820 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



ADMINISTRATION. 



The Indian Office is aided in the field by five Indian inspectors, one 

 superintendent of Indian schools, five special Indian agents at large, 

 and sixty agents located at agencies. 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



Aboard of ten gentlemen serve without pay as " members of the 

 Board of Indian Commissioners." The headquarters of this board is 

 New York City. They serve as a supervisory body over the letting of 

 contracts and furnishing supplies (Indian), and see to the moral and 

 physical condition of the Indians. Composed of gentlemen of standing, 

 professionally and otherwise, it was created and is retained rather as a 

 check upon rapacity (supposed or otherwise), and is considered by many 

 as a warrant or guarantee of honesty in the contract methods of the 

 Indian service. Its members make visits to and inspect reservations, 

 and it reports its work annually to Congress, with suggestions. 



Members of the Board of Indian Commissioners, with their Post-Office 



Addresses June £0, 1886. 



Clinton B. Fisk, chairman, 15 Broad street, New York City. 



E. Whittlesey, secretary, 1429 New York avenne, Washington, D. C. 



Albert K. Smiley, Mohonk Lake, N. Y. 



William McMichael, 265 Broadway, New York City. 



James Lidgerwood, 835 Broadway, New York City. 



William H. Waldby, Adrian, Mich. 



Merrill E. Gates, New Brunswick, N. J. 



John H. Charlton, Nyack, N. Y. 



William H. Morgan, Nashville, Tenn. 



ANNUAL INDIAN APPROPRIATIONS BY CONGRESS. 



The annual Indian appropriations bill as passed by Congress (the one 

 for 1886, or Public Document No. 87, which covers 26 pages), will be of 

 interest enough to repay reading. It provides for agencies, fulfilling 

 treaties, Indian schools, annuities, medical attendance, Indian depreda- 

 tion claims, miscellaneous supports, general incidental expenses of the 

 Indian service, and interest on trust fund stock. 



FAILURE OF CONGRESS TO LEGISLATE PROMPTLY FOR THE INDIAN 



SERVICE. 



One great cause of embarrassment in the management of the affairs of this Bureau 

 is the failure to make the appropriations for the Indian service in time, so that de- 

 liveries may be made at the distant agencies within the year for which the appropri- 

 ations are made, and as a consequence the Indians are as completely deprived of any 

 benefit for that year as though none had been made. In this connection I call atten- 

 tion to the fact that after the appropriation bill passes much time is necessarily con- 

 sumed before contracts can be let. — Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1884. 



