time they would become industrious, prosperous members of the community. In the minds of many this is the true solution of this vexed question. Be that as it may, the sooner steps are taken to break up their interests in common and place them upon an individual basis the sooner will they come to a realizing sense of their own responsibility and prepare to find their proper place in the body politic.

LEASING OF ALLOTMENTS.

In discussing the ration system in these pages the idea is advanced, or rather the old idea is repeated, that benefits should be bestowed on Indians only in return for labor. At the same time it is admitted that it is difficult, if not impossible, fully to carry out this idea so long as they are herded on reservations and have everything in common. In treating of annuity payments a step further is taken, and it is suggested that this community of interest should be broken up and the Indians brought to understand that upon their individual effort depends their future rise and progress.

It now remains to discuss how this may be brought about. It is more difficult to create than to destroy, and it is easier to point out an evil than to afford a remedy; but it is believed that in the allotment system wisely adapted lies the true solution of the Indian problem. The idea of breaking up tribal relations and making Indians independent was early entertained, and some of the older treaties contain provisions for putting the Indian on land of his own. But like many another thing in Indian treaties it was not always carried out, and it was not until after 1887 that there was any systematic attempt to allot lands. In February of that year the act for the allotment of Indian land was passed. That act has been discussed so much that it is unnecessary for present purposes to quote it here. It is sufficient to say that it provides for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations. Since then the work of allotting has gone on steadily until now a large number of the tribes are allotted-on paper at least. The operations under this act will be found reported from year to year in these Annual Reports, and the details for the current year are referred to hereafter on page 53.

The true idea of allotment is to have the Indian select, or to select for him, what may be called his homestead, land upon which by ordinary industry he can make a living either by tilling the soil or in pastoral pursuits. The essentials for success are water and fuel, but above all the former, for fuel can if necessary be procured and brought from a distance. To put him upon an allotment without water and tell him to make his living is mere mockery. His allotment having been selected he should be required to occupy it and work it himself. In this he must have aid and instruction. If he has no capital to begin on, it must be given him; a house must be built, a supply of water must be

assured and the necessaries of life furnished, at least until he can get a start and his labor become productive. The better to assist them the allottees should be divided into small communities, each to be put in charge of persons who by precept and example would teach them how to work and how to live.

This is the theory. The practice is very different. The Indian is allotted and then allowed to turn over his land to the whites and go on his aimless way. This pernicious practice is the direct growth of vicious legislation. The first law on the subject was passed in 1891, when Congress enacted that whenever it should appear that by reason of age or other disability any allottee could not personally and with benefit to himself occupy or improve his allotment or any part thereof, it might be leased under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior should prescribe for a period not exceeding three years for farming or grazing, or ten years for mining purposes. In 1894 the word "inability" was inserted, and the law made to read, "by reason of age, disability, or inability." The period of the lease was also fixed at five years for farming or grazing and ten years for mining or business purposes. This remained unchanged until 1897, when "inability" was dropped out, age or disability alone made a sufficient reason for leasing, and the periods changed to three and five years, respectively. This law was operative until the current year, when it was again changed, "inability" restored, and leases limited to five years, for farming purposes only.

It is conceded that where an Indian allottee is incapacitated by physical disability or decrepitude of age from occupying and working his allotment, it is proper to permit him to lease it, and it was to meet such cases as this that the law referred to was made. Had leases been confined to such cases there would be little if any room for criticism. But "inability" has opened the door for leasing in general, until on some of the reservations leasing is the rule and not the exception, while on others the practice is growing. Detailed information as to existing leases on the various reservations is given on page 75.

To the thoughtful mind it is apparent that the effect of the general leasing of allotments is bad. Like the gratuitous issue of rations and the periodical distribution of money it fosters indolence with its train of attendant vices. By taking away the incentive to labor it defeats the very object for which the allotment system was devised, which was, by giving the Indian something tangible that he could call his own, to incite him to personal effort in his own behalf.

EDUCATION.

Indian education is accomplished through the means of nonreservation boarding schools, reservation boarding schools, and reservation and independent day schools, all under complete Government control,

State and Territorial public schools, contract day and boarding schools, and mission day and boarding schools.

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.

The Indian school system aims to provide a training which will prepare the Indian boy or girl for the everyday life of the average American citizen. It does not contemplate, as some have supposed on a superficial examination, an elaborate preparation for a collegiate course through an extended high-school curriculum.

The course of instruction in these schools is limited to that usually taught in the common schools of the country. Shoe and harness making, tailoring, blacksmithing, masonry work, plastering, brick making and laying, etc., are taught at the larger nonreservation schools, not, it is true, with the elaborateness of special training as at the great polytechnic institutions of the country, but on a scale suited to the ability and future environment of the Indian. There are special cases, however, where Indian boys are, and have been, trained so thoroughly that their work compares favorably with that of the white mechanic. Specialized training, however, is not always desirable, for the reason that opportunities for following such vocations profitably on Indian reservations are not of the best; yet, on the other hand, the time frequently comes when the use of tools learned in school enables the returned pupil to shoe his own horse as well as the village smith, or repair a broken wagon as well as the agency mechanic.

