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712      REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 
made after the final ratification of such agreement. Such agreement 
was ratified by the tribes on September 25, 1902. 
No additional leases have therefore been made during the past 
fiscal year, but those entered into during the period from June 28, 
1898, to September 25, 1902, have continued in force, and operations 
have been carried on and royalties paid to the United States Indian 
agent for the benefit of the tribes. 
The said supplemental agreement provided that such lands, as were 
chiefly valuable because of the coal and asphalt deposits-underlying 
the same, should be segregated from   allotment and sold at public 
auction; such segregation to include all lands covered by existing 
leases, and where the segregation included land within regularly 
established town sites, the deposits only were to be sold. The segre- 
gation of such land was completed during the fiscal year 1903 and 
aggregated approximately 445,000 acres. 
The above provisions of law in reference to the sale of these segre- 
gated lands were modified by the Indian appropriation act approved 
April 21, 1904 (33 Stat. L., 189), which provided that the unleased 
coal and asphalt lands should be sold under the direction of the Sec- 
retary of the Interior within three years from September 25, 1902, or 
before September 25, 1905, after due advertisement under regulations 
to be approved by the President, but that the lands covered by exist- 
ing leases should be withheld from sale until the further direction of 
Congress. 
A commission of three persons, as provided by law, was appointed 
by the President to be present at the time of opening the bids on 
such lands and heard in reference to the acceptance or rejection 
thereof, Mr. Thomas E. Sanguin, of Hugo, Ind. T., being appointed 
to represent the Choctaw Nation and Mr. Walter Colbert, of Ardmore, 
Ind. T., to represent the Chickasaw Nation, upon the recommendation 
of the executives of such tribes. 
Maps of the segregated lands, which for convenience were divided 
into six districts, were prepared by Mr. Joseph A. Taff, of the Geo- 
logical Survey, for public distribution and information of prospective 
purchasers, and regulations were promulgated governing the matter 
of conducting these sales and prescribing the manner of submitting 
bids. 
It was provided by such regulations that bids should be made to 
the honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and such bids for 
lands in each district were to be opened by him upon the dates 
indicated below: 
No. 1.-McAlester district (coal), October 3, 1904, at 2 p. m. 
No. 2.-Wilburton-Stigler district (coal), December 5, 1904, at 2 p. m. 
No. 3.-Howe-Poteau district (coal), February 6, 1905, at 2 p. m. 
No. 4.-McCurtain-Massey district (coal), April 3, 1905, at 2 p. m. 
No. 5.-Lehigh-Ardmore district (coal), June 5, 1905, at 2 p. m. 
No. 6.-Unleased asphalt lands, August 7, 1905, at 2 p. m. 
in accordance with the regulations, bids were opened upon the 
first five mentioned districts, including all the unleased coal lands 
during the fiscal year 1905, but it is understood that all bids were 
rejected. 
The existing leases were entered into with the mining trustees, 
one representing the Choctaw Nation and one the Chickasaw Nation,