The same can be said of other tribes that are in the northern part of the state of which I have personal knowledge. There is one non-reservation boarding school for Indians in Montana. It is located off the reservation at the old Fort Shaw military post in the Sun River valley and in the center of a well-to-do settlement, and but twenty-four miles from the city of Great Falls. This school was opened December 27, 1892; its enrollment in 1898 was 305, average attendance 283. The pupils are recruited from reservation schools, the policy being to place therein pupils who, by reason of sound physical health and natural aptitude, are capable of receiving further advantages, with facilities for special instructions in agriculture, stock breeding, the mechanical and domestic arts, for normal and commercial training, and for taking up other subjects as occasion requires. Modern facilities for instruction have been introduced. The industrial and literary progress this school has made is wonderful. The report of the commissioner of Indian affairs will bear out my assertion. Manual training and industrial education has gone hand in hand with the intellectual development of the untrained young Indian mind, and has given good results. The exhibit by the Fort Shaw Indian school at the Cascade county fair held at Great Falls last October in the way of carving on woods, shoemaking, plain and fancy needle work, embroidery, drawing and penmanship was excellent, and would do credit to young pupils of the same age of any race. There were about thirty of the young Indian boys and girls accompanying the exhibit, with Dr. Winslow, the superintendent, in charge. Among the number there was a brass band of sixteen pieces; they marched through the city dressed in uniform and playing national airs with as much grace and skill as if they belonged to some military post.
According to statistics there are 234 schools in all for Indians under exclusive control of the government. The average attendance during the year 1897 was 18,676 pupils.
The other day a young Cree Indian by the name of Young Boy, with whom I was acquainted, and who could speak fair English, came to my office, sat by a table and began writing in a small account book that he had. Seeing it was a peculiar looking manuscript, I asked him what he was writing. He told me that he was writing down what he had been buying that day, and he read it to me, first in Cree and afterwards translated into English, and handed it to me. The following is a photograph from the original writing in the Cree language:
A CREE MANUSCRIPT.
MO-SEE-MA-MA-MOS (YOUNG BOY). A CREE INDIAN.
The translation into English is as follows: “To day I paid three dollars and twenty-five cents for a blanket and three dollars for a bridle, in all six dollars and twenty-five cents.
Young Boy.”