acre on all who come into membership to defray the necessary expenses. The printed list of directors and officers is not one which includes any well-known Indian, but rather comprises lawyers, bankers, and real estate dealers. On inquiry I learned that probably not one of them had his home outside of the excepted town sites. Among other things this circular states is that purchasers have bought land with the express understanding that the restrictions over minerals would necessarily expire in 1931. The inaccuracy of this statement is demonstrated above.

Even this organization may be changing its attitude, however, for one of the most prominent men, whose name appears on its letterhead, told me personally that he thought the period should be extended to 1956. The Osage tribal council is eager for this action to be taken, and officially has demanded that all Osage funds shall be removed from any bank whose officers oppose what it conceives to be the best interests of the tribe. Such agitation may very possibly influence public opinion and the views of men who are in the banking business. In any event, opposition from such a source as land speculators can scarcely be deemed worthy of weight. It is too evident what is its foundation.

I do not feel that the extension of the mineral trust period is in any wise inconsistent with what I have urged earlier in this report. From the very nature of things the holding of the mineral resources under one management, in the interest of conservation, of economy, and of efficiency requires that the business details should be looked after by a few men. It is so in our large corporations, some of which have upward of 100,000 stockholders.

The elective Osage tribal council has certain functions to perform in connection with the leases, and in this way all the members of the tribe can feel they have a part in administration. The members of the tribe who have been declared competent will receive their shares of the proceeds directly, just as they would the dividends on the stock of any corporation which they might hold. In like manner the shares of the incompetent Indians would be employed for their benefit, as heretofore set forth.

In my former report (1. c., p. 22) I suggested that it would be wise policy for this Osage oil field to be taken over by the Government as a further source of fuel supply for the Navy. No action was taken in line with this recommendation until very recently. Now several considerable areas have been withdrawn from lease with the object of establishing a naval supply. This action is much to be commended, but the Indians must be adequately compensated for their property so

taken.

There are probably to-day no more difficult problems awaiting solution in Indian administration than those relating to the Osages. Seemingly vital objections may be offered to almost any course that may be suggested. It is my mature judgment, after having given considerable study for over four years last past to these problems, that the following out of the foregoing recommendations are the essential steps to take. There may be other things that ought to be done; these are what I deem to be advisable. I would repeat in brief:

First. With all promptness remove the restriction from all competent Osages. At the same time place all incompetents under more

complete Government supervision, discontinuing the payments directly to them of all funds except an insignificant amount to be allowed them periodically as pin money, the balance to be expended under intelligent supervision for their benefit or invested for them if not required at the moment. No personal property or real estate of such restricted Indians should be subject to sale or mortgage by them during the period of disability, which period should continue till they individually have been declared competent by the Secretary of the Interior.

Second. The mineral trust period should be extended for a further term of 25 years from April 8, 1931.

Third. Appropriate legislation should be enacted by Congress at once to carry out these broad recommendations and all their corollaries.

Respectfully submitted.

GEORGE VAUXx, Jr.,

Chairman, Board of Indian Commissioners.

The honorable the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

APPENDIX Q.

REPORT ON THE SENECA, OR QUAPAW, INDIAN AGENCY, OKLA., BY GEORGE VAUX, JR.

BRYN MAWR, PA., June 29, 1920.

SIR: In the extreme northeastern corner of the State of Oklahoma is an Indian superintendency which has several unique features. It is sometimes called the Seneca, and sometimes the Quapaw Agency. It comprises all of Ottawa County lying east of the Neosho River and a strip of the northern portion of Delaware County as well. The country is hilly, being an extension to the westward of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. To the south come the Spavinaw Hills of the Cherokee country. There are numerous streams flowing through the rather deeply cut valleys. The northern portion is perhaps not so rugged as that farther south.

The river bottoms are rich alluvial soil, whilst some of the rolling uplands are also quite fertile. Some timber of considerable size still stands on the hillsides. The northern portion is included in the important lead and zinc mining field, known as the Joplin district, and there are many extremely valuable mines. During the period of great activity in these metals caused by the war there was a tremendous development there, which is now somewhat subsiding, as the price of zinc is only one-third or one-fourth what it was but a few months back. Lead, however, has held up in price. As the region produces ores of both of these metals, the working of the mines still continues on a very large scale. This mineral development has introduced some important and critical problems of administration which require attention and solution.

