feet, Bloods, and Piegans, $15,000; support of Indians in central superintendency, $7,500; support of Modocs, $5,000; support of Navajoes, $5,000; support of Nez Percés of Joseph's band, $7,500; support of schools, $50,000; telegraphing and purchase of Indian supplies, $5,000; transportation of Indian supplies, $25,000. Large sums are also due different parties for goods and supplies furnished and for services rendered in 1873 and 1874, which have repeatedly been reported to Congress for appropriation, but none has so far been made. There is due the Western Union Telegraph Company, for messages transmitted during May and June, 1879, the sum of $361.65; contractors for transporting Indian goods and supplies during the fiscal year 1879, $9,556.63; during the fiscal year 1880, $44,882.14, and during the fiscal year 1881, about fifty thousand dollars. This indebtedness was incurred by this office under an absolute necessity, and early provision for its payment should be made by Congress. Early in last spring it was found that the amount appropriated by Congress for the support of the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Apaches, Kiowas, Comanches, and Wichitas, located at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe and Kiowa, and Comanche Agencies, Indian Territory, for the fiscal year 1881, was insufficient to furnish them with beef, coffee, and sugar until the end of the fiscal year. The agents in charge were notified of the insufficient appropriations and directed to reduce the issue of beef, but in reply thereto submitted statements which convinced the department that to reduce the rations of those Indians was to invite a war. Copies of these letters were transmitted to Congress with a request for an additional appropriation, but the same was not granted. After the adjournment of Congress the case was submitted by you to the President, and, upon consultation with the honorable Secretary of War, it was decided that the War Department would furnish the agents at Cheyenne and Arapahoe, and Kiowa and Comanche Agencies with beef and flour until the end of the last fiscal year, the cost of these supplies to be reimbursed from any appropriation which may hereafter be made by Congress for that purpose. Accounts amounting to $59,232.01 have been presented by the War Department for reimbursement, and it is hoped that Congress, at an early day, will furnish this office with the means to cancel this debt. TRANSPORTATION OF INDIAN SUPPLIES. Owing to the failure of Congress to appropriate during the fiscal years 1879, 1880, and 1881 sufficient funds to pay for the transportation of goods and supplies to the different agencies, this office has been greatly embarrassed this summer by not having its stores promptly delivered. Contractors to whom the government owes over $100,000 for transportation services performed under former contracts are not very anxious to render services and wait for their pay several years. Flour delivered to the contractors for different agencies in October, 1880, was not delivered until July or August, 1881, and when this office urged them to comply more strictly with their contracts, their reply, that this office had no funds to pay them after service was rendered, appeared a sufficient excuse for the delay. The failure of Congress to appropriate last winter sufficient funds to pay outstanding indebtedness for transportation costs the government in increased price of transportation for the present fiscal year more than the interest on the money due, and while there are such large sums lying idle in the United States Treasury, the policy of not paying debts lawfully due appears to me very short-sighted. It cannot be expected that contractors will wait years for money due and honestly earned without attempting to get even with the government by charging increased rates of transportation, and for this reason it is urged that sufficient means be furnished this office to liquidate these debts. This would certainly be true economy. The right of this office to incur this indebtedness above the amount appropriated cannot be questioned. Congress appropriates a certain amount of money to be used in the purchase of clothing and supplies, mostly due the Indians under treaty stipulation. Of what avail are these goods and supplies to the Indians, if sufficient funds are not appropriated to pay for transporting them to the different agencies, where they are required? The attention of Congress has repeatedly been called to the insufficient amount appropriated yearly for transporting the goods and supplies, and it is earnestly hoped that the efforts of this office in obtaining means to pay the old indebtedness incurred, as well as in securing sufficient funds for the pesent and next fiscal year, will have better success than heretofore. The Sioux, turned over by the War Department in July last, were prisoners of war, held as such until that time by the military authorities, and for whose support no estimates had been made by the Indian Office. The administration of our Indian affairs is, at all times, and under all circumstances, embarrassing and difficult, but when to all other troubles is added that of insufficient appropriations, the embarrassment and difficulty are greatly increased. SALARY OF COMMISSIONER AND APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANT COM MISSIONER. There is disbursed yearly, under the supervision of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in round numbers, the sum of about $6,000,000. Of this sum about $2,500,000 is paid for Indian supplies bought under contract, or in open market under his direction. The money and the supplies representing the whole amount are distributed at sixty-eight agencies scattered over our vast country between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. It is needless to say that to supervise this work requires a man of untiring industry, great business skill and training, and sterling integrity, because it is evident that upon the proper performance of this work depends not only the careful and economical expenditure of the public moneys, but to a great extent the preservation of peace among the Indian tribes. I submit that the government does not provide sufficient compensation for such service, when it is fortunate enough to have it, or to secure it at all times when it is needed. The salary now provided by law is $3,500 per annum. It is in my judgment wholly inadequate, and I earnestly recommend that it be increased to $4,500. I also recommend that provision be made for the appointment of an assistant commissioner, with a salary of $3,000 per annum. Such provision is in my judgment necessary for the prompt and proper discharge of the duties of the bureau, and I am convinced would prove of benefit to the public service. PUBLIC LANDS. During the year ending 30 June, 1881, public lands were disposed of as follows: Cash sales: Private entries.. Public sales.... Timber and stone lands.... Acres. 