OCR Text |
Show 34 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. Allotmmts n~aded urittg the above-namedperiod. White Eerth Reservation.. ....................................... 301 Leech Lake Reservation ......................................... 594 Cass Lake Reservation .......................................... 15 Winnibigoshish Reservation ..................................... 180 To Pillager Indians an ceded lands.. ............................. 285 Boiso Forte Reservation ......................................... 680 Grand Portage Reservation.. .................................... 304 - Total number of allotments ............................... 2,359 In addition to the above, 148 changes in allotments were made on the White Earth Reservation. During the year two houses were erected for removal Indians at a cost of $60 ew,h for labor, exclusive of cost of material. Blackfeet and Fort Be1knap.-My last annual report noted the fact that a commission had been appointed and instruded to negotiate with the Indians of the Blackfeet and Fort Belknap reservations for thc cession of a portion of their lands. The oommission~conclnded an agreement September 26, 1895, with the Blackfeet Indians, whereby they ceded a portion of their reserve, estimated to contain 800,000 acres, for the sum of $1,500,000. Tha.t agreement was ratified by the act of Congress approved June 10,1896, section 9 of which provides that the ceded territory, after being sur-veyed, shall be opened to settlement under the mineral land laws only. Thecommission also concluded October 9,1805, an agreement with tlie Indians of the Fort Belknap Reservation by which the^ ceded about 40,000scres of t,heir reserve for the sum of $360,000. This agreement was also ratified by the %ot of June 10, 1896, section 8 of wllicl~ pro-vides for the making of the necessary surveys and for the opening of the ceded lands to settlement under the mineral-land laws of the United States. The ceded lands of this reservation are said tocontain large quantities of gold. June 13 last recommendation was made to the Department that action be taken by the General Land Office with respect to the required surveys. Pnyal1np.-The Indian appropriation act approved June 10, 1896, contains the following clause relative to the Puyallnp Commission: For completing the work of the Puyallup Indian Commission appointed nnderthe act of March third, eighteen hundred andninety-three, to select anfiappraise snch por-tionsofthe allodtudlanda withintho Puyallup IndianReser~ation,W ashington, asare not required for homes for the Indian ellottees; and alao that part of the agency tract, exclusive of the burying ground, not needed for school purposes, and for tho purpose of defraying tho expenses of said commissior,, four thonssnd dollars, to be reirubnrsefi to the United States oat of the proceeds of the sale of tho agency tract m ~ dal lotted lauds, as provided in said sot, to be irnmedistelr available, and said ca~uruission ehdl cconoludo its worlr and terminsta on or before the first day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-six. It is not thought probable that this commission will be able by the 1st of next December to sell a11 of the agency lots and the portions of |