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Show COMI6ISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 7 to forest guards. In 1911 sales of timber brought in for Indians $2,192,000. Petroleum is a natural resource belonging to the Indians which has been developed almost entirely since 1902. In 1902 the Census Bureau, in a special report upon the production of petroleum, dis-m i d Indian Territory, occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes, with a minute footnote recording the existence of 13 wells; concerning Oklahoma, the report said there were many natural petroleum seeps, but nothing in the way of actual petroleum production. In that year, however, wells within the present boundaries of Oklahoma produced 37,000 barrels of oil. On July 31, 1902, the Secretary of the Interior made the first oil and gas lease of Indian lands within this area. Under the Curtis Act of 1898 the Secretary had received authority over these lands which had previously been exercised, if at all, by the Five Civilized Tribes themselves. From 1903 the devel-opment of oil was phenomenal. To date over 22,000 leases have been made of lands rwtricted in alienation. Under these leases 133,245,000 barrels of oil have been produced and $6,344,000 in royalties have been paid to the Indians. Furthermore, since 1908 royalties paid upon oil and gas leases on lands of the Osage Indians have aggre-gated $1,900,000. From inconsequential beginnings 10 years ago Oklahoma has now come to rank second among oil-producing States, in 1911 yielding almost one-fifth of all petroleum produced in the United States. For allotment of lands in severalty outside the boundaries of In-dian Territory Congress. has appropriated $4,900,000, of which it appropriated almost $2,000,000 since 1906. Of the 104,000 Indians who have been given allotments through these appropriatiom almost one-fourth, 24,408, have received their allotments within the past five years. The present efficiency of the organization used in making allotments appears not only in the gross amount of work it has accomplished, but also in its economies; for instance, in 1910 new arrangements for surveying were made with the General Land Office under which much delay is avoided, and the average cost per allot-ment has been reduced from $42 to $28. At the same time new methods of keeping records of allotments in the Indian Office were introduced, avoiding both the cost and the chance of error incident to copying elaborate schedules, and giving within one cover the original schedule, the original plats, and the original classification of surplus lands. Economies in making allotments are particularly de-sirable, since the appropriations are reimbursable from funds of the Indians. Allotment of the Five Civilized Tribes under the act of 1898, con-ducted by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribea and later by the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, was the largest task |