OCR Text |
Show ! COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. lxxiii I The bill passed the Senate June 25,1888, and I have no hesitation in saying that unless this or a similar bill shall become a law there are apparently no means by which, without great delay, the intruders upon the reservation can be excluded therefrom. OOMMISSION TO THE SIOUX IN DAKOTA. The bands of Sioux who are located in the vicinity of and belong to the Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Crow Creek and Lower Brul6, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock Agencies, all located upon what is called the "Great Sioux Reservation in Dakota," have joint undividedoccupancy in that reservation. The Santee Sioux in Nebraska and at Flandrean, Dak., were also parties to the treaty of 1868 by which the Sioux Re-serve was set apart, and they too have been considered to have pro-prietary rights in that reserve. An act '6 to divide a portion of the reservation of the'sioux Nation of India,ns in Dakota into separate reservations and to secure the re-linquishment of the Indisn title to the remainder" was approved April . 30, 1888. The main provisions of this act are as follows : It proposed to set oft' from the Sioux Reserve five separate reserva-tions for the R,osebud, Pine Ridge, Lower BrulB, Cheyenne River, and Standing Bock Indians,.respectively, and to reduce the Grow Creek Re-serve (which is separated from the Sioux Heserve by the Missouri River), and to restore the remaining lands of t,hese two reservations to the public domain. By the boundaries proposed the lands restored would amount to over 11,000,000 acres and tile lands retained to a little less than 11,000,OUO acres. The Indians were to bare lands allotted to them in severalty and to receive patents therefor. I The lands restored to the public domain were to be sold to setilers I under the provisions of the honiestead acts for 50 eents per acre, but $1.50 was to be paid for lands entered for town-site purposes. In compensation for the lands ceded by the Indians it was proposed . that they should receive: (1) An extension for twenty years of the ed-ucational provisions of the treaty of 1868, whereby a school and teacher were promised for every thirty children of school age who could be in-dnced to attend school. (2) Thirty new buildings for day schools. (3) Not exceeding 26,000 head of stock cattle. (4) For each family who should take an allotment of laud in severalty two milch cows, one pair of oxen, with yoke and chain, one wagon, harrow, hoe, ax, and pitch; fork, and $20 in cash, and seed for two years sufficient to plant 6 acres. (5) One million dollars, of which not more than LO per cent. could be expended for or paid to the Sioux in any one year; and upon this principal, so long as any of it might remain, interest at 5 per cent. was to be paid or expended for the Sioux annually.' (6.) Any balance that might remain from the proceeds of the sales of ceded lands, after deducting from such proceeds the expense of surveying and selling |