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Show COMMISSIONER INDIAN AFFAIRS. 27 The practice of Indians leasing their lands is a poor one at best, as the purpose of allotment was to give each Indian a tract of land which he could call his own and on which he could make an effort to become a self-supporting member of the community in which he might live. There are many cases, however, in which an Indian can not make beneficial use of his allotment, and in such cases it has been the endeavor of the office to so regulate the leasing as to be of the greatest benefit to the allottee. Old Indians, women, minors, and those engaged in some gainful occupation are, as a rule, per-mitted to lease their lands. In other cases, where an Indian has more land than he can conveniently care for, he is encouraged to lease part and use the proceeds in improving his retained land. It has been the aim of the office in cases where Indians have dem-onstrated their competency to permit them to negotiate their own leasas and collect the rentals. LEASING OF TRIBAL LANDS FOR GRAZING PURPOSES. On the Sioux reservations the greater part of the land is allotted and the remaining tribal lands are for the most part scattered in small tracts among the allotments. The practice of leasing large districts as tribal pastures has been discontinued, and the various white cattlemen who have been running stock on the open range on these reservations have been notified that their leases will not be re-newed and that they must remove all stock this summer and fall. One of the large grazing districts of the Crow Reservation has been greatly reduced in size, owing to the purchase of cattle for the Indians and the necessity of using part of the district for such cattle. This plan is in furtherance of the policy of the office to aid the Indians in increasing their cattle holdings and to foster stock in-dustry among them. It is believed that this plan will enable the Indians on reservations suitable mainly for grazing purposes to acquire a better knowledge of stock raising and to increase their holdings of cattle, and thereby to become self-supporting. The only Indian reservations remaining where large tracts may be used for grazing purposes are those on which the Apache Indians are located in Arizona and the Crow Reservation in Montana. On the San Carlos Reservation approximately 42,700 head of cattle be-longing to cattlemen are being cared for; on the Fort Apache Reser-vation about 21,375 cattle and 52,000 sheep, and on the Crow Reserva-tion approximately 45,411 cattle and 85,000 sheep. Steps have been taken on several reservations to determine the number of stock that may be safely carried on the ranges the entire G3556-1- |