OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. LXIII by this office and submitted to the Department with letter of August 3 last, and having been approved by the Department, a duplicate copy thereof was transmitted to the General Land Office with Department letter of August 4,1885, with directions for the disposal of the lands as provided in the act of Angost 7, 1882, aforesaid. The act of March 3, 1885, also provided for the appraisement and sale of a tract of ,about 50 acres more or less in township 25 north, range 6 east., to be used as a mill-site. The cousent of the Indians was made a prercqnisite coudition of the sale. Their consent having been obtained, Agent Wilkinson and Messrs. Baylis and Maryott, citizensof Nebraska, were, by authority of the Department., appointed to make the required appraisemeut. They submitted their repoyt under da,te of June 12,1885. The value placed upon the tract was $430.404 By De-partment letter of June 22, 1885, the General Land Office was directed to dispose of the land, through the proper local land ofice, for cash to the highest bidders, after due advertisemerlt, the expenses of the sale to be paid by this ofice and the proceeds thereof to be deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the Omaha Indiaus,as proceeds of trust lands under the act of April 1,1880. (Stat. 21, p. 70.) It hzs been discovered that a small portion of the tract authorized to be sold, as above, is inclttded in an Indian allotment, for which patent has issued. Consequently only so much of the tract as has not been $has disposed of can be sold under the present law. , Patents covering the allotments mad8 by Special Agent Miss A, 0. Fletcher, under the act of August 7,1882, have been issned and will shortly be delivered to the Indians. The whole number of allotments made was 954. TEE WINNEBA~O'BESERVATION IN NEBRASKA. The Winnebago Reservation adjoins the Omaha Reservation on the north. It has an area of 170 square miles, or 108,924 acres. The Win-nebagoes have frequently expressed a desire to sell a portion of their reservation, and seeing the good effect of the allotment system upon theirneighbors, the Omahas, those who haw not already taken allot-ments have been anxious to do so. The sale of a part of their reserva-djion would, they believe, furnish them the means to procure farming implements and other things necessary to a good start upon their indi-vidual allotments. I n my opinion legislation substantially like that reccnL1~h ad for the Omahas (act August 7,1882) would prove of great benefit to the Win-nebagoes. They would then have the benefit and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State (Nebraska), and have indi-vidual title to their lands. As in the case of the Omahatl, the nnallotted lands .remaining within the diminished reserve could be patented to the tribe in common. |