The following table exhibits the progress of surveys and the disposal of public lands since the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1861:
| Fiscal Year | Surveying | Land | Cost of | Number of | Number of |
| ending | districts. | Offices. | Survey. | Acres | Acres |
| June 30. | Surveyed. | Disposed of. | |||
| 1862 | 9 | 58 | $219,000 00 | 2,673,132 | 1,337,922.00 |
| 1863 | 11 | 54 | 151,840 00 | 2,147,981 | 2,966,698.00 |
| 1864 | 10 | 53 | 172,906 00 | 4,315,954 | 3,238,865.00 |
| 1865 | 10 | 53 | 170,721 00 | 4,161,778 | 4,513,738.00 |
| 1866 | 10 | 61 | 186,389 88 | 4,267,037 | 4,629,312.00 |
| 1867 | 12 | 62 | 423,416 22 | 10,808,314 | 7,041,114.00 |
| 1868 | 13 | 68 | 325,779 50 | 10,170,656 | 6,665,742.00 |
| 1869 | 12 | 66 | 497,471 00 | 10,822,812 | 7,666,151.00 |
| 1870 | 17 | 81 | 560,210 00 | 18,165,278 | 8,095,413.00 |
| 1871 | 17 | 83 | 683,910 00 | 22,016,607 | 10,765,705.00 |
| 1872 | 17 | 92 | 1,019,378 66 | 29,450,939 | 11,864,975.64 |
This shows an increase of the number of surveyors’ general from nine to seventeen, and land-offices from fifty-eight to ninety-two, and an increase in the annual survey from 2,673,132 acres to 29,458,939 acres, and an increase in the number of acres disposed of from 1,337,932 to 11,864,975.64, for the year ending June 30, 1872.
The Land-Office audits its own accounts. It is also charged with laying off land-grants made to the various railroad schemes by Congress. The mines belonging to the Government are also in charge of this office.
The Commissioner of Pensions examines and adjudicates all claims arising under the various and numerous laws passed by Congress, granting bounty-lands or pensions for military and naval services rendered the United States at various times. The Rebellion greatly increased the pension list.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs has charge of all the matters relating to the Indian tribes of the frontier. The Government has at sundry times purchased the lands of various tribes residing east of the Mississippi River, and has settled the Indians upon reservations in the extreme West. For some of these lands a perpetual annuity was granted the tribes; for others, an annuity for a certain specified time; and for others still, a temporary annuity, payable during the pleasure of the President or Congress. The total sum thus pledged to these tribes amounts to nearly twenty-one and a half millions. It is funded at five per cent., the interest alone being paid to the tribes; this interest amounts to over two hundred thousand dollars. It is paid in various ways—in money, in provisions, and in clothing. The Commissioner has charge of all these dealings with the savages.
Prior to Act of Congress of June 30, 1834, organizing the “Department of Indian Affairs,” Indian matters were managed by a Bureau, with a superintendent in charge, under the direction and control of the War Department, and under the organization, the department or office continued with the War Department, until March 3, 1849, when Congress created the Department of the Interior, and gave the supervisory and appellate power, exercised by the Secretary of War in relation to the acts of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to the Secretary of the new department.
A “Commissioner of Indian Affairs” was first authorized by Act of Congress, dated July 9, 1832, and the same law required the Secretary of War to prescribe a new set of regulations as to the mode in which the business of the Commissioner should be performed.
E. Herring was the first Commissioner, and his successors have been as follows: C. A. Harris, appointed in 1836; T. H. Crawford, 1838; Wm. Medell, 1845; O. Brown, 1849; L. Lee, 1850; G. W. Monypenny, 1853; J. W. Denver, 1857; C. E. Mix, 1858; A. B. Greenwood, 1859; W. P. Dole, 1861; D. N. Cooley, 1865; L. V. Bogy, 1866; N. G. Taylor, 1867; E. S. Parker, 1869; F. E. Walker, 1871; and E. P. Smith, 1873.
The Indian Department comprehended, under the new regulations provided for by the law of July 9, 1832, four superintendencies, thirteen agencies, and thirteen sub-agencies, having charge of about two hundred and fifty thousand Indians, inhabiting some of the States west of the Mississippi, and also what was then held to be “Indian Country,” defined by the first section of the law of June 30, 1834, regulating trade and intercourse with Indian tribes, to be “all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi and not within the State of Missouri and Louisiana, or the Territory of Arkansas, and, also, that part of the United States east of the Mississippi River and not within any State to which the Indian title has not been extinguished.”