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Show I REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 101 '' the Department 25 conveyances by the Absentee Shawnee Indians, at an average of $6.98 per acre, viz, 22 in Pottawatomie County, 1 aggregating 1,611.97 acres, for $11,142.80, and 3 in Cleveland County; I aggregating 320 acres, for $2,350. The total is 120 conveyances, toe-ering 10,655.46 acres of land, for $54,679.68, or an average of $5.13 per acre. The total sales of lands by these two tribes of Indians since the passage of the act of August 15, 1894, are 378, aggregating 40,093.51 acres of land, for $229,461.77. This office and the Department have given much thought to the adoption of some regulation which would not entail unreasonable expense upon the purchaser and yet would secure to the Indian the payment of the consideration money for the land transferred. Since Oongress authorized these Indians to dispose of their lands many deeds have been filed in this office which have borne strong evidence of bad faith on the part of purchasers, and, in some instances, the Indians, through ignorance or duress, have been in collusion with the purchasers in endeavoring to secure the approval of the deed of oonveyance by the I Department. Notwithstanding all the precautions that have been adopted, in requiring a deposit with the United States Indian agent, or in some reliable national bank, of the whole of the purchase money 1 for the land conveyed, complaints arise that the Indians do not almays obt.ain from the bank the whole amount named iu the certificate of 1 deposit, especially ilk cases where it is impracticable for the Lu accompany the Indian when his certificate of deposit is paid to him. To forestall schemes between the vendee and the bank of deposit for discounting the certificate of deposit some have adopted the method of collecting through their local banks, but attempts are made to evade this and to overreach. the Indian by making the certificate of deposit payable to the Indian rather than to the order of the Indian. I am satisfied that, with the safeguards that have been thrown around these transactions, frauds upon the Indians in making payment for their lands are becoming less freqneut, and it is hoped that they may finally be eliminated. ltequests have been made from time to time for legislation allowing those membe.rs of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians who took allot-ments in severalty under the ack of May 23,1872 (17 Stats., 159), the same privilege of selling any portion of their land in excess of 80 acres as was accorded those Pottawatomie Indians who took land ander the general allotment act of February 8, 1887 (24 Stats., 388). The act of 1872 provides that the lands allotted thereunder-shdl bbe alienable in fee, or leased arotherwiee disposed of only to the United States, or to persons of Indian blood lewfnlly reeiding within said Territory with perm*- sion of the President, and under such regulations as the Seoretary of the Interior &all prescribe. Whenever it shall appear for the best interests of these Indians who took allotments under the act of 1872 that they should |
