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Show 14 REPORT OF THE OOMMISSIONER OF INDIAIT AFFAIRS been discontinued within the past few years, and eventually it is hoped that they will all be abolished, the Indians taking part in the county fairs just like their white neighbors. The Indians have won many prizes at such fairs in open competition with other ex-hibitors. ROADS AND BRIDQES Special appropriations in the sum of $109,500 were available for the construction and repair of roads and b r i d g ~d uring the year on the following reservations: Fort Apache, An&, $15,000, Hoopa Valley, Calif., $8,000, Red Lake, Minn., $9,000, Mescalero, N. Mex., $15,000, Osage, Okla., $35,000, Taholah, Wash., $7,500, Shoshone, w., vn a9n nnn J".) YI-, """. The use of 100 per cent Federal aid, as mentioned in my last annual report, has given a remarkable impetus to road work on the Indian reservations, and projects for such work have been approved for an aggregate length of 249.87 miles and total Federal aid of $2,786,- 449.31. OIL AND GAS The high prices of crude oil and the tremendous demand for the products of petroleum in past years have resulted in the search for oil being extended to all sections of the country, in consequence of which leases on restricted Indian lands for oil and gas mining pur-poses are bein made in practically every State where such lands are located, an8 oil fields are in operation on Indian lands in Okla- I~omaM, ontana, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Theoretically the basic conditions of the oil industry during the year improved somewhat over the previous year, wKich was char-acterized by overproduction and unstable market conditions. The industry is still far from normal, however, and at the close of the year the larger purchasing companies were af a,in pr.o rating their runs and storing approx~mately 50 per cent o the 011 from leases to which their lines are connected. Notwithstanding these adverse conditions oil and gas operations on restricted Indian lands were fairly successful, as shown by the fact that nearly 226,910 acres were leased for oil and gas mining purposes. The gross oil production for the year was approximately 49,640,458 barrels, and the revenue .r e.c"ei ved by the Indians from exlsting leases approximated $29,- ".C 140,01(. In the Osage Reservation alone 120,000 acres wereoffered for oil mining lease, 62,448 acres selling for a grand total of $16,457,000. The outstanding feature in these stiles vas the record-breaking prices received for tracts in ' the famous ' Burhank pool, one 160-acre Matt hringin $1,990,000, another $1,995,000, and each of several others selling $o r more than $1,000,000.: The total revenue to the Osage Indians from oil and gas leases was $24 670,483. A sale of leases on unallotted lands of) the Navajo Treaty Reserva-tion> N. Mex., on which oil was discovered.last year netted. to the Indians $80,598. ' The siile included exploratory leaseson theTocito, Table Mesa, Rattlesnake, and Beautkful Mountain structures in un-developed portions of the reservation, requiring extensive drilling operations. On the Rattlesnake structure, which is located about 12 |
