STATEMENT OF MR. GABE E. PARKER, SUPERINTENDENT FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES, MUSKOGEE, OKLA.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you just state your name and occupation? Mr. PARKER. Gabe E. Parker, Superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you state briefly just what your duties cover and what branches of the service are conducted for the Five Civilized Tribes here, as nearly as you can, in sequence, over which you have control and supervision?

Mr. PARKER. As provided by congressional act, the offices of Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes and Superintendent of the Union Agency were consolidated to be effective in September, 1914, and in lieu thereof a Superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes at a salary of $5,000 per year was authorized. The Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes had, broadly speaking, duties with relation to tribal affairs, enrollments, allotments, and disposition of the tribal lands and property. The Superintendent of the Union Agency had to do with the individual affairs directly and indirectly of some 101,506 enrolled members of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Nations, known as the Five Civilized Tribes in eastern Oklahoma. Those duties, by virtue of the act of Congress referred to, came under the responsibility and jurisdiction of the Superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes.

There are 40 counties in eastern Oklahoma in which the Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes reside. The headquarters of the superintendent and his office force are in Muskogee, Okla. The field work has been divided at various times into different sized districts under the immediate supervision and jurisdiction of a field clerk. Formerly they were known as district agents. Until recently there were 19 such field districts and 19 field clerks. To-day there are 13 districts and 13 field clerks.

The field clerks coming in first contact with the Indian and his affairs must be the department in embryo. Practically all matters of interest to the Indians must come first before the field clerks. They make investigations and reports to the Muskogee office and such investigations and reports as required to be submitted to the department at Washington are prepared on the basis of the field clerk's report and transmitted to the department for proper action. The members of the Five Civilized Tribes compose individuals from full blood and, in a great many instances, primitive people, through varying degrees of Indian blood to intermarried whites and noncitizen people and freedmen.

By acts of Congress and by operation of the acts conferring jurisdiction upon the Secretary of the Interior, restriction against the alienation of individual allotments has been removed from all freedmen, intermarried whites and other citizens, and from the surplus allotment of those from half bloods to three-quarter bloods, leaving, generally speaking, the homestead allotment of all enrolled menbers, of half blood and more Indian blood. The half blood has his homestead allotment restricted and both surplus and homestead allotments of members enrolled as three-quarters to full-bloods are still restricted.

Mr. HASTINGS. That is not entirely accurate as to those enrolled as exact half bloods.

The CHAIRMAN. I desire to have Mr. Parker, if you please, go ahead without interruption.

Mr. HASTINGS. There is a little inaccuracy about those supposed to be half bloods.

The CHAIRMAN. I appreciate that. We are listening to Mr. Parker as an authority on the question.

Mr. PARKER. I would not want to make an incorrect statement. The CHAIRMAN. Proceed.

Mr. PARKER. I mean to say that the restrictions from the surplus lands of the half-blood Indians and Indians enrolled of more than one-half blood up to three-quarter bloods have been removed.

The CHAIRMAN. The restrictions upon the sale of their surplus lands?

Mr. CARTER. In respect to surplus allotments, Mr. Parker explained that there are surplus and homestead allotments.

Mr. PARKER. Individual allotments to the members of the Five Civilized Tribes were made in what might be called two parts or classes, one the homestead allotment, the other surplus allotment, and the allotments range in the Five Civilized Tribes from 20 acres, valued at $6.50, the highest valuation for allotment purposes only to 4,146 acres of 25-cent land valued for allotment purposes, so that each allottee took a part of his allotment as a homestead and a part of it as a surplus allotment.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, Mr. Parker, you have here a well-organized bureau, and I want to get some information from you as to its relation to the bureau in Washington and if your position as superintendent approximates, so far as the Five Civilized Tribes are concerned, the position of the commissioner in Washington in relation to all Indians. Is that correct? Then, the department next in importance is your inspection department; the next is the field supervision; and the next is the office review. Do you have all these offices or what approximates these three supervisory divisions?

