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Show 22 REPORT OF TEE COMMISSIONEB OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. DISTRICT AGENTS. Congress has never enacted legislation more beneficial to the indi-vidual Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes than section 6 of the act of May 27, 1908 (35 Stat. L.,.312), commonly called the "restric-tions bill," providing for the appointment of local representatives of the Secretary of the Interior to inquire into and investigate the conduct of guardians or curators having in charge the estates of minors and to advise with03 charge any allottee having restricted lands of all their legal rights thereto. Eighteen appointees, called district agents, three of whom are supervising district agents, have been assigned to various places among the Five Civilized Tribes, covering 40 counties in Oklahoma, and three additional district ' agents have been appointed in Oklahoma outside of the Five Civi-lized Tribes, pursuant to the Indian appropriatidn act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. L., 781-804). The district agents for the Five Civi-lized Tribes have intFusted to them the interests of over 101,000 Indians-approximately one-third of 811 the Indians in the United States. About 36,000 allottees still have restricted lands, thus giving each agent approximately 2,400 restricted Indians whose affairs are almost wholly within the jurisdiction of the department through its local officers. It can readily be seen that additional dis-trict agents are needed. In probate matters so far handled a saving has been accomplished for minor allottees of not less than $300,000. Tn leme matters the district agents have saved to allottees, conserva-tively estimated, $200,000 by collecting rentals in arrears, by pro-curing renewals of rental contracts at advanced rates, by preventing inequitable contracts, and by securing the cancellation of such con-tracts. The district agents have established cordial personal rela-tions with the "Snake Indians" in the Creek Nation and the "Night Rawb" in the Cherokee Nation, who have been opposed to allot-ments in severalty of the tribal l?nds, and have induced many such Indians to accept patents to their ,lands, and have also gained the confidence of the full bloods, who refuse to consummate business transactions of importance before consulting the district agent. They have been an invaluable aid to the Department of Justice in I procuring data and making investigations. Intruder cases are heard by them. During the year 3,855 applications for removal of restric-tions were investigated and passed upon. When the restrictions of an allottee have been removed conditionally, his lands are advertised for sale through the office of the district agent, who conducts the details necessary to the opening of the bids, c.ollection of the pur-chase price, execution, approval, and delivery of the deed from allot-tee to purchaser, and disbursement of the proceeds of sale. He saves thousands of dollars to allottees in lawyers' fees. |