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Show I REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN ApFAlRB. 45 I The ceded portlou of the Fort Berthold Reacrvation, North Dakota, consisting of about 1,600,000 acres, has been thrown open to settlement by proclamation of the President. The ceded lands of the Coaur d7Al.4ne Reservation, Idaho, were opened to settlement from the date of the approval of the act. Allotments of land arc being made on the Lake Trarcrae Reservation, 8out.h Dakota, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation, Oklahoma, and surveys are in progress upon the Grow Reservation, Montana, and when they arc completed and the terms of the act ratifying the respect-ive agreements with the Indians of the several reservations shall have been fully complied with, the unallotted or vacant lands embraced within the ceded portions will be thrown open to settlement. The agreement with the Indians of the tlouthern Ute Reservation, in Colorado, referred to in my last annual report, was not ratified by the , last Congress. I NEGOTIATIONS FOR FURTHER REDUCTIONS. I The Indian appropriation act for the fiscal year en3ing Jane 30,1892 . % (26 Stats., 1010), contains the following provisions: To enable the Seoretmy of the Interior in his discretion to negotiate with any Indians for the snrrender of portions of their respective reservations, any agreement thns negotiated being snbject to subseqoent ratification by Congress, $15,000 or so muoh thereof as rnsy be neoessary. Under the provisions of this act the Secretary of the I~lterior has appointed three commissioners to negotiate with the Shoshone and Arapaho Indians of the Shoshone or Wiud River Reservation, in Wyo-ming, for the surrender of such portion of their reservation as they choose to dispose of; also three commissioners to treat with the Indiana of the Pyramid Lake Reservation, in Nevada, for the same purpose. The work of these and other commissions will be referred to here-after, page 47. For some 2 years or more there has been rumor of the existence of rich gold and silver deposits in the Carrizo Mountains, within the - Navajo reservation, in New Mexico and Arizona, and it is the settled belief of the people in that section of the country that there is rich , mineral wealth in the mountains refcrred to. Prospectors surreptitiously visited this region, and in the spring of 1890, by request of this o@ce, the military removed a party of 15 who were found locating claims. This reservation embraces an area of about 8,200,000 acres, and, though no accurate census of the tribe has ever been taken, its num-ber has been variously estimated at from 14,000 to 20,000, a large pro. portion of whom reside outside on the public lands. The reservation is, for the most part, largely worthless for agricul-tural purposes, and the Indians depend almost entirely upon their sheep, goats, and horse? They could sn+render the northern central |