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Show 36 REPORT OF THE OOMMISSIONER OF IXDIAN AFFAIRS. The unusual amount of money which has lately come into the possession of Indians through sales of their ~h e r i t e dla nds has occa-sioned great activity in the business of presenting claims against the Indians, many of them absolutely fraudulent. Particularly aggravated cases arose among the Winnebago in Nebraska, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to have the claims sat-isfactorily adjusted by an inspector, with the approval of this Office the Indian debtors employed J. A. Singhaus of Tekamah, Nebr., +Q effect settledlents for them.. Contracts with him were fled in this Office, which provided that he should be allowed from the amount saved to the Indians 10 per cent for fees and-l per cent for expenses The 123 claims filed in the Office aggregated $54,763.68. A reduc-tion of $29,842.06 was obtained by t,he attorney, and his commission and expenses amounted to $2,686.30, being a net saving to the Indians of 49.6 per cent of the original amount of the claims. On palpably fraudulent claims, which wuld be thrown out without examination, no commission was given. The Indians have employed Mr. Singhaus to procure settlement of other claims which have not yet been filed. Settlements have been effected at other agencies, but without the employment of an attorney by the Indians. A special agent who investigated claims against Indians in Oklahoma and Kansas settled them at an average reduction of 50 cents on the dollar, and, it is believed, without causing any loss to honest creditors. In fact, after some of these settlements had been effected it was learned that the Indians had paid dollar for dollar for value received, and that the 50 per cent or thereabouts saved to them represented padded accounts and transactions which would not bear strict investigation. The Office is trying through its field force to exercise a strict super-vision over the expenditures made by the Indians from their trust funds, and many Indians have put their money into the building of homes and the purchase of farming implements. The total proceeds from inherited land sales up to June 30,1907, amounted to $5,680,820, and they will probably be greater each year as the value of reserva-tion lands increases. EDUOATION. GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS. Twentp-five nonreservation schools were maintained during the year, to which will be added Wahpeton, S. Dak., which will be opened during the fiscal year 1908. This school, which was authorized in 1904, is the only nonreservation school established in the last five years. The aggregate enrollment in these schools for the year was |
