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Show I REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN APFAIRS. 87 SWAMP LANDS IN MINNESOTA AND WISCONSIN. Department decision of September 17, 1898 (27 L. D.'p. 418), held that the lands in the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota were shbject to the of the swamp land act of March 12, 1860 (12 Stat. L., 3), which reads: That the provisions of the act of Congress entitled "An act to enable the State. of Arkansas and other States to reclaim the ' swamp lands' within their Hmits," approved September twenty-eight, eighteen hundred and fifty, be, and the same are hereby, extended to the States of Minnesota and Oregon: Provided, That the grant hereby made shall not indude any lands which the Government of the United States may have reserved, sold, or disposed of (in pursuance of any law heretofore enacted) prior to the confirmation of title to be made under the authority of the said act. On July 7,1907, the surveyor-general of Minnesota reported to the General Land Office a list of swamp lands in the White Earth Reser-vation aggregating 38,072.41 acres. The list probably contains some tracts which were in a '' state of reservation " on March 12, 1860, as it is well known that parts of four or five townships in the northweet part of that reservation had been reserved prior to that date. On September 13, 1907, the department approved two schedules of allot-ments to.the White Earth Indians, one of about 500 under the act of January 14, 1889 (25 Stat. L., 642), and the other of about 2,700 under the act of April 28,lQIM (33 Stat. L., 539). The General Land O5ce withheld patents on approximately 100 of the allotments on the ground that they conflicted with swamp land selections filed by the State of Minnesota. Department decision of December 3, 1903 (32 L. D. p. 328), held that the swamp and overflowed lands in the Chippewa, Leech Lake, White Oak Point and Winnibigoshish reservations, most of which were not "in a state of reservation " on March 12, 1860, also passed to the State, and an opinion of the Attorney-General rendered June 15, 1906' (Opinions Atty. Gen'l. Vol. XXV p. 626), is to the same 4 effect. The department has approved lists (153 and 154, Special), embracing 17,474.67 acres of swamp lands on the Chippewa Reserva-tion, but no patent has been issued. The State has filed other lists, aggregating more than 143,000 acres, on which no action has been taken by the General Land Office. These lists probably cover some land that was "in a state of reservation " on March 12, 1860. The position taken by the Indian Ofice is that the field notes, ' of these surveys-especially those of the Chippewa Reservation-. are wholly unreliable, and that an examination should be made in the field for the purpose of determining what lands are actuillp "swamp and overflowed " lands within the meaning of the act wf |