This provision has enabled a staff of experts to be organized which would be the suitable nucleus for the reference bureau or division proposed. It is enabling material to be gathered directly necessary to the larger project, and it is enabling specific service to be done which offers a valuable test and experience. If the bill (H. R. 20095) now reported can be enacted at this session, its provisions would be preferable to those of the present appropriation act, in the fact that they are more comprehensive. If, however, this bill should not be enacted at this session, the present appropriation should by all means be continued. It provides for service identical in kind and a corps of experts identical in nature and relations. To discontinue it at the end of this year and disperse the corps would be wasteful of the experience already gained by experts brought together with care and now familiar with the material. 63D CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. S 3d Session. INDIAN APPROPRIATION BILL. DECEMBER 18, 1914.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. STEPHENS of Texas, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 20150.] The Committee on Indian Affairs presents the following report to accompany the bill (H. R. 20150) making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes, and for other purposes, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1916, and submits in justification thereof the following: The amounts appropriated in this bill are based on the estimates found in the Book of Estimates for expenses of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the year 1916 and are found on pages 401 to 469, inclusive. Said estimates amount in the aggregate to the sum of $9,553,463.20. This bill carries in the aggregate the sum of $8,135,624.25. Your committee have therefore reduced the department estimates the sum of $1,397,838.95. The bill carries appropriatio s divided as follows: Gratuity... Reimbursable. The amount appropriated for the fiscal year ending was in the aggregate $9,771,902.76. The sum carried $8,135,624.25, which is a reduction of $1,636,278.51 Indian appropriation bill. $6, 400, 824. 25 884, 440.00 850, 360.00 une 30, 1915, in this bill is over the last The committee, however, have carefully considered each item of the bill for the purpose of providing all of the funds found necessary for the just and economical administration of the affairs of the Indian Bureau, and have, in our judgment, done so. We have refused to consider or embody in the bill any claim not recommended by the Interior Department or amounting to under $100. any non We have refused to increase the number of students i reservation school and also refused to build any new buildings for said school properties. We have in these matters followed the policy of this committee and also that of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in refusing to build up nonreservation schools at the expense of the reservation schools. We believe that money spent on Indian reservations and in their day and industrial schools will be more wisely and economically expended than in building up nonreservation schools. We also thus save the expense of transporting pupils from their reservations to distant nonresident schools. We would follow the just and humane policy of taking the schools to the Indians and not the Indian children to the schools. The following statement shows the separate amounts carried in this bill and the purposes for which they are respectively appropriated: Statement. Item. Surveying and allotting Indian reservations (reimbursable) Purchase and transportation of Indian supplies (gratuity). dians (gratuity).. Expenses, Board of Indian Commissioners (gratuity).. Pay of judges, Indian courts (gratuity)... 8,000.00 General expenses, Indian Service (gratuity) Inspectors, Indian Service (gratuity) Determining heirs deceased Indian allottees (reimbursable)... Industry among Indians (reimbursable)... 600,000.00 600,000.00 Vehicles, Indian Service (1) (4) To reimburse A. G. Pollock (gratuity).. To reimburse heirs of Farmer John (gratuity). 49.25 50 70 70 Arizona and New Mexico. Support of Indians in Arizona and New Mexico (gratuity). 330,000.00 330,000.00 330,000.00 109 38,900.00 158,900.00 Irrigation, Colorado River Reservation (reimbursable).. |