indexing on a text node element

Hello all,

I am using xindice-1.1b4 to store a relatively small collection (120) of
smallish xml files (15kb each).  

My question is in two parts:

1. I have added an Indexer on the STATUS node within my xml documents
using the following code.

DatabaseManager.registerDatabase(database);
col = DatabaseManager.getCollection(baseuri);
CollectionManager service = (CollectionManager)
col.getService("CollectionManager", "1.0");
String document = "<index
class='org.apache.xindice.core.indexer.ValueIndexer' name='status'
pattern='STATUS' />";
service.createIndexer(DOMParser.toDocument(document));

Typical xml doc structure:
<COMPLAINT>
	<STATUS>1</STATUS>
	....
	<DOCUMENTS>
		...
	</DOCUMENTS>
</COMPLAINT>

It seems to take a long time to return a set of documents using an xpath
query, e.g. /COMPLAINT[STATUS='1']
Is there a way to speed up this query?

2. (this may be related more to basic XPath) 
When I return the result I wish to omit the DOCUMENTS part as it is not
needed in my list.  Is there a way to omit it and if so will there be
any speed benefit to doing this from Xindice's point of view?

Thank you in advance for any response,
Matt