarding schools are shown in the following table:

TABLE 3.-Location, average attendance, capacity, etc., of nonreservation training schools during fiscal year ended June 30, 1898.

In this list are comprised the largest and best equipped schools in the service. Located off the reservations they are usually in proximity to civilized centers. With a more advanced literary curriculum, and extended systems of industrial training, they are designed to receive advanced pupils from the schools and reservations. While it is diffi cult to adopt a rigid and inflexible rule in this respect, yet it is desir able to confine these schools to the necessities of those children who have passed through the course of study at day schools and reservation boarding schools. Industrial work is developed to a marked degree, and while at many of the schools excellent harness, shoes, wagons, etc., are turned out, yet the educative value of such training is not lost sight of or absorbed for the pecuniary benefit of the school. A good carpenter, shoe or harness maker, tailor, blacksmith, farmer, or other mechanic who has mastered his trade, not as a factory hand but as a journeyman, reflects as much credit upon the school as the graduation of its brightest intellects into teachers, etc. Manual training, the intellectual "know how " of the mechanical trades, is looked upon as a strong force in Indian schools. When the full measure of its importance in the curriculum is understood, and its relation to the life work

of the Indian boy is appreciated, its practical value will be fully recog nized. Farming, stock raising, dairying, and kindred pursuits find their places in these schools whenever the environment is favorable to such pursuits. Some of the schools have well-equipped normal departments, which have developed and sent into the service a number of bright boys and girls who are now engaged in teaching their own race with considerable success. The practical education of the girls is not neglected, and they are prepared for the realities of life. Cooking, sewing, repairing, and other domestic arts and economics are inculcated, while great stress is placed upon the preparation for home life. Teach Indian girls to be good wives and home makers, and the result upon Indian character will be unbounded. The placing of Indian boys and girls at service in families of farmers, although for a few months only the girls instructed in the practical economies of family life, the boys in farming, gardening, stock raising, etc.-has met with abundant success at Carlisle, where it first originated. Other schools have adopted this "outing system" with profit to the pupils, and its gradual extension to the majority of schools will be only a matter of time.

RESERVATION BOARDING SCHOOLS.

While the nonreservation schools are, as a rule, near centers of population, reservation boarding schools are situated on those reserves set apart to the exclusive use of the Indians. Being thus located they come in very close contact with the Indian in all of his varying moods. These institutions present themselves to him as an object lesson of the power and influence of the General Government; they appeal to him through his children, and awaken any smoldering sentiments for the betterment of his and their condition.

Indian boarding schools are far more complex than the average public school. When the closing hour has arrived, teachers and pupils in white schools go to their homes and enjoy around the family circle those pleasures of home life which are characteristic of the American people. The Indian reservation school, on the other hand, must combine both the home and the school-the drudgery of instruction with the multitude of petty annoyances which vex the ordinary household. Raw Indian boys and girls from the camps and tepees must be built up intellectually, morally, and socially-frequently on a very slender foundation. Traditional prejudices must be overcome, the language learned at the mother's breast discounted, and a new character and habit developed. The process is slow and the difficulties many, but with a commendable patience and missionary zeal great results are accomplished in transforming the wild Indian of the plain into a quiet everyday average citizen. The employees of a boarding school away from civilization and its pleasures must devote their entire time and attention to the work of elevating the pupils placed in their charge. Their self-sacrificing devotion to duty is commendable, worthy of praise and emulation.

The reservation boarding school should be a great feeder for the nonreservation boarding schools. Pupils who have passed through its curriculum are then ready for additional advantages. Superintendents of these schools are constantly admonished by the Indian Office of their duty with respect to these advanced pupils. The great majority have readily responded to this policy of Indian education, although at times some, through a mistaken zeal for building up their own school, have not sent to the nonreservation schools as many pupils as their curriculum and excellence of teachers warrant. The reservation and nonreservation boarding schools are coordinates of each other, and their work as it becomes more systematized will develop greater results. There were 75 of these schools conducted last year upon the various reservations, brief statistics of which are set forth in the following table:

TABLE 4.-Location, capacity, and date of opening of Government reservation boarding schools.