Mr. PARKER. Yes, sir; I think so. We might not just call them by these names, but I happen to have here a tree, rather hurriedly prepared, showing the organization of the office.

The CHAIRMAN. That tree shows the plan of your office?

Mr. PARKER. Yes. There are a few inaccuracies in detail, but not in the general outline.

The CHAIRMAN. This plot that I am looking at now is the general plot. We will go into that further in detail as we go on.

Mr. PARKER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I am speaking of the three divisions in their relation to you-inspection, field supervision, and office review. Mr. PARKER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Field inspection takes in such matters as personnel, health, law and order, industries, school and agency buildings. Mr. PARKER. That is with the Indian Office in Washington. The CHAIRMAN. I am speaking of the Indian Office.

Mr. PARKER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. What I am trying to do is to compare that with this office here to see whether or not, so far as the Five Civilized Tribes are concerned, you do not either of you duplicate the other.

Mr. PARKER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. I should judge from this tree here that you have presented that it approximates practically the same system and the same headings and service as does the Washington bureau.

Mr. PARKER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. That being correct, one of the things that I am interested in, and I think the committee is as a whole, is what part of the work of any one of these sections under the heading of inspection, field supervision, or office review could be the work which could be finally finished in this office if you as superintendent had the same authority to close up matters that now exists and rests in the hands of the commissioner at Washington?

Mr. PARKER. Would it be well, Mr. Chairman, to state the matters which are referred to the Indian Office, or the department, I should say, for its approval or disapproval?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes; under each of the headings as nearly as you

can.

Mr. PARKER. Under "inspection," this office has an inspector, a special inspector for the Five Civilized Tribes under my immedeiate supervision and direction, and a supervising field clerk under my supervision and direction. The special inspector is charged primarily with investigations of misconduct of employees, of complaints by Indians or others which might seem to be criminal or especially overreaching the Indians and matters similar thereto, while the supervising field clerk is charged with the responsibility of visiting from time to time the field offices, inspecting their books and papers, and investigating complaints touching the work of the field

men.

The CHAIRMAN. To whom do they report?

Mr. PARKER. They report to me.

The CHAIRMAN. Is your decision on those reports final?

Mr. PARKER. Sometimes, so far as it affects us.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the type of the matter on which they are

not?

Mr. PARKER. So far as it affects employees who are under the civil service, these reports, if I consider them of sufficient consequence, are referred to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. If the report involves a suit at law which must be brought by the United States district attorney's office here, those matters must be referred to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who in turn refers them to the Secretary of the Interior, who requests the Attorney General, who then directs the district attorney, and a suit is brought. Cases in probate which need to be tried out in court must be referred to the department usually with recommendation that a probate attorney be assigned to that particular case, but matters of routine administration-

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). Are those all that you can think of which come under the head of inspection that have to be referred to Washington?

Mr. PARKER. Well, I should have added there we have an oil and gas inspector whose duty it is and who has under his immediate di srection field men to make reports as to oil and gas and kindred subjects, but they must be referred to the department at Washington for action.

Mr. RHODES. Why must they be referred to the department? Mr. PARKER. Under the act of Congress in the spring of 1918, I believe, all leases except oil and gas leases were authorized to be approved by the Superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes, all oil and gas leases to be submitted to the department for approval, so that practically all matters except detail carrying out of regulations would be necessarily referred to the department in connection with oil and gas leases.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there anything else you think of under that heading?

Mr. PARKER. Nothing, I believe, except touching civil-service employees. Both the special inspector and supervising field clerk might make reports to me which would indicate that charges should be preferred for reasons provided in the Indian Office regulations against employees. Those charges would be prepared in this office if I thought it wise from the information that I had from the inspector and supervising field clerk and transmitted with recommendation to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to state to you that in case any member of the committee or myself asks you a question which might be embarrassing in any way as to your relation with the service here, you are at liberty to decline to answer it, because we will probably hold an executive session later to discuss some matters that ought not to go out to the public at this time.