That Indian boys are capable of becoming excellent mechanics and workmen is an indisputable fact. For illustration, in the harness shop of Hampton the pupils have completed an order for upward of $2,000 worth of fine harness for John Wanamaker, of New York and Philadelphia, and have shipped $500 worth to Washington. Fifty trucks have been furnished a Richmond house, and fifty more to the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company. Carlisle has for years supplied the Indian service a most superior farm wagon, while Haskell vies with the products of this school in excellence of workmanship. The school at Salem has turned out finished harness which competes successfully at the same price with regular custom work. The products of the shops at Phoenix, Haskell, Chilocco, and other schools display a character of workmanship and artistic skill which disposes of the theory that the Indian is not a mechanic and not a finished workman. He can, and will, after a proper course of instruction, and with equal opportunities, hold his own with the average workman in the useful trades. This is the objective point of his industrial training in the schools established for his benefit.

It is not considered the province of the Government to provide either its wards or citizens with what is known as "higher education." That is the proper function of the individual himself. The Indian boy or

girl who receives a literary training in these schools has laid the groundwork for future education, and can fit himself or herself for the bar, the pulpit, or the magazine pages. Their future career should always be dependent upon their own exertions, and not at the expense of the General Government.

Phoenix, Haskell, Albuquerque, and other institutions, have wellorganized schools of domestic science, where the girls are practically taught the art of preparing a wholesome meal, such as appears on the tables of persons of moderate means. They are not taught the "hotel" or "restaurant" style of cooking, with the consequent education and desire to look forward to salaries similar to chefs in such institutions; but by actually themselves preparing, under proper supervision, the meals adapted to the means of an average family of five to seven persons, these girls stand excellent chances of securing places in such families at living wages, and are not constantly looking forward to continued Government support by being placed in salaried positions at the Government schools and agencies.

Supt. S. M. McCowan, of the Phoenix school, Arizona, proposes to inaugurate another practical scheme of training Indian girls which will not only be profitable to them as a money-making profession, but will be of vast advantage in their own homes and to their own people. Many Indian girls are fitted by natural endowment for nurses, and the superintendent is of opinion that by the establishment of such a training school as will practically and theoretically prepare its graduates for nursing, a new avenue of hope and life will be opened up to the Indian woman. He pleads

For the Indian maidens to this extent, that they be given the most thorough training in cooking, housekeeping, and nursing. These maidens will be mothers by and by. The great majority will live among their own people; and while every mother may be depended on to do the very best she knows for her children, nevertheless her value is proportioned according to her knowledge, not her desire. It is just as important to know how to relieve the ailing, to heal the wounded, to cure the sick to ease the sufferer, to cook dainty and appetizing delicacies for the indifferent, to coax back from the shadow of death the weary and heavy laden, as to spout, like a perennial geyser, of woman's rights and Indian rights.

Indian schools are doing much in the way of training the girls for just such future duties, but often, with meager or inadequate equipment, they have not been able to attain the high ideal which should be set upon such training.

NONRESERVATION SCHOOLS.

These are as a rule the largest institutions devoted to Indian education. As indicated by their designation, they are situated off the reservations and usually near cities or populous districts, where the object lessons of white civilization are constantly presented to the pupils. They are recruited principally from the day and boarding schools on

the reservations. The majority are supported by special appropriations made by Congress, and are adapted to the teaching of trades, etc., in a more extended degree than are schools on the reservations. The largest of these schools is situated at Carlisle, Pa., where there are accommodations for 1,000 pupils; the next largest is at Phoenix, Ariz., with a capacity for 700; the third, at Lawrence, Kans., and known as Haskell Institute, accommodating 600 pupils. These three large schools are types of their class, and are not restricted in territory as to collection of pupils. Chemawa school, near Salem, Oreg., and Chilocco school, near Arkansas City, Okla., are types of the medium-sized schools, and each has a capacity of 400 pupils. The remainder of the schools are of less capacity and have not been developed so highly. There are altogether 25 of these schools, distributed as shown in the following table:

TABLE 5.-Location, capacity, attendance, etc., of nonreservation schools during fiscal year ended June 30, 1900.

Carrying out the statement made in the last annual report that "the present number of nonreservation schools is sufficient to meet all the requirements of the service," no more have been established or contemplated, but those already in existence have been either enlarged or improved and their facilities increased.

RESERVATION BOARDING SCHOOLS.

There are 81 boarding schools located on the different reservations, an increase of 5 over last year. At these institutions the same gen