| OCR Text |
Show .2Q ' REPORZ: 0P';THE. CO~IBBIONEIi dF INDIAN AFFAIRB. 31, 1889, and Messrs. Marty and Whiting, the other wmmisdioners, were nosed thereof. This commission is now engaged inthe work for which it was appointed. Negot&ions with the Pottatoatornie and ~ick&oo Ifidianzs in Kcmuas.- By section 3 of the Indian appropriation act of March 2, 1889 (26 ~w.lO,O !2), the sum of $6,000 wm appropriated to enable the Presi-dent to negotiate with the Prairie band of Pottawatomies and the Eickapoo Indians for the sale of a portion of their lands in Kansm, and the allotment of the remainder in severalty; such a,greements Ss may be made to be submitted by the President to Congress at the next session." In pursuanoe of this provision, the President on April 26,1889, rtp pointed Benjamin J. Horton, of Lawrence, Kans.; A. D. Walker, of Horton, Kans., and H. J. Aten, of Hiawatha, Kans., commissioners to ,negotiate with said Indians for the pnfpose therein specified. Instruc-tions for their guidance in the discharge of theduties before them, pre-pared in this office, and approved by the Department May 9,1889, were duly transmitted. A preliminary report received from said commissioners shows that the efforts so far made by them to effect the negotiations contemplated by the law under which they are appointed have not been successful. Tb'e Indians, it is said, are influenced against taking allotments by the condition, example, and persuasion of about 260 members of what is known as the citizen class of Pottawatomie Indians who some yeark ago took their lands in severalty, without restriction as to alienation, and w i v e d their portion of annuities, and are now without land or money,, : living on the charity of their friends on the reservation, where they have no rights. These pauper quasi-citizen Indians arc entitled nuder exist-ing laws to take allotments on the Pottawatomie Reservation in the Indian Territory, and for their own welfare, as well as for the good of the Indians among whom they are now living withont present or future prospects for improvement of their oondition, they should be removed to the Indian Territory, and be required to take allotments +nd work for self support. This may be necessary to secure the consent of the Pothwatomie and Kiekapoo Indians in Kansas to the measures con-. , templated in the law &hove referred to. The qnestion of making allotments under the proviaions of the gen-eral allotment act to such of the membqrs of these two tribes as desire ' them was submitted to the Department by this offlce on September 13, 1889. 8ww in Dakota.-By section 29 of an act approved March 2,1889 (25 Stat:, 899), "to divide a portion of the reservation of the Sioux Nation of Indians in Dakota into separate reservations, and to secure the re-linquishment of the Indian title to the remainder, and for other.pur-poses," it is provided- That there is hereby appropriated, out of the money in the Treenary not otherwise appropriated, the sum of twenty-five thousand dcllars, or so muoh thereof as may be |
