of laws relating to Alaska; provision for a final-proof-taking officer; equalization of fees in public-land proceedings; and provision for an additional Assistant Commissioner, are again renewed and urged upon the especial attention of Congress.

OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

The progress made in administering the affairs of the Indian Bureau during the past fiscal year has been most gratifying. As a first essential it has been the aim to promote a reciprocal attitude on the part of the Indians, to bring them in friendly touch with the administration of the bureau, and to establish a cordial cooperation between them and those laboring in their behalf.

A comprehensive study is being made of the physical conditions surrounding the Indian problem in general, and each reservation or locality, considered in the light of a unit, is being analyzed with especial reference to its particular needs and possibilities.

Many responses are being received from representative members of the several tribes to whom letters have been addressed inviting suggestions for their tribal and individual betterment. From these much is learned of the Indians' material and moral welfare which, added to the information gleaned through other avenues of investigation, furnishes a basis for an intelligent study of the industrial, educational, and moral improvement of this race of people.

The machinery of the bureau, with some modifications and im provements, is ample to provide for all educational requirements, and automatically promotes moral standards. It is through the enlargement of industrial activities, however, that the greater number of Indians residing on the reservations must be awakened from the apathy into which they have been driven through several decades of misdirection. Hundreds of these people are to-day in the advance guard of the country's history makers; but on the reservations are too many leading an idle, aimless life. To reach this great mass of human beings and instill within them ambitions for enlightened comfort and contentment is the serious task at hand, to meet which there must be opened to them the gates leading to the several avenues of industrial pursuits. Heretofore and more particularly previous to the beginning of the last fiscal year and excepting some instances where tribal funds were available for the purpose, this has been impossible through the lack of funds. The Congress in the last Indian appropriation act provided reimbursable funds of $725,000 with which to continue this crusade and the Indian Bureau is now most actively engaged in advancing reservation Indians along industrial lines.

During the past year there were expended about $1,000,000 in the purchase of live stock and in the upbreeding of the Indians' cattle,

horses, and sheep. This sum, however, came principally from the Indians' own funds and was used for tribal purposes. In some instances a small part of these tribal funds was advanced to individual Indians to assist them in procuring farming equipment. The use of reimbursable funds is not, however, an experiment, as it has been proven through the use of smaller sums than that appropriated by the last Congress that such a fund can be used beneficially and with practically positive assurances of reimbursement. The first fund of this nature was appropriated by the act of April 30, 1908, for use at the Fort Belknap Reservation in the sum of $25,000. The total purchases made from this fund aggregated nearly $30,000, and there is still due from Indians a little over $9,000, made possible by reloaning the reimbursements. In 1910 $15,000 was appropriated for similar use at the Tongue River Reservation; in 1911 $30,000 was appropriated and apportioned by the Indian Office among 14 different superintendencies, and in the act of June 30, 1913, $100,000 was made available for this use, with which last-mentioned amount the Indian Office has been enabled to lay out a comprehensive plan for assisting the individual Indians to embark in some profitable industrial pursuit. Never before in the history of the Indian Office has the future of the Indians looked so promising.

Educational facilities and opportunities.—In addition to the large nonreservation schools, such as those at Carlisle, Pa.; Lawrence, Kans.; Chilocco, Okla.; Riverside, Cal.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Salem, Oreg., there are on the Indian reservations 217 day schools which are conducted similarly to the public schools in the several States. Through the encouragement of the Indian Bureau the Indian children have to a very large extent been induced to enter the public schools where available, and during the past fiscal year the increased enrollment in the public schools in some instances amounted to more than 100 per cent. Various forms of cooperation with the public schools have been employed, including payment of tuition for Indian children where the Indian pupils were in the minority, and in other cases where the greater number of pupils were Indian the payment by the State authorities for tuition for the white children. The total enrollment of Indians in the nonreservation, reservation boarding, day schools, mission, and public schools is 57,898.

Health conditions.-With the increased appropriations for the fiscal year 1914, much has been done in the way of improving the sanitary conditions of the Indians and providing sanatorium treatment for the diseased and afflicted. At the close of the fiscal year there were 50 hospitals, with a combined capacity of 1,400 patients, and 6 others under construction, and with the $300,000 appropriated for health work for the ensuing fiscal year, $100,000 is made available for hospital purposes. Plans are being completed for the construc

tion of seven new hospitals, at a cost ranging from $12,000 to $15,000 each. These facilities are hardly adequate for a population of over 300,000 persons with a high percentage of tuberculosis and trachoma, which two diseases are being combated with every facility at hand. Mining operations.-The oil situation in Oklahoma became a very perplexing problem during the past year, due somewhat to the extensive production and a waning market. Wells of large volume · in the Cushing district brought in a little over a year ago were augmented by the discovery of another large pool near Healdton. The latter development, however, is of an inferior grade but of great value for fuel. The price of oil has gradually receded from $1.05 per barrel in February, 1914, to 55 cents in October of this year. Efforts are being made to bring about a diminution of oil development and production until such time as the demands for oil shall become greater. The Indian Office is cooperating with the Bureau of Mines in an endeavor to prevent the waste of oil and gas in Oklahoma, it having been shown that thousands of barrels of oil were lost during the past year in the Healdton field alone. The loss in natural gas has been, generally speaking, through a wanton disregard by the producers of the value of this commodity. The operators generally were seeking oil for which there was a market, and the natural gas, being unmarketable, was merely a side issue.

