million sheep and goats on this reservation. To obtain food and water for this stock is no small problem, and available funds have been spent in sinking and equipping new wells. The Navajo country, as well as that occupied by the Papago, presents a problem somewhat peculiar. Large areas covered with forage more or less scant cannot be used for pasture, owing to the distance to water for drinking purposes, there being but few living streams or springs in this entire country. Wherever underground water can be developed by small and frequently deep wells, it means the utilization of forage that otherwise would be wasted. The Indians eagerly avail themselves of these additional facilities and frequently, when a new well is nearing completion, their herds of sheep, goats, and cattle may be found awaiting the expected water supply. Additional funds are urgently needed for further development in this most worthy cause. Thousands of acres affording reasonably good pasturage could be profitably utilized if water can be made available for stock watering purposes. The Indians themselves would not only thus be greatly benefited, but it would add in no small degree to our meat supply.

PUEBLO.-Aid has been extended to the Pueblo of New Mexico with their small and ancient irrigation projects. Sanitation in their villages has been improved in some instances by the installation of domestic water supply, drainage and sewage systems.

FORESTRY.

The signing of the armistice with Germany brought an abrupt close to the preparations for the production of airplane material on a large scale on the Quinaielt and Siletz Indian Reservations. The discharge of men in engineer units in America and the return of men from overseas in the early months of 1919, has facilitated a gradual reorganization of the forestry branch of the service. The great increase in salaries in private employment has made it difficult to obtain and hold competent men. However, plans have been perfected for effective timber cutting operations, and in the spring of 1920 the work on valuation surveys will be resumed.

No extensive timber cruising was undertaken during the year. A small party made a careful examination of the timber on allotments of the Siletz Reservation in order to determine the best methods of selling the timber. The scattered location of the allotments on that reservation and the release of government control over many allotments has made it difficult to effect advantageous timber sales. Conditions are not favorable for an offering of timber at this time, but the service is now in possession of the information required for future offerings. Throughout the year a cruiser was engaged in a valuation of the timber and land of public land allotments under the jurisdiction of the Greenville Indian School in

northern California. This examination established the fact that there had been trespass on a number of these allotments, and afforded the service a basis for the settlement of the trespass claims and the sale of a large number of allotments on advantageous terms.

The larger timber sales of the year were the eastern division unit on the Tulalip Reservation consisting of 65,000,000 feet, the Omak unit of 25,000,000 feet on the Colville Reservation, the Stinking Lake unit of 25,000,000 on the Jicarilla Reservation, and the Northern Spring Creek unit of 26,000,000 on the Klamath Reservation. A sale of 6,000,000 feet known as the Big Bend unit on the Klamath was made late in the year, and the Camas Creek unit of 24,000,000 feet on the Flathead Reservation was advertised for the receipt of bids.on July 15, 1919. Minor sales of alloted timber were made on the Coeur d'Alene, Flathead, Fort Lapwai, Leech Lake, Nett Lake, and Skokomish Reservations. Extensive lumbering operations were conducted under former sales on the Bad River, Flathead, Jicarilla, Klamath, L'Anse, and Lac Courte Oreille Reservations. On the Winchester unit on the Nez Perce Reservation which was sold in June, 1918, operations were begun within four months. The Apache Lumber Co. has been engaged in erecting a large mill within the area purchased by it on the Fort Apache Reservation in 1917. The railroad from Holbrook, Ariz., to the mill location has been completed, and it is expected that the mill will begin operation on a large scale in the autumn of 1919. Preparations have been made by the Deer Park Lumber Co. to begin cutting in the autumn of 1919 on the large Chamokane unit on the Spokane Reservation purchased by it in July, 1918. Logging operations have been conducted during the year on the Ford unit on the Spokane Reservation. Approximately 30,000,000 feet have been cut under the contract of the International Lumber Co. on the Red Lake Reservation, practically all of which was within the area that was severely burned in the spring of 1917. Only about 500,000 feet of the timber burned on the point between the Red Lakes in 1917 remain uncut, the timber most injured by fire having been cut during the logging season of 1917-18 and 1918-19, and delivered to the agency sawmill for manufacture. Detailed information as to the amount of timber cut on each reservation will be found in the forestry portion of the statistical appendix to this report.

ROAD AND BRIDGE WORK.

Good roads in the industrial welfare and progress of the Indians are of equal importance as among the whites. A more intelligent and comprehensive system of laying out and maintaining highways on the reservations is being developed under the Congressional appropriations available for this purpose, and as the Indians are more

and more appreciating these essentials of modern economical development, greater progress is anticipated.

Specific appropriations by Congress for road and bridge work were available during the year as follows:

Some of these appropriations for road and bridge work are made reimbursable from tribal funds of the Indians which may hereafter be deposited in the United States Treasury, while others provide that the money shall be available only on condition that the county or State furnish a fixed part of the amount to be expended. Indian labor is largely employed for road work, with the exception of the necessary experienced supervision for which white foreman must be used.

