In the education of Indian girls, domestic science and household economy should hold the larger place, but even here the arts and customs of our homes must be introduced slowly and with great discretion. A girl's training must recommend itself to the Indian mother. I need not enlarge upon the training which is of most worth to an Indian girl who is soon to have a home and children, and to live with or beside her parents. Her parents and her husband must be proud of her. The value of what she got at school must be self-evident. She will not quarrel with her father's paint and feathers, if he prefer such evidence of blue blood and a renowned ancestry, but she will cheerfully consent to a better schooling for her girls than she herself received. In matters of dress and food much may be conceded to Indian fashion and fancy. They are largely matters of sentiment and involve no principles half as important as that of respect and consideration for one's parents. The needlework taught at school should be plain and should quickly culminate in garments, bedding, rugs, etc. The cooking should include every good point in the culinary arts of the Indians, with judicious advances.

You who have lived among the ceeded and where you have failed. progress, tho it be very slow. inherited tastes and fancies, and nothing is more suicidal than a spirit of intolerance in matters of pure sentiment.

Indians can see where you have sucAbove all, do not lose your faith in There is nothing more tenacious than

AN ALL-AROUND MECHANICAL TRAINING FOR INDIANS

FRANK K. ROGERS, DIRECTOR OF THE ARMSTRONG-SLATER MEMORIAL TRADE SCHOOL, HAMPTON, VA.

[AN ABSTRACT]

In the earlier days of the white man's ascendency the mechanic was one who had more of an all-around training at his trade-in fact, he often knew much of two or more trades. There was no need of mechanical specialists in those days. In fact, there could have been found very few carpenters who could not lay a few bricks or stone, and, in times when there was no work to be had at carpentry, make pretty good farmers.

The mothers, too, had an almost endless variety of arts which they could practice with much skill, such as butter- and cheese-making, soapmaking, etc.

In educating an Indian he must be prepared in the best possible way for his environment. Hampton Institute believes that this means for the boys a substantial training along some skilled line of handicraft, with as much of some other trades interwoven as will make well-rounded and useful mechanics; and for the girls, a general knowledge of the housewife's

arts, together with some other accomplishments which will make it possible for her home to become a more tidy and attractive one.

I have in mind a Cherokee boy who is about to go back to his reservation, who can do a very good job at house-building, and in addition some brick-laying, plastering, and tin-roofing. He can roughly paint a house, barn, or wagon, and has lately added to his accomplishments some skill in harness-making and shoe-making. I have seen some straps which he has just made with the buckles neatly stitched on, also a complete bridle, all of which are very creditably done. He has also half-soled and heeled his own shoes for nearly a year.

The class of girls who will return this summer have added in the last few months to their general knowledge of household work a little skill in paper-hanging, mattress-making, painting, and glazing. In mattressmaking such homely experience as would be likely to be a part of the Indian girl's life has been practiced; for instance, the making of mattresses and pillows from corn husks and dry grass.

Hampton does not encourage specializing very much for Indians, believing that her trade students would either drift into the larger settlements of whites, or, not finding work at their special trades among the Indians, would become discouraged and shiftless-a drag on their people. In either case the Indian race would lose the benefit which it should get from the trained young man. I should not like to have it understood that we do not believe in being thoro in the teaching of trades. The point to be made, it seems to me, is that one trade should be learned as thoroly as possible, and then the elements of others should be added.

DISCUSSION

SUPERINTENDENT J. C. HART, Oneida Indian School, Wisconsin. Two years ago I expressed the opinion, which I still hold, that the literary training should receive its full share of attention in the Indian school, because there is a more or less definitely prescribed course of study that each child should follow in charge of teachers especially qualified for the work.

Industrially we are not able to guarantee so much assistance, partly because the facilities are sometimes lacking, and partly because the requirements for workers in the industrial field are not so exacting as with teachers.

It is in the third direction, that of the moral training, that we are especially, perhaps necessarily, weak. So far as the work has been under my observation, the mere sharpening of the intellect does not necessarily make a better man, and in our work at least a good man is more to be desired than a great scholar. I think that as a rule I should choose that the individual be first a good man, then a good worker, and last a good scholar; for the reason that, if the man himself is upright and honest, he will probably choose to be industrious and self-supporting, and any youth who has had two or three years of school training can certainly make himself understood. It is not true, however, that the good scholar is necessarily a good man, nor is the good worker always trusty, altho of the two I should probably choose the worker as being the more reliable.

In the schools we aim to unite the worker and the scholar in one person, and for that purpose there is provided a corps of literary teachers, usually one for each fifty pupils, and a large force of matrons, seamstresses, cooks, farmers, etc.—all teachers of industries; but for the moral and religious training there is no special provision, and while all are expected to do what they can in this direction, it is evident that very few of those occupying such positions are especially qualified to act as guides in these higher spiritual

matters.

I desire to give due credit to the missionaries, male and female, of all creeds and denominations, for their patient, unselfish services on the reservations; but in the nature of things it is not possible for them to reach the children in school as they should be reached. I am free to accept assistance from any source and by whatsoever name, provided only that the aim be the building up of strong, pure, Christian manhood.

This matter appeals to me officially as well as privately, for of all the cases of violation of marriage laws, of drunkenness, or other crimes of misdemeanor, few, if any, can be traced to the church people. I therefore appreciate these great moral forces at their full value, and only regret that it is not possible to give more attention in the schools to the moral training.

