I do not believe that the world can show a parallel to this situation. In all conscience one would expect that an appreciable portion of this vast sum distributed would find its way into the local banks; instead, however, the indebtedness to banks is nearly two and one-half times the deposits. None of these Indians is in commercial business; all are "incompetent." Fortunately, the banks themselves are beginning to realize the danger arising from such a situation. As one of their steps looking toward the general deflation now so necessary, they are declining to discount any new paper issued by the Osages for the purchase of automobiles. This should have a salutary effect so far as it goes. It may be more significant as indicating a wiser policy toward the Osages on the part of these most essential commercial agencies.

The remedy for all this demoralization is not easy. Several years ago, when the need was first evident, was the time when legislation should have been enacted by Congress, requiring that all payments to incompetents should be made under proper supervision. Among the Five Civilized Tribes only $200 per annum may be paid directly to such an individual. A similar course should be followed here. The law should prevent the sale or mortgaging any personal prop erty except with official approval. A small sum might be paid to each individual for reasonable pin money. The balance should be expended only under authority and when necessary, and the balance invested to the credit of the owner. Economy and thrift could thus be encouraged, and there might be some hope for the future. As it is there is no such hope and there can not be so long as present conditions exist. The end will come when the money gives out, and then these poor people largely will be helpless paupers.

It is true that such a course will meet with determined opposition from many of the Osages. Most parents find that their children do not appreciate to the full wise action taken for the highest good of those same children. There will be determined opposition from a certain class of storekeepers, merchants, bankers, and others who are living off these same incompetent Indians. Rumor is that in some cases as high as 1,000 per cent is paid by them for money. Of course. this is not to any regular and reputable bank. The beneficiaries of such a nefarious system naturally will raise a howl. Their opposition is perhaps the strongest argument that can be brought in favor of some such plans. There are numerous business men and bankers who welcome the proposed reforms. They are not the ones who are grafting, and they know that legitimate business will be stimulated by the assurance that all just bills will be paid with promptness. They are glad to have all their transactions carefully scrutinized, and wish to be relieved of the unscrupulous competition of those who have been instrumental in bringing about present conditions.

Every day that some such steps are delayed is sure to make it that much harder to accomplish any beneficial results. The present habits of waste and shiftlessness will have grown that much stronger. That the fatal error was made in the first instance is no argument why it should continue as at present for one moment. A firm, able, and conscientious superintendent, I am convinced, can make such a plan work with a measurable degree of success at least. It is true that it will entail the reposing of prodigious power for good or bad in

the man who is on the spot. There are many capable men in the Indian Service who could be trusted to handle the situation even should Supt. Wright give up his position at Pawhuska.

The effect on the future is also worthy of consideration. One naturally asks, what hope is there, how long can this state continue, can we anticipate any improvement or is what we see now to go on indefinitely? The only answer apparent is education. But not any sort of education will accomplish the desired purpose. At the present time there is the Osage Indian boarding school at Pawhuska, attended by about 100 children, but most of the children who go to school attend the numerous public day schools scattered through the county. There is also at Pawhuska, St. Luke's School for Girls, under the care of Roman Catholic sisters and with a small attendance. It is notorious, however, that the full-blood children are most irregular in school attendance. With nothing to do but to amuse themselves, their parents are frequently visiting in different parts of the reservation, or the State of Oklahoma, or the Nation. The children accompany their parents regardless of school requirements.

Then, too, the parents do not appreciate the modern idea of education. They have never experienced the joy of personal accomplishment. Work is distasteful to them. Hence they take exception to all practical instruction. Their girls must not learn to sew or cook. If they know such things it is an imputation that they are not able to employ white help to perform such menial duties for them. This is an unthinkable position in which to place any Osage. So the girl is kept away from such a school. It is the same with a boy learning carpentry or bricklaying or agriculture. The harassed principal of the school is compelled to have empty schoolrooms or to leave out vital portions of his course of study, unless perchance he can conjure up some way of making all industrial training appear as merely a game intended to amuse and not to instruct.

The same act which provides for expenditures to be made under supervision should embody drastic features as to school attendance. There should be teeth in it. But this recommendation applies to most of the Indian field. Compulsory school attendance should be enforceable and enforced on every reservation in the United States. All of the more progressive States of the Union have seen the necessity for similar action. What possible excuse is there for not applying the same beneficent requirement to our red brother? The only wonder is that the Indians, as a whole, are to-day in a position of advancement which they occupy. Their progress appears slow, but we are in no position to scoff. Rather should we be impelled to reach out further to them a hand of wise helpfulness and assist them out of the best of our own experience.

