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Show REPORT 08 THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 35 allotted lands to which cousent of sale has been given by the dottees and heirs of deceased allottees. It has not met with the success expected in the prosecution of simi-lar work provided for iu the act of March 3,1891 (26 Stats. L., 612), on account of much violent opposition from certain half-breeds and inter-ested whites and owing also to the depressed financial condition of the country. With reference to the work of the commission, I quote the following extracts from report of Mr. James J. Anderson, to this office dated July 23,1896: The fnet is thaKwith the conditions and surrounding8 it has been an impossibility to make a eomplete suoa0EE of the work laid out for the oommission. We have honed thet times would improve and that we would he able to find purchasers for the land, hot instead of improving the situation seems to hrwe grown worse. As it is we have aocomplished much more than rraa oonsidered possible for us to aceom-plish when we e&e. In the first place, we foond that the minds of the Indians had been prejudiced against us, and instead of being readyto have their lands sold according to thepro-visions of the law, as we had expected, we found them almost ta a man bitterly opposed to it. The law itselfws found to be vagueanduncertain inseveralimportant details. Impartmt paints had to be settled before we eould know how to proceed, sod this necessarily consumed a great deal of time. The law was drawn evidently with the ides that the land was owned by the head of the family, whereas it was decided by the Department that it was owned by all those named in the patent. This added immensely to the diBoulty of getting the consent of owners to sale of the lands. In spite of the most persistent and unsorupulous opposition of a gang of white men. aided bv some of the Indians. we obtained the consent of the ma"i oritp- of the Indian8 to aa1,le of the agency trsot, and after having same surveyed andplatted we proceeded to sell ssrneto~etherw ith a small part of the allotted lands. Wefound it &possible to make any l&ge salea. ~ c a t t e i p t etdo renoh Eastern investors through their agents here and nlso by advertising, hut without avail. TheIndiannswereimbuedwith theidea, that if they consented to sale of their allotted lands the nroney would be sent away to Washington and that they wonldnevsr get it back. Itwas o, long time before we conldgive them any assurance that their money would be paidto them as soon as praotiosble, the law simplyproviding that it might be paid to them st the disoretion of the Secretary of the Interior, and being very ambigt~onsi n regard to whether or not more than one-tenth could be paid them in any one year. They waited to see whether those whose allottedli~ndws ere first sold would get their money. This was s long time ooming and caused more delay. When they finally began to giveconsent to mlleof theirallottedlands they wanted them appraised at figures that made sdes out of the question. These are a few of the many things that have made our progress very slow and unsatisfactory. I do not wish to weary you by going through the whole list, hut I mentian thase to show thet they are in their nature things that we could not control. If people here had any money we could sell lands end lots, but the financial strin-gency here is something terrible. As it is, we are scliing small quantities of land from time to time, as you oan see from our re~orts. Choice tracts of agricultural I - land sell readily when tbe sppr.tisemants nre reasonable, but the bill land (which will coat from $75 to $12.? per acre toclear)cnlt hardly be bold at any prire. It might he that if weshoold dsertiae tlrrr the uommissiol~ will soon he recalled and rllnt I them would be no opportonity to purehase thew lands afterwards, it might have the , effeot of stimulating sales. ? |