_The Allotment Act._--By the Dawes act of 1887 the new Indian policy begun in 1871 was still further extended. This act provided for the allotment of Indian lands to individual members of the tribe, and declared that Indians who accepted such allotments or who should leave their tribe and adopt the habits of civilized life, should be considered as citizens of the United States and entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizens. Previous to this time the lands occupied by the Indians were owned by the tribe as a whole and not by the individuals who occupied them. Under this act, individual allotments aggregating more than 30,000,000 acres have been made to 180,000 Indians. There remain about 120,000 Indians, to whom allotments are still to be made. The result of this policy will ultimately be to extinguish the Indian tribes and incorporate them into the American body politic. _Indian Agents._--The control of the national government over the Indian reservations is exercised largely through Indian agents appointed by the President. They are charged with the regulation of trade with the Indians, and have control of the distribution of rations. At each agency one or more schools are maintained, and in addition to the reservation schools there are schools for the higher education of Indians in various parts of the country, the most important being at Lawrence, Kansas, and Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The aggregate annual expenditures on account of the service are now about $15,000,000, more than half of which consists of payments due the Indians under treaty stipulations or of interest on trust funds held by the government for them. The total amount of these trust funds is about $50,000,000.[93] [93] The Secretary of the Interior says the Osage Indians are probably the wealthiest people in the world, their average per capita wealth being over $9,500. Some families have an income of $12,000 a year. =The Pension Bureau= has charge of the administration of the pension laws. The payments on account of pensions now constitute the largest item of expenditure by the national government. Before the outbreak of the Civil War, pension expenditures rarely exceeded two million dollars a year, and the total outlay for this purpose during the entire period of our national history aggregated less than half the amount now appropriated for a single year. According to the report of the commissioner of pensions for 1919 there were 624,427 names on the pension rolls, and the amount expended for pensions that year was over $220,000,000. More than $5,000,000,000 has been expended for pensions since the Civil War, a larger amount than the national debt incurred on account of the war itself. =The Patent Office= includes a large number of officers, examiners, and employees, who are under the direction of the commissioner of patents. Their work is described on p. 260.