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Show 86 BEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN BFBAIES. plaintiff so that the cases may stand as suits brought by the United States as sole plaintiff. A majority of the members of the Mexican ICickapoo tribe of In-dians met in council on May 18, 1908, at San Bernardino ranch in Arizona, and authorized the payment of the $215,000 appropriated by the ad of April 30,1908, in fixed ratios to the band in Mexico and the band in Oklahoma. The payment has been made accordingly, and the matter has been settled to the satisfaction of both branches of the tribe, $115,000 going to the Oklahoma stay-at-homes and $100,- 000 to the Mexican absentees. HURON PLACE CEMETERY. The act of June 21, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 325-348), authorized the Secretary of the Interior to sell the land covered by the Wyandotte (Huron Place) Cemetery in Kansas City, Hans., and use the pro-ceeds of the sale for the removalof the bodies and their reinterment and the marking of their graves in the Wyandotte Cemetery at Quin-daro, Kans. After the settlement of these and certain other specified expenditures, the remainder of the fund was to be paid per capita to the members of the Wyandotte tribe who were parties to the treaty of 1855, their heirs or legal representatives (10 Stat. L., 1159). A commission of three persons was appointed to carry out the pro-visions of this act and instructed in regard to the removal and rein-terment of the bodies, the appraisal of the tract for sale, etc. It was adjourned on December 31,1907, subject. to further instructions. On April 6,1908, the secretary to the commission recommended that steps be taken at once to remove the three Conley sisters from the cemetery ground, where they had erected and occupied a building for the purpose of holding possession. One of them, Lyda B. Conley, filed a bill of complaint in the United States circuit court for the district of Kansas to enjoin proceedings under the act of June 21, % 1906. The court dismissed the bill of complaint, whereupon she took an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, (Docket No. 620, October Term, 1907). On May 11, 1908, the Attorney-General advised the department that a motion would probably be made to ad-vance this case to an early date next term, and suggested the advis-ability of awaiting the outcome of this appeal before instituting pro-ceedings to eject the Conley sisters from the burying ground, or tak-. ing other action under the act. When the United States Supreme Court shall have passed upon the question involved in the appeal by Miss Conley, the matter of the sale of these lands. and the reinterment of the bodies will be taken up with-out delay. I |