existence, and it is doubtful if the lessees would assent to cancellations at this time at all; or if they did, it would be only on the payment of heavy bonuses, and they would be deprived of their present rights respecting water and dumps.

The most vital matter for these Indians, however, is that of the expiration, but little over a year hence, of all of their restructions. I do not think this should be allowed to occur as respects possibly 40 or 50 out of the restricted 102, for the reason that about that number are doubtless incompetent to manage their business affairs. I talked to some of them, and thus my opinion is based on personal observation.

Upon the passage of the act of March 3, 1909, this agency was visited by a competency commission. The act provided for the removal of restrictions on the allotted lands of any applying_adult member of any of these tribes, except the Modocs, a 40-acre homestead allotment being excepted. Many competency certificates were issued, but because of lack of funds the work of the commission was terminated before the task was completed. A good many of the Indians were not located on the reservations and could not be investigated at all. Hence many of the most competent persons are still classed as incompetents. I would recommend that this work be resumed at once and all those capable of looking after themselves be declared competent and released from further supervision, excepting possibly their 40-acre homesteads in some instances. The numbers are so few, and legislation being necessary, it might be a practical way for Congress to handle the matter to pass an act declaring competent all of the Quapaws, except the 40 or 50 who might be found to be incompetent, naming these latter. As to them the period should be extended for 10 years, anyhow, and probably longer. The Indian Office should take steps to find out immediately who these incompetents are. This is the course advocated by Supt. Mayer.

Some of these incompetent people are the recipients of very large sums of money from mining royalties. One man I talked to, who can understand almost no English, and who, of course, can neither read nor write, is entitled to about $165,000 per annum, over $400 per day. He has been in the clutches of designing people, who got from him a power of attorney, and there is now pending a suit to recover some $175,000 of his property that was squandered. Such persons surely are entitled to protection at the hands of the Gov

ernment.

Revenue from mining is a very recent development. The great bulk of it has been received for 41 Indians only. The figures are as follows:

It will be seen readily that there is a good deal of labor involved in making these collections correctly and in the necessary accounting. Yet the force of the agency has not been increased. In addition to this the administration is very much hampered by the headquarters being at Wyandotte, about 20 miles by road from the mining region. There is no available railroad connection. Every consideration of

efficiency and economy demands that these interests should be managed from Miami, the business center of this part of the Joplin district. Miami is an important business town within a few miles of the mines and with direct electric and steam transportation there.

Wyandotte is a rural village in an agricultural region totally disconnected from any of the important business activities involved. I strongly urge that the agency be removed to Miami, the expense. thereof and of the administration of all of these funds to be met by a percentage charge on the funds collected. I believe it is poor business training for the Indians and unethical theoretically for this work to be done at Government expense. These estates should pay the reasonable costs of their own administration. The principle has already been established elsewhere, as, for example, among the Chippewas by the act of January 14, 1889, and among the Osages, whose agency expenses are paid out of oil and gas royalties. According to Mr. Mayer, the Quapaws are quite satisfied for such a charge to be made.

If this course should be pursued, and the agency headquarters removed to Miami, probably some changes in the handling of the Wyandotte boarding school would be desirable. At the present time most of the children connected with this agency attend public schools. The results appear to be satisfactory, and the boarding school would have but little use if the Seneca Agency children alone were to be considered. Recently, however, this school has been filled up with children from the adjacent northern portion of the Cherokee Nation, the wild Spavinaw Hills region. Here the school facilities are most inadequate. According to the superintendent of schools for the Five Civilized Tribes, at Muskogee, there are three or four times as many children as are in attendance at Wyandotte now from sections where the children are getting scarcely any schooling at all. Many of these children understand no English, so limited are the facilities among them, and so long as these conditions exist the Wyandotte school should be continued for their benefit.

One other matter appears to require administrative attention. I have referred to the high mountains of chat, the refuse rock, which is accumulating around the mines. This is a finely crushed chert or flint rock and of excellent quality for road building, whether as a fine screenings surfacing or in the making of concrete. I can see no reason why a market for this material might not be secured and a material income derived from its sale. On inquiring I learned that there are frequent applications from would-be purchasers, but that no regulations respecting sales and authorizing them have been promulgated. I do not know the reason for this, as it must be evident that at this period of general activity in road construction is when advantage should be taken of the demand. There may be some legal obstacle. If that is the case, Congress should have been applied to to remedy the trouble. If there is nothing of that sort in the way, proper steps should be taken to remedy the existing conditions by departmental action, and that speedily. Respectfully submitted.

