installments, the first installment to be paid in the month of October of the year following that in which the payment of the $300,000 is made.

In consideration of the Indians hereinafter referred to ratifying this act, the said Indians shall possess their diminished reservation independent of all other bands of Chippewa Indians, and shall be entitled to allotments thereon of 160 acres each of either agricultural or pine land, the different classes of land to be appropriated as equitably as possible among the allottees. And nothing in this act or its acceptance by said Indians shall be construed to deprive the said Indians of any benefits to which they are entitled under existing treaties or agreements not inconsistent with the provisions of this act.

The Secretary of the Interior is hereby vested with full power and authority to make such rules and regulations as to the time of notice, manner of sale, and other matters incident to the carrying out of the provisions of this act as he may deem necessary, and with authority to continue making sales of said land until all of said land shall have been sold. The register and receiver shall receive the usual fees for making final proof under this act.

Provided, That nothing in this section contained shall in any manner bind the United States to purchase any portion of the land herein described, or to dispose of said land except as provided herein; or to guarantee to find purchasers for said lands or any portion thereof, it being the intention of this act that the United States shall act as trustee for said Indians to dispose of said lands and to expend and pay over the proceeds received from the sale thereof only as received, as herein provided.

This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its ratification by the Red Lake and Pembina Bands of Chippewa Indians belonging on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, in the State of Minnesota, a majority of the male adults of said Indians assenting thereto, and the evidence thereof to be made by the proclamation of the President to the effect that this act has been duly ratified. And the Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed to submit this act to said Indians for ratification as early as is practicable.

The amended provision was submitted to the Indians and the Indians rejected it upon the stated ground that if the 256,000 acres were to be sold and disposed of as the other property of the Chippewa Indians ceded under the agreements of 1889 had been, the Indians would practically receive nothing for it, and they rejected the agreement on that ground, notwithstanding the benefits it attempted to confer upon the Red Lake Indians to the exclusion and at the expense of the great body of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, who were the real owners of the land to be ceded and who were not consulted. Then, Congress by the act approved February 20, 1904, (33 Stats., pp. 48 to 50, inclusive), reenacted the provision submitted to the Red Lakes and by them rejected as a law, with no provision for its resubmission to the Indians. It is true that the first portion, the first sentence, of that act recites "That said agreement be and the same is hereby modified and amended so as to read as follows"; but when it was passed, it was passed as a law of Congress and not as an agreement. So with reference to the disposition of that land there was never any assent given by any band of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, not even the Red Lakes. And the same is true with reference to the act of May, 18, 1916.

Now, I want to make the further observation-yesterday I referred to the great timber frauds that had occurred in the administration of the timber lands in Minnesota. In fairness to the Indian Bureau I will state that the Indian Bureau had nothing whatever to do with those frauds. The sale and disposition of the timber land was under the administration of the Land Department of the Government.

Mr. HERNANDEZ. How did it come under the Land Department? Mr. BALLINGER. In the administration of the agreements of 1889. The CHAIRMAN. Did you have that information when you made the statement here yesterday?

Mr. BALLINGER. I did, and it was because I was hurrying over the matter, Mr. Chairman, that I failed to make that plain. I want to be fair with all the bureaus of the Government.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I come to the question of the disposition of the agricultural lands. The bill under consideration makes provision for the disposition of the remaining lands in a different way from that contained in the agreements of 1889, and I desire to disclose to the committee the necessity for the proposed changes. The agreements of 1889 provided that the agricultural lands should be disposed of to entrymen under the homestead laws of the United States. At that time, as every gentleman here who is familiar with the homestead laws of the country knows, they were very liberal in the acquisition of titles. Subsequent to the agreements of 1889 the homestead laws were made more stringent both in the administration and by positive law of Congress. So that at the present time it is difficult if not practically impossible for an entryman to comply with the requirements of the homestead laws with reference to much of the remaining lands. Much of it is swamp land. Some of it is covered with timer. It would be practically impossible for an entryman of ordinary means to go out there and drain the swamp land or pull the stumps at the enormous expense he would be put to with the uncertainty of ultimately acquiring title under the homestead laws. Prior to the issuance of patent the land can not be used as a basis of credit or loans to obtain money with which to put it in a tillable condition.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean to convey by that statement the thought that the restrictions were made drastic so that they could not enter?