Native industries.-The Navajo blanket industry, which furnishes to this tribe an annual income of $600,000, is receiving attention not only as to the extension of the industry but the procuring of an adequate market for the product. Basketry and lace-making are industries promising remunerative employment to the Indian women, and plans are under way in the Indian Office to induce the Indians to make a better grade of articles and to create a better market and consequently better prices.

Irrigation of Indian lands.-On 56 different reservations there are 62 principal irrigation projects or systems covering an area of 900,000 acres; homes of 20 acres each for 45,000 Indians, with an estimated value of $72,000,000 on which there has been expended $8,500,000, and which will require a further expenditure of $13,000,000 to complete. These are exclusive of the projects in Montana under construction by the Reclamation Service. The irrigable lands belonging to the Indians form one of the principal sources of wealth of these people, and also form probably the best opportunity for these people to become individually self-supporting. In some sections of the country the Indians are better acquainted with irrigation farming than the whites in the same communities, and they are making great success in this line. In other sections they will have to be taught the advantages of this method of farming and a considerable part of the reimbursable appropriation will be used

to place individual Indians in the way of making use of this resource. One of the most important irrigation developments with which the Indian Office is confronted is in what is generally known as the Papago country in southern Arizona. The available water supply in this section lies in an underground stratum and the development necessarily will be somewhat more costly than where the gravity system can be used, but the climatic conditions fully warrant the expenditure, and the necessities of the Indians demand it. There are about 10,000 Indians who will be benefited by this underground water development in southern Arizona, and these are a people who have occupied the country for hundreds of years.

Five Civilized Tribes.-The year marked the practical extinguishment of the tribal form of government for the Cherokees. The tribal form of government was abolished at the close of the last fiscal year, all tribal officers having tendered their resignations, effective as of that date. All these resignations were accepted except that of the chief, whose temporary continuance in office will be necessary to complete the disposal of the few remaining details incident to the dissolution of the tribal government. The force of tribal attorneys employed under authority of the act of Congress of June 30, 1913, has accomplished much in the way of prosecuting those who had defrauded minor Indians, and in recovering estates, causing the removal of dishonest and incompetent guardians, procuring substitution of substantial bonds for worthless ones, and saving many thousands of dollars to Indian minors, and directing the investment for their benefit. These direct results will have a beneficial moral influence on the whole community and will go far toward preventing a repetition of dishonest methods in the future.

Purchasing supplies.-The Indian Bureau purchased last year approximately $3,500,000 in goods and supplies. Efforts are on foot to effect economy in the purchasing of Indian supplies through (1) the securing of contractors of reputable commercial standing, (2) the selection of the best articles obtainable for the money and of a standard to meet the needs of the service, (3) a most thorough inspection of deliveries, and (4) a development of short cuts with quick results, both as to the placing of the order and delivery to the destination. The Bureau of Standards, the Bureau of Mines, and the Bureau of Animal Industry are lending material assistance in the inspection and selection of purchases with which the respective bureaus are intimately acquainted. In order that the purchasing of Indian supplies might have the undivided attention of a force organized solely for the purpose, there has been created in the Office of Indian Affairs a purchase division to which has been assigned the complete study and devising of plans for the effecting of economies in this line.

Individual Indian moneys.-These funds are derived principally from the sale of allotted and inherited lands, lease accruals, the sale of timber, oil and gas royalties, and earnings of outing pupils. At the close of the fiscal year these individual funds on deposit in bonded banks amounted to $13,000,000. These deposits draw interest averaging about 3 per cent. In addition to the individual funds, there are approximately $5,000,000 of tribal funds on deposit in bonded banks. During the year two of these banks were closed by order of the Comptroller of the Currency, and since the beginning of the policy of depositing Indian moneys in banks there have been in all five failures but no loss has accrued to the Indian depositors, either of principal or interest, as the sureties have in every instance been adequate and have paid all Indian deposits.

A home for each Indian.-The initial step in separating the Indian from reservation or tribal life is the allotment to each of a tract of land. Since the passage of the general allotment act in 1887, the making of allotments to Indians has progressed continuously and at the end of the last fiscal year there were a total of 212,190 allotments made. During the last year, 4,066 allotments were approved and 8,521 selections for allotment were made. Under the several laws relating to allotments, the areas differed from 10 acres of intensivefarming irrigable land on the Colorado River and Yuma Reservations to 320 acres of agricultural or 640 acres of grazing land in the more rigorous northern climate occupied by the Sioux. Except in the southwestern country, particularly in Arizona and New Mexico, the dividing up of the reservations has been nearly completed. Following the allotments in severalty comes the next step in individualizing the Indian and the making of him a home builder. This is now the real work of the Indian Bureau. To this end, there are employed in the Indian Bureau 450 farmers, each assigned to a district, whose duty it is to instruct the Indian allottee in agriculture, and reports show that at the end of the last fiscal year there were 29,482 Indians engaged in farming an acreage of 604,518.

The field matron.-There is no more potent factor in the development of Indian home life than the field matron. It is not enough that she should be familiar with the duties of housekeeping, but she must be endowed with a sympathetic nature and missionary spirit; she must teach the Indian mothers how to feed and care for their infants, in health and in sickness; she must teach them to love their homes and to be appreciative of comfortable and even beautiful surroundings; she must create in them the desire and need of that excellence in home building which brings happiness and contentment. For this purpose, the Indian Bureau has apportioned $60,000 from the appropriation of $450,000 for industrial work, and is expending