From Frank Q. Brown, trustee: Sec. 36, T. 48 S., R. 32 E.; secs. 12, 18, and 24, T. 48 S., R. 33 E.; secs. 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, and 36, T. 48 S., R. 34 E., 10,240 acres, for $5,760.

From the Disston Land Company: Secs. 7, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, and 35, T. 48 S., R. 34 E., 8,341.72 acres, for $4,267.52. From the Florida Commercial Company: Sec. 32, T. 47 S., R. 33 E., 640 acres, for $448.

From the Florida Southern Railroad Company: Secs. 24 and 26, T. 48 S., R. 32 E., 1,280 acres, for $1,280.

A total of 23,061.72 acres, for $13,355.52.

THE CHAMBERLAIN FAMILY.

In my last annual report I referred to the matter of the removal of the Chamberlain family from the Coeur d'Alène Reservation, Idaho, and stated that they had returned thereto and instituted action in the United States court to determine their rights. The United States Indian agent of the Colville Agency, Wash., transmitted to this office on January 27, 1900, a certified copy of an amended complaint filed in the United States circuit court for the district of Idaho in the case of Bartholomew Chamberlain et al. against himself. The agent was directed, January 31, to give the amended petition his attention, in connection with the United States district attorney for Idaho, under instructions theretofore given relative to the case, taking any steps necessary to dismiss, demur, or plead to the amended bill; also to keep this office fully advised of any other action taken in the case.

April 27 the agent forwarded to this office copy of his answer to the amended complaint, and stated that the case would be tried during the May term of the United States court for the district of Idaho, which would convene at Moscow, Idaho, on May 14, 1900. The office has not been advised of the action taken upon the case at that term of the court.

RATIFICATION OF FORT HALL AGREEMENT.

June 6, 1900 (31 Stats., 672), Congress ratified the agreement entered into with the Indians of the Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho, by the Crow, Flathead, etc., Commission, on February 5, 1898. By the terms of that agreement about 400,000 acres of land are ceded to the United States, in consideration for which the Indians are to receive $600,000, of which $75,000 is to be expended by the Secretary of the Interior in the erection of a modern school plant, and the balance is to be paid to them in ten annual installments--the first one to be $100,000, the next eight $50,000 each, and the last $25,000. The first installment of $100,000 is now being paid to the Indians, the agent being assisted in making the same by Special Agent Samuel L. Taggart.

Article 3 of the agreement provided that the Indians who reside on the lands ceded might remain thereon and receive allotments of the lands occupied and improved by them, or remove to the diminished reservation, as they might elect. Section 4 of the act ratifying the agreement provides that before any of the lands ceded shall be thrown open to settlement the Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall cause allotments to be made to the Indians who may desire them. Where Indians prefer to remove within the limits of the reduced reservation, it provides that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall cause a schedule of the lands abandoned to be prepared, giving a description of the improvements and the names of the Indian occupants, and before any entry shall be allowed of the lands so scheduled the Secretary of the Interior shall cause the improvements thereon to be appraised and sold to the highest bidder, no sale to be for less than the appraised value. The purchaser of such improvements is to have a preference right of thirty days within which to make an entry of the lands upon which the improvements purchased are located.

The work of making the allotments has been assigned to the United States Indian agent for the Fort Hall Agency, A. F. Caldwell, and he is now engaged in making them in compliance with instructions dated July 11, 1900, and August 15, 1900. United States Indian Inspector W. J. McConnell has been detailed to make the appraisement of the improvements on the ceded lands of the Indians who elect to remove to the diminished reservation.

INDIAN TERRITORY UNDER THE CURTIS ACT AND SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION.

In my annual reports for the years 1898 and 1899, the provisions of the act of Congress approved June 28, 1898 (30 Stats., 495), "For the protection of the people of the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," generally known as "the Curtis Act," were fully discussed. Section 27 of the Curtis Act is as follows:

That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to locate one Indian inspector in Indian Territory, who may, under his authority and direction, perform any duties required of the Secretary of the Interior by law, relating to affairs therein.

Acting under this authority, the Secretary of the Interior, August 17, 1898, assigned United States Indian Inspector J. George Wright to the Indian Territory, who reports to the Department through this office on matters coming within his jurisdiction.

The following table gives the estimated population of the several nations and the areas of their reservations as shown by the tract books in this office:

TABLE 26.—Population and area of reservations, Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory.

1 The recent establishment of the true meridian by the resurvey of the ninety-eighth meridian west, will add to the Choctaw and Chickasaw lands 55,765.65 acres not included in these figures.

As in last year's report, the discussion of affairs in the Indian Territory will be divided, for convenience, into three parts, the first being matters over which the United States Indian inspector for the Indian Territory and the United States Indian agent for the Union Agency have supervision, and this subject may properly be divided into four general subdivisions, to wit:

1. Educational matters. 2. Mineral leases.

3. Collection of revenues. 4. Timber.

The second division includes matters coming within the province of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, and the third relates to the surveying, platting, appraising, and selling of town sites in the different nations, and is followed by some miscellaneous subjects.

