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Show 66 REPORT OF OOMMISSIONEB OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. wcre included in the original '' Steenerson schedule," approved on September 13,1907, but were not then approved because of an excess or deficiency in acreages or because of conflicts. The trust patents based on this schedule have been issued and delivered. , MOSES AGREEMENT ALLOTMENTS. Under what is lrnown as the "Moses agreement," ratified by act of July 4, 1884 (23 Stat. L., 79-80), certain Indians in the State of Washington received allotments which gave them use and occu-pancy of the lands but no right of alienation. Certain attorneys and others in that State argued that under the agreement the fee to the lands was in the Indian allottees, and they obtained from some of them agreements of sale and deeds of conveyance at much less than the actual value of the lands, and took possession. On the recommendation of this office, the Attorney-General mas requested to instruct the United States attorney for the eastern district of Washington to institute a suit in the name of the United States against one James F. Moore, to eject him from the land allotted to an Indian named Quo-lock-ons, allotment No. 7. An action was insti-tuted in the United States district court for Washington and the court sustained a demurrer to the complaint and dismissed the case, mhere-upon an appeal mas taken to the United States circuit court of appeals for the ninth circuit. This court held that the fee of these allotments was in the United States, reversed the judgment of the lower court and remanded the action with instructions to overrule the demurrer to the complaint, with leave to the defendant to answer. Standing on this decision, the office has recommended that the Attorney-General he requested to give instructions to the proper United States attorney for Washington to institute actions in the United States court against all other purchasers of these allotments and against trespassers thereon. It is believed that all illegal agreements of sale and conveyances of these lands will thus be set aside and the trespassers removed. The act of March 8,1906 (34 Stat. L., 55), authorizes the issue of ten-year trust patents to the Moses agreement allottees and givesthem the privilege of selling all their lands so patented except 80 acres. Many of them are reported to be unwilling to dispose of any part of tbeir lands. , DOUBLE ALLOTMENTS. From a report of Inspector Tinker, dated May 18,1908, it appears that 16 Indians have been allotted on both the Puyallup and Yakima reservations, and that 4 others have received allotments and patents on the Yakima Reservation who are not entitled to them. The super- |