Another unfortunate provision of the Osage legislation could also be modified to advantage at the same time. Strangely enough, in face of all experience, there are established the Indian town sites at Pawhuska, Grayhorse, and Hominy, and the location of the Indians' residences there rather than on their allotments is encouraged. This is most unfortunate. Everywhere else every effort is put forth to get the Indian close to the land and to keep him there. Among the Osages the reverse process is favored by the organic law. The experiment

has been most unsuccessful and efficiently counteracts in most cases all influences that can be brought to bear on the Indians to get them to take an interest in agriculture and stock raising. For this latter industry their reservation is particularly adapted. A wise superintendent, controlling their expenditures, could use his authority so as to produce a marked and beneficial effect in his efforts to get the Osages "back to the land."

The query naturally arises, supposing that nothing is done to ameliorate these conditions, how long can the present situation continue? And this query goes to the heart of the other vital problem which affects Osage administration, namely, the extension beyond 1931 of the trust period relating to the production of oil and gas.

A few words to recall well-known facts are necessary in order that some unusual phases of the questions involved may be the better understood.

The Osage Reservation is practically unique in that it actually belongs to these Indians in the sense that they have bought and paid for it, employing their own money in the transaction. Originally farther east, they were removed ultimately to the State of Kansas. When the limitations there became too contracted for them, they sold their land to the Government, the proceeds being deposited in the Treasury of the United States. A commission was appointed by President Johnson to secure a new location. The Cherokees had surplus lands for which they had no use. So what is now Osage County, Okla., comprising about 1,470,500 acres, was bought from them for the Osages and paid for at the rate of about $1 per acre out of the funds in the Treasury. The legal title was made to the United States as trustee. This origin of ownership should be clearly kept in mind, for it does introduce some elements which do not attach in any other instance of Indian lands of which I am aware, unless perhaps to the Eastern Cherokee lands in North Carolina.

In 1906 the Osage allotment act was passed. All of the reservation has been allotted to individual members of the tribe except 5,168 acres reserved for town sites or included in the rights of way of railroads. Each allottee received a homestead allotment of 160 acres and about 500 acres additional, three successive allotments each of 160 acres each, and a final surplus of about 20 acres each. In practically no instance were these several allotments contiguous, so that the holdings of an individual owner may be widely scattered. The trust period on these allotments will expire January 1, 1932.

But the act of 1906 contained other and unusual provisions. Section 3 provides:

That the oil, gas, coal, or other minerals covered by the lands for the selection and division of which provision is herein made are hereby reserved to the Osage Tribe for a period of twenty-five years from and after the eighth day of April, 1906; and leases for all oil, gas, and other minerals, covered by selections and division of land herein provided for, may be made by the Osage Tribe of Indians through its tribal council, and with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, and under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe: Provided, That the royalties to be paid to the Osage Tribe under any mineral lease so made shall be determined by the President of the United States: And provided further, That no mining of or prospecting for any of said minerals shall be permitted on the homestead selections herein provided for without the written consent of the Secretary of the Interior: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be const red as affecting any valid existing lease or contract.

Paragraph 7 of section 2 of said act provides in part:

That nothing herein shall authorize the sale of the oil, gas, coal, or other minerals covered by said lands, said minerals being reserved to the use of the tribe for a period of twenty-five years, and the royalty to be paid to said tribe as hereinafter provided: And provided further, That the oil, gas, coal, and other minerals upon said allotted lands shall become the property of the individual owner of said land at the expiration of said twenty-five years, unless otherwise provided for by act of Congress.

Sections 5, 6, and 7 of the act provided as follows:

SEC. 5. That at the expiration of the period of twenty-five years from and after the first day of January, 1907, the lands, mineral interests, and moneys, herein provided for and held in trust by the United States shall be the absolute property of the individual members of the Osage Tribe, according to the roll herein provided for, or their heirs, as herein provided, and deeds to said lands and said moneys shall be distributed to said members, or to their heirs, as herein provided, and said members shali have full control of said lands, moneys, and mineral interests, except as hereinbefore provided.

SEC. 6. That the lands, moneys, and mineral interests herein provided for of any deceased member of the Osage Tribe shall descend to his or her legal heirs, according to the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, or of the State in which said reservation may be hereinafter incorporated, except where the decedent leaves no issue nor husband nor wife, in which case said lands, moneys, and mineral interests must go to the mother and father equally.

