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Show 124 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. I ascertained and the allotment to be made of the land according to its value, so that each member of the tribe will have an equal proportion, so far as value of the property of the tribe is concerned. The title to be given in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations is a restricted fee, the restriction being in the form of a regulation against alienation. The title to be given nnder the act is a mere certificate of the right to use and occupy the tract allotted, and this use and own-pancy is only of the surface, the minerals, as has been shown herein, being reserved for the benefit of the tribe. In the Creek Nation large trats had been leased to cattlemen and were held in pasture, and the act annulled these leases. In order to enable the individual citizen to have definitely set apart to him not exceeding his pro rata share of the tribal lands, the Depart-ment, on October 7,1898, prescribed some regulationti under which the Dawes Commission has proceeded to make what they have termed pre-liminary allotments-that is, offices have been and will be opened in the various natious where the citizens may go and register their selec-tions of land, declaring their intention to take the same in allotment wh'en allotments shali be made. The regulations restrict the Creeks to 160 acres, the Choctaws and Chickasaws to 160 acres, and the Dhero-kees to 80 acres. After having filed with the Dawes Commission their intention to take particular tracts in allotment, the allottees are per-mitted, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to lease for one year for grazing or agricnltural purposes the tracts seleeted for themselves and their families. Under this plan some 348 leases for gra~ingp urposes have been made and approved by the Secretary of the Interior. The commission, under direction of the Department, has appointed a large number of appraisers and is now engaged in appraising the lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and of the Seminole Nation, with a view to permanent allotments within those nitions under their several agreements. The work, so far as this office has been informed, is proceeding as rapidly, apparently, as is consistent with its importance. In the Chickasaw Nation it seems that many large tracts are held nnder the control of few individuals, and one man is said to hold and eultivate, in Pauls Valley, about 10,000 acres of the finest laud in the nation. The Curtis Act prohibits citizens of the several natious from oeoupying more than their pro rata shares and the shares of their wives and minor children, and provides for the prosecution of all who hold I more than their rightful share of lands. The Department, in a commn-, nication of July 27, 1899, to the commission, held that while the Department of Justice, through its officers in the field, was required by the law to bring the actions necessary to punish parties holdingi more than their pro rata share, it was the duty of the commission I and of all of the employees of the Interior Department in tbe Indian Territory to assist the United States attorneys in every way possible in oarrying out the statute. |