It is an interesting fact that under this agency, which is located at Wyandotte, are assembled a number of different tribes. Most of these remnants have their own separate reservations, though as a matter of administration they are pretty effectually blended.

Taking up the different tribes and beginning at the north, first come the Quapaws. This is a southwestern Siouan Tribe, supposed to have been closely associated with the Omaha, Kansas, Ponca, and Osage Indians, probably in the lower Ohio Valley near the Mississippi. They moved southward along the latter river. According to early explorers their territory was along the Mississippi, north of the Arkansas River. The present State of Arkansas derived its name from this tribe, which was formerly called the Akansea. By treaty in 1824 the Quapaws were moved from the Arkansas region to the Caddo country, which proved unsuitable for them. They gradually drifted back to their old home, and in 1833 the Government moved them west of the Missouri State line. By a treaty in 1867 they were located on their present reservation. In 1878 most of them joined the Osages, but about 1893 they were again consolidated on their own reservation, which comprises 56,245 acres, all allotted. There are now 332 Quapaws. There are 138 living and 98 deceased allottees. Thirty-six of the former have had their restrictions removed, leaving 102 whose allotments are restricted. The restrictions will expire by limitation in the autumn of 1921.

West and south of the Quapaw come the Peorias. These Indians are all citizens. Their reservation comprises 43,334 acres, all allotted. As at present they are really a consolidation of the remnants of the Peorias, the Kaskaskias, the Piankashaws, the Weas, and the Miamis. There are no very definite recent statistics relating to them. In 1916 they are reported as numbering 393. These Indians being all citizens, the agency has ceased to have any active control over them, and I paid no attention to them at the time of my visit.

At the east, immediately south of the Peorias, come the Modocs. They are a Pacific coast tribe closely related to the Klamaths. From the beginning of settlements in the far West they gained a bad repu tation by their frequent attacks on white settlers. In 1864 they ceded their lands and moved onto the Klamath Reservation. They were never satisfied, however, and in 1870 the more turbulent element returned to their old country and refused to go back. The attempts of the Government to return them to the reservation culminated in the Modoc war of 1872-73. This was fought among the lava beds of the California-Oregon boundary, and resulted in the dispersion of the Indians and the hanging of a number of their leaders. Thereupon the tribe was divided, and a part of it was sent to the present location in Oklahoma. There are now less than 40 of them in Oklahoma, quite a number of the tribe having been returned to Oregon a few years ago. This reservation comprises 3,966 acres, all allotted. South of the Peorias and west of the Modocs, and extending to the Spring River, come the Shawnees. Their name means "south" or the "southerners." They were first heard of in South Carolina and Tennessee, but about 1670 the South Carolina band migrated to what is now Lancaster County, Pa., and elsewhere along the Susquehanna River. Thence they moved west along the Ohio Valley about the middle of the eighteenth century, joining the Tennessee band which had been driven north and west by other Indians some 20 years previously. Wars ensued in which their chieftain, Tecumseh, took part, including the Battle of Tippecanoe, in 1811. Subsequently, in different bands, they removed to a reservation in Kansas. In 1845 a large 11760-INT 1920-VOL 2- -9

section of the tribe left Kansas and settled in Oklahoma. They became known as the Absentee Shawnees and are now located at the Shawnee Agency, southeast of Oklahoma City. Some of the Shawnees were incorporated with the Cherokees in 1869. Most of the rest of the Shawnees, mixed with a band of Senecas living in Ohio, in 1831 made a treaty with the Government and moved to Kansas. In 1867 those lands were given up by treaty and the whole band removed to their present location. They are known as the Eastern Shawnees. They now number 160. Their reservation comprises 13,816 acres, all allotted.

West of the Shawnees come the Ottawas. Their original location, was in the Georgian Bay region near Lake Huron, in Canada. They were driven from there by the Iroquois after the destruction of the Hurons in 1649. They ultimately located along the shores of Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Pontiac was a chieftain of this tribe, which was engaged in various frontier wars till about 1812. A series of treaties, including that of Chicago of September 26, 1833, ended in their agreeing to move to northeast Kansas, ceding their eastern lands. In 1867, by treaty, the Ottawas were removed from Kansas to their present reservation. There are 270 of them, and their reservation comprises 12,995 acres, all allotted. In addition, there are possibly 4,500 scattered Ottawas in the lower peninsula of Michigan and in Canada around Lake Huron. The important town of Miami is at the extreme northwest corner of the Ottawa Reservation.