SEC. 7. That the lands herein provided for are set aside for the sole use and benefit of the individual members of the tribe entitled thereto or to their heirs, as herein provided; and said members, or their heirs, shall have the right to use and to lease said lands for farming, grazing, or any other purpose not otherwise specifically provided for herein, and said members shall have full control of the same, including the proceeds thereof: Provided, That the parents of minor members of the tribe shall have the control and use of said minors' lands, together with the proceeds of the same, until said minors arrive at their majority: And provided further, That all leases given on said lands for the benefit of the individual members of the tribe entitled thereto, or for their heirs, shall be subject only to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

It will thus be seen that with legislation in its present situation upon April 8, 1931, a radical change in the status of the ownership of oil, gas, coal, and any other mineral and of bonuses and royalties derived from them is imminent.

Deferring a consideration of just what is involved in that change in the interest of clarity, a little further statement of what actually has transpired is appropriate.

In 1896 the whole reservation was leased for oil and gas for a period of 10 years. About 680,000 acres were sublet, and the lease of that portion was extended so as to expire March 16, 1916, the lease for the balance reverting. By this latter date the commercial production of both oil and gas on a large scale had become an assured fact, making such leases immensely valuable. The plan has therefore been adopted, as respects the oil, to offer at auction, about four times each year, the oil privileges on specified quarter sections of land, the amounts bid at such sales include the bonus, which is in addition to the royalties on the actual oil produced. This latter has been fixed as one-sixth.

By the terms of the leases the lessees must file in the office at Pawhuska a complete log of every well drilled. These reports are open to inspection, so that every prospective bidder is able to secure all available information as to the outlook for any land the purchase of which he may be considering. The leases also require that production of oil and gas shall be secured within five years, and their

term is now made for such period as the oil and gas shall remain tribal property.

The amount received from bonuses alone for oil leases since this system was adopted in 1916 have amounted to the enormous total of upward of $30,000,000. As above stated, in addition the royalties are one-sixth of the oil produced, which is increased, in the case of some of the larger producing wells, to one-fifth. In all, less than one-third of the total area of the reservation has been leased for oil. On May 1, 1920, there were 2,870 quarter sections under lease, of which 1,168 remained undeveloped: 224 were being drilled; 1,061 were producing oil and gas; and 217 had proved unproductive. New leases are now being made at the rate of about 120,000 acres per

annum.

The whole reservation has been leased for gas. Over $512,000 has been received from bonuses for these leases, whilst the royalties, at 3 cents per 1,000 feet, being also one-sixth of the value at the well mouth of the gas as determined by the President of the United States, amount to over $800,000 per annum. The royalties for gas are at the fixed sum of 3 cents per 1,000 feet; those for oil vary with the value of crude oil in the field. The receipts of the agency for oil and gas royalties, etc., in the month of March, 1920, alone amounted to $900,694.64. There is a regulation which prohibits one lessee from controlling more than 4,800 acres.

It is pretty generally conceded that the figures obtained in the Osage are better than those secured anywhere else. In measure this is due to the unique condition that such an enormous territory has only one landlord. All facts and figures are open to any interested party. There can be no suppression of what geological conditions. are disclosed by drilling nor as to the amount of oil produced by any given well. Hence the producers are all on an equality and are dealing with a perfectly reliable landlord-the Government of the United States, acting as trustee.

The ensuing stability has a most beneficial influence and is felt throughout the whole oil industry. The representatives of the oil men to whom I talked were most enthusiastic in their approval both of the methods employed and of the results produced. Their experience has been continent-wide and their view that from a business standpoint the Osage situation is the most satisfactory in their whole business career is most significant.

However one may construe the Osage allotment act, it is evident that in 1931 these satisfactory conditions will be disturbed unless there should be further action by Congress. In some respects the act of 1906 is contradictory as to just what the changes will be. Paragraph 7 of section 2, quoted above, states "that the oil, gas, coal, and other minerals upon said allotted lands shall become the property of the individual owner of said land" upon April 8, 1931, "unless otherwise provided for by act of Congress." Standing alone, this would seem to make it clear that, without congressional enactment, whoever happens to be the surface owner at the designated date would also own all the mineral at that time.

On the other hand, section 5 of the act, also quoted above, declares

That at the expiration of the period of twenty-five years from and after the first day of January, 1907, the lands, mineral interests, and moneys herein pro