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

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

Chapter 262
Sections 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Margin Notes
Chap. 262	Partition to be made of the reservation in trust for the band of Me-shin-go-me-sia. 30 Ind., 402; 126 Ind., 325; 25 N. E. Rep., 548. Vol. 2, p. 532.
Chap. 262	Right to purchase released. Expenses of partition.
Chap. 262	If chief fails to make application, within, etc.
Sec. 2	Names of members of band, Nov. 28, 1840, to be ascertained, and partition made to survivors, etc.
Sec. 2	Certain persons intermarried to be included in list.
Sec. 2	Testimony, how to be taken.
Sec. 3	Homes and improvements.
Sec. 3	Value of improvements.
Sec. 3	Copies to be sent to auditors of Grant and Wabash counties, Indiana.
Sec. 3	Patents to issue.
Sec. 3	After partition lands subject to laws of descent of Indiana.
Sec. 4	Lands not to be subject to, etc.
Sec. 4	To be subject to taxation after, etc.
Sec. 5	Members of band, etc., when to become citizens.

Chapter 262
June 1, 1872. | 17 Stat., 213.

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An act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to make partition of the reservation to Me-shin-go-me-sia, a Miami Indian.^a

^aOther legislation relative to the Miami is as follows: The acts of March 3, 1873, post, p. 145, June 23, 1874, ch. 472, 18 Stat., 273, and May 15, 1882, post, p. 197, provide for the sale of the old reservation in Kansas and the union with the Wea, Peoria, Kaskaskia, and Piankashaw, under the name of the United Peoria and Miami.

The act of January 23, 1873, post, p. 140, authorizes the Kansas legislature to remove restrictions upon the sale of Miami land, their taxation, etc., when such land may have been conveyed to a white person.

The act of March 3, 1881, post, p. 191, provides for a census and per capita distribution of all funds of the Miami of Indiana. (See also the additional payment authorized by 28 Stat., 903.)

The act of March 2, 1889, post, p. 344, provided for allotments in severalty to the United Peoria and Miami in Indian Territory, restricting the alienation of land allotted, and referred the claims of citizens, members of the tribes, to the Court of Claims. It also provided for the sale of surplus lands after twenty-five years. Partial alienation of allotments is provided by June 7, 1897, post, p. 620; alienation by heirs of deceased allottees is permitted by May 31, 1900, post, p. 702; and the restriction upon the disposal of surplus lands is repealed by May 27, 1902, post, p. 752.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed, on written application of the chief of said band being first filed in his office, to cause partition to be made of the reservation in trust for the band of

Me-shin-go-me-sia, of ten sections of land made by the seventh article of the treaty between the United States and the Miami tribe of Indians, entered into on the twenty-eighth day of November, eighteen hundred and forty, and by the Senate amendment thereto; and the United States hereby release to said band all right of purchase of said reservation. The expenses of said partition to be paid by said band, and the amount to be deducted by the Secretary of the Interior from any annuities or other moneys due or to become due the several persons to whom partition shall be made: Provided, That any costs or expenses made by claimants who shall not be found entitled to share in said lands shall not be a lien thereon, but shall be paid by said claimants, to be retained by said Secretary out of any moneys that may be due or become due them from the United States: And provided further, That if from any cause the chief of said band shall fail to make said written application within six months next after the passage of this act any person or persons interested in said lands may make the same.

That the Secretary of the Interior shall ascertain, by name, what persons constituted the band of Me-shin-go-me-sia on the twenty-eighth day of November, anno Domini eighteen hundred and forty, and then shall proceed to make partition of said reserved land per capita. share and share alike in value, to the survivors of said band, and to their descendants, and to descendants of those who were members of said band at said date, but who have since deceased. He shall also include in said partition-list those persons of Miami blood not of said band, but who have intermarried with a member of said band, and who may be living at the date of said partition. In making said partition-lists the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to take or cause to be taken such testimony as he may deem necessary with the information now in his office, to enable him to discharge his duties under this act. Such testimony may be taken before any person authorized to take and certify depositions under the law of the State of Indiana. The testimony to be taken on said reservation.

That in the partition of said reservation the homes and improvements of the several persons entitled under section two of this act shall be set apart to the occupants as far as can be done in justice to all the parties in interest, the value of said improvements not in any case to be estimated where the same shall be on land awarded to the person who made or caused them to be made, the corners of the several tracts to be distinctly marked and witnessed, and a record kept thereof and filed in the office of the Secretary of the Interior; and certified copies thereof and of the lists so made, as heretofore provided, to be forwarded to and filed in the offices of the auditors of Grant and Wabash counties, in the State of Indiana, where said land lies. The Secretary of the Interior shall, so soon as said partition is made, cause patents to issue to the several persons to whom partition is made under this act, conveying in fee to each the tract of land so set apart to him or her, which shall entitle the owner thereof to the use, occupancy, and control of the same against all claims whatsoever: Provided, That after

the date of partition the said lands shall become subject to the laws of descent of the State of Indiana the same as other lands in said State.

That said lands shall never be subject, in any time to come, to any debt contracted, the consideration of which passed, in whole or in part, prior to the date of partition thereof; nor shall said lands be subject to levy, sale, forfeiture, or mortgage, nor to any lease for a longer period at any one time than three years (to be in writing in all cases), prior to the first day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty-one; nor shall said lands be disposed of, contracted, or sold by the owners thereof, under this partition, prior to the first day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty-one: Provided, That the same shall be subject to taxation as other property under the laws of the State of Indiana on and after that date.

That the members of said band, and their descendants, shall become citizens of the United States on the first day of January, eighteen hundred, and eighty-one.

NOTE.—Report of commission, made July 12, 1873 [Cent. Sup’y, V. 14]. Approved July 18, 1873 [Cent. Sup’y, I. 469].