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Show 102 00MMISSIOXER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. upon the land by way of secority that its defmlt and enforcement would, or might, reault in an alienation of the allottee's title." I am, therefore, of opinion that the Indian allottee, if competent to contract, may make a mineral, coal, wphalt, oil, or gas lease of his allotted lands for a tern of not over five years, not renewable, which will be valid if no fmud is practiced upon him and an adequate consideration is paid or secured to him. The questions arising as to fraud, su5ciency of consideration, and validity of such leases are, however, to be determined by the courts and not by the Department * * Should an allotment for any sufficient reasqn he em-celed after its approval and before delivery of the Fribal deed, the land would retam to the body of communal tribal land, the allottee's rontmcts respecting it would terminate, and the land he again within departmental jurisdiction. But, after approval of an allotment, so long as it remains in force, the Department is charged with no duty except on theapproval of the allotment, to put the allottee in poss&on. REMOVAL OF RESTRICTIONS ON ALIENATION OF ALLQTIED LANDS. The Indian appropriation act of April 21,1904 (33 Stats., 189), pro-vides that- All the restrictions upon thealienation of lands of all allottees of either of the Five Civilizd Trihea of Indians who are not of Indian blood, except minors, aze, except as to homesteads, hereby removed, and all restrictions upon the alienation of all other allottees of said tribes, except minors and except as to homesteads, may, with the approval of the Secretary of the Intirior, be removed nuder such rules and regu- Iationa as the Secretary of the Interior may preswibe, upon application to the United Stat- Indian agent at the Union Agency in charge of the Five Civilized Tribeq if said went is satisfied upon a full iuvestieation of each individual ease that such remoril of rentrierionq k for the best iniirpst of mid allottee. The finding oi the Ilnited S1att.y Indian agent and the an~rovalo f the Serwtarv of tile Interior shall be in writing, and shalibe recorded in-the same manner as patents for lands are recorded. These provisions are applicable to all the members of the Five Civilized Tribes. May 12,1904, the Department approved regulations to govern appli-cations by allottees, who are of Indian blood, for the removal of restrictions upon alienation. They are required to apply to the United States Indian agent, Union Agency, Muskogee, Ind. T., by petition wbich shall contain statements as to the age, sex, citizenship, and per-centage of Indian blood; whether the applicant can speak, read, and write the English language; the extent of his schooling; the amount of personal property owned by applicant, if any; his business expe-rience, especially in the handling of money; a description of his allot-ment, including the homestead in a separate description; the character and value of the land; the character and value of the improvements upon each tract of the allotment, except the homestead; whether t,he allottee's title to the land has been perfected by the issuance of patent, and if not whether the contest period has expired; why it will be to his advantage to remove the restrictions upou alienation; his estimate of the value of the land; whether contract for the sale of the land or any portion of it has been made, giving the price to be received, |
