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Show tion, containing the noted Red Pipestone quarries, near Pipestone, Minn., but that the negotiations had been unsuccessful owing to the fact that the price asked by the Indians was regarded as excessive. In compliance with departmental inbtructions the inspector resumed negotiations with the Indians for the cession of that reservation on September 23,1899, and October 2,1899, an agreement to that effect was concluded. The purchase price fixed in the agreement for the entire reservation, containing 648.2 acres, is $100,000. Of this amount $25,000 is to be expended for the purchase of stock cattle, the same to be distributed as equally as possible among the members of the Yankton tribe. The 'balance, $875,000, is to be paid in cash, pro rats, to each man, woman, and child belonging to the tribe. The agreement also provides that the Yankton Indians, an3 they alone, shall be permitted, as has been their custom for unnumbered generations, to go upon that portion of the reservation, not exceeding 40 acres in area, which embraces the quarries, to propure and remove pipestone at such times and in such quantities as they may desire, sub-ject to such regulations and conditions as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. The 40-acre tract referred to is to be selected by the Secretary, with the concurrence of a delegation of five Yankton Indians, and is to be suitably marked and designated by the. Secretary of the Interior. A copy of the agree~nent,w ith draft of bill providing for its ratifi-cation, and copies of all the papers, were submitted to the Department on February 1,1900, and resubmitted on March 23, for transmission to Congress. March 24 the Department transmitted the papers to Congress with recommendation for favorable action. (SeeH. R. Doc. No. 535, Fifty-sixth Congress. 1st session.) Congress, however, failed to ratify the agrecment. Owing to the present status of that reservation and the fact that the Government has a valuable school plant there and is about to expend consider%ble more money for additional buildings, the desirability of securing the ratification of the agreement and thus obtaining undis-puted title to the land need not be dwelt upon. NORTHEEN CHEYENNE RESERVATION, MONTANA. The Indian appropriation act approved May 31,1900 (31 Stats., p. 221, and p. 529 of this report), appropriates $171,615.44 "to pay for cer-tain lands and improvements, as recommended by United States Indian lnspector James McLaughlin in his three reports to the Secretary of the Interior, dated, respectively, November 14,1898, and February 3 and 16, 1900." |
