Grist mill.-The grist mill, also under the supervision of Mr. P. B. Gordon, has during the past year, converted hundreds of bushels of wheat into flour for the Indians. This mill also supplies the Santee Boarding School and the Hope Board ing School with flour and bran. The flour for the weekly rations is also ground at this mill.

The mill and carpenter shop are supplied with steam power from the boiler and engine room close by. Owing, however, to the fact that the artesian water used here is strongly tinctured with iron, the boiler pipes are subjected to excessive corrosion, and being liable to burst, and bursting, at most any time, are therefore a source of much anxiety. An exhaust steam condenser would greatly diminish this danger, and would prevent possible and even probable destruction to life and property.

Stock raising. The fact that this country yields a superabundance of native hay would carry with it the presumption that stock raising is a leading feature of industry on this reservation. I am sorry to say, though, that such is not the case. The great majority of my Indians have yet to learn that a cow is useful for something else besides the meat and the hide. But as a compensation for this shortcoming, I notice the gradual, but steady, disappearance of the time-honored Indian ponies, their places being rapidly filled by good American horses. Annuities.-Out of the interest on their funds annuity cash payments amounting to $6,498.74 were made by me to the three tribes this year, as follows:

Health.-Generally speaking, the health of the Indians upon the reservations under my charge has been good, and we were fortunate not to be visited by any epidemic during the fiscal year just past.

Very respectfully,

The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

H. C. BAIRD, United States Indian Agent.

REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SANTEE SCHOOL.

SANTEE AGENCY, NEBR., July 3, 1898.

SIR: I have the honor to submit my second annual report of Santee Boarding School. A willing spirit shown by the children as well as by the employees has made the year pass very pleasantly as well as profitably. The children on this reservation seem much more like white than Indian children, as they use the English language entirely.

The capacity of the building is 75. The daily attendance for the past four months has been over 80. There are a great many more girls than boys on this reservation, and more would have attended school this year had there been room for them. Fifty girls were crowded into a dormitory intended for 37. The boys, all that desire to attend school, can be comfortably accommodated.

As there are no means by which the children can be forced to attend school, and as the parents have not yet reached the stage at which they can realize the good the child will derive from an education, I feel quite pleased at the regularity of attendance.

The school has been remarkably free from sickness, which fact I think is partly due to the good ventilation throughout the building.

The facilities in the laundry are very limited. We hope to be able to contrive some way next year by which the labor may be lightened. The school farm consists of 14 acres.

Ten are planted in corn, two in garden, and two in pota toes. Little can be done in this direction, as the boys are all small, 29 out of 35 being under 12 years of age.

The industries taught are farming and gardening, care of stock, sewing, cutting and fitting, cooking, and washing and ironing.

The stock consists of 2 horses, 6 cows (all very poor), 11 hogs, and 72 chickens-the chickens a recent purchase. I regret exceedingly our limited supply of milk. Butter is unknown. The literary work has been very satisfactory. A new school building is much needed. Also more dormitory room for girls, but this has already been asked for.

The greatest hindrance to our work this year has been the constant change of employees.
I owe special thanks to the inspecting officers who have visited our school, Supervisors Rake
straw and Anderson, for their kindly encouragement and advice. I would also thank Agent
Baird for the great interest he has taken in the school.

Very respectfully,

The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. (Through Agent Baird.)

LOUISSE CAVALIER, Superintendent.

REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT OF HOPE SCHOOL.

HOPE INDUSTRIAL BOARDING SCHOOL,
Springfield, S. Dak., July 1, 1898.

DEAR SIR: I would respectfully report that Hope Industrial Boarding School has maintained active school work from September 6, 1897, to June 25, 1898, closing on the latter date for summer vacation during the months of July and August.

Our total enrollment during the year has been 63 pupils; our total average attendance has been 55.83 pupils.

The health of the pupils during the year has been very good with two exceptions, Annie Gray and Maggie Spotted Eagle, who developed pulmonary consumption and were sent to their homes at the request of their parents. We happily escaped a visitation of epidemics during the year.

