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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 73 Indians affected within the ceded portions of their reservations in the same manner and with the same restrictions. A cumbersome and useless requirement of law was also abolished requiring Indian agents to render quarterly transcripts of all entries in their account books to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and an annual report of all material on hand not required for use was sub-stituted. LEGISIATIQN NEEDED.. w-. There is no authority under existing law for leasing for mining pur-poses the tribal lands of reservations that have been established by executive order. There are several such reservations rich in minerals, and one in particular in Arizona containing large deposits of tufa stone, which it is hoped Congress will by appropriate legislation enable the Indians to make beneficial use of. The domestic life of the Indians, the sanctity and purity of the marriage relation, is a matter of prime importance, and should be / protected by stringent laws in accord with the most advanced and : ,, bestmarriage and divorce laws among the whites. The Secretary of .:' the Interior should be given power to enforce a purer mode of living : Lb/ JL. among the Indians by withhoIding their annuities when they are , found to be living bpenIy in_r$&erousrelations. .- Under existing law neither the department nor the ~resident can authorize the sale of mature green timber on Indian reservations or allotments, except in a few cases under special laws. The waste in overripe timber on Indian reservations is estimated to be $1,000,000 annually. General authority for the sale of this class of timber should be granted by Congress by appropriate amendment of the act of February 16, 1889 (25 Stat. L., 673). In order to conserve the resources of the Indian reservations, a bill such as that which passed the Senate on March 30, 1908 (S. 5604), shbuld be reintroduced, authori~ingt he Secretary of the Interior to reserve all reservoir sites on Indian reservations and all lands adja-cent to falls and rapids for power sites before the surplus lands on such reservations are opened for settlement. Heretofore special acts of Congress have been necessary to secure payment to allottees of the amounts paid into the Treasury on account of sale, cutting, or removal of timber from or damage to allotted lands, with the result that long delays have occurred and injustice has been done before Indians entitled to receive money from depreda-tions committed upon their lands have been paid. General legisla-tion should be enacted authorizing the United States Treasurer to place to the credit of the allottees the amounts due them subject to withdrawal under the direction of t,he Secretary of the Interior. In order to handle successfully the many problems of sanitation and those arising from epidemics and diseases to which Indiana are |