OCR Text |
Show Article 3 of the agreement provided that the Indians who reside on the lands ceded might remain thereon and receive allotments of the lands occupied and improved by them, or remove to the diminished reservation, as they might elect. Section 4 of the act ratifying the agreement provides that before any of the lands ceded shall he thrown open to settlement the Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall cause allotmentg to be made to the Indians who may desire them. Where Indians prefer to remove within the limits of the reduced reservation, it provides that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall cause a schedule of the lands abandoned to be prepared, giving a description of the improvements and the names of the Indian occupants, and before any entry shall be allowed of the lands so scheduled the Sec-retary of tho Interior shall cause the improvements thereon to be appraised and sold to the highest bidder, no sale to be for less than the appraised value. The purchaser of such improvements is to have a preference right of thirty days within which to make an entry of the lands upon which the improvements purchased are located. The work of making the allotments has been assigned to the United States Indian agent for the Fort Hall Agency, A. E. Caldwell, and he is now engaged in making them in compliance with instructions dated July 11, 1900, and August 15, 1900. United States Indian Inspector W. J. McConnell has been detailed to make the appwisement of the improvements on the ceded lands of the Indians who elect to remove to the dimhished reservation. INDIAN TERRITORY UNDER THE CURTIS ACT AND SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION. In my annual reports for the years 1898 and 1899, the provisions of the act of Congress approved June 28, 1898 (30 Stats., 495), "For the protection of the people of the Indian Territory, and for other pnrposes," generally known as "the Curtis Act," were fully discussed. Section 27 of the Curtis Act is as follows: That the Secretary of the Interior ia authorized to locate one Indian inspector in Indian Territory, who may, under his authority and direction, perform any duties required of the Secretary of the Interior by law, relating to affairs therein. Acting under this authority, the Secretary of the Interior, August 17, 1898, assigned United States Indian Inspector J. George Wright to the Indian Territory, who reports to the Department through this office on matters coming within his jurisdiction. |