22 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE [1914

doing work among the Indians of our country. An advance

of interest to all denominations is the proposed establishment
of a Christian Indian school or college, for which funds have
been partly secured. The Rev. Henry Roe Cloud, a graduate
of Yale and of Auburn Theological Seminary, will devote his
life to this work. The school will combine some of the features
of Mount Hermon and of Hampton Institute, and especially
train promising Christian Indians for religious work, prepar
ing them at an earlier age than has been possible hitherto for
entering higher courses of collegiate and graduate studies in
case they decide to prepare for the professions or for business.
In the spirit of Christian comity, which has reached a high
development in the Protestant Indian mission work of our
country, the study of the tribes hitherto neglected by Chris
tian agencies has been carried on, showing that approximately
fifty thousand Indians in the United States are still unprovid
ed for by either Protestant or Roman Catholic missionaries.
Some of these Indians live under conditions which make ap
proach to them very difficult, but there is a disposition on the
part of our missionary organization to take the gospel to even
the smaller groups which are still held together by tribal cus
toms.
We have at present, exclusive of Alaska, 323,000 persons
among the Indian tribes in the United States. It has been
thought that possibly there are as many Indians now in this
country as when Columbus discovered America. Of these In
dians 296,000 are reported under the general supervision of the
Federal ludian Service. The Government has recently gath
ered statistics of the religious affiliations of a large number
of Indians. Reservation superintendents and heads of gov
ernment schools reported 177,401 Indians whom they had
questioned on this subject. Of these, 09,529 have professed
Christianity, — thirty-nine per cent, of the total. It is probable
that a larger per cent, of the Indian population, not included
in these statistics, is non-Christian. These impressive facts
call loudly to the Christian Churches to increase their efforts
to win the neglected tribes for Christ. In this transition stage
of their development, the destiny of the Indians is at stake.
No longer confined in reservations, thirty-nine thousand of
their children are in school and, with the Christian leaders
already developed, constitute the hope of the future.

MEXICAN WORK
Nothing like an exact or detailed report on the condition of
our Mexican mission work will be possible at this time owing
to the fact that there has never been formulated a plan for a
comprehensive and expanding effort that aimed at a definite