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Show OOMMIBRIONER OB INDIAN AFFAIRS. 69 * One of the objects & rna%(ng allotments of,landa to lndlvidoal Indiana ia to break up the trlhal relations and to place the allottees a8 far as pwaible upon the same footIn& as to property rights, as their neighbors. If it be true that the surviving husband of a deceased Indian allot-tee is entitled to an estate by curtesy in her land, it must follow that the widow of a deceased allottee is entitled to dower in his allotment, and that his children inherit subject to her right of dower; also that on her death the l a d descends to his heirs according to the laws of the State of Oregon. DISPOSITION OB bLWTLIEXT8 BT WILL This Office is frequently asked whether an Indian allottee to whom a trust or other patent containing restrictions upon alienation, in-cumbrance, taxation, etc., has been issued for lands allotted to him can, under the law, dispose of those lands by will. On February 7,1894, the Department decided that Indians to whom lands were allotted under the allotment act of February 8, 1887 (24 Stat. L., 388), have no right to alienate their lands by will within the period during which the lands are held in trust by the United States, and that.upon the death of the allottee the lands descend to the heirs according to the laws of the State or Territory in which they may be . . situated, and that no will purporting to make a different disposition of such lands can be recognized by the Department as conveying any title whatever. This question was passed upon also by the Department after the approval of the act of May 27,1902 (32 Stat. L., 245,275), section 7 of which authorizes the heirs of any deceased Indian to whom patent has been issued to sell and convey, under certain conditions and re-strictions, the lands so inherited. The Department on September 18, 1902, concurred in the views of this Office that a disposition of land by devise does not come within the provision of that law. ROABESEBVATIOR NJAX~LELWS. Comparatively few allotments have been made during the past year to Indians on the public domain under the provisions of the fourth section of the general allotment act. Special Alloting Agents George A. Keepers and William E. Casson, who had been engaged in this work for several years, were assigned to duty elsewhere during the second quarter of the fiscal year. The small number of new allotments made, as compared with former years, may be attributed to the strict compliance with recent decisions denying the benefits of the fourth section to any except full-blood Indians, and to the fact that the requirements of the service have necessitated the employment of the full wrps of allot-ting agents in other work during a part of the year. The fact that |