The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-26
REPORT OF COMMISSION
GENERAL REVIEW OF ALLOTMENT
 OF LANDS.
Ninety Thousand Members of Five Civ- ilized Tribes Have Been Under Disadvantages Caused by
 Delay in Work,

 port of the Dawes Commission on its work for the five civilized tribes of IF dians in Indian Territory, which was made public today, is a general review of the partition and allotment of the lands of those Indians during the past six years.
 "rhe time consumed in the change from the old system to the new" the commissioners say. has been most irksome period to the people of Indian Territory, and the Commission Is not unmindful of the fact that to many candid observers the execution of the task has seemed to be both tedious and expensive.
 While admitting that criticism was to be expected, the report goes on to say that 1t Is not just and to show that the time has been we'll occupied In se- curing a correct roll of the people. in obtaining a correct inventory of their property and in locating improve ments.
 Of the difficulties of these various divisions of the work, they say:
 Every adult or head of a family in A total of more than 200.00 citizens and claimants was personally examined and his previous tribal record was look ed up Of this number, and in this way, more than 100000 have been ex- amined since June 2S. 1898. The pro- ceedings were all taken down and es- pecially as every case could be car ried to Washington on appeal of ten. The record of a signal case was hun dreds of pages in extent. Of the above number of people. approximately 90,o00 will be finally adjudged to lawfully possess tribal membership and prop erty rights; and 1t can readily be seen how less careful course of procedure would have utterly dissipated the prop critics of the tribes.
 As to the appraisement of the land. i, was thought that the tracts of forty acres, or a quarter of a section was as small a division as could reasonably be made the subject of personal inspec- ton. A creed was adopted as the unit in determining the grade and value of land; but even this required the locat- ing, inspection, classifying and valuing oe nearly 500.000 tracts of land.
 "As for safeguarding the occupancy and improvement rights of the people. their houses, barns. fences and other Improvements had to be located by &C., tual surveys and with minute accur- acy.
 Perhaps hardly man in the Ter ritory knew the sectional divisions of his farm, CT the sectional location of a single one of his Improvements, and hence there is no scale of accurate information respecting these matters, except the surveys and location of im- provements made by the commission"
 The report adds:
 We have been daily witnesses of the distress of the people caused by deday not only of the approximately 90 900 citizens of the tribes, but also of the established six hundred thousand residents of the Territory. whose le- gitimate interests suffer from an un- settled state of affairs. It will be sev- eral years consumed in this work if 1t is completed. as we expect by July 1, 1905, and the administration of these communal estates amounting to nearly 20, ,000. 900 acres of land, and to perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in ac- tual values, will have consumed that amount of time and have cost less than ten cents per acre. We trust that a consideration of the affairs here stated will add to the conclusion that under the circumstances the time con- sumed has not been unreasonable, or the cost unduly great"
 Speaking of the difficulties in con- nection with the allotment work, the commissioners say that spectators not over scrupulous in their business methods nave attempted m every way to influence the work with view to personal gain.
 One of the methods of the specu- lators Is outlined as follows:
 "A favorite scheme has been to in- duce full-blood Indians to take in al- lotment widely separated tracts of ten or more acres each in order that they might not be in position to take possession of and improve their al1ot- ments. This matter was invited to the attention of the department in the month of August. 1903. and the com mission has used every possible means to prevent allotments of this character. Under the law, however, certain priv ileges are graIaed to citizens in the selection of their allotments, making it difficult for the commission to full E Drotect their intersatA"