All the pupils have received daily instruction in the schoolroom, our session lasting from 915 to 11.40a.m. and from 1.15 to 4 p. m., with five minutes' recess in middle of each session for changing air of the school rooms. Each pupil was present at about one-half of each session, during the other half being detailed for industrial work. The school has followed the scheme of studies drawn up by the general superintendent, Dr. Hailmann.

The plan of industrial work was the same as heretofore, viz, the monthly detail, assigning each pupil for one month to such department as her physical strength allowed, and changing to another department at the beginning of the following month. Thus a knowledge of each department of household work is secured to each pupil, as well as a better physical development, and monotony in the work is avoided.

The work of the employees has been very satisfactory, and I shall be very glad if we can retain our present force during the coming year. Old employees can do much more efficient work than new ones, other things being equal, because they have personal knowledge of each pupil. Very respectfully,

WALTER J. WICKS, Superintendent.

REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOLS.

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN SCHOOLS,

Washington, D. C., October 20, 1898. SIR: The annual report of the Superintendent of Indian Schools is respectfully submitted.

I took charge of this office June 20, 1898, and July 12, by your direction, proceeded to Colorado Springs, Colo., for the purpose of holding the Indian School Service Institute.

At the close of this institute, which was in session for three weeks, by your further direction, I visited Indian schools in the West, among them being the Wind River Boarding School, situated 130 miles from the railroad, one of the schools where the present appropriation provides for extensive improvements; the St. Stephen's Mission Boarding School, in Wyoming, 150 miles from the railroad; the Crow Agency School, in Montana; the Shoshone Mission Boarding School, and the Big Horn (subissue) or St. Xavier Mission School, which are also some distance from the railroad.

I have been in office so short a time that I refrain from making recommendations until I can have personal knowledge of the needs of the schools under your charge.

THE INDIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.

The office of Indian School Superintendent was created by Congress in 1882.

Before the Revolution efforts were made to educate Indian boys, and Indians were maintained at the College of William and Mary shortly after 1692. The Continental Congress in 1775 passed a bill appropriating $500 for the education of Indian youths. In 1794 the first Indian treaty in which any form of education was mentioned was made with the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Stockbridge Indians, who had faithfully adhered to the United States and assisted them with their wars during the Revolution. This treaty provided that the United States should employ one or two persons to keep in repair certain mills which were to be built for the Indians, and to "instruct some young men of the Three Nations in the arts of the miller and sawer.'

The second Indian treaty of 1803 provided that—

Whereas the greater part of said tribe has been baptised and received into the Catholic Church, to which they are much attached, the United States will give annually for seven years $100 toward the support of a priest of that religion who will engage to perform for said tribe the duties of his office, and also to instruct as many of their children as possible in the rudiments of literature.

The first Congressional appropriation for Indian educational purposes was made in 1819, when the President was authorized to employ

capable persons to instruct the Indians in agriculture, and to teach the Indian children reading, writing, and arithmetic. To carry into effect the provisions of this act the sum of $10,000 was appropriated. The appropriation made for the support of Indian schools for the current fiscal year is $2,638,390. And thus it will be seen that from the education of a few Indian youths, who were maintained at the College of William and Mary at slight expense, the appropriations for the education of the Indians have been annually increased, until at the present time 24,325 pupils are maintained at a cost of over two and a half million dollars per year.

SUMMER INSTITUTES.

The first summer school or institute of which I have knowledge convened at Puyallup, Wash., in 1884, and consisted of representatives from four boarding and two day schools. Since that time similar gatherings have been held, each with increasing attendance, culminating in the 1898 institute at Colorado Springs, Colo., which was attended by representatives from the East and West, North and South. Aside from the pedagogical value of these institutes they afford opportunity for those most interested in Indian school matters to meet and discuss methods of instruction and make suggestions which may be of value in the development of the Indian school system.

At the institute which convened this year at Colorado Springs, agents, superintendents, principal teachers, disciplinarians, industrial teachers, cooks, field matrons, nurses, and physicians discussed and practically illustrated the methods in use and suggested for use in the schools. The morning classes were largely attended, the afternoons were devoted to round-table discussions, and addresses by prominent men and women were made at the evening gatherings.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

I desire to emphasize the statements of numerous Indian educators that industrial training should have the foremost place in Indian education, for it is the foundation upon which the Government's desire for the improvement of the Indian is built. The consensus of opinion of the superintendents at the institute last summer showed that too little attention was paid to this field of labor, and it was strongly urged that larger facilities in the way of shops, tools, and teachers be provided, that this work upon which the civilization of the race depends may not suffer. An industrial workers' section was formed, in which the problems arising in industrial and manual features of the school service were discussed. A permanent association for an exchange of ideas and suggestions tending toward the establishment of the industrial work of the schools on a uniform and systematic basis was organized.

