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Show 40 COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. from Salt Lake City to the PacSc coast. The system of roads on the Shoshone Reservation in Wyoming has been brought nearer to completion by the expenditure of $25,000 for the purpose. An appropriation of S10,000 for similar work on the Yuma Reearnation, Cal., has been expended toward the completion of a system of roads on that reservation. A fine bridge is being constructed across the Little Colorado River near the town of Winslow, Ariz., in cooperation with the authorities of Navajo County. MOTION PICTURES. . Numerous applications have been acted upon during the past year from persons desiring to take moving pictures of Indian We on the reservations. The established policy has been followed of grant-ing such applications with the underatanding that the pictures so taken will be of present-day scenes only, and that the Indians will not be induced to give "made-up" exhibitions of their old-time customs and dances, such exhibitions having been found to exert an influence against the efforts of the Government to have the Indians adopt methods of living more conducive to their general welfare and industrial advancement. In certain cases, where it is satisfactorily shown that the pictures will be used for educational purposes only, permission has been granted for taking motion pictures of such old-time ceremoniss as the "snake dance" of the Moqui Indians, but the usual practice is to prohibit the taking of such pictures where it is intended that they will be used for "commercial" purposes. INDIAN TRADERS. The number of traders on Indian reservations operating under license from this bureau is being gradually diminished. Many of them are going out of business voluntarily; others have purchased lots in Government town sites and moved their stores to such loca-tions and are no longer under governmental supervision. As a whole the traders have exhibited willingness to comply with the regulations in respect to trading with the Indians and there have been few cases of complaint. DEBTS OF INDIANS. The policy of forbiding assistance to crediton of Indians in the collection of claims incurred subsequent to departmental order of December 17, 1909, has been strictly adhered to. The number of complaints regardii nonpayment of debts by Indians is gradually diminishing, which would seem to indicate that this policy is having the desired effect. The trader who tries to increase the sale of his merchandise by giving the Indian unauthorized credit is evidently beginning to realize that it is not profitable. |