OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 57 Sioux respectively. On March 30, 1906, the Lower Brul6 petition mas signed by 2 members of the tribe, representing 6 shares out of the 466 on the rolls, and a contract was duly executed for 2 pupils at. $108 each. This, added to the previous contract, increased the num-ber of pupils from 37 to 39, and the amount from $3,996 to $4,212; but as the average attexldance has been only 36, the settlement has been for but $3,887.66. The Yankton petition was returned without signatures. St. Francis Mission School.-The petition of the Rosebud Sioux Indians for a contract with this school was dated March 26, 1906, and signed by 212 members, representing 669 shares out of the 4,986 on the rolls. As the number of shares represented was sufficient, a contract was duly entered into for 250 pupils at $108 per capita, amounting to $27,000. About the middle of May, 1906, a bill in equity was filed in the supreme court of the Pistrict of Columbia by Reuben Quick Bear and others, Rosebud Indians, against ,Francis E. Leupp, Commis-sioner, and others, asking that an injunction be granted to restrain the Commissioner of Indian Affairs from executing, or the Secretary of the Interior from approving, a contract with the Bureau of Cath-olic Indian Missions for the St. Francis Mission School on the Rose-bud Reservation, payable out of the trust and treaty fnnds of the said tribe of Indians, and the several officers of the Treasury Depart-ment from paying any money under said contract if executed; I am informally advised that this proceeding was taken for the purpose of testing the legality of such contracts with sectarian schools. The hearing has not yet been had. Consequently, tho the contract has been approved, no claims have been settled or payments made thereunder for the pupils enrolledin this school during the fiscal year 1906, and none will be until the suit has been decided. As the :werage attendance has been only 233, the total of claims which would have been settled but for the suit reaches but $25,164 instead of i427,OOO. Tongue River Cheyenne.-There are 1,412 Tongue River Chey-ennes who are entitled to a proportionate share of the treaty fund "Support of Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, subsistence and civilization, 1906." Of these 481 have a share in the Sioux fund, "Interest on $3,000,000." The petition of the Tongue River Chey-ennes for a contract with St. Labre's School was dated 'February 19, 1906, and signed 6y 25 members, representing 108 shares in the treaty fund referred to. The number of signers was not sufficient to entitle them to one pupil's expenses from the Sioux fund, so the contract was made entirely out of the treaty fund. But the shares , in this fund did not warrant a Contract for the full number of pupils |