exacted, as the fair was under municipal control, and assurances were given (and faithfully observed) by responsible officials in charge that the Government would be at no expense whatever in the matter, and that they would hold themselves responsible for the proper care and protection of the Indians while at the fair, and would insure their safe return to their homes at its close. January 22, 1898, to Messrs. Cody (Buffalo Bill) & Salisbury to take 100 Indians from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations, S. Dak., for general show and exhibition purposes during the season of 1898. A bond in the sum of $10,000 was given by this firm. April 23, 1898, to Mr. George P. Gifford, secretary of the Milwaukee Carnival Association, for permission to secure from 100 to 200 Indians from reservation under the La Pointe Agency, Wis., in order to exhibit "a well-established representative Indian village" on the lake shore at Milwaukee, Wis., during the celebration week of June 27, 1898, commemorative of the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of the State of Wisconsin into the Union. No bond was required in this case, as assurances from the officials in charge of the celebration were given that the Government would be at no expense whatever, and due care would be observed to protect the Indians from immoral influences, etc., and to return them safely to their homes. In several other cases authority was granted for Indians to attend industrial exhibitions or local celebrations. As stated in previous reports, whenever engagements with Indians for general exhibition purposes are made their employers are required to enter into written contracts with the individual Indians obligating themselves to pay such Indians fair stipulated salaries for their services; to supply them with suitable food and clothing; to meet their traveling and needful incidental expenses, including medical attendance, etc., from the date of leaving their homes until their return thither; to protect them from immoral influences and surroundings; to employ a white man of good character to look after their welfare, and to return them to their reservation without cost to themselves within a certain specified time. They are also required to execute bond for the faithful fulfillment of such contracts. As usual, several applications for authority to take Indians away from home to be exhibited have been refused. Unless great care is exercised in granting such privileges the Indians taken are liable to suffer from neglect or bad treatment. COMMISSIONS. Chippewa Commission.-The Chippewa Commission, which now consists of but one member, D. S. Hall, has continued its work of allotting lands to Chippewas in Minnesota, and of removing to the White Earth Reservation such Indians as can be induced to make their homes there. During the year ending August 31 last 565 allotments of 80 acres each have been made by the commission, as follows: 10 4 White Oak Point Mississippis. Cass Lake and Winnebagoshish Mississippis.. On White Oak Point Reservation, to White Oak Point Mississippis... 22 367 Changes have been made in allotments previously assigned Indians, as follows: The Indians induced and helped to remove to White Earth are: Leech Lake Pillagers, 30; White Oak Point, 5; Mille Lacs, 24. Seven houses, costing $75 each, have been built for removed Indians, and five others are in process of erection. Considerable effort has been put forth to induce the Mille Lac Chippewas to go to White Earth, but with only meager success as yet. Commissioner Hall hopes that quite a number will remove thither this fall. The expenditures made by the commission between September 1, 1897, and August 31, 1898, are: 1,500.00 Salary with traveling expense and board of one commissioner... $4, 745.00 ster, and 1 tinsmith.... Salaries of surveyors on various reservations. Salaries of irregular employees, such as acting removal agents and laborers 2, 023.55 924.50 113.00 Paid for rent of a warehouse at White Earth and offices wherever required.... 144.00 5976 3 Paid for blank plats, and other material for office use...... Total $38.51 301.40 795.30 14, 017.49 Crow, Flathead, Northern Cheyenne, Uintah, and Yakima Commission.The Indian appropriation act approved July 1, 1898 (30 Stats., p. 571), contains the following provision: For continuing the work of the commission appointed under the act of Congress approved June tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, to negotiate with the Crow, Flathead, and other Indians, fifteen thousand dollars, the same to be available for the payment of salary and proper expenses of said commission from and after the date when the appropriation of ten thousand dollars made by the act of June seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, was exhausted, and said commission shall continue its work and make its final report thereon to the Secretary of the Interior on the first day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and upon that date the commission shall cease. In the annual report of last year I stated that Samuel L. Taggart, of Dubuque, Iowa, replaced Charles G. Hoyt as a member of the commission. Mr. Taggart has since been appointed a special agent of this office and Mr. Hoyt has been reinstated as a commissioner; the other members of the commission are Benjamin F. Barge and James H. McNeely. February 5, 1898, the commission submitted to the Department an agreement made with the Indians residing on the Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho, for the cession of a portion of their surplus lands. The agreement was referred by the Department, February 12, 1898, to this office for report, and on the 21st of that month this office submitted a draft of a bill for the ratification of the agreement. It was introduced into the Senate (No. 4073, Fifty-fifth Congress, second session) and was favorably reported by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. A full history of the matter is contained in Senate Doc. No. 169, Fifty-fifth Congress, second session. The commission also concluded an agreement with the Uintah and White River Utes by which they sold, ceded, and relinquished to the United States necessary lands for the use of such of the Uncompahgre Utes as might conclude to remove to the Uintah Reservation. This agreement was submitted by the Department to the Senate January 21, 1898, with recommendation that it receive the favorable action of Congress (Senate Doc. No. 80, Fifty-fifth Congress, second session), but no action appears to have been taken thereon by Congress. The commission is still in the field, and it is trusted that it will com plete its work by the 1st day of next April. Five Civilized Tribes Commission.