ALLOTMENTS.

Allotment work on the Gila River Reservation in Arizona was continued. During the year ended June 30, 1919, 1,213 selections were made. These selections comprise both irrigable and nonirrigable lands. About 600 Indians are yet to be allotted on this reservation.

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Two hundred and seventy allotments were made on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon, of 80 acres each, under authority of the act of March 2, 1917 (39 Stat. L., 969-986). There are about 113 Indians t yet to be alloted.

Reallotments have been made through changes in, and exchanges of, allotments under the acts of October 19, 1888 (25 Stat. L., 611-612), and March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. L., 781-784), on various reservations. It is estimated that the number approved during the year will approximate about 1,000.

ALLOTMENTS IN NATIONAL FORESTS.

Allotments were made and approved to 16 Indians in various National Forests, comprising a total of approximately 1,200 acres, under section 31 of the act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. L., 855-859).

PUBLIC DOMAIN ALLOTMENTS.

A total of 315 allotments were made and approved covering land on the public domain in various States. These allotments comprise an area of 46,207 acres, and were made under section 4 of the act of February 8, 1887 (24 Stat. L., 388), as amended. A list of the reservations, number of allotments approved during the year, and the number made in the field and not yet approved, will be found in Table 26.

APPRAISEMENT AND REAPPRAISEMENT OF SURPLUS RESERVATION LANDS.

During the fiscal year many applications for appraisement and reappraisement of surplus reservation areas subject to homestead disposition have been handled, under authority of the act of June 6, 1912 (37 Stat. L., 125).

EXTENSION OF TRUST PERIOD.

The period of trust was extended by order of the President on allotments made to the Iowa Indians in Kansas and Nebraska; to the Kickapoo Indians in Oklahoma; to the Indians of the Hoopa Valley Reservation in California; and to the Indians of various ribes residing on the public domain, wherein the period of trust would otherwise have expired during the calendar year 1919. The period of trust was also extended on the land patented to the Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians in California.

SALES OF INDIAN LAND.

During the fiscal year, 970 pieces of Indian land involving an area of 115,367 acres have been sold for $2,803,232, an average of $25.65 per acre. This is the highest average price ever received from the sale of Indian land. The average price last year was $22 per acre.

LEASING.

The policy of leasing surplus agricultural land on the reservations, beyond that which the Indians themselves can cultivate to advantage, was continued during the year with good results, and contributed materially to the increased food production made necessary by war time demands. Perhaps the most conspicuous achievement along this line was the practical completion of the campaign to save the water rights on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, in Utah, inaugurated in 1915. At that time, there were approximately 80,000 acres of irrigable allotted land on that reservation, with only 250 able-bodied male Indians, 199 of whom were cultivating 7,138 acres

of land. Under the State law which Congress had made applicable, beneficial use had to be made of the water by June and July of this year, in default of which the right to use it would be lost to the Indians. Without water the land is practically worthless, but under irrigation it is immensely productive. As it was a physical impossibility for the Indians themselves to bring all this land under cultivation and thus save the water rights thereto, it was decided to supplement their efforts by leasing the surplus land to outsiders on liberal terms, the primary consideration being beneficial use of the water in the production of crops. One of our best field men was placed in charge of the reservation, and under his direction the campaign has been pursued aggressively until the present time, with the result that practically all the available land for which water could be supplied has been placed in cultivation and the water rights saved to the Indians.

FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, the business transactions of the Five Civilized Tribes involved the handling of a total sum of $32,486,805.55.

To date of June 30, 1919, 3,578,934.38 acres of tribal lands have been sold for $20,376,096.27, being $4,536,108.67 more than the appraised value and averaging $5.69 per acre. Of this total amount 3,458,071 acres of the unallotted land in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations sold for $19,775,436.08; in the Cherokee Nation 50,955 acres sold for $172,007.19; in the Creek Nation 65,645 acres sold for $382,211.63; in the Seminole Nation 4,263 acres sold for $40,441.37. From October 9 to October 17, 1918, a sale of the unallotted land in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek Nations, consisting of 250 tracts with an area of 9,110.21 acres, sold for $109,001.03, averaging $11.96 per acre.

The coal and asphalt mineral deposits in the. Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations were offered for sale at public auction to the highest bidder at McAlester, Okla., on December 11, 12, 13, and 14, 1918, and 54 tracts containing 42,103 acres sold for $1,363,645.17, leaving 463 tracts containing 399,004 acres appraised at $13,198,901.56. The Creek council house and square at Okmulgee, Okla., have been sold to the city of Okmulgee by the Creek Tribe for $100,000, which has been paid in full and deed has been executed and delivered.