OCR Text |
Show I REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 107 I I ply with the said act by reason of poverty, he or she has made saelection of land as s. homestead, with a bona fide intention to comply with said net. and that the nloney applied far will be used to enter the land so selected, and for the improvement of the same. Section 5 of said act provides: That the titles acquired by said Winnebagoes of \Visconain in and to the lands heretofore or hereafter entered by them under the provisions of said act of March third,l,eighteen hundred andseventy-fivq shall !lot hesubject to alienationor incum-brance. either by vahmtary conveyanoe or by the judgment, decree, or order of any eonrt, or subject to taxation of any character, bnt shall be anrl reman melienable and not scthjeot to t,axatiun for the period of tn,enty xesrs from the date of the pat-ent isnned tlerefor. And t,his section shall hs inserted in each and every patent issued nuder the provisions of said act or of this act. Thereupon an enrollmel~at nd enunieration of Winnebagoes in Wis-consin was made by the Indian Office, showing the presence there of 1,268 Indians on November 7,1883, when the first paymentn were made to them. February 28,1890, the Commissioner of the Oeneral Land Office addressed a letter to this office relating to thefai l~l~ecoefr tain Indians of the Winnebago tribe of Wisconsin to hnbmit final proof within the statutory period on their respect,ive homestead entries, also giving the status of said entries as shown by the records of that office, aud requesting information on the matter. April 26,1890, this oftice replied that it was about to send a special agent to ascertain the condition of the Wisconsin Winnebagoes rela-tive to their homesteadentries and reservations made for homesteads, aud to facilitate his investigations the Land Office was requested to give information as far as shown by its records of the status of 360 homesteads taken up by Winnebegoes under the fifteenth section of the aot of March 3, 1875, list transmitted therewith, with the lands . selected set opposite t.heir respective names; also as to the status of lands selected by 57 Winnebagoes and reserved from sale and dis-posal by departmental letter of January 27,1882, a list of whom with the selectiolls of each had been ascertained to be on file in that office; and also of the status of lands se.lec.ted by 167 Winnebagoes and reserved by the decision of the Secret,ary of the Interior dated Septem-ber 29, 1888, a list of whom was also transmitted with notation of the lands selected opposite their respective names. Jatruary 18,1855, the Department transmitted to this office a letter from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, dated April 19, 1892, alleging irregularities in selecting and e~lteringlandsb y Wiscon-sin ~ i n n e b a ~ o eansd in payments of annuities to them under the agreement of Jannary 18, IS81 (21 Stats., 315); also letters of the Com-missioner of November 27,1893, and March 27,1894, relating to the same subjects. Rrom the papers it appears that there are some 680 I .Indi anhomestead entries and sklections in that %ate which need ~nvestigation. |