Mr. BALLINGER. They could enter the land, but it would be difficult for entrymen of ordinary means to comply with the law.

The CHAIRMAN. What I am getting at is, do you mean to have us understand that those restrictions were made so drastic that the people would not enter the leand?

Mr. BALLINGER. Yes, sir; that is true. That was a general law. A very considerable portion of this land is swamp land that needs draining, and it will require a very considerable expenditure before the land can be made profitable, and few entrymen have been willing to take the chance of laying out the money for development with the certainty of acquiring title from the United States by patent at a later date.

The CHAIRMAN. What is your idea as to what should be done to correct that situation?

Mr. BALLINGER. There is no difference of opinion between the general council and the department with reference to the disposition of the remaining land. This bill provides that the land shall be appraised at its true value; its market value, and put up and offered for sale and disposed of to the highest bidder at not less than the appraised value. Having acquired title by purchase, a man can then use the land as a basis of credit and develop it. Now, on May 20, 1908, there was passed a bill commonly known as the Volstead Act. Under that law it was provided that all unentered and undisposed of public lands or lands subject to entry in the State of Minnesota, as well as lands upon which no final certificate had issued, should become subject to the drainage laws of the State. Now, under the

operation of the drainage laws of Minnesota, where parties desired to create a drainage district they applied to the court by proper petition. The court approved the drainage project and surveys were made and the initial work commenced. The expense immediately became a charge upon the land and the land was subject to sale the same as private land to meet this charge. The result is that much of this land has passed into private ownership.

The CHAIRMAN. Through tax sales?

Mr. BALLINGER. To meet the costs of surveys and other charges. Now, under the first law-that is, the law I have referred to as the Volstead Act, it was sold at public auction-that is, the charge certificates were sold at public action for whatever they would bring, and the holder, the buyer of the tax certificates, could then go to the receiver's office that is, the public-land office-pay $1.25 per acre for the land plus the little charge that had arisen and acquire title to the land, but the proceeds over and above the actual cost of making the surveys, or of whatever it was the cost arose from, went into the fund of the Indians, and there was no particular objection to that. But by the act of September 5, 1916 (39 Stats., 372), the original Volstead Act was changed so that only $1.25 per acre from the sale of these ceded lands went into the Indian fund and the balance of it went into the State fund for general drainage purposes. The Indians think that this was manifestly unfair to them and that they were entitled to the full proceeds derived from the sale of the lands. The CHAIRMAN. All the Chippewa Indians believed that?

Mr. BALLINGER. I do not think that there could be any difference of opinion among them.

The CHAIRMAN. There is no reason why we should discuss that here.

Mr. BALLINGER. I merely state that, Mr. Chairman, to show the methods that have been resorted to in order to get this land into private ownership where it could be utilized and developed, and it shows also the necessity now of putting the land up and selling it for its actual value and letting the Indians have the benefits of it instead of giving it to the State and the white people who are now getting it under the amended Volstead Act.

Mr. HERNANDEZ. They have not disposed of all of this swamp land yet?

Mr. BALLINGER. No; it is impossible for me to state the exact acreage that remains undisposed of, but there is a very large amount of it. Now, Mr. Chairman, although I have made diligent effort at the various departments and bureaus of the Government that have handled this estate, it has been impossible for me to obtain any accurate figures with reference to anything pertaining to the estate, except the amount of money that has actually been deposited in the Treasury of the United States and the amount actually paid out.

I now come to the question of schools among the Chippewas, and I want to devote a few moments of my time to calling your attention to what has gone on in the past. By the agreement of 1889, section 7, it was provided that one-fourth of the interest accruing annually on the principal fund should be used exclusively for the establishment and maintenance of a system of free schools amongst the Indians. Now, the words "free schools" at that time had a wellunderstood meaning. They meant the same kind of free schools

that we have in every State in the Union. What happened? .. The department, instead of establishing and maintaining a system of free schools, that is, day schools, contiguous to the Indians, established only a few such schools, and in lieu of free day schools established boarding schools. The boarding schools were inadequate to meet the requirements of all the children who were entitled to participate in this school fund. The result is that favoritism was shown. Some children received the benefits of the boarding schools to which they were sent and were boarded, clothed, fed, and housed at the expense of the tribe. The parents of other children were compelled to send them off to schools for their education at their own expense.

