OCR Text |
Show quieted in the Sac a i ~ dF ox Indians of Iowa. In reply the office Sng-gested that the Indian agent obtain the consent of the Indians for paying the expenses of prosecuting such suit, inasmuch as the Depart-ment had no fund at its disposal for that purpose, and section 189 of the Revised Statutes forbids the employment of counsel by the Govern-ment. To that end the agent called a council of theseIndians November 21,1896; but while all of them who knew anything about the transac-tion testified that the land was bought hy the chiefs for the entire tTibe and from the funds of the tribe, yet they were nuwilling to allow or incur the expense from tribal funds of a suit to recover or quiet title in the tribe. Here the matter rested until October 7,1897, when Inspector A. J. 1)uncan reported that nothing was being done toward securing title t~ those lands in the Indians, which was a very important matter to them. This office, on the 16th of February, 1898, reported in detail the history and status of those lands and recommended that action be delayed in securii~ga deed from the governor for such other lauds as were held in trust by him until he could convey all the lauds which be held in trust for these Indians. The office also recommended that request be made of the Department of Justice to instruct the district attorney for Iowa to consult with Agent Rebok and to enter snit for a change of title from the five Indians to the whole tribe. If this was done and the deed was corrected by the conrt in favor of the whole tribe, and this office was furnished an exemplified copy of the court proceedings and of the corrected deed, steps might then be taken to have the governor of Iowa and the lndian agent execute deeds of conveyance in accordance with the legislation enacted June 10,1896. On the 7th of March, 1898, the Department advised this office that request had been made of the Attorney-General as recommended, and March 21 Agent Rebok was furnished a copy of a letter from the Hon. Attorney-General, dated March 10,1898, stating that H. G. McMillan, esq., United States attor-ney for the northern district of Iowa, at Dubuque, had been directed to consnlt with him and to enter snit for said change of title. When the court acts upon this matter steps will be taken to secure deeds of conveyance for all of their lauds from the governor of the State and from the Indian agent, the lands to be held in trust by the Secre-tary of the Interior, for the nse and benefit of the Sac and Fox Indians in Iowa. ATTACK BY PAPAQOS ON EL PLOMO, MEXICO. April 18,1898, the State Department informed the Interior Depart-ment that the United States consul at Nogales, Mexico, had reported that 40 Papagos from the United States had attacked the village of El Plomo, Mexico, on April 14 last, with the supposed objeot of fright-ening the settlers and stealing their cattle. In compliance with your instructions of April 19 this office tele-graphed the United States Indian agent of the Pima Agency, Aria., to |