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Show 44 COMMISSIONEB OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. it was the intent only that the Government should ad as trustee for the Indians, to dispose of their lands, and, consequently, that the lands so ceded did not become public lands, upon which the free grazing of sheep was permitted. United States ea! rel. Julia Mickadiet and A h La Mwe Tiebazclt u. Fradlin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior.-The Court of Ap-peals, rei-ersing the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, in a petition for injunction to restrain the Secretary of the Interior from assuming further jurisdiction in the estate of a deceased Winnebago allottee whose heirs had been found by the department under the provisions of the act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. L., 855), held that the action of the department was ha1 and conclusive and that, the Secretary was without jurisdiction to reopen the case or in any way to readjudicate it, and that the decree of adoption under which the plaintiffs claimed was valid, and that the plaintiffs were the sole heirs of the decedent. EXHIBITION INDIANS. .' The commercializing of aboriginal Indian life by means of exhibi-tions and shows in which the real modern Indian assumes the past is in every way discouraged. While there is much of his old life worth preserving, it is not the part which is desired by moving-picture com-panies or the Wild West show. The Indians who leave their homes, ' whether on or off the reservation, to go with these exhibitions obtain a false ideal of the civilization we desire them to emulate, and frequently permit the indulgence of their appetite for liquor or other depraved customs. A rigid censorship is exercised over contracts made for exhibition purposes, so that the interests of the Indians . , financially, morally, and otherwise will be protected. . On May 29, 1915, I addressed the following letter to Hon. J. M. Kennedy, State commissioner of agriculture, Billings, Mont. : Receipt is acknowledged of your telegram of May 18, 1915, in which you , recommend that Hon. Charles Harris be permitted to take 100 Indians from the ' Crow Reservation to participate in a Wild West show in connection wlth the Fourth of July celebration to be held at Billings. , During October last I visited the Crow Reservation and spent somethlng like two weeks studying and investigating conditions from every point of view, covering the entire reservation. It is generally believed that the Crow Indinns have not made as great progress as mlght under proper circumstances have been acquired, and while to some extent, I share in this belief, I attribute much of this condition to the manage-ment of their affairs rather than wholly to the Indians themselves. I am fully persuaded that under different circumstances they will respond and accomplisl~ things for themselves far beyond either the general opinion con-cerning- them or their own heretofore realization of their capacity and nos-sibilities. About a year ago a new superintendent was placed in charge of this reserva. tton, in whose capacity and earnestness of purpose I have great confidence, and |
