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Show 52 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFBAIRS. fore applicable for the use desired " had been submitted to the proper authorities for a definite determination, and that if those moneys should be held to be applicable for the education of Indian pupils in mission schools petitions would be presented to the Indians at the several reservations affected so that they might express their wishes in the premises. Meanwhile, on June 3, a communication had been addrest to the Secretary of the Interior recalling the President's decree, in his letter of February 3, 1905, that "the practice [of making contracts with certain mission schools] will be continued by the Department unless the Congress should decree to the contrary, or, of course, unless the courts should decide that the decision of the Department of Justice is erroneous," and requesting that the Attorney-General be asked for an opinion whether certain funds, including those of the Sioux, are \ "moneys belonging to the Indians themselves and not to the public." The full text of this communication was embodied in my last annual report. No opinion having yet been given by the Attorney-General, on De-cember 23 the President addrest a letter to me on this subject, refer-ring to the regulations which I had prepared for the disposal of . Indian school moneys, and saying that, tho approved by him, they "now appear to me (him) to fail to carry out in one or two par-ticulars the intent of my (his) letter of February 3, 1905, to the Secretary of the Interior about Indian schools." After quoting a part of his letter of February 3,1905, he added: There are two kinds of Indian funds involved in this matter. One is the trust fund, which requires no appropriation by the Congress, and which clearly is to be administered as the Indians themselves request. As regards this fund, YOU will treat it on the assumption that the Indians havethe right to say how it shall be used, so far as choosing the schools to which their children are to go is concerned; and each Indian in a tribe is to be credited with his pro rata share of the funds, which you will apply for him to the Government school where that is the school used, or to the church school where that is the school used, instead of segregating any portion of the fund for the support of the Govern-ment school and prorating the balance. The other fund consists of moneys appropriated by Congress in pursuance of treaty stipulations. As to these moneys it is uncertain whether or not the pro-hibition by Congress of their application for contract schools applies; that is, whether or not we have the power legally to use these moneys, as we clearly have the power to use the trust funds. It appears that certain of the contract schools are now being run in the belief that my letter quoted above authorized Ule use of the treaty funds. It would be a great hardship, in the absence of any clearly defined law on the subject, to cut them off at this time arbitrarily; 2nd inasmuch as there is a serious question involved, I direct that until the close of the fiscal year these schools be paid for their services out of the moneys ilppropriated by Congress in pursuance of treaty obligations, on the same basis as the schools paid out of the trust funds-always exercising the precaution directed in my letter of February 3, 1905, "to see that any petition by the I |