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Show COMMISSIONER OX INDIAN AFFAIRS. 13 RATIONS. The number of Indians drawing rations has been reduced at a num-ber of reservations, and it is estimated that lass than 21,000 are now receiving this aid. In the purchase of rations there was a decrease of $10,000. A great many Indians carried on the ration roll are given supplies only occasionally. Constant effort is made to reduce the number of ration Indians as rapidly as may be without causing dis-tress and destitution; as a matter of course, the number lessens as the number of working and self-supporting Indians increases. EMPLOYMENT OF INDIANS. The report of the supervisor, whose chief business it is to assist Indians in securing employment awax from reservations and on the same conditions as white persons, shows continued good results. In the district comprising Arizona and New Mexico, the total earnings of 9,000 Indians placed out or looked after by an assistant supervisor exceeded $260,000; of this amount, $16,000 were earned by outing pupils. Among these industrious Indians were members of the Apache, Yuma, Pima, Papago, Navajo, and other tribes. Wages ranged from $15 a month to $5.50 a day, averaging about $1.75 a day. In May, a contract was made between the supervisor of Indian em-ployment and the Atchiion, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway coast line covering Indian employment on that system Indians working under this contract are in what is known as extra gangs composed of 75 to 125 men.. The company furnishes bunk cars for the men at the rate of one car to each 10 to 14 men, together with necessary cars for the operation of a commissary and mess. The rate of pay guar-anteed the Indians is the best the Santa Fe has ever paid for this class of work to any laborers, and in view of the fact that they get free transportation both ways and can purchase necessary articles of clothing and subsistence practically at cost they have a good oppor-tunity for remunerative employment. The first extra gang started early in June and a second in the latter part of June; there are now ronsiderably more than 200 men at work. The Indians in these gangs are Mohaves, Pimas, Papagoes, Apaches, Navajos, and Pueb-los. Theif work is ballasting on the double tracking, and they have been given the section through the mountains between Flagstaff and Williams for the summer, and have a very desirable place to work at such n. time of yenr. In these extra gangs Indians exclusively are employed. During the past season between three and four hundred Indians worked in the bean fields in the vicinity of Upper Lake, Cal. They received an average wage of 15 cents per hour or about $1.50 a day. |
