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.

The estimated value of unsold tribal property in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations is as follows:

Tribal schools and improvements...

$105,000

2,280 town lots..

45,000

Unsold land, including timber land and surface of the segregated coal and asphalt land.

60,000

Amount uncollected from sale of coal and asphalt minerals...

956, 479

The estimated value of unsold tribal property in the Creek Nation is as follows:

The estimated value of unsold tribal property in the Seminole Nation is as follows:

Only one tract of 10 acres of tribal land in Ottawa County, Cherokee Nation, remains unsold and was reoffered for sale on July 24, 1919. During the fiscal year a competency commission has visited the members of the Creek Tribe of Indians at their homes to ascertain who are competent and capable of handling all business transactions affecting their allotted lands without departmental assistance. During 1919 restrictions on 57,003.28 acres of allotted land were removed, 38,606 being conditional removals and sold under supervision for $580,728.16.

During the year there were constructed for individual Indians by the field force, houses, barns, improvements, and equipments purchased at a cost of $338,816.78; live stock was purchased for $87,474.65 with other miscellaneous articles to the total value of $1,110,618.53.

The amount of money disbursed to individual Indians this year from land sales, equalization, royalties and per capita payments amounts to $7,812,331.44, an increase of more than $3,000,000 over the total for last year.

Special emphasis has been laid upon agriculture and stock raising putting under cultivation additional acreage, and the Indian farmer has responded even beyond expectations. As farmers, knitters, nurses, soldiers, purchasers of war securities, and sacrificers for the

common cause in the war, the Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes did their full part. They measured up to duty and danger. None did more.

Liberty loan bonds of the five issues were purchased from restricted individual Indian funds to an amount of $10,264,000, and war saving stamps to the amount of $832,769.20, making a grand total of $11,096,769.20. All the bonds were registered and issued in the name of the Secretary of the Interior as trustee for the Indian named in the bond and were deposited with the United States Treasurer, Washington, D. C., for safekeeping. The largest Indian purchasers of Liberty loan bonds were Creek Indians named Jackson Barnett, who purchased $1,096,750; Jeanetta Richard, now Barnett, who purchased $414,250; Susan Bacon, who purchased $357,000; Mollie Davis, who purchased $330,000; Sandy Fox, who purchased $325,000; and Maley Fier estate, which purchased $313,000.

It is estimated that more than 4,000 Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes entered the military and naval service of the United States and that over 200 made the supreme sacrifice. Instances of the greatest heroism have been noted and many distinctions were conferred upon individual Indians for valiant service of which a record has been kept in the office of the superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes. Indians in the military service, especially full bloods, have received great benefit from their experiences in the training camps and overseas. The war has been a liberal education to them, broadening their views of life and inspiring in them new ambitions and higher ideals.

REGARDING TAXATION OF LANDS PURCHASED WITH RESTRICTED FUNDS. The United States Circuit Court of Appeals, eighth circuit, in the case of The United States v. Law (250 Fed., 218) held that the Secretary of the Interior could by the purchase of new lands for an allottee reimpose upon the newly acquired lands taken on the Carney-Lacher form of deed the same restrictions that were imposed on the allotted lands from which the funds arose, and that the lands so purchased were impressed with restrictions as to alienation, but the question whether such lands so purchased were exempt from taxation was not passed on by the court, leaving that question now undecided by any Federal court. However, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma in the recent case of Ella Jones . C. S. Whitlow, as county treasurer of McIntosh County, Okla., in passing upon the question whether lands theretofore taxable, purchased with royalty funds, are exempt from State taxation by reason of a clause in the deed making the lands inalienable, held that such lands were not so exempt in language as follows:

Lands, theretofore taxable, purchased from private owners, with royalties accruing to a full-blood Creek Indian from her restricted allotment, are not exempt from State tax

ation by a clause in the deeds from the grantor making the lands inalienable without the consent of the Secretary of the Interior.

Unless this decision is reversed it must follow that all lands purchased with royalty funds must bear their proportion of State, county and other taxes, the same as unrestricted lands, and the same has been held to apply to lands purchased with restricted money. The Department of Justice has been requested to direct that suit be brought in the Federal court at Muskogee, Okla., having in view a final determination of this taxation question.

TOOTIE RILEY CASE.-The Tootie Riley case, decided May 19, 1919, by the United States Supreme Court, involved the question of what interest a Cherokee born since March 4, 1906, had in the homestead allotment of the deceased ancestor under section 9 of the act of May 27, 1908 (35 Stat., 312), under which it was held that the minor child is entitled to the use of the royalties; i. e., the interest or income which may be obtained by properly investing them during a period not beyond April 26, 1931, leaving the principal, like the land, to go to the heirs in general on the termination of her special right.

EASTMAN RICHARD CASE.-The Eastman Richard case, decided June 2, 1919, by the United States Supreme Court, involved the question whether a full-blood Creek heir, the father, inherited the lands of his son, a full-blood minor, free from all restrictions, under section 9 of the act of May 27, 1908 (35 Stat., 312). The United States Supreme Court held that land covered by the lease on the allotted land of the son and inherited by the father was then and would remain restricted land until April 26, 1931, and the royalties accruing therefrom were still under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior unless prior to that time the heir, with the approval of the proper probate court, conveyed his interests therein to another and that the authority of the Secretary to supervise the collection, care, and disbursement of the royalties, had not terminated; that the leasing of such inherited full-blood lands is subject to the supervisory authority of the Secretary during the time such lands remain restricted.

PROBATE WORK IN OKLAHOMA.

The probate organization felt the disturbance of war conditions. Three probate attorneys joined the colors, and for several months if was impossible to secure a sufficient number of stenographers. However, normal activities again prevailed following the first of the calendar year, and a large volume of business was accomplished.

Formerly when probate attorneys represented the unrestricted as well as the restricted Indians, as provided in section 6 of the act of May 27, 1908 (35 Stat. L., 312), the work was greater than could be handled with facility by the 20 officials of this class. In the Indian appropriation act of May 25, 1918, Congress reduced the number of