care of stock. In the reservation boarding school the girls are taught regular household duties, sewing, laundering, and baking; the boys are taught regular shop work, the cultivation of the soil, dairying and stock raising, a farm being conducted at each reservation boarding school.

At the nonreservation boarding schools the girls are instructed in domestic science, and as an aid to this instruction there is frequently provided a domestic science cottage wherein a definite course in the household arts may be taken, each girl living for a time in this cottage and performing all the household duties under the direction of a competent instructor. In some of the larger boarding schools an "outing system" is maintained. Under this system the boy or girl is sent to the home of a reputable and industrious family where the boy assists with the farm work under the direction of the farmer, or the girl is taken into the house to assist in the household work, care of poultry and dairy products, under the direction of the farmer's wife. The pupil often has an opportunity to attend a public school near the farm home, the academic training being thus continued while the pupil gains practical farm experience in farm work.

The nonreservation boarding schools afford an opportunity for Indian pupils to learn various trades by which they can become selfsupporting, if circumstances or their own desires do not tend to make farmers of them. Instruction is given in carpentering, woodworking, blacksmithing, electrical and stationary engineering, brick and stone masonry, plumbing, tailoring, painting, printing, baking, harness and shoemaking, wagon making, and cement work.

In some schools small tracts of land are set apart on the farm for one or two boys to cultivate. Each tract is charged with all expenses necessary to put it into proper cultivation, purchase seeds, etc., and the labor of tending the crops, and is credited with the returns. This teaches the pupil to plan his season's work as would be necessary were he placed upon his own resources with his own farm.

The health of the pupil is a question of primary importance, and it receives constant attention in every school. Physicians are stationed at practically every boarding school, and sick pupils are promptly and carefully treated. A number of hospitals have been constructed, and there are a few sanatoria wherein pupils with incipient tuberculosis may receive academic and industrial training suited to their condition, while they are under the direct care of a physician. Gymnasiums have been constructed at many schools, particularly in the Northern States, where the winters are long and opportunities for outdoor exercise limited. The pupils are taught the great value of fresh air in the preservation of health, and screened sleeping porches are built where conditions permit their use. Boarding schools are not permitted to retain pupils unless there is sufficient air space in the dormitory to allow at least 500 cubic feet per pupil.

It has been the continuous practice of the Indian Bureau to assign the duty of supervising Indian schools to supervisors of broad educational attainments and industrial equipment, familiar with the peculiar problems which arise in adapting the school system of the whites to the educational necessities of Indian youth. The supervisor of Indian employment, an Indian himself, is charged with the important duty of following up returned students. He is in touch with various business enterprises which furnish employment for Indians who do not care to take up the actual farming of their allotments.

The educational work for the Indian does not cease with his return from the Government school. The reservation superintendent is required to keep in touch with returned students and to see that they are encouraged, with the aid of the Government farmer, to develop their allotments into a means of support, or to get them started in some other gainful occupation which will render them self-supporting. Through the supervisor of Indian employment and the superintendent of the reservations upon which returned students make their homes the work of the Government school is continued and made of lasting benefit. Each of the various activities of school and reservation work is under the direction of a supervisor of long training and experience in his particular field, and thus each branch of the work receives expert attention and is woven into the general plans of the Indian Office to raise Indian civilization to a higher plane.

EDUCATION OF NATIVES OF ALASKA.

Report by WILLIAM T. LOPP,

Superintendent of Education of Natives of Alaska.

CHARACTER OF THE WORK.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913, the field force of the Alaska school service consisted of 5 superintendents, 109 teachers, 11 physicians (1 of whom also filled another position), 9 nurses, and 3 hospital attendants. Seventy-seven schools were maintained with an enrollment of 3,563, and an average attendance of 1,797.

In Alaska there are, approximately, 25,000 natives in villages ranging from 30 or 40 up to 300 or 400 persons, scattered along thousands of miles of coast line and on the great rivers. Some of the villages on remote islands or on the frozen ocean are brought into touch with the outside world only once or twice a year, when visited by a United States revenue cutter on its annual cruise or by the

supply vessel sent by the Bureau of Education. During eight months of the year all of the villages in Alaska, with the exception of those on the southern coast, are reached only by trails over the snow-covered land or frozen rivers. In spite of the difficulties of the problem a United States public school has been established in each of 77 villages. In many instances the school is the only elevating power in the native community.

Every teacher is a social worker, who, in addition to performing the routine work in the schoolroom, strives in every possible way to promote the physical, moral, and industrial welfare of the natives, adults as well as children. In the school rooms the endeavor is made to impart to the children such instruction as will enable them to live comfortably and to deal intelligently with those with whom they come in contact; instruction in carpentry, cooking, and sewing is emphasized. Each schoolhouse is a social center for the accomplishment of practical ends. Many of the buildings contain, in addition to the recitation room, an industrial room, kitchen, quarters of the teacher, and a laundry and baths for the use of the native community. The schoolroom is available for public meetings for discussion of affairs of the village or, occasionally, for social purposes. In the native villages the teachers and nurses endeavor to establish proper sanitary conditions by inspecting the houses, by insisting upon proper disposal of garbage, and by giving instruction in sanitary methods of living. Natives are encouraged to replace their filthy huts by neat, well-ventilated houses. In some sections the natives. have been taught to raise vegetables, which are a healthful addition to their usual diet of fish and meat.

