OCR Text |
Show BEPOET OF COMMISSIONEB OF INDIAN ~FFAIRS. 86 On March 25, 1908, the superintendent in charge of the Sac and FOXS chool in Iowa, who performs the duties of agent, forwarded a deed executed by him on that date, transferring to the Secretary of the Interior the trusteeship and legal title to certain of their lands held by the United States Indian agent in trust for the Sac and Fox Indians; and on July 3, 1908, a deed was executed by the governor of Iowa, conveying to the Secretary of the Interior all the right, title and intercst held in the lands originally deeded to the governor of Iowa in trust for the Sac and Fox Indians and all the right, title and interest of the State of Iowa in those lands. These deeds having been accepted as a sufficient conveyance, the United States now has exclusive jurisdiction over the Indians and over all the lands now owned by or held in trust for them as a tribe. THE KICKAPOO INDIANS. On their application and under authority wntained in the act of March 3,1905 (33 Stat. L., 1048-1064), patents have been issued for the lands allotted to five Kickapoo Indians in Oklahoma named 0-ke-mah, Thi-the-qua, Wah-nah-ke-the-hah, Noten and Kish-ke-nip quote or '<Jim Deer ". father and sole hei; of Shuck-e-quah, a de-ceased allottee. Two other Kickapoos, Tah-pah-the-a and Ne-con-o-pit (Ne-kah-nah- pit?), also mentioned in the act, have not applied for patents, and the superintendent in charge has been instructed to ascertain ' whether they want them, and, if they do, to see that they file applica-tions accoqpanied by proof of identity. Fifty-nine suits are now pending in the United States circuit court for the western district of Oklahoma by which it is sought to set asidd deeds made by certain Kickapoo Indians immediately after the pas-sage of the act of June 21,1906 (34 Stat. L., 325-363), which removed all restrictions on the alienation of their lands. The original allot-ments to the Kickapoos provided that the United States should hold the title in trust for the Indians for twenty-five years. The United States district attorney is prosecuting these cases on the theory that the act of June 21, 1906, did not confer upon the Kickapoo allottees any greater title to these lands than they had before its passage; that they did not by virtue of the act acquire the fee to the lands, and there-ifore had no power to convey such title to the grintee in these deeds. The actions were originally brought in the territorial district court of Oklahoma Territory. The petitions have been amended: first, to recast them in order to make them conform to the federal practice; second, to incorporate therein important facts brought out by the in-vestigation of the Senate subcommittee into the affairs of the Kick-apoo Indians; and third, to eliminate individual Indians as parties |