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Show Special Agent Henton is now negotiating for another tract of 25 acres in Goodhue County for $335, the title to which has not yet been made satisfactory to the Department. The amount of land to which each member is entitled under the stipulations of the act of 1889 has not yet been determined, and there-fore the lands purchased by Special Agent Eenton have not been sub-d~ videda nd allotted to individual members of the band. i ' LEGALIZING TEE RECORDS OF TEE INDIAN OFFICE AND AUTHORIZING THE USE OF A SEAL. Your attention is again invited to the subject of legalizing the record-iug of Indian deeds and other papers of this office and the authoriza-tion of the use of a seal, which was brought before the Department by Oommisvioner Atkins. In his report for 1887 (see page nvr), he says: In sundry treatie* made with the Indians, from the Chickasaw treat.y of ~ e ~ t e i b e r 20,1016 (7 Stats., p. 1.50), to the treaty of the Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi, Feb-rnsry 18, 1867 (15 Stats., p. 4951, grants of Ian4 were made to sundry individual Indians. On many of these grants or re~ervations restriotions were olsced as to their oopveysnoe, some requiriog the approval of the President, others the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. By reason of these restriations many deeds of con-veyance from the reservees, or their heirs or representatives, have been snbmitted to this office for the requisite approval, and of eaoh oooveganoe that ha8 received such approval a reoord has been made in this oBce until there has soournulated 10,755 pages of such record, as follows, viz, 2,602 p&g,oes of individual and miscellaneous deeds; 5,130 pages of Shawnee deeds; 1,516 pages ot Miami deeds; 1,453 pages of Kaskeskia, Peoris, Wes, and Pienkeshaw deeds, aod 49 pages of deeds from the L'Anae band of Cbippewaa. There is no ennotment of law that I can find authorizing the recording of thsee deeds. It has been dons for the conveoience of the bffioe and for it8 guidance in the adjustment of any questlonn that might arise or that might be submitted for oonsid-eration respecting each particular tract, or touching any inquiry that rnighe be made a8 to itsstatus. . Many call8 have been made, and their frequenoy is incrcaaiug, for certified copies of deeds recorded in this Office, the parties eelliog therefor averring, in many oases, that the original p.lpers have been lost, destroyed, or midaid, and that no record of such papers ves made in the proper office of record. Many of these deeds pass the title to lands wbioh, at the day of execution, may not have been of much value, but to-day, by reason of improvements made thereon, are very valoable.. Therefore, since in many instances this Office has the only reoord which shows a transfer of said land from the Indian, I respeotfully recommend and urge that Cougress be requested tolegalize these deed records, and all other reoorda of this office, and to make it the dut,y of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to oontinne to keeps, reoord of eve17 such oonveyance that may hereafter he approved, and fnrther, to empower him to prepare and certify under seal, such oopies of reoorda, books, and papers on file in this office as may be applied for, to be used in evidence in oonrts of jostioe and for other pur-poses (see seventh section of the act of July 4, 1836, 5 Stats., p. 111, and the twelfth and fifty-seventh aectionsof the act o f J u l ~8, 1870,16 Stats.,pp. 200,207)', and to sn- 'For additional precedents, see act of April 9. 1324,4 Stats., p. 18, chapter 35, and set of March 3, 1041, 5 Stat%, p. 417. |