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Show OOMMI8810NIEB dF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 5 remainder in annual installments of fifty cents per acre until paid for. Complete returns for September had not been received at the time of preparing this statement. • Crow, Mont.-An agreement was entered into by Benjamin F. Barge, James H. McNeely, and Charles G. Hoyt, on behalf of theunited States, with the Indians of the Crow Reservation, Mont., concluded August 14, 1899. The Indians ceded about 1,116,000 acres, comprising the northern portion of their reservation, except such tracts of land as had been allotted in severalty to Indians of the Crow tribe prior to the date of the agreement, and except selections of land occupied by the Indians which they may elect to keep as homes. The United States agreed to pay to and expend for the benefit of the Indians $1,150,000. The agreement was ratified by act of April 27, 1904 (33 Stats., 352). A considerable portion of the ceded tract still remains to be sur-veyed, and under the act of April 27, 1904, the Geological Survey must make certain investigations, with a view to determining what feasible irrigation {rojects may be found within the ceded tract, so that the lands subject to irrigation may be withheld from the opening. In view of this preliminary work it is not thought probable that any por-tion of the land in question will be ready for opening and disposal during this calendar year. Turtle Mountain H. Dak.-The Indian appropriation act of April 12, 1904, includes the agreement of October 2,1892, entered into between the United States, by a commission duly appointed for the purpose, and the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians. The agree-ment was amended materially by Congress, and its ratification was conditioned on acceptance of the amendments by the Indians. The Indians accepted the amended agreement October 8. The settlement of this long-pending matter seems at hand. No land will be restored to the public domain; the ratification simply extin-guishes the Indian claim to ttn immense tract of land. The two town-ships of land constituting their recognized reservation are to he allotted as soon as practicable. Those that will do so are to be allowed to take homesteads on the public domain. Ooe million dollars is to be paid them, to be distributed per capita, at one payment or in annual install-ments, or to be in part expended for their benefit, at the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior. Unmtiiied agreements.-Agreements pending during last session of Congress and still unratified are: With the Indians of the Lower Brule Reservation, S. Dak., con-cluded May 6; 1901, ceding the western portion of their mserve, embracing 56,000 acres. With the Yankton Indians in South Dakota, concluded October 2, 1899, providing for the cession of the Red Pipestone Quarry Reserva-tion, in Minnesota, containing a little more than one section of land. |