There are extensive regions in which the services of a physician are not obtainable. Accordingly, it often becomes the duty of a teacher to treat minor ailments, to render first aid to the injured, or to care for a patient through the course of a serious illness.

In its endeavor to safeguard the health of the natives of Alaska, the Bureau of Education maintains four small hospitals in important centers of native population; contracts with three hospitals for the treatment of diseased natives; employs traveling physicians who devote their entire time to medical and sanitary work among the natives in their respective districts; employs nurses who assist the physicians and do exceedingly valuable work among the children and in the villages; and provides medical supplies and textbooks to the teachers to enable them to treat minor ailments and intelligently to supervise hygienic measures. The entire medical and sanitary work of the Bureau of Education in Alaska is under the supervision of an officer of the Public Health Service on special detail.

For the immediate supervision of its work among the natives of Alaska, the Bureau of Education depends upon its five district super

intendents, men of proved ability and fidelity, who, under the provisions of the rules regulating the service, have the greatest freedom of action consistent with the ultimate responsibility of the Commissioner of Education.

MEDICAL WORK.

Among the most urgent needs of the natives of Alaska is protection against the diseases which prevail among them to an alarming extent. There is no specific appropriation for the support of medical work among the natives of Alaska. For several years the Bureau of Education has been striving, without success, to secure funds for the establishment of well-equipped hospitals and for the employment of a sufficient number of physicians and nurses. Under the terms of the appropriation for "Education of Natives of Alaska" the Bureau of Education can employ physicians and nurses for work among the Alaska natives, but it can not erect the hospitals which are greatly needed. Of the appropriation for the education of natives of Alaska for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, $31,758.13 was expended for medical work, including: (1) The maintenance of hospitals in rented buildings at Juneau and Nushagak; (2) the maintenance of improvised hospitals in school buildings at Nulato and Kotzebue; (3) payments under contract with the Holy Cross Hospital at Nome, with the Fairhaven Hospital at Candle, and with the Cordova Hospital for the treatment of diseased natives upon the application of a superintendent, physician, or teacher in the Alaska school service; (4) the employment of physicians and nurses in the hospitals and in fieldwork in their respective districts, and (5) furnishing medicines and medical books to the teachers for use in relieving minor ailments. Nearly 1,800 cases were treated in the hospitals at Juneau, Nushagak, Nulato, and Kotzebue during 1912-13. The most prevalent diseases were tuberculosis, trachoma, rheumatism, and venereal diseases; the surgical operations included excisions for tubercular diseases of the bones, the removal of tubercular glands, laparotomies, curetting of ulcers, setting broken bones, sewing up recent wounds, and excisions of hemorrhoids, cataracts, abscesses, tonsils, and adenoids. During the year epidemics of infantile paralysis at St. Michael and of diphtheria at Nulato were checked by physicians employed by the Bureau of Eduation. At Nulato, under the provisions of the health law passed by the Alaska Territorial Legislature at its first session, Dr. Bruce H. Brown established effective quarantine. In March, 1912, upon the request of the Secretary of the Interior, Passed Asst. Surg. Emil Krulish, of the Public Health Service, was detailed for service in Alaska, in order that the medical work among the natives might have expert supervision. Dr. Krulish spent from April to November investigating health conditions in the native settlements in south

eastern Alaska, in western Alaska as far as Cook's Inlet, on the Yukon River, and in the vicinity of Nome. In his report Dr. Krulish states that in his opinion 15 per cent of the native population of Alaska is infected with tuberculosis in its varying forms, both active and latent, while in 7 per cent it is present in its active stages. Trachoma, rheumatism, and venereal diseases also prevail to a considerable extent in many of the native villages.

An appropriation of at least $125,000 is needed to establish an Alaska medical service with an efficient organization for the natives of Alaska. The good results already accomplished by the present inadequate service demonstrate that disease among the natives of Alaska can be eradicated if funds are provided for the establishment of well-equipped hospitals in important centers and for the employment of a sufficient number of physicians and nurses.

RESERVATIONS.

Experience has proved the wisdom of reserving, in certain localities, tracts of land exclusively for the use of the natives of Alaska, where, secure from the evil influence of unprincipled white men, the natives can build up their own industries. By Executive order, June 19, 1912, a tract of approximately 12 square miles on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, in southeastern Alaska, was reserved for the use of a colony of natives who had migrated thither from the villages of Klinquan and Howkan and founded a settlement which they named Hydaburg. Under the supervision of the teacher of the United States public school the Hydaburg Trading Co. was organized to transact the mercantile business of the settlement and the Hydaburg Lumber Co. to operate a sawmill. These enterprises have been eminently successful. The prosperity of the Hydaburg colony caused the natives of Klukwan and of Klawock, in southeastern Alaska, to desire similar reservations upon which to conduct their own enterprises. By Executive order, April 21, 1913, a tract with an approximate area of 800 acres, bordering the Chilkat River, was reserved for the exclusive use of the Klukwan natives. Much of this land has agricultural value, and gardening will be systematically taught by the teacher of the United States public school. The proposed reservation at Klawock is within the Tongass National Forest; negotiations are in progress with the Forest Service for its reservation.

ECONOMIC AID TO NATIVES.

The reindeer service.-A very important part of the work of the Bureau of Education for the natives of Alaska is the assistance rendered them in their economic and industrial development. Foremost among the enterprises undertaken in this direction is the rein