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Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 45 the tribe probably migrated and were naturalized by the Choctaw Nation and pmsibly by the Chickasaw Nation, it does not appear that any definite action was ever taken by the Federal Government. The questions concerning the status and the rights of these In-dim will be further studied. But if South Carolina should provide lands, it would appear that these Indians may become self-supporting without aid from the United States. In Texas the Alabama Indians, numbering 192, were found occupy-ing a position of economic independence. Near Livingston they have 1,280 acres of land granted conditionally to them by the State about 1850. All of this land that is cultivable they farm, but they depend more upon work at lumber camps, on railroads, and on the farms of the whites. They are sober, thrifty, industrious, and self-sustaining, although poor. These people are as advanced as their white neighbors, having abandoned tribal customs; they speak English almost entirely: and have adopted the manners and dress of white persons. They live in houses of their own construction of two and three rooms, as good as is compatible with their circumstances. The children attend a public school within the village. And the great majority of these Indians are members of a mission church, to the authorities of which they submit all disputes. As the lumber operations in which the Alabamas now get their chief employment will soon cease, these Indians need mod land and opportunities for manual instruction. They are strongly inclined toward agriculture and with proper training would become excellent farmers. The report to the Congress upon these Indians was published as House Document No. 1232, Sixty-first Congress. third session. Tribal organization is breakiig up and the oflice, in its administra-tive activities, has its work greatly increased through the necessity of dealing separately with many individuals where formerly it dealt with groups; the point of evolution thus reached in transacting busi-ness is almost epochal, for it marks the time when each Indian begins to stand forward as his own business man, and, in a measure, reaches the status of white citizens. For the year 1910 the appropriation act carried $11,800,000; the act for the year 1911 carried $9,200,000; for 1912, the act of March 3, 1911 (36 Stat. L., 1058), carried $8,800,000; and the estimates for 1913 will probably show a slight decrease further, although an in-crease of a considerable amount for 1913 would lead to a wise expedi-tion of many lines of our w-ork. The estimates last year were so cut to the bone that more than one year of this low limit of appropria- |