The Wyandottes, who come next to the south, are another remnant of the Huron confederacy, and came originally from the Georgian Bay region. They were driven from this section by the Iroquois, their hereditary enemies, about 1649, going first to the vicinity of Mackinac, and thence to Green Bay, Wis. There the band divided, one part fleeing to the vicinity of Quebec, whilst the rest went to the Mississippi, only to be driven back by the Sioux. After settling in the vicinity of Detroit and Sandusky, there were wars with the whites. About 1745 they became known by their present name and after 1815 were given lands in Ohio. In 1842 these lands were sold, and they removed to Wyandotte County, Kans. By treaty in 1855 they were declared citizens, but by another treaty of February 23, 1867, their tribal relations and organization were restored, and they were removed to their present location. There are 481 Wyandottes. Their reservation comprises 20,942 acres, all allotted.

Finally, at the south come the Senecas. They apparently are not connected directly with the present Senecas of New York State, but are the remnant of a detached band of Iroquois, formerly called Mingos, who left the New York region prior to 1750 and formed settlements on the upper Ohio in proximity to the Shawnees. From that time their relations were with western tribes rather than with the Iroquois. They located near the present town of Sandusky, Ohio, and were later joined by Cayugas and some others and, forming a connection with the Shawnees, became known as the mixed Senecas and Shawnees. They sold their Ohio lands in 1831 and moved to Kansas, removing to their present reservation under the treaty of February 23, 1867. There are 481 Senecas. There are 41,813 acres in their reservation, all allotted.

I have thought it worth while to give these historical facts, as they are good illustrations of the roaming of nomadic peoples, and are

typical of the way in which our Indians have wandered. It is evident that as respects many of them there was no particular logical reason for their present grouping.

I spent three days in investigating conditions at the Seneca Agency just prior to my visit to the Osages, being accompanied by our assistant secretary, Mr. Henderson, to whom I am indebted for much of the historical data herein contained. We first spent a part of a day at Joplin, Mo., which is the center of this mining region, and later were met at Miami by Supt. Carl F. Mayer. The agency is at Wyandotte, 15 miles from Miami, at which point there is a subagency. We drove over considerable portions of this jurisdiction, and also spent some time at the Government boarding school at Wyandotte. The impressions found of the conditions as a whole were excellent. The Indians were mostly living in neat homes, and farming their allotments. A general air of prosperity prevailed. About one farm house out of every three was an Indian home.

With the exception of the Quapaws no problems appear to require much attention at this time, and I have no recommendations to offer respecting them, save as to the policy of the Wyandotte school and the location of the agency. Supt. Mayer seems to have matters well in hand. He impressed me as a capable, intelligent, and painstaking official, who is very well qualified for the duties of his position. His corps of assistants is small but efficient.

With the Quapaws, however, or some of them, there are serious questions arising. As stated above, there are living (June 19, 1920) 102 restricted Quapaws. By limitation all restrictions expire in the fall of 1921. Possibly no particular harm would result from no further action being taken in that regard were it not for the fact that some of the most active lead and zinc mining operations now in existence anywhere are right on the allotments of these restricted Indians. The most important camp at the present time is Picher, where the mining operations are being carried on on a very large scale. The crudest kind of a rude mining town has grown up here, attracting, it is said, large numbers of the criminal element. Everywhere the landscape is variegated by the ugly, gaunt, mine buildings, whilst enormous piles of "chat," as the finely crushed refuse rock is called, are growing by leaps and bounds day by day.

The sudden influx of the large population attracted to these mining camps has raised acute problems of housing, and the necessity of suitable permanent town sites is being urged by certain interests. I am inclined to believe that it is not desirable to establish such. I have been more or less familiar with conditions in the Joplin district for 30 years past. Experience there has shown the ores are rather speedily exhausted and then a given mining camp shortly becomes deserted. It hardly seems wise to lay out permanent towns, going through with the formalities necessary to procure valid legal titles, when experience shows that it is not unlikely that within five or ten years the ore will be exhausted and the whole site abandoned.

The present leasing system would appear to me to be adequate to the situation. There will also be more serious complications in providing for the discharge of mine water and the refuse chat than there are at present. By authority of act of Congress mining leases are made for 10 years and include the surface. Many of these are in