Under the head of "Educative and practical value of industrial training in Indian schools," Supt. F. C. Campbell, of Fort Peck, Mont., stated: that "industrial training should be in a line with the work that students will find on their reservations, and the idea of manual training is not so much to prepare the students for working in the Indian school as for earning their own living."

Superintendent Pierce, of Oneida, Wis., said: "I believe more attention should be paid to farming, as it would benefit the boys on their own reservation.”

Mr. W. J. Oliver, of Fort Defiance, Ariz., presented a paper on this subject from which the following quotations are made, and it was requested that the entire paper be printed and distributed throughout the service:

The backbone of an education must always be the ability to do something. Another condition that confronts us to-day with the Indians is that a large majority of them must labor with their hands, and that the greatest need of the present is that methods of instruction shall be adopted to help the Indian boy to overcome the prejudice against work and his indisposition to do things carefully, and to enable him to understand things and adapt himself to them.

The condition of the Indian children on the reservation and when they come from our schools makes a demand for manual training. They have been accustomed to a great deal of exercise, yet their energies have not been directed in useful channels. Would not the introduction of a more extensive system of manual training for a part of the time in a freer and purer atmosphere have better results than the time spent over books or over oral or written recitations? The education of the Indian should consist largely in doing.

I have no desire to depreciate other studies, as literature, etc., but should some ask, "How can anything be added, as the schedule even now is overcrowded?" the answer would be: To do it by correlating and coordinating studies, and by eliminating what is utterly valueless in the education of the children. Manual training has been in use in the schools of Philadelphia fourteen years, and it is claimed that it has improved the pupils in deportment, character, and intelligence. The most remarkable testimony is that of the English Child Labor Commission in 1883. This commission was appointed by Parliament to inquire into the condition of child labor in factories. It discovered that children had been employed for twelve hours per day, and were thus kept from school advantages. A law was passed requiring that half of the pupils attend school in the forenoon and half in the afternoon. In a few years medical authorities testified to superior physical growth, police and philanthropists to improved moral tone, and employers to a higher grade of work. But the most surprising fact was that after twelve years of study of 12,000 children, the head of the commission reported that those who were in school half a day and had to work the other half in the factory were doing better work in the school than those who were in school the whole time. Professor Woodward, of the St. Louis Training School, gives the strongest testimony as to its educational value. He says that "one of the strongest arguments is its economic value."

There are some people who think that it is sufficient to condemn a study because it has a bread-winning or bread and butter value. Other things being equal, surely the fact that manual training bears excellent economic results is greatly in its favor. Very few of our Indian boys and girls can hope to compete in the lit erary world with their white brothers and sisters. But in the economic world, why can not they, if they have a fair literary education and are strong physically? While manual training does not mean to teach the boy a trade, it gives him a training which enables him to learn to get a living and thus become self-dependent and independent. I believe this one of the best means of civilizing the Indian. This feeling of self-dependence will appeal deeply to his manhood, and he will soon begin to realize that he has the ability within himself to compete with his white brother, and he will then begin to imbibe the ideas of civilization.

Young women need industrial education as much as young men. Sewing and cooking and a course of economic housekeeping should be part of every young girl's education. It has been said that the relation of woman to new economic and social conditions calls strenuously for this industrial education. Industrial education is the demand of the time and is fraught with destiny for our country in all its future.

Under the topics of "The most feasible lines for stock raising and farm and dairy work in connection with the schools" and "What should be done with the profits made from the sale of these products?" there was an interesting discussion. It was thought that some plan should be devised by which the children would be enabled to see the benefit to be derived from sales, as it would be an incentive to a greater interest in productions on the farms. The difficulties in the way of systematic instruction on industrial lines were talked over and suggestions made as to overcoming these difficulties.