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Show I I REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. XXIX erect a station and a suitable building for the storage of Government property at a poiut on the railroad to be designated by the Indian agent, and that no other buildings or persons, except such station and warehouse and tho necessary emploj0s, should be located or be permit-ted toreside withiu t.hereservation. This proposition was accepted by a resolutio~lo f the board of directors of the railway company October 5, 1883, and by a subsequent resolutiou, dated December 4,1883, the pres-ident of the compa,ny was authorized t.o proride the necessary funds, amounting to the sum of $1,84G, and in behalf of the company to pay the same into the l)epartment, or otherwise to dispose of the same for the benefit of the Indians as should be deemed advisable by the De-partment. On the 8th December, 1185, the company filed in the De-partment a map of definite locatiou of the road through the reservation, a distance of seventeen miles, also a plat of stiltion grounds required, the whole containing an aggregate of 184.5 acres, as verified by the company's surveyor. The locatiou of the station grounds was duly approved by the Indian agent. On the 1st March last the president of the railroad company uotified this office that the company had made ! provision for the amount of compensation money required by the In- I dians, and in other respects stood ready to carry out their undertaking. In the mean time, a doubt having arisen in my mind whether or not I the peculiar wording of the clause relating to railroads in the treaty ! with the Sisseton and Walrpeton Indians operated of itself to grant a general right of way for railroads without further legislation by Oon-gress, I submitted the question for Department adjudication on the 30th April last. On the 2d May the papers were returned to this office, with instructions to prepare andsnbmit a full history of the case, with all the papers bearing on the subject and recommendations, for trans-mission to Oongress. The session was, however, at that time, so far advanced, and the chances of procuring action by Oongress in the mat-ter so remote, that it was deemed advisable to postpone sending up the papers nntil the coming session. They will be submitted to the Department in due season. Flathead (Jocko) Rcserae, Hontana (Northen8 Pacific Railroad).-The agreement of September 2,1882, between the Indians occupying this reserve and the United States, whereby their title was extinguished to certain lands of the reservation reqniredfor the purposes of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the full particulars whereof were given in my last annual report, was ratified by Congresri at its last session in the Indian appropriation act approved July 4,1884, with the proviso that- Nothing heroin contained shall be construed as in any wise decting the relation between the Government, and said railroad company, growing out of the grant of land made to said oompany, beyond the right of way provided for in said agreement. By the same act Congress appropriated the sum of $16,000 (which had previously been paid into the Treasury by the Northern Pacific I |