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Show I 44 REPORT OF THE ,COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. According to the last annual report there are on this reservation 1,687 Indians-Shoshones, 872; Arapahoes, 816. As 1,388 allotments have been made there are 299 yet to be made, provided all the remaining Indians conclude to accept them. OFR RESERVATIONS. In last year's report I referred to the fact that Special Allotting Agent Kinnane and his successor, George A. Keepers, had been engaged in the investigation of alleged fraudulent Indian allotment applications in the States of Minnesota and Wisconsin. It was charged that such applications had been made by mixed bloods inorder to obtain the timber and for speculative purposes, rather than for agriculture and grazing. Agent Keepers has continued his investigations and ascer-tained that many applications were made for the purpose indicated and on that acwunt he has recommended their cancellation. In trausmit-ting his report and the accompanying testimony to the General Land Office, this office has nniformly concnrred in his recommendations. The Land Office has already finally canceled many of the allotment appli. cations, and others are held for cancellation. The respectiveapplicants have been notified of such action by the local land officers and will be given an opportunity, at a hearing ordered for such purpose, to estab-lish their rights, if they have any, to the lands involved. Some twelve or fifteen applications were found to have been made by full bloods in good faith for lands for homes. Originally there were about 400 of these alleged fraudulent applica- I tions to be investigated, located principally within the Duluth, Minu., land district. January 18,1898, this office called upon Agent Keepers for a report of the number of applications then in his hands for inves-tigation, and January 31,1898, he replied that he had some 176 then on hand and that it was often very difficult to find the Indians and obtain their testimony, especially as the Indians whose applications were then on hand were widely scattered, some of them living in what is known as the "Rainy Lake Country," others in the southern part of Minnesota, and still others in different parts of Wisconsin. He further stated that he was pushing t.he investigation as rapidly as possible and that as he investigated eaoh application he would report upon it. In my last report I stated that William E. Oasson, of Wisconsin, was instructed August 4,1897, to proceed to Burns, Oreg., for the purpose of making allotments to Indians in the Burns local land office district and adjacent localities. In that district he made 110 allotments to Piutes, a remnant of the tribe which formerly occnpicd the Malheur Indian Reservation. Schedule of these allotments was submitted to the Department May 14 and was approved May 17,1898, and a duplicate thereof was transmitted to the General Land Office with request that patents issue in the names of the several allottees, and when issued that the same be sent to this office for delivery to the parties entitled. |