These boarding schools are still maintained among the Chippewas and the general council has protested against them and still protests against them and asks for their abolishment at the earliest practicable date; and this bill provides a method whereby as soon as public schools can be established to take care of all Indian children the boarding schools shall be wiped out of existence. In that connection I want to call the committee's attention to a matter that occurred only recently at Twin Lakes, on the White Earth Reservation. There is a building there, at one end of which is a Government school, and at the other end of it is a public school of the State. In the Government's end there are about 30 children in attendance. At the public-school end there are about 15 or 16 children in attendance. Mr. Fairbanks, a member of the general council, who has just returned from there, knew one of the boys that was going to the Government school and he asked the boy about the two schools, and the boy said if they wanted to learn they ought to go to the public school, but he said that most of them went to the Government school because there they gave them a free dinner in the middle of the day. Now, that has been the inducement, this thing of alms, feeding them, reaching them through their stomachs, at the expense of their mental and moral development.

The CHAIRMAN. Where is that school located?

Mr. BALLINGER. At Twin Lakes. I say to you, Mr. Chairman, that that Government school ought to be abolished to-morrow and the children ought to be put in the public school which is accessible to them at the other end of the building, and which has adequate school facilities.

The CHAIRMAN. A few moments ago when you started your remarks on this subject, you used the word "department."

Mr. BALLINGER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What department do you mean?

Mr. BALLINGER. I mean the Indian Bureau.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you kindly try to use those words whenever you refer to the Indian Bureau ?

Mr. BALLINGER. With the permission of the committee, when I come to look over my remarks I will make those changes.

The CHAIRMAN. It will be all right even now as you are going on, if you can do that.

Mr. BALLINGER. Now, Mr. Chairman, I want to refer to these boarding schools particularly. I have before me and hold in my hand the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919. If any

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member of the committee desires to check up on the statement I am going to make, there is the record to which I refer. The commissioner's report for the year ending June 30, 1919, sows, on pageh 162, that the Government maintained that year at Fond du Lac a school that had a capacity of 60, a total enrollment of 27, and an average attendance of 18 children, with one employee, page 208, who received $1,600 per annum. Such a school has not existed for years. Mr. Chairman, this part of the report is pure fiction. The annual report of the commissioner for the year ending June 30, 1919, contains statements equally startling as the above. On page 208 the number of employees and the salaries paid in connection with the school service maintained among the Chippewas in Minnesota during that fiscal year are given, and on page 162 the number of children attending the separate day and boarding schools are also shown.

This report shows, on page 162, that a day school with an average attendance of seven children was maintained at Grand Portage. On page 208 the report shows that there were eight school employees, who received in salaries $5,000 per annum. Eight employees for seven children. At the Leech Lake Reservation boarding school the average attendance was 34. This school maintained 12 employees, who received salaries aggregating $8.500. At the Red Lake school the average attendance was 58. There were 25 employees, who received salaries aggregating $17,630. I want to pause right here. My recollection is that Congress now allows for the support and education of the children in the Government schools $275 per annum. Am I correct in that?

The CHAIRMAN. It depends upon the average attendance at the school, but I think it would easily cost $275 for a school of that size and character.

Mr. BALLINGER. There was more money paid that year to the employees of the school at Red Lake than it cost to educate, feed, board, and clothe to a limited extent the children in Government nonreservation schools. At the Vermilion Lake Reservation boarding school there was an average attendance of 99 children, nearly twice the number at Red Lake, yet the number of school employees was only 15, who received aggregate salaries of $9,840, or a little more than half the salaries paid to the teachers at Red Lake. An examination of every school maintained among the Chippewas shows that the salaries of employees alone, when considered in connection with the number of children attending each school, exceeded the total cost of maintaining the children in the Government nonreservation schools, as I have stated.

This was for salaries alone and did not take into consideration any of the other costs for food, clothing, fuel, and so on, which amounted to far more than the salaries of the employees, and more than twice as much in salaries of employees per child as it would cost to board, clothe, care for, and educate each child in the mission schools. Now, I want to pause here to say a word about two mission schools in that country. On the White Earth Reservation and on the Red Lake Reservation the Catholic Church maintains two mission schools. I am not a member of that church and I think that comparatively few members of the general council are members of that church, but, Mr. Chairman, those mission schools are the best