Mr. PARKER. Thank you. I appreciate that.

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to ask you to enumerate some of the things that you do not have to send to Washington that come under those headings.

Mr. PARKER. Agricultural leases, coal or asphalt or other mineral leases of allotted lands and agricultural leases of allotted lands, grazing leases, hay-cutting leases, sand, stone, or any kind of lease that is sought to be made on restricted land except oil and gas leases, may be made now since the spring of 1918 with the approval of the Superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes.

Mr. TILLMAN. Final approval?

Mr. PARKER. That is, uncontested cases.

All contested cases may

be appealed within 30 days to the Secretary of the Interior, I believe the act says.

The CHAIRMAN. In the first instance, you close them up, or if there is no appeal you close them out, and that is the end of it.

Mr. PARKER. That is the end of it; yes.

The CHAIRMAN. What else?

Mr. PARKER. That act provides that all uncontested claims and leases except oil and gas leases theretofore approved or paid by the Secretary of the Interior shall thereafter be paid and approved or disapproved by the Superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes, and 30 days shall be allowed for an appeal from his decision, so that all individual Indian money which comes into the custody of the Superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes may now be disposed of without reference to the department at Washington.

Mr. HAYDEN. Have there been many appeals from decisions of yours?

Mr. PARKER. I think only one or two.

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The CHAIRMAN. Do you think of any other activities in other parts of the service which come under your supervision that you do not have to send to Washington to close up?

Mr. PARKER. The leasing of individual allotments for purposes other than oil and gas constitutes a very large source of the individual Indian's money revenue, and the authority to make disbursements therefrom. I think these two phases cover very largely my authority outside of tribal matters, oil and gas matters, and employees' matters, and such reports as we are required to make for accounting.

Mr. HAYDEN. You have mentioned there were reports to be sent to Washington. Do you have to report to Washington on all the things that you do close up here as well as those that you do not? Mr. PARKER. Not all that we close up.

Mr. HAYDEN. Approximately?

Mr. PARKER. Except in the accounting end of it. We must show in our accounts where we get every penny and what we do with it. The CHAIRMAN. You stated with reference to that branch of the service that there was also a field division and a division of office review.

Mr. PARKER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. You have stated practically the substance of the items that you have to send to Washington and those that you do not?

Mr. PARKER. Yes. If you will pardon me, I happened to think that would come up, and I jotted down here in pencil the things or matters which I am required to submit to Washington.

The CHAIRMAN. Go ahead and put that in the record.

Mr. PARKER. Oil and gas leases, oil and gas assignments, stipulations modifying or extending the terms of oil and gas leases, all tribal leases, pipe lines, telegraph and telephone, rights of way, and matters connected with these various activities; all cancellations of oil and gas leases, rentals, reductions of rentals on gas leases and casing head gas, and payments of funds to others than the allottee, as, for instance, an Indian soldier who is a husband. In many cases Indians who were in the service of the country in France desired to make payments to their wives and children. Such matters, for authority to do so, were submitted to the department. The CHAIRMAN. Is that all?

Mr. PARKER. No, sir. We deposit both tribal and individual Indian moneys, exclusively, since the spring of 1918, I believe, in the banks of Oklahoma. Formerly some deposits were made outside of Oklahoma.

The CHAIRMAN. Are all the deposits of these Indian moneys in the banks of Oklahoma?

Mr. PARKER. Either in the banks of Oklahoma or in the Treasury Department, but practically all are in the banks of Oklahoma, both tribal and individual money.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know that to be the fact?

Mr. PARKER. So far as I can say. My cashier has the records. The CHAIRMAN. Do you have the responsibility of assigning this money?

Mr. PARKER. I do not. There are 141 national banks in which we have deposits, and there are thirty-odd State banks, about 180 banks