OCR Text |
Show ervation should be left open to the Indians for an indefinite period; otherwise the work of the oommission might never close. Accordingly, July 5, last, this office recominendcd to the Department that the Chippewa Commission be instructed that on and after October 1, 1891, further efforts looking to the removal of Inpians to the White Earth Reservation under the provisions of the acc shall cease; that the commission, as early as practicable, notify all the Indians of the several reservations who are entitled to remove to the White Earth Reservation that they must avail themselves of this privilege on or before said date, and that their failure so to do will be regarded as an election on their parts to take their allotments on the reservation where they respectively resided at the time the various agreemcuts were negotiated; that the entire time of the commission between that date and October 1, if uecessary, be devoted to securing the removal of Indians to the White Earth Reservation; and that thereafter it be devoted to making the allotments in severalty to the Indians, as pro-vided for in the at, until all the allotments shall be made. These instructions were approved by the Secretary July 7, and July 10, 1894, the commission was so instructed. It is due to the present commission to say that they have bcen dili-gent and faithful in the performance of their duties, and that tlieir work has bcen performed in an efficient and creditable manner. In the annual report of the oommission for the year from January 1 to December 31, 1893, dated February 24, 1894, they state that the number of allotments made during that period is 843, the number of permanent removals to the WhiteEarth Reservation 206, and thenum-ber of houses constructed 41. The disbursements of the commission for that period are given in the following table: Disbursen~entsJ anuary 1, 1893, to Jonuavy 1, 1894. Huilding houses and digging wells ...................... $6,572.95 Breaking and plowing land ............................. 516.15. Wagons and herdware .................................. 4,150.91 Expense of allotting land ................ -1. ............ 4,624.13 Seed .................................................... 981.86 Cattle, $1,902.. .:. .................................... 1 2,092.00 Cmingfor same, $190 .................................. Subsistence ............................................. 10,768.42 Expense of moving Indians ............................. 2,169.51 Salaries and expense of oommission ..................... 12,025.67 Horses and harness, $270.90. .......................... 327.50 Feed for the same, $56.60 ............... .-. ........... Repairing bridges ................ ;.. ................... 22.00 Salaries of regular employes ............................ 6,224.75 Total ............................................. 50,4$6.45 The following table gives an itemized statement of the disbursements of the commission from Jannary 1,1894, to September 1,1894, as shown |