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Show have not received any lands--allotmente to be made before the surplus lands are opened to public settlement. The suspense incident to delaying action upon matters of this sort has had a bad effect upon the Indians interested, and if these agree-ments are to be ratified at all it is to be hoped that Congress will take action upon them during the next session. SALE OF LIQUOR TO INDIANS. In my last annual report it was suggested that many difficulties in the way of suppressing illicit sale of liquor to Indians might be over-come if this O5ce were provided with a special fund of five or ten i thousand dollars with which to obtain evidence against liquor t f i c k - i em. It is now my h m belief, after reviewing the record of wm- ,' plaintsfor the p t tw elve months, that in no other way can a successful warfare be waged against the liquor dealers. As then stated, those who are most assiduous in filing complaints of violations of the liquor law are rarely to be depended upon to render openly much assistance in the prosecution of offenders. From the standpoint of the complainants there is possibly some excuse for their disinclination to act. They object to the unpleasant notoriety to which they would be subjected, or fear that the parties complained of might do them bodily harm. Thus it happens that the officers in charge of the, various Indian agencies and schools are either forced to develop cases themselves, often to the. neglect of other important o5cial dut,ies, or are constrained to permit the evil to exist for lack of time to obtain the requisite evidence. During the past year several Indian agents have urgently requested authority to employ capahle detectives to entrap suspected parties, but the Office has been compelled to deny all such requests because of lack of funds available to defray the expenses of such employment. In several important cases the Attorney-General, on the recommen-dation of this Office, sent a special agent of his Department to conduct investigations of reported violations of the law. Such localities as the special agent was able to visit were greatly benefited as the result of his efforts against the dealers and bootleggers. It is not to be sup-posed that one investigating official can cover a field so broad as that which embraces all of the Indian reservations and schools in the United States, or that such o5cial can remain in a particular locality a suffi-cient length of time to meet with large success in detecting crime. To accomplish results that would be at all lasting, it would be neces-sary for him to extend his stay in some places for a month or longer. ; Through the opening of Indian reservations to settlement by whites ' and the intermingling of Indians and whites through sales of inherited Indian lands, the Indians will hereafter have greater opportunity than |