Page 135

REPORTS CONCERNING INDIANS IN ARIZONA.                             135 
(3) That a home of charity be established near the agency for the very old
and 
otherwise helpless, so that they may have better care and protection. 
(4) That Indian rangers be appointed to serve four months of the year to
assist 
the forest rangers in the protection of the pine forest of the Inditn reservation
against destructive fires. 
Very respectfully, yours,                                C. W. CROUSE, 
Superintendent and Special Disbursing Agent. 
REPORT OF TEACHER OF CIBICU DAY SCHOOL. 
WHITERIVER, ARIZ., July 5, 1904. 
SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith the first annual report of this
school. 
This school is located in the Cibicu Valley, 50 miles by wagon road, or 45
miles by trail, northwest 
of the agency, our only point of contact with civilization.      0 
The plant consists of two buildings of a native brownstone-a sewing room
and schoolroom of 40 
capacity, and a teacher's cottage. These buildings are among the best in
the service. 
I took charge March 23, but the Indians did not look with favor on this invasion
of their wilderness 
retreat. The children took to the chaparral with a yell on my approach, so
it was the 12th of April 
before we managed to open the school with 10 pupils. By much and persistent
persuasion 34 children 
were enrolled with the parents' consent by the last of May. Then they balked,
and 9 girls were drafted, 
which gave a total enrollment of 28 boys and 15 girls. Even without the inducement
of a noonday 
meal the average attendance for June was 41.5. 
English is already coming into use on the playgrouuds, though but two boys
knew any English 
before entering. The class-room work has been devoted almost entirely to
the teaching of short sen- 
tences and a simple vocabulary. 
There is some pleasure in teaching these Apache boys. They are bright and
responsive, fully the 
equals of the Sioux, Swinomish, or Mission Indian boys, while the girls,
to my experience, are far' 
inferior as pupils to the girls of those tribes. Many of our girls are bright
looking, yet they are dull, 
heavy, with nonretentive memories and no sense of responsibility. 
Of the 36 boys and 26 girls of Cibicu Valley who are eligible 90 per cent
of the former and -85 per 
cent of the latter are now in school. 
The school site of one acre has been fenced, the yard cleared of refuse stone,
a small patch plowed, 
ditched, and planted, several thriving shade trees set out, and numerous
conveniences constructed. 
At least 10 acres for pasture and a model farm should be added, a mail route
established, and a dining 
room and a warehouse built in anticipation of noonday lunch being allowed.
Clothing is also needed, 
as that worn to school at present is often embarrassingly scant. 
I wish to thank Superintendent Crouse for his kind encouragement and unqualified
support. 
Very respectfully, 
OLOF G. OLSON, Teacher. 
The COMMISIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 
REPORT OF FIELD MATRON, FORT APACHE RESERVATION. 
WHITERIVER, ARIZ., August 10, 1904. 
SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report as field matron: 
In looking over the work of the past year I am glad to note that there has
been some good accom- 
plished, though it be little. In visiting their homes in the camps I find
more examples of cleanliness; 
for example, the Indian women will tie back their hair, which a year ago
they would not think of 
doing. Few of the women have combs, and, as a substitute for a comb they
make and use a kind 
of brush of a coarse grass. Many of these Indian women are taking a greater
interest in the making 
of their clothing; they are doing the work much better. As the result of
training I saw two women 
cut and make dresses for their own children, and these were made of the fashion
of the white child's 
dress. I was surprised and pleased to note the improvement and contrast it
with their work only a 
year ago. 
This result as accomplished is against the efforts and teaching of the "medicine
man" and the 
old Indian women. The "medicine man" especially is against civilization
and education; he is 
opposed to everything that tends to uplift the younger people of his race.
The Apache is supersti- 
tious and clings tenaciously to his old customs, and it is the hardest kind
of work to do anything 
with him. 
Very few of these Indians live in houses; they prefer the tepee. A few of
the younger live in 
houses during the winter months, and in an arbor made of boughs during the
summer; this arbor 
is a cool and quite pleasant place to live during the hot weather. I am doing
what I can to induce 
them to live in lumber houses and use tables and chairs and other suitable
furniture. 
There has been very little accomplished in the line of improved cooking and
bread making; they 
don't seem to be ready for that yet. About fifty families have been furnished
with Dutch ovens for 
cooking and baking purposes, and these utensils appear to be better suited
to their present mode of 
living than a good cook stove. They cook fairiy well; in fact, as well as
many white women would 
do were they in the camp. 
Laundry work is still in its primitive stage, nothing but instruction being
given along this line, and 
this for want of utensils, such as washboard and tub. I trust that during
the ensuing year I will see 
more of these useful articles on this reservation and that better results
will be obiained. 
In visiting the sick I find that they are very careless in attention, and
they are so superstitious that 
it is very difficult to have them do as they are taught; it is difficult
to have them wash or even touch 
the body of a sick person. I am pleased to note that I am made more welcome
than I was when mak- 
ing visits a year ago, and many now tell me that the medicine of the white
man is better than that 
of the Indian "medicine man," 
There are a great many old people on this reservation who are dependents,
and a great deal of my 
work has been among them. They will go to the agency for their weekly supply
of food, almost 
destitute of clothing. I have clothed them, and the following week they would
appear again in the 
same destitute state; they had either given their clothing away or it had
been taken from them by 
the younger Indians. When questioned in regard to the missing garments these
old people will not