OCR Text |
Show OOXMISBIONER OB INDIAN AFBAIRB. 39 The petition is then forwarded to the United States Indian agent, bonded superintendent, or other o5cer or employee exercising the functions of agent of the reservation on which the school concerned is situated. (3) The petition is placed in the office of the agent, and each peti-tioner appears before him personally, and after the terms of the peti-tion have been fully explained and he has voluntarily expressed his consent, signs the petition in the presence of the agent, who witnesses all signatures. (4) The agent then appends his certificate-- That the above requirements were in each case fully complied with before the petitioner concerned signed his name; That he personally knows that each signature is the actual name of the petitioner signing, and that his act in so signing was voluntary; That the name of each petitioner is borne on the rolls of the, tribe, and that each petitioner is entitled to share in the trust funds pro-posed by the petition to be used in paying claims arising under said contract. (5) The interpreter also certifies that he fully and intelligibly, as he believes, explained the object and purposes of the petition to each petitioner before the petitioner's signature was appended thereto; that he honestly believes that each petitioner clearly understood its purport, and that he knows the signatures are the signatures of the identical persons signing. (6) The agent notifies the authorities of the school that the peti-tion is in his ofice, and also gives notice to the Indians irrespective of their desires concerning such contract. (7) After allowing a reasonable time for all persons who may wish to sign the petition, he forwards it to the O5ce of Indian Affairs at Washington with his recommendation indorsed thereon. (8) If there are any Government schools on the reservation wn-cerned, supported out of the funds which it is proposed to apply in part to the contract, an approximate estimate of the cost of their maintenance, etc., and of any other legitimate charges against the said fund, is first deducted from the entire amount, and an ap-proximate estimate is made of the amount to which each individual member of the tribe would be entitled if the balance were divided pro rata. (9) The amount of this theoretical pro rata is the basis for fixing the sums per capita to be paid annually on the contract for each pupil, calculated on the average attendance at the school of pupils of the tribe carried during each quarter. In no case, however, will mom than $108 per capita per annum be allowed. |