The increased interest of public-spirited citizens in the education of Indian children is one of the best, if not the best result, of recent discussions of the Indian question. The success of the schools at Hampton, in Virginia, Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and Forest Grove, in Oregon, have amply demonstrated what can be accomplished if such schools be organized on the right principle and conducted with ability and energy. That this is more and more generally appreciated is all the more fortunate, as the Indian question is no longer one the solution of which can be trusted to time. As the progress of settlement and enterprise in the far western regions, or, as it is called in a general way, “the development of the country,” advances, the old methods of providing for the Indians become obsolete. Large reservations of wild land, on which the Indian can freely roam and support himself, partly by hunting, will soon be things of the past. Even now an “Indian frontier” does no longer exist. The abiding places of the Indians are almost everywhere surrounded by rapidly increasing populations of white men eagerly pressing upon the Indian lands. One reservation after another is broken up to make room for new lines of communication and for agricultural and mining enterprises. However conscientious the government may be in its intention and endeavor to protect the rights of the Indians at all points, it is evident that the Indians will soon, in every part of the country, be interspersed with an aggressive force, constantly growing in volume and power, which will threaten to overwhelm them like a rising flood. Their circumstances are essentially changed. The alternative of civilization or extermination is immediately before them—civilization enabling them to become in all important respects a part of the population among which they are to live; or extermination in a vain struggle to maintain the habits of savage life against the progress of superior forces, or rapid decay as miserable paupers and outcasts by the failure of self-sustaining ability. This alternative presents itself not as a question looming up in the distant future, to be solved by coming generations, but as a question involving the existence of the young generation of Indians now living. It is, in one word, a question of immediate urgency.