OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF COMMISSIONEE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 101 Tribes. They were removed 'from all lands, including homesteads, of allottees enrolled as intermarried whites, as freedmen, and as mixed-blood Indians having less than one-half Indian blood, includ-ing minors, and from all lands, except homesteads, of mixed-blood Indians having at least one-half but less than three-quarters Indian blood. It is estimated that 36,000 allottees out of 101,228 still have restricted lands; and the law provides that the Secretary of the In-terior may remove their restrictions also, wholly or in part, under such regulations as he may prescribe concerning the terms of sale of their lands, and the disposal of the proceeds for their benefit. On ,August 8, 1908, the agent dismissed 338 Creek applications for removal of restrictions then pending in his office. The whole business of removing restrictions and selling allotted lands in the Creek Nation was discontinued on that day, because it ended the five-year period from the final ratification of the Creek agreement which said : Lands allotted to eitleens hereunder shall not * * * be alienable by the allottee or his heirs at any time bewe the expiration of five years from the ratification of this agreement * The agreement was ratified by the Creek national council on August 7, 1902. - During last year, 2,021 applications for rkmoval of restrictions in all the Five Civilized Tribes were approved by the department, and 24 were disapproved. In 162 cases, involving an area of 22,959.60 acres, restrictions were removed by the department for the purpose of authorizing sales for town-site uses. For some weeks before the passage of the '' restrictions act " no applications for, the removal of restrictions were received at the Union Agency. DISTRICT AGENTS. - The '' restrictions act " provides that the persons and property of minor allottees, "except as otherwise specifically provided by law," shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the probate courts of Okla-homa, but the Secretary of the Interior is empowered, under regula-tions prescribed by him, to appoint local representatives within the State to investigate the conduct of guardians and curators having charge of the estates of minors, report to the proper probate court all cases of negligence or carelessness or incompetency, and prescribe the necessary remedy, either civil or criminal, or both, to preserve, the property and protect the interests of the minors. The local repre-sentatives are authorized to accept appointments as guardians or curators for minors without fee or charge, and it is their duty, also without charge, to advise allottees, adult or minor, having restricted lands, regarding their legal rights and as to the preparation of |