Page 715

REPORT OF INDIAN INSPECTOR FOR INDIAN TERRITORY. 715 
of the Department they were advised that if they desired their leases 
to continue in effect they should pay royalty at the rate of 8 cents per
ton upon the difference between the amount actually mined and the 
minimum number of tons required to be mined. Most of the lessees 
who had failed to comply with such requirements in this respect have 
made proper payments. A few companies, however, failed to make 
proper remittance after being repeatedly notified and the matter is 
now under consideration. 
The act of April 28, 1904 (33 Stat. L., 544), authorized the Secre- 
tary of the Interior to segregate certain lands adjacent to the leases 
of the Choctaw., Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad Company and Messrs. 
Degnan and McConnell which were not included in the original 
segregation and upon which tracts of land the coal companies had 
valuable improvements in connection with their operations and add 
same to such leases. 
During the past fiscal year these lands, which aggregated 330 acres, 
were added to the coal leases to which they were contiguous. 
The appraisement of the improvements of the Choctaw and Chick- 
asaw citizens located upon segregated coal and asphalt lands has 
been made during the past year by Mr. Cyrus Beede, United States 
Indian inspector, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, 
as provided by law, such lands not being subject to allotment, and his 
report is now pending before the Department. In the meantime such 
citizens are permitted to occupy their improvements. Numerous re- 
quests have been made for the privilege of renting these segregated 
lands for agricultural purposes, but the Department has held that 
under existing law such lands must be sold as provided by law. 
CREEK AND CHEROKEE NATIONS. 
The existing agreements with the Creeks and Cherokees provide 
that allottees can lease their land for mineral purposes, which leases 
must be approved by the Secretary of the Interior before they are of 
any validity. The regulations governing the leasing of lands for 
such purposes in these nations have been modified from time to time 
to meet existing conditions and as seemed to be necessary for the 
proper protection of the interests of the Indians. The Indian appro- 
priation act of April 21, 1904 (33 Stat. L., 189), removed the restric- 
tions upon the alienation of land by allottees who are not of Indian 
blood and not minors, except as to the homestead, but as the matter 
of leasing allotments was governed by different provisions of law 
than the matter of the sale of allotments, it is held by the Department 
that the provisions of law removing the restrictions of allottees not 
of Indian blood does not repeal the provisions which require that 
mineral leases made by such citizens be approved by the Department. 
The most important amendments to the regulations governing 
leases for mineral purposes during the year were as follows: 
Owing to the fact that many oil and gas leases were secured from 
allottees and not promptly presented to the Indian agent for consider- 
ation and transmittal for approval, the regulations were amended 
on November 16, 1904, so as to provide that all leases should be filed 
within thirty days from date of execution, or when executed previous 
to November 16, 1904, within thirty days from that date. This 
resulted in about 2,000 leases being filed in the Indian agent's office 
within a short time after promulgation of such regulation. 
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