666, 229.11 2,279.40 42, 987.92 Pre-emption entries... Desert lands Mineral lands. Coal lands. Excesses Abandoned military reservations... Total cash sales... Homestead entries.... Military-warrant localities.... Sioux half-breed scrip locations.... Alabama.. Lands certified or patented for railroad purposes to States. Acres. 721, 146.26 108, 560. 02 27, 179.68 4,975.58 12, 339.06 1,910. 21 1,587, 617. 2 5, 028, 100.69 1,763, 799. 35 55, 662. 36 360.00 28, 253.74 392. 15 2,519.27 800.00 16.86 383.23 73, 321.58 483, 466.63 281, 277.28 211, 992. 04 15, 880.00 1,760.00 1,370, 45 3, 964. 14 18, 237.06 569, 001. 18 10, 128, 175. 25 The cash receipts from all sources, sales, fees, and commissions, for the last fiscal year amounted to $4,402,112.53. The total area of the land States and Territories is 1,814,788,922 acres, of which 784,906,980 acres have been surveyed. The area of lands surveyed the last fiscal year was greater by 6,058,759 acres than that of the previous year. The area of public lands disposed of the last fiscal year was less by 3,898,974.60 acres than that of the previous year; the aggregate cash receipts were greater by $2,508,642.56. Besides these public lands, there were disposed of during the last fiscal year by the General Land Office, Indian lands amounting to 765,221.80 acres, for which was received the sum of $1,006,691.63, deposited in the Treasury for the benefit of the Indians. THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE. I invite especial attention to that portion of the letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to me of date October 25, 1881, relating to the clerical force required for his office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1883. The work of the office is much in arrears. It is very important to the many individuals whose interests are affected by its action that such action shall at all times be prompt and that delay in settling the questions before the office shall not occur. Such delay is not only unjust to the parties whose interests are involved, but tends to embarrass and hinder the work actually done by requiring a portion of the force now employed to answer the numerous letters of inquiry written by parties who are impatient at the (to them) unaccountable delay in having their business disposed of. If permitting the work to fall in arrears dispensed with doing it altogether, we might congratulate ourselves that we had saved the expense of doing it, although our failure to do it had worked great injury to those whose work the office was created to do and who share in the cost of maintaining it. But the work must and will be done sooner or later, and I submit that it is not only just and right, but it is in the long run cheaper to provide sufficient force to do it promptly. I concur in the recommendation of the Commissioner that authority of law be given for the appointment of a deputy commissioner who shall assist him in the discharge of his duties and perform such other duties as may be prescribed. I also concur in the recommendation of the Commissioner for the appointment of three inspectors of surveyor-general and district land offices. It is impossible for the Land Office with the means now provided to keep careful supervision over their offices, situated so far from the seat of government. The information received concerning them is usually ex parte and often contradictory, and in many cases is not received until it is too late to prevent much maladministration. If surveyors-general and district land officers were aware that an agent of the government might at any time visit their respective offices, with authority to examine their books and papers, and by personal examination to ascertain their condition, it seems that great benefit would thereby result to the public service. Said inspectors would also be of great assistance when new land districts are created and offices opened, and when a change of officers occurs. SURVEYS UNDER DEPOSIT SYSTEM. For the reasons named in the report of the Commissioner (pages 6, 7, and 8), I recommend the repeal of the act of March 3, 1879, entitled "An act to amend section twenty-four hundred and three of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in relation to deposits for surveys." Under the present law there seems good reason to believe that extensive surveys are made far in advance of any legitimate demand; it is impossible to test the accuracy of the field work, and it is probable that when, in the future, a survey shall be needed, the work will have to be done again. PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS IN NEW MEXICO, ARIZONA, AND COLORADO. I call special attention to that portion of the letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office relating to private land claims in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. The uncertainty existing as to the validity of these claims and their extent makes the title to them of merely speculative value and retards the sales and settlements, greatly to the injury of the sections in which these claims are situate. The present system for the settlement of these claims appears to be wholly inadequate, and some more efficient system should be speedily provided. LAND-GRANT RAILROADS. Fifty miles of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, were accepted by President Hayes on the 17th December last; and fifty miles by President Garfield on the 18th April last. One hundred additional miles of this road are now ready for examination, and commissioners have been appointed for that purpose. Fifty miles of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Dakota Territory, west of the Missouri River, were accepted by President Hayes on the 20th December last, one hundred additional miles, partly in Dakota and partly in Montana, have recently been examined, but have not yet been accepted. Two hundred and twenty-five miles in Eastern Washington and Idaho are now under examination by commissioners. One hundred and thirty miles of the New Orleans Pacific Railroad have recently been examined, but have not yet been accepted. One hundred and twenty-three additional miles are now ready for examination. REPAYMENTS. The price of reserved sections within the limits of railroad land grants is by law double the minimum price for similar lands outside such limits. It has happened in many instances that local land officers have supposed parcels of land to be within land grant limits when in fact they were not, and have sold them to purchasers at double minimum price, thus placing in the Treasury of the United States in each case a sum of money to which the government was not entitled, and which in all good conscience belonged to the party by whom it had been paid. Accordingly Congress, by act of June 16, 1880, provided that "in all cases where parties have paid double minimum price for lan which has afterwards been found not to be within the limits of a railroad land grant, the excess of one dollar and twenty five cents per acre shall in like manner be repaid to the purchaser thereof, or to his heirs or assigns." (Supplement to Revised Statutes, page 565.) |