Dana H. Kelsey, Superintendent of the Union Agency, and acting in conjunction with Commissioner Wright last year handled a grand total of $8,215,989.71. Some idea of the enormous amount of business transacted by his office may be gleaned from the statement that pieces of mail matter (over half of which were letters) during the year totaled 364,218. His office investigated about 18,000 leases, land cases, complaints and probate cases all relating to Indian property. The net saving to the Indians by this governmental supervision was $667,352.25.

Mr. Kelsey states: “At the advent of statehood there were no ample facilities to afford proper protection to the minor and incompetent Indians, the former of which number approximately 60,000.”

Some of the difficulties with which his office has had to contend may be imagined from the following quotation:—

“Many parties who sought to secure these lands either controlled the appointment of the guardian or connived with the guardian to purchase the land at grossly inadequate prices, the difference between the purchase price and the actual price of the land being the profit realized by the guardian and the purchaser. In other instances parents who were appointed guardians of their children sold their children’s allotments and dissipated the proceeds. This work discloses many instances where parties desiring to lease minor allotments secured the appointment of themselves or employees as guardian, and by so controlling the land sought they were able to profit to a considerable extent in subleasing lands for, in some instances, many times the amount paid. Many of these leases provided for the improvement of the land in lieu of cash rental, while none of the improvements were made. Many complaints lodged with the field clerks are from the unrestricted Indians, who, upon attaining their majority, find that their allotments have been sold and the funds dissipated by the guardian, leaving them penniless.”

I visited Mr. Kelsey’s office and spent a number of days there watching the conduct of business. The tremendous activity in the oilfields, and the thousands of applications for oil leases or purchase of Indian lands pass, for the most part, through his hands and those of his able assistants. If it were not for his efforts and those of Commissioner Wright, and the tribal attorneys (and not to omit Mr. Mott, Mr. Foreman and Miss Barnard), in other words, if there had not appeared before those who sought to despoil the Indians this “stone wall defense”, there would be little to record today beyond the fact that the Five Civilized Tribes at one time possessed a great deal of property.

Mr. Kelsey served over ten years as Superintendent of the Union Agency and is thoroughly familiar with conditions in Oklahoma. His recommendations, therefore, should carry weight. They are found on page 93 of his report.

“1. Continued and more practical care of the health and property of the older, uneducated, full-blood Indian, and the disposition, under proper supervision, of his excess land holdings.

“2. The immediate placing of all mature, able-bodied Indians entirely upon their own resources when shown that they have had sufficient experience or education to enable them to earn a livelihood.

“3. Systematic and compulsory education of every Indian child, and conservation of his property in the meantime.”

He emphasizes the education of Indian children for the reason that back in the hills in Oklahoma there are several thousand children not officially recognized as members of the tribes, for the reason that they have been born since the rolls were closed. As no provision is made for the education of these, he properly claims that these children constitute one of the great problems in Oklahoma. He also states that most of the adult Indians have remaining more or less property or money. I would add to his recommendations that this property and money must be wisely safeguarded else the Indians will become paupers. Already a few of them are living on the section lines, along the county roads. And this number will increase rapidly, unless we make the citizenship real and effective.