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Show 60 COMMISSIONEB OF INDIAN A P F A ~ . The Osage Tmribe, however: should within a year after the nem-leases are approved, i. e., by May 17, 1917, receive six or eight times ns much as they have heretofore received under the old lease. In - addition, it isexpected that gas lessees, i n drilling for gas on the 700,000 acres leased for gas but not leased for oil, will find newwells which will prove that such lands are. valuable. for. oil and, when put ~ up for sale and sold to the highest bidder, the tribe should receive large sums in bonuses, the amount depending upon the number and 1 extent of new oil pools so discovered in the gas territory. SUPPRESSION OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. From the earliest colonial days intoxicating liquors have been the .curse of the Indian. Prior to the advent of the white man he did not know alcohol, either in distilled or fermented Iiquor. It was the .' gift of the white man to the red man, and since that time the best element of the former race has endeavored to overcome the evils which have come from it. > 'A For years there have been statutes with drastic penalties against the sales of intoxicants to Indians but until the last few years they have proven almost dead letters. . .During the last three years a vigorous, continuous and effective ' , assault has been made upon the liquor interests which have debauched 1 the Indian race. Increased appropriations have enabled the Indian Office to place in the field a corps of detectives who have become a' I ' terror to the bootlegger and drinking man in- the Indian country. 1 In three years 508,880 pints of whisky, beer; rtnd other alcoholic decoctions have been confiscated and their contents destroyed; 5,511 arrests have been made of alleged violators of the law; and the courts have assessed fines against convicted offenders in an amount practi-cally equal to the annual appropriations by Congress for the support of this branch of Indian work While the strong arm of the law is being invoked to prevent the Indian from obtaining whisky and to punish the man who provides . ' ' - hi with it, a moral awakening is being brought about through more peaceful means. My personal appeal to every employee in the ' Indian Service and to persons of prominence in local communities has made possible a most successful pledge-signing campaigh among , , the Indians, in school and out of school, young and old, pledging themselves to abstain from the use of all kinds of intoxicants. The last Congress has materially strengthened the hand of the Government in the enforcement of its prohibitory liquor legislation for Indians. .Heretofore many violators of the law have escaped through inability of the Government to discover how the intoxicants were introduced on the reservation. This loophole has been closed by making the possession of intoxicants within the Indian country prima facieevidence of its criminal introduction and extending the |