INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES. Vol. 1, Laws

Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.

ACTS OF THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS—FIRST SESSION, 1863.
CHAP. 53

Chapter 53
Sections 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Margin Notes
Chap. 53	President may set apart a tract of land for the Winnebago Indians. 65 Fed. Rep., 30: 79 Fed. Rep., 886. See treaty of Apr. 15, 1859. See treaty of Mar. 8, 1865.
Chap. 53	May remove them from Minnesota. 1870, c. 296. post. p, 127: 1872, c. 233. post, p. 132.
Sec. 2	Subdivisions of present reservation to be appraised. Report of Comr. Ind. Aff., 1900. p. 55: 1874, c. 389, post, p. 153: 1881, c. 23, post, p. 187: 1888, c. 519, post, p. 286.
Sec. 2	When to be subject to preemption.
Sec. 3	After appraisal to be opened to preemption, etc.
Sec. 3	Who may preëmpt
Sec. 3	What is not preempted may be sold.
Sec. 3	Minimum price.
Sec. 3	Improvements.
Sec. 4	Lands set apart for debts to be sold by sealed bids.
Sec. 4	Time, etc., for bidding.
Sec. 4	What received in payment.
Sec. 4	Proceeds, how disposed of. 1870. c. 296, post, p. 127.
Sec. 4	Allotments in severalty. 1895, c. 114, post, p. 557.
Sec. 4	Patents to issue.
Sec. 5	Annual appropriations, how expended.
Sec. 5	Discrimination in favor of faithful chiefs.
Sec. 5	Subject to criminal laws of State.
Sec. 5	Contracts of Indians invalid, without consent of President, except contracts with natives.
Sec. 5	Secretary of Interior to provide for their education.

Chapter 53
Feb. 21. 1863. | 12 Stat., 658.

An act for the removal of the Winnebago Indians, and for the sale of their reservation in Minnesota for their benefit.^b

^bLegislation relation to the Winnebago in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska is principally to be found in the foregoing act and in the act of July 15, 1870, post p. 127, as explained by the act of May 29, 1872, post p. 132, and the act of January 18, 1881, post p. 187.
By the act of June 22, 1874 the purchase of a part of the Omaha reservation in Nebraska for the use of the Winnebago was authorized, and the act of 1881, supra, adjusted money matters between the Wisconsin and Nebraska division of the tribe, and by the 5th section provided that the land allotted in Wisconsin should be inalienable for twenty years. This restriction was removed by the act of February 20, 1895, post p. 557.
Railroad rights of way through Winnebago lands have been specially provided for in the acts of 1894, ch. 117, post p. 513, as amended by 1897, ch. 170, post p. 616; 1898, ch. 100, post p. 634, and 1899, ch. 255, post p. 682.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States is authorized to assign to and set apart for the Winnebago Indians a tract of unoccupied land beyond the limits of any State, in extent at least equal to their diminished reservation, the same to be well adapted for agricultural purposes. And it shall be lawful for the President to take such steps as he may deem proper to effect the peaceful and quiet removal of the said Indians from the State of Minnesota, and to settle them upon the lands which may be assigned to them under the provisions of this act.

And be it further enacted, That upon the removal of the said Indians from the reservation where they now reside, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to cause each legal subdivision of the said lands to be appraised by discreet persons to be appointed by him for that purpose. And in each instance where there are improvements upon any legal subdivision of said lands, the improvements shall be separately appraised. But no portion of the said lands shall be subject to pre-emption settlement, entry, or location under any act of Congress, unless the party pre-empting, settling upon or locating any portion of said lands shall pay therefor the full appraised value thereof, including the value of the said improvements, under such regulations as hereinafter provided.

And be it further enacted, That after the appraisal of the said reservation the same shall be opened to pre-emption, entry and settlement in the same manner as other public lands: Provided, That before any person shall be entitled to enter any portion of the said lands, by pre-emption or otherwise, previous to their exposure to sale to the highest bidder, at public outcry, he shall become an actual bona fide settler thereon, and shall conform to all the regulations now provided by law in cases of pre-emption, and shall pay, within the term of one year from the date of his settlement, the full appraised value of the land, and the improvements thereon, to the land officers of

the district where the said lands are situated. And the portion of the said reservation which may not be settled upon, as aforesaid, may be sold at public auction, as other public lands are sold, are sold, after which they shall be subject to sale at private entry, as other public lands of the United States, but no portion thereof shall be sold for a sum less than their appraised value before the first of January, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-five, nor for a less price than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, unless otherwise provided by law: Provided, That where improvements have been made upon said lands by persons authorized by law to trade with said Indians, the value of such improvements, or the price for which the same may be sold, shall be paid to the parties making the same; and in case the land upon which such improvements shall have been made shall be purchased by the parties making the same, at the appraised value as aforesaid, the value of the improvements so made by him shall form no part of the purchase price to be paid for said land.

And be it further enacted, That the lands of said Indians which have been set apart for the payment of the debts of the said Indians shall be sold on sealed bids for the best price the same will bring; but no bids shall be received for said lands until the first day of January, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-five, for less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre. Bids shall be received for tracts of quarter sections; and for such tracts conforming to the Government surveys less than one hundred and sixty acres as will secure the largest price for said lands, the Secretary is authorized to receive, in payment of said lands, certificates of indebtedness of said Indians, issued by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the debts of said Indians, secured to be paid out of the sale of said lands by the third article of the treaty of the said Indians with the United States, concluded at Washington on the fifteenth day of April, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine. The money arising from the sale of their said lands, after paying the indebtedness required by said treaty to be paid shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States, and shall be expended as the same is received, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in necessary improvements upon their new reservation; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to allot to said Indians in severalty lands which they may respectively cultivate and improve, not exceeding eighty acres to each head of a family other than to the chiefs, to whom larger allotments may be made, which lands, when so allotted, shall be vested in said Indian and his heirs, without the right of alienation, and shall be evidenced by patent.

And be it further enacted, That the money to be annually appropriated for the benefit of the said Indians shall be expended in such manner as will, in the judgment of the President, best advance the said Indians in agricultural and mechanical pursuits, and enable them to sustain themselves without the aid of the Government. And in such expenditure reasonable discrimination may be made in favor of the chiefs who shall be found faithful to the Government of the United States, and efficient in maintaining its authority and the peace of the Indians. Said Indians shall be subject to the laws of the United States, and to the criminal laws of the State or Territory in which they may happen to reside. They shall also be subject to such rules and regulations for their government as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe; but they shall be deemed incapable of making any valid civil contract with any person other than a native member of their tribe without the consent of the President of the United States. The Secretary of the Interior shall also make reasonable provision for the education of said Indians, according to their capacity and the means at his command.