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Show I REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 111 affected by existing agreements which suspended in those nations the operation of said section 13. These regulations wwe approved by the Secretary November 7, 1898, and have been the role since with the amendment as to the rate of royalty on coal referred to shove. After the approval of the regulations, altl~ongh many applications had been made for leases of various mines for mineral purposes, it was deemed expedient by the Department to take no positive action bemuse the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes and the Cherokee Nation had reported that a commission had been appointed ou the part of the Cherokee Nation to meet the commissioners on behalf of the United States with a view to reaching an agreement which would settle all such matters in a manner that would be satisfmtory to the nation. After some delay in negotiations an agreement was reached with the Cherokee Nation by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes on January 14, 1899, whereby it was proposed to allot all of the lands in the Cherokee Nation, mineral as well as other lands with-out restricting the allottee's right of property therein. This agree-ment was duly submitted to Congress, but it was not ratified before the 4th of March, 1899, which fact, by the terms of the agreement, nullified the same. Later the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes submitted another agreement wlth the Creek Nation, which was entered into on February 1, 1899, and which made similar provision for the title of allottees in the lands to be allotted. Said agreement was also submitted to Con-gress for its consideration, but was not ratified. Taking these two agreements as an expression of the wish of the Indians concerning the leasing of the lands of those nations for mineral purposes, the Department, May 22, 1899, informed Inspector Wright that it would not make any leases under section 13 in the Cherokee and Creek nations except where it might he necessary for the protec-tion of the interests of persons who under the customs and laws of the nations theretofore in force have made valuable improvements on lands in said nations and operated mines there. The only mineral in the Cherokee and Creek nations which has apparently attracted extensive notice is oil, and in these nations sev-eral persons have made more or less improvements to the extent of some twenty-one or twenty-two wells. These various companies, the Cherokee Oil and Gas Company, the Cudahy Oil Company, and the Benjamin Pennington Company, made applicatiou for the leasing of a large number of tracts of 640 acres, aggregating altogether about 180,000 acres of land; but some of those tracts had not been improved by the companies, and the Department decided that it would not per-mit the wholesale leasing of the la,nd in the manner attempted, but would restrict each company to a tract improved by it, and would grant leases for such tracts only. Notwithstanding this decision, on May 22,1899, the companies again |
