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Show 34 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. * PER CAPITA PAYMENTS, There are two distinct classes of per capita payments made to In-dians. 1. Annual, semiannual,or quirterly payments of interest growing out of tribal trust funds or of moneys derived from the sale of timber, grazing and mining privileges on tribal lands, and from miscellaneous sources. 'These periodical payments, commonly known as annuity payments, are in most cases provided for by treaty stipulations or by specific authority of Congress. 2. Payments of parts of the principal of the tribal trust finds held in the Treasury to the credit of the respective tribes, or of funds specifically appropriated by Congress to pay the Indians for lands ceded to the Goyernment by them, or to pay judgments of the Court of Claims in their favor, etc. The policy of the office with respect to these payments is to con-sider each case on its own merits, where the law does not actually re-quire payment to be made in cash, to determine whether the interests of the Indians concerned would not be better promoted by expending their money in the purchase of stock or agricultural implements and to assist them in improving their allotments, or in some other manner for their benefit, rather than to pay the money to them, in cash, knowing that much of it is likely to be squandered in frivolous and often harmful ways. It is the aim of the office to make the Indians realize the actual value of their money to themselves and their fami- ' lies, and to encourage them to use it only in such ways and for such purposes as will bestpromote theirindividualwelfare. (See Table 15.) HANDLING OF FUNDS FROM LOVE TRACT. In the last annual report of thk commissioner reference was msde to the plan approved by the department for the deposit in the American National Bank of Asheville, N. C., of the funds received from the sale of a part of the "Love tract," belonging to the Eastern band of Cherokee Indians, until such time as the money could be disbursed per capita to the Indians. Under date of March 12, 1909, the department approved a pay roll prepared by the superintendent of the Cherokee School for a $20 per capita payment to the members of the band, and on the same day granted authority for the expenditure of thesum of $37,840 from the funds mentioned in making the payment. The payment was made by the superintendent under special inatructions from the office dated March 20,1909. The office has been informed by an inspector who recently visited t.he school that the money distributed to the Indians in this payment |