EDUCATION.

The provisions of the nineteenth section of the Curtis act are as follows:

That no payment of any moneys on any account whatever shall hereafter be made by the United States to any of the tribal governments or to any officer thereof for disbursement, but payments of all sums to members of said tribes shall be made under direction of the Secretary of the Interior by an officer appointed by him. * *

It was construed as conferring authority upon the Secretary of the Interior to assume such charge of the several schools and orphan asylums as would insure better management and more economical administration of these institutions.

An agreement with the Seminole, approved July 1, 1899, contained this provision:

Five hundred thousand dollars of the funds belonging to the Seminoles, now held by the United States, shall be set apart as a permanent school fund for the education of children of the members of the said tribe, and shall be held by the United States at 5 per cent interest, or invested so as to produce such amount of interest, which shall be, after extinguishment of tribal government, applied by the Secretary of the Interior to the support of Mekasuky and Emahaka academies and the district school of the Seminole people,

*

By its terms this provision did not seem to contemplate present control by the Department of the schools.

The agreement with the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, embodied in the Curtis law as section 29 thereof, contained these provisions:

It is agreed that all the coal and asphalt within the limits of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations shall remain and be the common property of the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes (freedmen excepted), so that each and every member shall have an equal and undivided interest in the whole. The revenues from coal and asphalt, or so much as shall be necessary, shall be used for the education of the children of Indian blood of the members of said tribes. * * *

* * *

All coal and asphalt mines in the two nations, whether now developed or hereafter to be developed, shall be operated and the royalties therefrom paid into the Treasury of the United States, and shall be drawn therefrom under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.

This section conferred ample authority upon the Department to assume control of the schools in the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations wherever they should be supported out of the coal and asphalt royalties. The governor of the Choctaw Nation early expressed his desire that the Secretary should assume control of their schools, and the legislature of the nation, carrying out these wishes, made no appropriations for their support. Therefore immediate direction was undertaken through proper Federal machinery.

The Chickasaw Nation, however, made appropriations and attempted to conduct their own schools out of their own funds, which has resulted in lamentable financial embarrassment.

The national authorities of the Creek and Cherokee nations continued to make their own appropriations for the schools of the respective nations, and the Department has only assumed supervisory control of them.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1899, regulations concerning education in the Indian Territory were prepared, approved by the Department, and promulgated for the conduct of these schools. They provided for an executive head, known as the "superintendent of schools in Indian Territory," to which John D. Benedict, of Illinois,

was appointed. His reports are transmitted to this Bureau through the United States Indian inspector stationed in Indian Territory. Under his direction are four supervisors of schools for the several nations (with the exception of the Seminoles), as follows: Benjamin S. Coppock, of Oregon, for the Cherokee Nation; John M. Simpson, of Wisconsin, for the Chickasaw Nation; Calvin Ballard, of Illinois, for the Choctaw Nation, vice E. T. McArthur, transferred July 9, 1900, to the regular Indian service, and Miss Alice M. Robertson, of Indian Territory, for the Creek Nation, the last-named appointed July 23, 1900, vice Calvin Ballard. Headquarters for the several supervisors were established as follows: Vinita, Cherokee Nation; Muscogee, Creek Nation; South McAlester, Choctaw Nation, and Ardmore, Chickasaw Nation.

These nations early in their history were charged with their own government, and schools were established, and full corps of teachers and employees were appointed under the different laws of the respective nations. As set out in the last annual report of this Bureau, all branches of their public service were tainted with favoritism, nepotism, a reckless mismanagement of finances, and in many cases corruption was rampant. These flagrant breaches of good government were no more severely felt than in educational matters. The schools under the control of various missionary bodies were efficient agents of civilization; but in those entirely placed under tribal authority deterioration, if nothing worse, was everywhere felt. Possessing ample means for maintaining an adequate system of public schools in those places where the greatest need existed, the money was expended on large academies, seminaries, and colleges, where the ornamental curriculum of a white fashionable boarding school was given to the favored few, leaving the full bloods and poorer classes of mixed bloods to depend upon poorly equipped, miserable little schools, usually erected by subscriptions or donations. It is said that fully 90 per cent of these small neighborhood schoolhouses have no furniture except the old-fashioned wooden benches.

Owing to limited powers, the Department has been unable to make as radical changes as the conditions warranted, yet numberless improvements have been inaugurated. The superintendent of schools in his report says:

As a result of our past year's work we can already note some improvements. When we entered upon our duties here more than a year ago it was openly charged that various native school boards were selling teachers' positions at from $10 to $25 each. No such charges have been made during the past year. With but few exceptions the Indian school boards have cooperated with us heartily. Teachers are manifesting a livelier degree of interest in their work and are endeavoring to improve their qualifications. Some of the poorest teachers have been dropped, not having been able to pass reasonable examinations.