Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/9

Rh addition to this the Uintah Utes have this fall undertaken to transport the goods and supplies purchased for them.

In several instances I have seen Indian freighters employed by white people living near the Indian camps, and I have no doubt that this industry can be greatly extended aside from the transportation of government goods. It has introduced thousands of Indians formerly idle and shiftless to habits of industry, inspired them with a desire to earn money and accustomed them to its prudent use.

In my report of last year I stated the number of Indian youth learning trades in various work-shops at the agencies and elsewhere as 185. This number has since been increased to 358. The policy of employing Indians as workmen and even as foremen and machinists at the agencies has been continued and extended with great success. Brick-making has been begun. Houses for the Indians are now almost exclusively built by the Indians themselves. The aptitude shown by the Indians for mechanical work has in many cases been surprising and deserves every possible encouragement.

Expressions of an anxious desire on the part of the Indians belonging to the so-called wild tribes to have their children instructed in the ways of civilized life have grown so numerous and urgent, that the inadequacy of the means placed at the disposal of the department for this purpose has become particularly painful. I stated in my last report that mere day schools upon the Indian reservations have, in many respects, proved an insufficient agency for the education of Indian youth. The simple reason is that they do not withdraw the pupils from the influences of their home surroundings in such a manner as to facilitate a change in their habits of daily life. To this end boarding-schools are required, where pupils can be instructed, not only in the elementary branches of knowledge, but also in house-work, mechanical pursuits, and other civilized occupations. In fact it is just as necessary to teach Indian children how to live as how to read and write. The appropriations made by Congress permitted the opening of only three additional boarding-schools during the past year; but arrangements were made for erecting eleven school buildings the coming season, and for the establishment of thirteen new schools of that kind, which, however, will satisfy the demands of only a limited number of Indians who have so far been without such facilities. In order to put these schools in full operation, further appropriations by Congress at the next session will be required. I desire to call special attention to the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs upon this subject. He sets forth plainly how utterly insufficient the means at the disposal of the department have been so far to afford to even one-half of the Indian children on the different reservations the most necessary educational facilities; and I deem it my duty to repeat that false economy in this respect at