CHARACTER BUILDING AMONG INDIAN CHILDREN

MISS CORA M. FOLSOM, HAMPTON INSTITUTE, HAMPTON, VA.

[AN ABSTRACT]

For a long time to come the Indian is going to live on or near the land that belongs to him. Any system of education that does not take this into consideration is faulty. Each Indian has his allotment of land; it may not be worth much, but it is the one thing that he owns; he calls it home, and it never ceases to draw him back, no matter how far he may be tempted away. The Indian's land is undoubtedly his stock in trade, the one thing that he has to begin life upon. Where a white man can make a living an Indian should, and he can be so taught and so encouraged that he will have both the knowledge and the heart to make the attempt, rather than lease his land and look for other work. This would require a more systematic training in agriculture than many of our schools are now prepared to give, but a great deal can now be done by making the study of agriculture as important and as dignified as the literary work, and by so adapting it to the conditions of the country that a pupil may feel in himself the power to do just as good work as his white neighbor, only perhaps a little better.

Many students coming to Hampton have very little idea of individual responsibility. To remedy this we give each girl a room, and she is required to make it comfortable, pleasant, and pretty. Her bed linen. and towels are her own and marked with her name. Her clothing is her own also, and is purchased, planned, and made by herself. On her washday she takes her little bag of clothes and bedding to a room fitted up with individual tubs, and there does her washing, and later her ironing,

all without the aid of machinery. At a certain time her mending must be done and her clothes must pass inspection. Every girl is given a daily task for which she is paid, and with this money her clothing is purchased by herself from the stores in town. In this way a girl is forced to learn something of the much-needed lesson in regard to the use of money and the relative value of different materials.

The boy usually shares his room with another, and they are held responsible for its care. He must keep an account of his clothing and his earnings, which must agree with the school's statement at the end of the month.

The outing system is very valuable in bringing the Indian into direct contact with an industrious and thrifty people. Every summer nearly every one of the Hampton Indian students spend four months among the farmers of New England. They deal at first hand with their employers without the intervention of the school, which develops a sense of responsibility. Their earnings during this time are peculiarly their own, and each one may make his deposit in one of the banks of the town and keep his own account. That this bank account seldom survives a winter, unless its owner has some definite purpose in view, one can easily understand.

All around Hampton the Indian can find men and women situated very much as are their older people at home. To these they lend a helping hand.

The other day I met the son of a Sioux chief coming home, cheerfully swinging his saw and hammer, from a little cabin where he had been putting up posts for a clothes line to take the place of some unsightly brush that had been serving that purpose in the front yard. The girls, too, find numberless things to do. With spade and hoe and rake they lay out grass plots, flower beds, and vegetable gardens, where only weeds had grown before, and make the shabby little yards to blossom as the roseand the cabbage.

If the school service could employ among the more needy tribes one or more men or women to act as guides to our students when they return to their homes, much of the work that is now being lost might be saved to us. Such a person could greatly aid the student in putting into prac tice the useful things he learned at school, and could also assist in providing a medium of exchange between him and available markets.

Every Indian school should have shops where the more serviceable trades can be taught; but its strong point should be its farm. This should include, if practicable, the raising of stock, of poultry, and a dairy —an everyday object-lesson to the people of the reservation.

As many occasions as possible should be created to bring the people directly under the school's influence; mothers' meetings, conferences, and young people's social gatherings being held at the school in the presence of the pupils. The plan of the school should be to give each

member of the household just as much of home life as possible, thus fitting them for the life that the great majority must follow when their school days have ended.

THE DAY SCHOOL THE GRADUAL UPLIFTER OF
THE TRIBE

SISTER MACARIA MURPHY, TEACHER, ODANAH DAY SCHOOL, WISCONSIN [AN ABSTRACT]

To judge of the progress of a nation, race, or tribe, a knowledge of its past history is essential. Twenty years ago our reservation was comparatively a wilderness; the wigwam, whose inhabitants lived much after the manner described in our school histories, being the only form of habitation. But a great change has been effected. The doors of a little log schoolhouse were thrown open, and with their opening dawned an era of civilization for the reservation tribe.

Today the reservation presents a scene of beauty and civilization; almost as far as the eye can reach we see looming up everywhere neat dwellings, surrounded in many instances by well-cultivated gardens, and we exclaim: "The hand of progress has been here!" On entering a dwelling one is convinced that the occupants have been trained in mind, heart, and hand; in other words, that their teachers' purposes have been what every true educator's aim ought to be, viz., "to cultivate, to train, to develop, to strengthen, and to refine all the faculties -- physical, intellectual, moral, and religious." Many of the homes here are model ones. After all, for what are the majority of our Indian youths to be trained, if it be not for the home or family life? This admitted, that school which trains most effectually for this life is the school which does most toward the uplifting of the tribe, and this is no other than the school which is in close contact, in living sympathy, with the members of the reservation- the reservation school.

What do the average Indian youths do on leaving school? They marry and devote themselves to family life.

The reservation school should give its pupils a thoro knowledge of the common branches; it should inculcate a taste for the higher; especially should it foster a relish for good sound literature, which, while affording innocent amusement, prevents desires for the forbidden and aids so powerfully in character-molding. But while literary pursuits receive special attention, the industrial must never be neglected; hence every day school conducted according to the wise "Rules for the Indian School Service," familiar to you all, must prove one of the greatest factors in the uplifting of the reservation tribe. But to comply with these is no