which the size of the tepees rendered impossible in the old days makes clear the fact that under the old conditions the quantity of infecting material was kept at a minimum and at the same time the Indian's power of resistance was kept at its maximum so that opportunities for infection were few. Under the new mode of life conditions were reversed. Everything favored the increase of infecting material while the Indian's power of resistance was reduced and, thru overcrowding, the opportunities for infection increased enormously. In 1896 the death rate among the Sioux of Pine Ridge had risen to 52.88 per 1,000-a number considerably in excess of the birth rate—and of this high death rate nearly one-half was due to tuberculosis. The unsanitary conditions under which the Indians often live are only too familiar to many of you. They have been recalled here in order to emphasize what follows.

Tuberculosis is one of the most serious diseases with which civilized and semi-civilized people are afflicted, but it is by no means the only one. There is an enormous waste of life due to ignorance in caring for the minor diseases which are often preventable. Diseases of children head the list. The number of children one may see in a single day afflicted with maladies of various sorts even among the more settled tribes of the Southwest appalls one. Many ills receive no attention except what some non-medical government official may in his kindness administer on his occasional visits. While tuberculosis existed among the Indians before they came into contact with the white people, yet at that time the disease was rare among them and remained so until they changed their nomadic to a settled life in houses.

To alleviate or to prevent bodily ills most men will make some effort, and to gratify the desires of their children parents will do much. For these two reasons the physician, the day-school teacher, and the field matron can probably accomplish more immediate good than any other agencies. Their work gradually converts needs into wants and so raises the whole standard of life. Much must of necessity be left to the slow processes of evolution; and nature is never in a hurry.

Next in importance to health in the home we must place efficiency in home management; hence I would have as the second essential such training of the children as shall tend to secure this end. This is the opportunity of the school. I have in mind, however, not the prevailing type of public school in the East. Valuable as the school of the usual type may be in its proper place, it after all deals with matters remote from what are strictly the essentials of education. Neither have I in mind the boarding school, whether on or off the reservation, for we must bear in mind that the most important part of education is a thing of the home, and any school which breaks up the family by taking the children -especially young children-out of it can never do this needful work. The relation of parent and child is one of the most vital and stimulating factors in the elevation of a race, and anything which tends to weaken this relation is to be deplored.

Fortunately the ideal type of school has already been evolved. I refer

of course to the Indian day school. Indeed, I can conceive of no more effective instrument of civilization than the day school at its best.

There are enrolled in government boarding-schools over twenty thousand pupils, many of whom are very young. In the day schools there are less than five thousand pupils. This proportion is not as it should be.

Day schools naturally differ considerably in equipment and in efficiency, but if we visit one of the better sort we shall find an efficient man with an efficient wife, in charge. The husband and wife occupy a little cottage which they have transformed into a model home. A schoolhouse is near by and the necessary buildings for housing such horses, cows, and chickens as the little farm may support. There is enough land fenced in for garden and pasture. The whole place is neat and well kept.

This type of school is unique. Human ingenuity could hardly devise a simpler or more effective means for uplifting a backward people. The home is perhaps the most valuable half of this interesting institution, for here the girls prepare the daily lunch; here they get their first lessons in sewing and learn to make their own dresses; here they wash, dry, and iron their clothes, and learn important lessons in the matter of personal cleanliness and hygiene. The little farm, which is but the outside half of the home, offers to the boys opportunities analogous to those which the girls enjoy within. The lessons in gardening and caring for animals are of the most valuable kind and relate the school to the home in a natural and wholesome way.

So far as the work of the schoolroom itself is concerned, if the children learn to speak and write the English language, acquire thru pictures and books some knowledge of other places and other peoples whose customs differ from their own, and get a little knowledge of numbers it is quite enough. The rest may safely be left for other schools to do for such pupils as go to them.

NATIVE INDIAN ART

MISS ANGEL DE CORA, INSTRUCTOR IN NATIVE INDIAN ART, CARLISLE INDIAN SCHOOL, CARLISLE, PA.

