"'It's too late to help this now, but ef yo' all will just see
that there's a school here where my children can learn what their
pa an' me an' Jim didn't know, an' will keep the meetin's agoin'
at the schoolhouse so they'll know how to be good, I'll be mighty
glad. These here little fellers named Jim an' Andy, too, yo' know,
an' I want 'em to hev more of a chanct than we've hed. They's lots
of us up here thet hed in us a great big feelin' of wantin' to be
somethin' and to do some-thin' that we didn't know what nor how,
'n' I guess we get reckless sometimes thinkin' it's no use.'"
[Footnote: Alma C. Moore--Christian Women's Board of Missions.]

* * * * *

The detailed and comprehensive report of the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, issued in January, 1915, emphasized the desirability
of the attendance of Indian children at near-by public schools, to
obviate the dreaded separation from parents which is entailed when
they must be sent by the government to distant Indian boarding schools.

The report mentions the gratifying increase last year in the number
of Indian children in attendance at the neighborhood public schools.

Some tribes are still peculiarly neglected educationally. The
Navajos are a conspicuous example.

Twenty-four thousand Indian children remain without schools.

The religious motive enters deeply into the psychology of the
Indian, and no greater stimulus toward better living can be given