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Show claimed and occupied by a certain portion of the tribe. On February 6, last, this office submitted to the Department a fall report as to the unsettled condition of affairs there, and recommended that Congress sho~ddb e strongly urged to enact such legislation as would put the Indians in complete possession of their entire reservation, anthorizing the purchase of the lands of those settlers who had acquired rights thereon prior to the setting of the same aside for the Indians by exec-utive order dated October 1,1884, and the removal of all other white settlers therefrom, and the change of its eastern bc~urdaryli ne so as to enlarge the reservation. The draft of a bill for this purpose u7hich accompanied the report is now pending before the Senate. Should it become a law I hope its ex-e cnt io~w~il l lead to peace and harmony among the Indians and give justice to all parties concerned. PINE RIDGE AND ROSEBUI) BOUNDARY AND SETTLE-MENT OF LOWER BRULfiS ON ROSEBUD RESERVE. By a clause in the Indian appropriation act, approved March 3,1891 (26 Stats., pp. 1009,1010), provision was made as follows in regard to the boundary line between the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations and the removal of Lower B d 6 Sioux to Rosebud: For this sum, or 80 much thereof es may be necessary to enable the Secretary of the Interior, by negotiation, to adjust all differences between the Indians on the Pine Ridge andRosebud reservations, in South Dakota, in reference to the boundary lines of said reservations, their rations, annuities, and interest in the principal and interest of the permanent fund, and to make such an arrangement with the Indians drawing rations on the Rosebud Reservation as will be satisfactory to them, by wbieh those of the Lower Brnld Indians who desire to do so may take lands in severalty upon the Rosebud Reservation south of the White River, six thoosand dollars. Although the commissioners appointed by you to conduct the pro-posed negotiations did not settle the boundary dispute between the Pine Ridge and Rosebnd Indians, they paved the way for a satisfac-tory adjustment of the matter; and a final settlement of the coutro-versy was reached through councils held between representative dele-gations from the two agencies at the Pine Ridge Agency, in February last, nuder the direct supervision of Special Agent Cooper and Agents Brown and Wright. The agreement leaves the boundary line at Black Pipe Creek, as de-fined by the Sioux act of March 2,1889 (2.5 Stats., 888), and provides that all of the Rosebud Indians residing west of that line, who elect so to do, may be transferred to Pine Ridge and become incorporated with the Indians of that agency. The list of Indians to be transferred could not well be made until the annual census was taken. As soon as the transfers are made, the Pine Itidge and Rosebud Indians will receive a per capita payment from the $3,000,000 Sioux fund, such as |