The time has not been long enough since the subject was put into practice to show some of the possibilities of adapting Indian art to modern usages. Indians, like any other race in its primitive state, are gifted in original ideas of ornamentation. The pictorial talent is common to all young Indians.

The method of educating the Indian in the past was to attempt to transform him into a brown Caucasian within the space of five years, or a little more. The educators made every effort to convince the Indian that any custom or habit that was not familiar to the white man showed savagery and degradation. A general attempt was made to bring him "up to date." The Indian, who is so bound up in tribal laws and customs, knew not where to make the distinction, nor what of his natural instincts to discard, and the consequence was that he either became superficial and arrogant and denied his race, or he grew dispirited and silent.

In my year's work with the Indians at Carlisle, I am convinced that the young Indians of the present day are still gifted in the pictorial art.

Heretofore, the Indian pupil has been put thru the same public-school course as the white child, with no regard for his hereditary difference of mind and habit of life; yet, tho the only art instruction is the white man's art, the Indian, even here, does as well and often better than the white child, for his accurate eye and skillful hand serve him well in anything that requires delicacy of handiwork.

In exhibitions of Indian-school work, generally, the only traces of Indian one sees are some of the signatures denoting clannish names. In looking over my pupils' native design-work, I cannot help calling to mind the Indian woman, untaught and unhampered by the white man's ideas of art, making beautiful and intricate designs on her pottery, baskets, and beaded articles, which show the inborn talent. She sits in the open, drawing her inspiration from the broad aspects of nature. Her zigzag line indicates the line of the hills in the distance, and the blue and white background so usual in the Indian color scheme denotes the sky. Her bold touches of green and red and yellow she has learned from nature's own use of those colors in the green grass and flowers, and the soft tones that were the general tone of ground color in the days of skin garments, are to her as the parched grass and the desert. She makes her strong color contrasts under the glare of the sun, whose brilliancy makes even her bright tones seem softened into tints. This scheme of color has been called barbaric and crude, but then one must remember that in the days when the Indian woman made all her own color, mostly of vegetable dyes, she could not produce any of the strong, glaring colors they now get in aniline dyes.

The white man has tried to teach the young Indian that in order to be a so-called civilized person, he must discard all such barbarisms.

It must be remembered that most of the Indians of the Carlisle school have been under civilizing influences from early youth and have, in many instances, entirely lost the tradition of their people. But even a few months have proved to me that none of their Indian instincts have perished but have only lain dormant. Once awakened they immediately became active and produced within a year some of the designs that you have seen.

I have taken care to leave my pupils' creative faculty absolutely independent and to let each student draw from his own mind, true to his own thought, and, as much as possible, true to his tribal method of symbolic design.

The work now produced at Carlisle, in comparison with that of general schoolwork, would impress one with the great difference between the white and the Indian designer. No two Indian drawings are alike, and every one is original work. Each artist has his own style. What is more, the best designs were made by my artist pupils away from my supervision. They came to me for material to take to their rooms and some of the designs for rugs that you have seen were made in the students' play hour, away from the influence of others-alone with their inspiration, as an artist should work. It may interest

you to know that my pupils never use practice paper. With steady and unhesitating hand and mind, they put down permanently the lines and color combinations that you see in their designs.

We can perpetuate the use of Indian designs by applying them on modern articles of use and ornament that the Indian is taught to make. I ask my pupils to make a design for a frieze for wall decoration; also borders for printing, designs for embroidery of all kinds, for wood-carving and pyrography, and designs for rugs.

I studied the Persian art of weaving from some Persians, because I saw from the start that the style of conventional designing produced by Indianschool pupils suggested more for this kind of weaving. We shall use the Navajo method as well, but the oriental method allows more freedom to carry out the more intricate designs. The East Indian and the American Indian designs are somewhat similar in line and color, especially those of the Kasak make. I discourage any floral designs such as are seen in Ojibway beadwork. Indian art seldom made any use of the details of plant forms, but typified nature in its broader aspects, using also animal forms and symbols of human life.