-The Curtis act, referred to hereafter, added largely to the duties of the commission to the Five Civilized Tribes. Among other things it devolved upon them the work of allotting the lands of the five tribes; also it made the enrollment of each tribe by the commission conclusive as to the membership of that tribe. The commission spent several months last year in Washington looking after legislation affecting the Five Tribes, and especially assisting in the preparation of the Curtis bill. They are now in the Indian Territory engaged in the duties assigned them by previous acts of Congress as well as by the Curtis act. By the Indian appropriation act for the current fiscal year the membership of the commission was reduced from five to four, and Frank C. Armstrong tendered his resignation. The commission now consists of Hon. Henry L. Dawes chairman, Archibald S. McKennon, Tams Bixby, and Thos. B. Needles. Puyallup Commission.-The Indian appropriation act approved July 1, 1898 (Public No. 175), contains the following clause relative to the Puyallup Commission: For compensation of the commissioner authorized by the Indian appropriation act approved June seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, to superintend the sale of land, etc., of the Puyallup Indian Reservation, Washington, who shall continue the work as therein provided, two thousand dollars. The former Puyallup commissioners (Messrs. Anderson, Renfroe, and Alexander) were relieved from duty, as stated in last annual report, on December 1, 1896. All of the official papers, documents, etc., in their possession were turned over to the superintendent of the Puyallup Indian School, who was acting Indian agent. He made collections of some deferred payments due on certain lands sold, both allotted lands and agency-tract lots and blocks, and reported the same to this officethe funds from the allotted lands being for distribution among the parties entitled, and the agency-tract funds for deposit in the Treasury to the credit of the tribe. Clinton A. Snowden, of Tacoma, Wash., was appointed by the President on June 22, 1897, to be commissioner to look after lands of the Puyallup Indian Reservation, and instructions, approved by the Department, were furnished him July 27,1897. He has been engaged since that time in conducting the sale of Puyallup lands, collecting deferred payments due upon such lands previously sold, obtaining further consents of allottees to the sale of portions of their lands not needed for homes, and determining who are the allottees and true owners, including heirs of deceased allottees, etc. All the funds specially appropriated by Congress for the expenses of this work have been exhausted, but July 13, 1898, the Department decided that the necessary expenses of the sale of both allotted and agency lands could be paid out of the proceeds of those already sold and of those to be sold hereafter, except the salary of the commission, which is provided for by special appropriation. The sale of these lands is not rapid, and the collections of deferred payments are coming in slowly. Uncompahgre Commission.-May 26, 1898, Erastus R. Harper was appointed commissioner in the place of James Jeffreys. The work of the commission in making allotments to Uncompahgre Utes is referred to on page 42. It is anticipated that the commission will complete its work during this month. Uintah Commission.-July 14, 1898, Messrs. Erastus R. Harper, Ross Guffin, and Howell P. Myton, members of the Uncompahgre Commission, were appointed commissioners to allot lands to Indians upon the Uintah Reservation in Utah, and to negotiate for the cession of the lands remaining unallotted under the provisions of the act of June 4, 1898 (30 Stats., p. 429). Instructions for their guidance in making allotments were submitted to the Department August 6, 1898, and approved August 10, 1898. It is not expected that they will enter upon duty as members of the Uintah Commission until they shall have completed their duties on the Uncompahgre Reservation. SALE OF LIQUOR TO INDIANS. My last annual report mentioned several investigations made by Special Agent R. J. W. Brewster, of the Department of Justice, into the sale of intoxicating liquors to Indians in Oklahoma and Nevada. Similar investigations have since been made by him at the Round Valley Agency, Cal.; Nez Percé Agency, Idaho; and in the Indian Terri tory, where it was found that parties were engaged in the wholesale debauchery of Indians by the introduction and sale of intoxicating beverages. At Round Valley, Agent Brewster found an exceptionally bad state of affairs, and through his efforts seven persons were arrested and held to trial on the charges of introducing liquor into the Indian country and furnishing it to Indians. Five of them have been convicted and sentenced. It was also found that the school superintendent, who acts as agent, had to contend not only with liquor traffic among the Indians, but also with other forms of iniquity, so that, owing to his activity in endeavoring to suppress them and to protect his Indians from the demoralizing influence of their white neighbors, his life was continually in jeopardy, several attempts having been made to assassinate him. Special Agent Brewster was no less successful in his investigation at the Nez Percé Agency. Several arrests were made there of persons charged with introducing liquors within the prohibited territory and selling it to Indians, and many against whom warrants had been issued fled the country in order to avoid the punishment that was sure to follow. This office has not been informed of the results of trials of the parties arrested, but it is believed that the cases made out were so clear that the parties must have been convicted and punished. |