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Show COMMISSIONER OB INDIAN AFFAIRS. 57 On the Diminished Wind River Reservation, Wyo., construction of laterals and concrete headgates has been carried on. In view of the necessity of making beneficial use of the waters under ditches already constructed, the irrigation force has been seduced to that required for the maintenance and operation of the system. Work was under way on several of the Mission Reservations in southern California and the pueblos in New Mexico. During the year investigations by the engineers of this service for power and storage projects were made on practically all the Indian reservations. Most of the reports have been received, and appro-priate orders for withdrawals necessary will be submitted in the near future. MINERALS ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS. Save important deposits of gold, coal, oil, and gas on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, all the lands of Indians containing valuable minerals are located in Oklahoma among the Five Civilized Tribes, Osage, Oto and Missonria, Sac and Rox, and Ponca Indians. Though the existence of petroleum and natural gas in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) was known for many years, but little real development of the region took place prior to 1903. Among the Five Civilized Tribes one of the greatest oil fields in the world has been developed, largely under departmental leases. The production for a number of years has been approximately 40,- 000,000 barrels per annum. Since the removal of restrictions on the alienation of lands by the department May 27, 1908, a large per-centage of these leases has been made direct by the Indian owners free from departmental control. However, during the past year, approximately 13,000,000 barrels of oil were produced from leases supervised by the department, and the royalties collected on oil and gas during the past year amounted to $851,097-most of which was received from leased lands in the Cherokee and Creek Nation. On the Osage Reservation oil and gas operations are conducted under the Edwin B. Foster lease of March 16,1896, which expired by limitation March 16, 1906. Congress, by act of March 3, 1905, ex-tended this lease and a number of subleases thereof for a period of 10 years, and limited the lands embraced therein to 630,000 acres in the aggregate. During the past year 9,446,060.10 barrels of oil were produced, and a royalty of 12i per cent thereon paid to the Indiana amounted during the period mentioned to more than $656,000. By section 3 of the act of June 28,1906, authority was granted for the leasing for mineral purposes of that part of the Osage land not covered by approved subleases under the act of March 3, 1905. The regulations governing the leasing of these additional lands ( a g p |