With just a little further work along these lines I feel that we shall be ready to adapt our Indian talents to the daily needs and uses of modern life. We want to find a place for our art even as the Japanese have found a place for theirs thruout the civilized world. The young Indian is now mastering all the industrial trades, and according to the wishes of the Honorable Indian Commissioner, there is no reason why the Indian workman should not leave his artistic mark on what he produces.

DEMONSTRATION LESSONS1

TEACHING AGRICULTURE IN THE CLASSROOM

PRESENTED WITH A CLASS OF INDIAN PUPILS BY MISS BERTHA D. PROCTOR, TEACHER, SHERMAN INSTITUTE, RIVERSIDE, CAL.

We should correlate arithmetic, English, and composition with agricultural subjects in the classroom and endeavor to give the pupils practical instruction that will enable them better to understand the various farming operations. Alfalfa is grown in many sections of the United States and perhaps at most of the Indian schools, so lessons on this subject can be given with profit by many of the teachers present. The subject, however, is too broad to bring out all the points in the brief time allotted me for presenting this lesson, but you can readily see the value of agricultural instruction in the classroom.

If you do not grow alfalfa in your section, perhaps your principal crop is wheat, or corn, or cotton. Do not burden the minds of your pupils with information concerning crops they never saw or which cannot be successfully grown at their homes. For example do not waste time teaching orange growing in

At the close of each session demonstration lessons were given by teachers in the service, showing how the classroom instruction in the different grades may be correlated with the work of the various industrial departments. Classes of Indian pupils were used in the presentation of these lessons.

Montana. If you are located in a grazing-section, emphasize stock-raising in the classroom. Instruct your pupils in the industry in which they will most probably engage upon leaving school.2

Shobe may pass to the board, draw a plow, putting the price under it. You may also answer, in writing, the questions on the board (indicating where).

Q. Antonio, how much does it cost to bale hay?

A. About $2 per ton.

Q. What is the average price of alfalfa hay?

A. $12 to $14 a ton.

Q. What is the average yield per acre?

A. The average yield is about one ton.

Q. Agnes, what does agriculture give to the world?

A. Food, medicines, materials for clothing, etc.

Q. What are the agricultural crops grown at the ranch connected with Sherman Institute our school?

A. Alfalfa, oats, and barley hay.

Q. Describe briefly the alfalfa crop.

A. It grows from one to three feet high, according to location and soil; it has purple flowers which are long, loose clusters (like this); the seeds are yellowish brown in color (like these); the roots grow very deep in the ground (like this). (Pupil displayed specimen in each case.)

Q. How would you select alfalfa seed?

A. I would select fresh seed of a greenish hue, plump and bright in color.

Q. How would you prepare your land for planting?

A. The preparation of the soil should begin in the fall. The land should be freed from weeds, and then use subsoil plow from fifteen to twenty inches so that the roots may go down deep and can stand a great deal of dry weather. A liberal coating of mulching should be plowed under at the time of subsoiling. If the land it allowed to stand idle for some time after plowing, it should be thoroly disked. I would run a harrow over the ground a day or two before seeding and then make the ground smooth and level so that it can be easily irrigated and the mower can run over it with ease and safety.

Q. Why do you work the land so thoroly?

A. So that the soil will be like a sponge, drinking in all the rain that falls.

Agnes may pass to the board and write a check in payment for a rake, and then solve

the problem on the board.

Q. Antonio, what is the best time of year to sow alfalfa seed?

A. In January or February, according to the weather.

Q. How would you sow the seed if it is a dry year?

A. I would check off the ground and fill the checks with water; when dry enough

I would plow and harrow and smooth it.

Q. How long before it should be watered after seeding?

A. About two months.

Q. Shobe, how much seed should be sown to the acre?

In this lesson current prices, local methods of cultivation, etc., have been used. These, of course, vary in different sections, and teachers should be careful in order that pupils may be given accurate information on whatever subject is taught.