OCR Text |
Show This agreement was not ratified by the Congress, but its essential features, with some important additions, are embodied in an act ap-' proved March 22, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 80). This act provides for the opening of the lands in a manner similar to that proposed in the agreement, and the current Indian appropriation act provides for &etting aside in the Treasury of the United States $1,500,000, to be at all times subject to appropriation of Congress and to be full payment to the Indians for the 1,500,000 acres opened to settlement by the act of July 1,1892. Theprominent features in the act and agreement are as follows: Provision is made for the sale of all lands classified as timber lands by the Secretary of the Interior under sealed bids to the highest bid-der, the proceeds, after deducting the expenses incurred in connec-tion with the allotment, appraisement, sales, and surveys, to be de-posited in theTreasury of the United Stptes and expended for the education and improvement of $he Indians, in the purchase of stock, agricultural implements, and building materials, and in per capita cash payments to the Indians in the discretion i f the Secretary of the Interior. Such lands, not exceeding three sections, as may be neces-sary for agency, school, and religious purposes and such as are now occupied by the agency buildings or mill site, are reserved, and the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to withhold from sale any lands which can be included in any feasible irrigation project and to dispose of them under the reclamation act of June 17, 1902, the amounts paid for the land over and above the cost of reclamation to be credited to the fund established bythe act for the Colville Indians. XALISPEL OR LOWER PEND D'OREILLE INDIANS. In my last annual report I said that certain odd-numbered sections within the l a ~ dgr ant of the Northern Pacific Railway Company in Washington vere in the possession of Indians who had made meager improvements thereon prior to the definite location of the grant; that the lands hkd been patented to the company, but that humanity and justice demanded some arrangement by which th'ese Indians might retain a part of theq. During the past year the railway company exprest its willing-ness to have its claim for these lands adjusted under the act of July 1, 1898, and transmitted a quit claim deed, No. 14, 568W, conveying to the United States the lands claimed by the Indians in odd-numbered sections in townships 33 and 34 N., R. 4i E., Washington meridian, aggregating 2,711.86 acres. As these Indians were in possession of the lands on August 30, 1881, the date when the railroad was definitely located and the rights of the company attached, they are held to be bona fide settlers and claimants. It is believed that the railroad is entitled to take lieu |