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Show REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF IhTDIAN AFFAIRS. 59 ' t,ke most a t tmt ive and convenient for settlers. If i t @hallb e found that thelandsare .of xn unre-nable extent for the reservation.. a nortion can be aithheld frvm sale A upon an inapeetion of the plots of survey. "Verr rrspectf~tliyp, onr obediant servant, "A. P. CSIIER, ' &mefay. " TVn1. P. DOLE. Esq., "Co,mti~sibtcerof I,diozt Afait.s." . Under these iortroctions four tracts of lend were surveyed and divided into lots. The Indian firm at San Pete was but a small tract of land at a, point ahere a little stream i snes f ~ nmth e mountain an which ia situated the Indian town known as Arra-pene. The sorrey of the reservation here wsa made to include not only the original Indian farm, but was extended over a district of country twelve miles sqoare, so as to include the town of Gunnison, with several hundred inhabitants and extensix.8 iim . froyemep$s. ,,There is a map of this survey on file in the Land Dsp8rtment. The ndlan farm is there properly laid down on Twelve-Mile Creek, between- the main range and an outlyin- mountain. The town of Guonison is hot laid down on themap, but its situation is izlioated by the ditch, mill-race, and saw-mill on the north bnuk of the San Pete River, a few miles above its jonction with the Sevier. At'Coro Creek also, not only the pert of coontry embraced within the netltral boundarias indicated by the superintendent of Indian affairs, as heretofore stated, was inclnged in the survey, but it, also, was extended over a district of wuntrp twelve lllilea aqoare. so as tb include within its boundaries the towus of Petersbo~.g,M eadow Creek and Corn Creek, and a nunlber of outlying farms. On the map of tho Corn Creek reservation, on file in the Laud Department, the sitnation of the Iorlisn fwm rloos not appear, and properly, for the surrej-ed land did not includeit. The town of Petemburg isoalled ou thtst m&pC'CornCreekse ttlement," and Xlea<low Creek settlement is indioated. At Spauislx Pork the wrvey was made to inclnde the origiwal Indian farm, and also *he form of one white man. The interests of no other settlers were iuterfefered with. Whether the survey at Deep Creek wasmsde to include any land8 pre-oooupied by ahite men, is not kuowu to the oommission. The commission made as thorough an examinatbu into the facts oanoeroi& these reservations as i t was possible for i t to do vithout eramiming witne~sesbylo gal meth-ods, bat erirlence of tho oorrectness of the above statement can be found in tile oflicial raoorts p;f the Iudiau oureau, aud ~ n e hre cords have been carefully examined by the .DOnlm18810n. In oreeuting tho provisious of tbe law these traits of land were valned by special .commissions nppoiotccl hy the t,heu Scoretary of the Interior, but the owners of the improvem.ent8 which had been included in the snrveya prote~ted against the sale of t.heir property withont just e o u ~ p e ~ ~ i ~tot tihoelm~~ elves. Thereupon tho Secretary of the Interior caused an appraisal to be made of their im-provements. It has before bee" stated that those reservations hm1 no legal stat178 until the enact-ment of the law of 1864. The wordiug'of that law, which rocogoieas oertavio reserro-tions in Utnb, is as follows: "The several rekervatious heretofore made or occupied as snch in the Territory of Utah." It. would seem a forced ooustmetiou of this phri~sealogyt o bold t.hat, under it, .authority mas giveu to anrvay and sell tracts of land which had never been nsed as snch Indian reserrzhiaus, but dllich bad heen settled upon by white man anterior to the paasage of the law. I t ~ o u l dae em that the law under consideration contemplated the asle of oeltain lauds whicll had previously been reserved fur the use of the Indians bv the officers of the Indian Degvartment on duty in Utah. that is, the fsrms which had b b n cultivated bytbe lodians, and such arljaceut l&ncl~k?it hin certain natural bound-aries indicated above, as t,hose oliicials had told the Indians would be kept for their use; but lands whioh had heeu occupied by these vhitc settlers prior to and dorihg the administr;ltion of such oliioials could not properly be included under the provisious .of this law. I t woold certainly be an injustios to sell these lands w.ithont oompensat-iug the owners for theil. improvemeuts. But there are "rent area of land adjacent to these, eqndly as good, yet n~usolda nd unoocupie4, &oh tbeae same ~e t t l e roso uid obtiin by aconpatiou under tbe homeatend laws, and the lands in question have no other value in the market than that given to them by the imgrovcrneots. Inihe con-dition of affairs in Utah, where the towns have a oou~lnnnal organization virtually es- .eluding non-oommuual people, tllesa improvements ea~tldb e sold to none other than the people by whom they were "lade. If, then, an interoret~tioni s given to this law to t.he effect that the Secretary of the Interior shall causi the sale of the lando occupied by these people, it simply amounts t o this, that certain iropruvemauts sllall be s e i~edb y the Government, and sold to the marties from whom they have bbcen ~eieedn, ud that tho proeeeds of such sales shall be |