GEORGE VAUX, Jr., Chairman, Board of Indian Commissioners.

The honorable the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

APPENDIX R.

REPORT ON THE CANTONMENT INDIAN AGENCY, OKLA., BY HUGH L. SCOTT.

CONCHO, OKLA., June 1, 1920. SIR: I have the honor to inform you that I have completed an inspection of the school and agency at Cantonment, Okla. This district of the Cheyenne-Arapaho country is under the jurisdiction of Superintendent C. T. Coggeshall. The agency headquarters is at Cantonment, 70 miles up the North Fork of the Canadian River. I have lately traversed all of this section, part of which is under the jurisdiction of the Concho Agency and part under the Cantonment superintendency. I would respectfully refer you to my report of June 1, 1920, on the Concho district, more particularly my observations therein regarding the efforts of local white men to secure the consolidation of all the Cheyenne-Arapaho districts with a consolidated agency at Clinton, for the Cantonment Indians are even more excited over this matter than are the Concho Indians and oppose it with vigor.

They want the districts to remain as they are, for they are much pleased with Superintendent Coggeshall, who is most sympathetic and tactful in his dealings with them, and without sympathy and tact it is impossible to be a success as a superintendent. Mr. Coggeshall is much interested in the welfare of the Indians who have been placed in his charge and has made a profound impression upon them. If it ever becomes desirable to consolidate the districts, the headquarters should be at Concho.

The Cantonment school site is very attractive, with a wide view, and seems to be healthful. The school is well managed and the children are happy and contented. Their food is good and is plentiful, with the exception of milk, which should be furnished in plenty from nontuberculous cows (tested), for all young children need milk to thrive, and especially those with a tendency to tuberculosis, which a large proportion of these children are reported to have in some form. There is no place to segregate those having this dreaded disease from those who are well. There is no position for a nurse; no room for a sick person anywhere about the school; no position for a field matron to go about bettering the condition of the Indian homes, all of which should be immediately provided, and the physician should have an examination room where he can attend to sick children with some degree of privacy. All the accommodations for alleviating and preventing disease are very meager and are not a credit to the department. I concur in the recommendations set forth by Dr. E. E. Hart, the agency physician, at my request, as follows:

Referring to the health conditions of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Agency and Cantonment school, I will say that tuberculosis and trachoma are the most prevalent of all diseases, tuberculosis causing the most destruction of life and health. There are now in the Cantonment school 85 children of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Of this number 7 Cheyenne and 5 Arapaho children have tuberculosis in some form. The type of tuberculosis most generally found here is glandular. We have at present 7 Arapaho and 9 Cheyenne children in the school under treatment.

A number of tubercular children in school require daily attention and treatment in order that they may be kept in condition to attend school, while the others are in an inactive stage of the disease, which sooner or later will develop to a degree which will call for daily treatment.

Since January the 1st of this year 31 students and former students of this school have died from tuberculosis, none of whom had arrived at the age of 25 years. The greater proportion were between the ages of 12 and 18.

We have always been compelled to turn most cases of the active stages of tuberculosis out of school on account of not having any place to care for them. I do not think it advisable to retain tubercular patients in school or keep thei in the regular dormitory with other children.

I am of the opinion that if a small hospital with regular equipment had been established here, so that proper care, food, exercise, and treatment could have been given, at least 50 per cent of the above-mentioned number could have been saved. I am basing this statement on long observation, together with 16 years of active work among these Indians. I have observed that if a child does not contract tuberculosis in early life, or before the age of 17 or 18, the average lives of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians are no shorter than their white neighbor.

To make a conservative estimate of the number of tubercular cases among the two tribes, I would say that at least 30 per cent are affected, mostly the younger generation. Unless some arrangement or condition can be brought about for the better care and treatment of tubercular cases among the young Indians I can see nothing but physical destruction before these people.

