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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 45 Upon completion of his work in the Burns district, Oregon, Special Agent Oasson was instructed, as has already been stated, to proceed to the Yakima Reservation, Wash., for the purpose of completing allotments to the Indians there, and also of making allotments to non-reservation Indians located upon the public domain in the southern portion of that State. In connection with his reservation work be has given some attention to Indian homesteads in contest and to nonreser-vation- allotment matters in that ~ection. June 18,1898, this office transmitted to the Department a schedule of allotments to nonreservation Indians residing in Susanville, Gd., land district, the allotments being numbered from 766 to 927; but Nos. 884 to 907 were in conflict, and Nos. 783, 784, 785, and 808 had been canceled. June 21,1898, this schedule was approved (with the exceptions noted) by the Acting Secretary of the Interior, and dnpli-cate thereof forwarded to the General Land Office in order that pat. ents might issue in'the names of the several allottees, the same to he transmitted to this office for delivery to the parties entitled. These, with the 110 allotments made in the Bums district, Oregon, make 272 allotments to nonreservation Indians which have been made and approved since last annual report. Other applications are now on He in this office which will receive early consideration. The number of allotment applications received by this office by ref-erence from the General Land Office is not quite so large as usual. It is to be inferred from this that most of the Indians located upon f,he public domain who have knowledge of their righta under the general allotment act, as amended, and of the method of procedure to secure an allotment, have made application for lands. Hovever, there are yet many Indians living upon the public lands who have not applied for allotments, and if they are to be advised of their rights and assisted in making applications it will be necessary to send some Government oE-cial among them for that purpose. Allotting Agent Keepers will be assigned to this duty upon the completion of the work already assigned him, and perhaps Allotting Agent Casson, unless it should he deemed important to keep the latter upon reservation allotment work. INDIAN HOMESTEADS. As heretofore reported to the Department, a few Indians have made entries under the Indian homestead laws of 1875 and 1884. Such entries were made principally before the approval of the general allot-ment act of February 8,1887. Indian entrymen are slow in making final proof and obtaining title to their lands, and thus it frequently happens that white men institute contests against Indian homestead entries. The usual number of such cases have received consideration by this office during the year. As stated in my last report, it is difficult to protect the Indian in his rights, because he is ignorant and is unfamiliar with the public land laws; yet in many cases the homes of Indians have been saved to them. |
