38       REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS 
 
have industrial occupations in and around towns and where their 
children need to be near schools. To avoid, so far as possible, loss of 
lands which represent Indian trust funds, through taxation by the 
State, the purchase of lands which have been taxed and are therefore 
properly on the tax lists of the county, is discouraged, and superin- 
tendents are urged to find suitable tracts which are still under trust 
so that the line of Government supervision and trust and of tax 
exemption as provided by law or treaty will not be broken. 
CANCELLATION OF PATENTS IN FEE 
Patents in fee issued to Indians for their allotments prior to 1921 
under the so-called "declaration of policy" are being canceled
under 
the provisions of the act of February 26, 1927 (44 Stat. 1247). More 
than 300 have been canceled so far and the number is expected to be 
greatly increased when applications have been made under the act of 
February 21, 1931 (Public 713, 71st Cong.). Each act applies to pat- 
ents issued during the trust period without application by, or consent 
of, the patentee. The act of 1927 authorizes cancellation of the patent 
where the Indian had neither sold nor mortgaged any part of the 
land, and the patent never became effective. The act of 1931 au- 
thorizes cancellation so far as unsold portions are concerned, or the 
whole where the land has been mortgaged and the mortgage re- 
leased. The bills enacted into these laws were introduced at the 
request of the Interior Department for the purpose of saving as 
many as possible of the homes of Indians imperiled by issuance of 
patents in fee without their application. The greater number have 
lost their lands through mortgage foreclosure, or tax sales, the fee 
patents having become effective upon execution of a deed or mort- 
gage by the patentee. 
CONSTRUCTION 
Funds made available during the last session of Congress for new 
construction in the Indian Service for the fiscal year ending June 
30, 1932, aggregated $6,058,800. For 1931, the amount available 
for construction was $4,020,863. These amounts represent appropria- 
tions for school, agency, and hospital buildings, and new construction 
on Indian irrigation projects. 
Plans and specifications are prepared by a staff of technical em- 
ployees trained in designing, drafting, engineering, and other fields. 
Superintendents of construction are assigned to field areas for the 
purpose of assisting superintendents and others having immediate 
charge of construction projects. 
POPULATION 
As a result of a shortage of funds this office was forced to esti- 
mate the 1931 population. Hence the April 1 1931 Indian popula- 
tion was estimated by adding to the 1930 population the births and 
such Indians as had been previously omitted from the census roll 
but were entitled to enrollment and deducting from the 1930 popula- 
tion the reported deaths and the Indians illegally or wrongfully 
enrolled.