Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/12

10 A considerable number of the Indian boys and girls at Hampton and Carlisle have, during the summer vacation, been intrusted to the care of private families in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, where they have received very valuable lessons in household economy and farming,. and where they were under the elevating influence of cultivated homes. Their conduct has been generally commended. The number of Indian children educated in these schools is at present necessarily small in proportion to the whole number of children of school age; but the system is capable of great extension, if only the necessary means are provided. It is a mere question of money and of wise and active supervision. In no direction could money be more usefully employed. The success of the schools at Hampton and Carlisle has attracted the sympathy of many benevolent men and women throughout the country, and I have to express my thanks to them for valuable donations with which the schools have been aided. But the continuance and development of these government institutions cannot and ought not to depend upon private munificence. So far the expenses have been defrayed from the civilization fund at the disposal of this Department; but that fund has already beeu largely drawn upon in establishing and sustaining Indian education at these institutions, and cannot be depended upon to last much longer, especially if the system is extended as it should be. The continuance of this work will then depend upon specific appropriations by Congress, and I cannot too warmly recommend this subject to the favorable consideration of our legislators. As each school is capable of taking care of only a limited number of pupils, the number of such institutions should be increased. There are government buildings no longer used which might be profitably employed for that purpose, and they certainly can be used for no worthier object. It is in contemplation to establish another Indian school of this kind in some unoccupied public buildings id the neighborhood of Washington, where it would be easily accessible for the inspection of members of Congress, and I hope this plan may soon be carried out.

Another civilizing agency largely introduced under the present administration was the organization of a police force consisting of Indians. It has been put in operation at forty agencies and the force consists now of 162 officers and 653 privates. The duties of the policemen, performed under the direction of the agent, consist in acting as guards at annuity payments and rendering assistance and preserving order during ration issues and protecting agency buildings and property; in returning truant pupils to school; in searching for and returning lost or stolen property, whether belonging to Indians or white men; in preventing depredations on timber and the introduction of whisky on the reservation; in arresting or driving off whisky-sellers, horse and cattle thieves; in making arrests for disorderly conduct, drunkenness, wife-beating, theft,