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Show 42 REPORT OF TEE COMM.IBSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIBB. the validity of the allotments may be determined finally and once for all, and trust patents issued where this has not already been done. It is not believed, and it can hardly ba expected, that these Indians will enter with much zeal into the work of improving their allotments until this shall have been done. Dayton Creek, Montana.-On October 23, 1902, the United states Indian agent of the Flathead Agency made report to this office respect-ing the Dayton Creek allotments, within the Kalispel land district, Montana-some 19 in number-and stated that they were all in the possession of white men; that some of these allotments had been in their possession for many years, while others had settled on them within thepast four or five years; that nearly all of the white trespassers were cultivating the lands and had placed good and substantial im-provements on them so that some of these allotments with clear title would be worth several thousand dollars; and that one Indian, named "Custa," allotment No. 9, was in actual possession of his land, but that a white man had recently commenced contest proceedings against him for a part of it. The agent made the following recommendations: First, that the allotments in conflict with the claim of Casey and Proctor be canceled; second, that the oontest against "Custa," allotment No. 9, be vigor-ously defended because this Indian had lived upon and farmed his allotment for many years, made a good home thereon, and was reason-ably prosperous; third, that heirs of deceased Indian allottees be al-lowed to relinquish or to sell their rights to persons in possession or to any person who might wish to defend the Indian's rights as against the person in possession; fourth, that all other allottees be permitted to relinquish their allotments; Bth, that upon the relinquishment of any of these claims by the Indians the sum of $1.25 per acre be de-posited with the United States Indian agent for their benefit, to be paid to them or expended in their behalf as might be deemed to their best interests. These recolumendations were made in the hope that they might lead to the ending of this long drawn out and troublesome qnestion. The agent thought that land fully as good as that in contest was to be . bad on the Flnthead Reservation, only a few miles away, and he believed that it would be better to locate the Indians upon new allot-ments than to undertake to dispossess the whites in behalf of the Indians. The removal of the Indians to new allotments on the reser-vation would be no hardship upon them, but the removal of the whites from these allotments would mean their financial ruin. Febrmry 21, 1903, the agent was instructed to visit the Indian allottees at Dayton Creek and endeavor to bringabout an adjnatment of the contests between them and the white?. It was thought that by |
