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Show 124 REPORT OP THE COXMISSIONER OF INDIBN AYFAIRS. The Department has recently approved the transfer of the greater part of T. N. Barnsdall's holdings to the Barnsdall Oil Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Delaware. This company has an authorized capital of $10,000,000, and announces its purpose to increase largely the production of oil from the lands under its control. During the calendar year 1906 5,172,394.48 barrels of oil were run from the Osage ~eservation to the Prairie Oil and Gas Company; 44,313.12 barrels were run to the Uncle Sam Oil Company; and 2,398.98 barrels were used as fuel by the different operators on the reservation in the development of their properties, making a total of 5,219,106.58 barrels of oil produced on the Osage Reservation during that year. Up to December 31, 1906, a total of 1,080 wells had been drilled, 716 of them classed as oil wells, 66 as gas wells, and 298 as dry wells. Under the act extending the Foster lease, the royalty to be paid to the Osage Indians on gas is $100 per annum for each gas well in operation. On the recommendation of this Office the royalty to be paid on oil was increased from one-tenth to one-eighth of all the oil I produced. SIOUX PONY OLAIMS. My last report gave an account of the claims of Indians of the Pine Ridge and Roseljud reservations in south Dakota, dating from 1876 and 1878, for stock taken by the United States for military expedi-ency, and for stock stolen by white men. On the recommendation of this Office, the Department has refused to consider any contracts made with attorneys for the prosecution of such claims, owing to the long time which has elapsed since the stock is alleged to have been taken and the difficulty experienced in trying to get satisfactory evidence on which to base recommendations for payment. LOWER BRUL* RESERVATION. The work of appraising the lands in South Dakota ceded by the I Lower Brui6 Indians under the agreement ratified by the act of April 21, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 124), referred to in my last report, has I : been finished, and the tract ceded is now ready for opening to settle-ment and entry as provided in the act. The schedule shows the II following classification : First class, 20,930.89 acres, at $2.50 per acre- -----..--..--$--5-2-,3 2-7.-22:5 second dass, 14,031.14 acres, at $2.25 per acre- ----....--31-,5-70-.06-5 ..-- Third class, 11,038.25 acres, at $1.75 per aere. .---__---19-,31.6..9-47.5 .---- ~ our thcl ass, 9,283.49 acres, at $1.25 per aere- .---.--..-.1-1,-60.4-.36-25. -- I I 7J3o tal, 55,283.77 acres- .__.-----------.11.4,.81-8-.60- ----------.--- I |