REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C., September 30, 1919. SIR: I have the honor to submit this, the eighty-eighth annual report of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919. RELEASING INDIANS FROM GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION. COMPETENCY.-For several years I have recognized as of urgent administrative importance the separation of competent Indians from the incompetent and their release from Government control. The main agencies in the accomplishment of this end are the work of field competency commissions, and a consistent practice of the general policy of declaring competent all Indians of one-half or less Indian blood who are able-bodied, 21 years of age, and not mentally deficient. The result of these activities shows that during the fiscal years 1917, 1918, and 1919, 10,956 Indians have been declared competent. The effect of the new policy on the issuance of fee patents is clearly shown by reason of the fact that under the acts of Congress approved May 8, 1906 (34 Stats. L., 182), and June 25, 1910 (36 Stats. L., 855), 9,894 fee patents were issued to Indians from 1906 to 1916, a period of 10 years, while during the past 3 years there have been issued 10,956 fee simple patents. Consequently, there have been issued more fee simple patents to Indians under the new policy within a period of 3 years than during the preceding 10 years. There is no longer any doubt that with adequate provision for the expense of proper inquiry as to competency and with faithful adherence to the broadened declaration of policy we shall speedily sift the Indian who should stand on his own merits, pay taxes, discharge the service and exercise the freedom of citizenship, from those who will require the protection of the Government for some time before taking on such responsibilities. Of the large number of Indians still under the supervision of this bureau, it should be understood that fully 75,000 are situated practically the same as the reservation Navajo, Hualapai, Hopi, and |