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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 61 / Many allotments to full-blood Indians have also been reported by Mr. Cassou for cancellation as a result of the decisions of the Depart-ment dated January 3, 1902, in the cases of Mrs. Pete, wife of Boston Pete, and of Ducey Turner, minor daughter of Charles Turner, all nonreservation Indians residing in the Susanville land district. Boston Pete and Charles Turner had entered lands under the Indian home-stead laws some years ago, and the question was raised whether the wives and children of such Indian homesteaders, all full bloods, would be entitled to allotments under the fourth section. The Department held that these Indian homesteaders became citizens ~f tne United States when they took homesteads, and that their wives and minor children followed their status as citizens, and were not therefore entitled to allotments under the fourth section. This question was further considered by the Assistant Attorney- General for the Interior Department. In an opinion dated June 28, 1902, and approved by the Department, it is held in effect that an Indian woman living with a citizen of the United States in marriage relation, whether he be an Indian or not, is not entitled to an allot-ment under the fourth section. This opinion proceeds on the theory that persons who are citizens of the United States by virtue of the provisions contained in section 6 of the act of February 8, 1887 (24 Stats., p. 388), are not entitled to allotments under the fourth section. The result of this ruling, it is believed, will be to work hardship on many families of industrious and progressive Indians. In one of his reports, submitting several cases of allotments to the wives and children of Indian homesteaders, Mr. Casson makes the following comment: The homesteader is the best among the Indians, and it seems to me too bad that they can nbt hold lends far the wife and children under the allotment xi. The allottee who waits for an agent to come and allot him, and who gets land for hia family, as a rule makea no use of it, and it really looks to the Indian homesteader thst there is a premium on shiftlessness. Special Allotting Agent George A. Keepers has been engaged during the past year in making allotments to nonreservation Indians along the Columbia River, in the Vancouver and Walla Walla land districts, in Washington, and in The Dalles land district in Oregon. ~ u ~ u1s, t 1902, he reported that he had made a total of 165 allotments to Indians in that locality. All the land so allotted was classified as grazing land, although each allotment embraced enough farming land for the iudi-vidual use of the allottee. The Indians, he reports, are averse to removing any distance from their old locations for the purpose of securing allotments, hence it is difficult to secure desirable lands for them, especially as the country is being very rapidly settled up by whites. They have taken an interest in having the lands desired by them |