A very large per cent of these Indians have trachoma. However, I believe the trachoma situation has improved in the past five or six years owing to some of the newer methods which have been adopted by the Indian Office for the treatment of this disease. There are yet a large number of trachoma cases who are in such condition they can not be regularly treated except in a hospital. The most needed, and what appeals to me as being the most valuable, asset this agency and school could possess at the present time would be a moderatesized but well-equipped hospital and a trained nurse. Scarcely a day passes that we do not have one or more children from the school sick, who we are compelled to keep in the regular dormitory or put in some small out-of-the-way room, to be cared for and nursed by some employee who is usually burdened with other duties, and in many cases whose ability along the lines of nursing is very poor and often unsatisfactory.

The school accommodates 100 children now. This could be increased to 150 by a small building for employees, who are now occupying space in the school buildings, and by a few minor repairs. A gymnasium should be provided for the children to have some place to exercise in stormy weather.

Of the 733 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians enrolled in this agency, 232 are of school age. The number of children attending school is 134, of whom 84 attend the Cantonment school, 56 go to other schools, 10 have been excused because of poor health, 25 live in other agencies, and 44, most of whom are little children, do not attend any school. The school is well administered by a competent, diligent, and harmonious force. The same conditions touching Indian children of the Concho district attending public schools are observable on the Cantonment Agency.

I found, too, that the Cantonment Indians are leasing their farming and grazing lands instead of working and using them themselves, and are attempting to live on the proceeds of rent money with the same undesirable results observable on the Concho Agency. The Cantonment Indians lease 68,106 acres of land at an average annual rental of $2.20 an acre for agricultural and 78 cents for grazing land. Of the 10,020 acres not leased, 4,100 acres are farmed by Indians and 5,920 acres are grazed by Indian stock. Respectfully submitted.

HUGH L. SCOTT, Member, Board of Indian Commissioners.

The honorable the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

APPENDIX S.

REPORT ON THE CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO INDIAN AGENCY, OKLA., BY HUGH L. SCOTT.

CONCHO, OKLA., June 1, 1920. SIR: I have the honor to report that I have just completed an inspection of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency and find matters moving forward quietly under the competent direction of Mr. Charles Ruckman, formerly chief clerk under Mr. William Scott, recently deceased. The agency headquarters of this district are at Concho, Okla. The old agency at Darlington, near by, used to be the headquarters of the whole Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation. I am not aware of the reasons for the present subdivision.

The consolidation of its districts into one, with headquarters at Clinton, Okla., is being agitated. This movement originated, so far as I have been able to learn, with the business men of Clinton, for their own advantage. Certainly no Government or Indian purpose can be well served by a change to Clinton. There are suitable buildings here, requiring but little for repair and extension, whereas there are no buildings for the purpose at Clinton, and the change can only be made at a great unnecessary expense. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who have spoken to me about this proposed consolidation have shown much perturbation at the prospect of a change. They are satisfied with their officials, who are treating them with kindness and sympathy. A decision adverse to this scheme to move the agency to Clinton should be arrived at soon and conveyed to these Indians to allay their anxiety on the subject. Going about through the country, I noticed the crops are doing well, but that most of them are being raised by white men under lease (acres leased) from the Indians. These Indians, through the superintendent, lease 58,102 acres of agricultural land, the annual income amounting to $82,847, making the average rate of rental $1.44 per acre; of the grazing land, 71,789 acres are leased for $53,841, at the average rate of 75 cents an acre. This information is taken from the annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, and I am informed the rental has doubled for the current year. Most of the Indians have good houses and improvements, but are living almost altogether on their payments and lease money, doing but little work themselves. Of course, this is unavoidable in the cases of the old and infirm, but a way should be devised to get the young and able-bodied to go to work and cultivate their own ground. There seems to be a disposition to give Indians their patents in fee too fast; a homestead should be reserved that they can not alienate for many years to come. Although many of them seem able to take care of their own affairs, in reality but extremely few are able, and after they have alienated their last piece of land they will be beggars in their own country. There is a great pressure to bring this land to a taxable condition as soon as possible, but it certainly will not benefit a neighborhood to get this land taxed in that way if its present owner should become a charge on the community, causing an expense greater in many ways than the tax will cover.