To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I transmit herewith, for the information of the Congress, reports rendered in connection with the investigation to determine the extent and value of the coal deposits in and under the segregated coal lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations in Oklahoma, which investigation has been made, under the direction of the Department of the interior, pursuant to the act of June 21, 1906, which provides in part as follows:
That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to make practical and exhaustive investigation of the character, extent, and value of the coal deposits in and under the segregated coal lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, in Indian Territory; and the expense thereof, not exceeding the sum of fifty thousand dollars, shall be paid out of the funds of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations in the Treasury of the United States: Provided , That any and all information obtained under the provisions of this act shall be available at all times for the use of the Congress and its committees.
There are also inclosed memorials of the Choctaw Nation protesting against the payment of the expenses of this investigation from the tribal funds, and requesting the United States to purchase the surplus and undivided property of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.
WILLIAM H. TAFT
Note: This Message was accompanied by letters and memoranda detailing the progress of the investigation into the character, extent and value of the coal deposits in and under the segregated coal lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in Indian Territory. The salient features of the report were that the acreage of workable coal was found to be, on unleased lands, 188,824 acres, and on leased lands, 82,129 acres, with a value, according to the Government's mining expert, of about $12,319,039. The Director of the Geological Survey estimated the value of the land in three different ways: (1) By mining the coal upon the same royalty basis and assuming that the annual production remained the same, it would take 666 years to exhaust the deposits and about $160,000,000 would be earned.
(2) By selling the land in tracts for immediate exploitation, the Director believed the Indians could obtain about $26,000,000.
(3) By purchasing the land and permitting it to be mined by other parties upon a royalty basis of 8 cents per ton, the Government could procure an annual income of $240,000. After deducting $40,000 for administrative expenses, the remaining $200,000 annual royalty would be applicable partly as interest on the bonds, by which, presumably, the necessary purchase price would be obtained, and partly as amortization. The latter item, however, because of the great length of time required to exhaust the coal, the Director considers negligible. Figuring upon this basis, the Geological Survey values the land at from $5,000,000 to $6,600,000.
William Howard Taft, Special Message Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/207360