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Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, and they are hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of paying the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department in full compensation for all offices the salaries for which are specially provided for herein for the service of the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and fulfilling treaty stipulations for the various Indian tribes, namely:
Advance interest to the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota, as required by section seven of “An Act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota,” approved January fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in the manner required by said Act, reimbursable, ninety thousand dollars. And the duties, imposed upon the three commissioners, appointed under the provisions of the Act of January fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, shall, from and after the passage of this Act, be performed by one commissioner to be designated by the Secretary of the Interior.
* * * The sum of money now in the Treasury of the United States belonging to said Indians shall be retained as a permanent fund, upon which the Treasurer shall pay to said Indians annually interest at the rate of five per centum per annum from July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-five.
That all deeds and instruments of writing pertaining to real estate within the Quapaw Agency and the town of Miami, in the Indian Territory, shall be recorded at the said town of Miami by the clerk of the United States court in and for the northern district of the Indian Territory, or his duly appointed deputy, in a book or books kept for the purpose, and sections six hundred and sixty-nine, six hundred and seventy, and six hundred and seventy-one of chapter twenty-seven of Mansfield’s Digest of the Laws of Arkansas covering deeds, mortgages, liens, and instruments of writing pertaining to real estate, are hereby extended over and put in force in said Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory. * * *
The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to transfer on the books of the Treasury Department, from the fund of fifty-five thousand and fifty-eight dollars and twenty-one cents, now held for the Sac and Fox tribe of Indians of the Mississippi, the sum of forty-two thousand eight hundred and ninety-three dollars and twenty-five cents to the credit of that portion of said tribe of Indians now residing in the State of Iowa; and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to pay to the attorneys employed by said Sac and Fox Indians residing in the State of Iowa, under contract approved by him for legal services rendered said Indians in the prosecution of their claim to said fund, from said sum hereby authorized and directed to be transferred, as soon as said transfer shall be made, the sum of four thousand two hundred and eighty-nine dollars and thirty-two cents, or so much thereof as shall be necessary.
That the United States hereby accepts and assumes jurisdiction over the Sac and Fox Indians of Tama County, in the State of Iowa, and of their lands in said State, as tendered to the United States by the act of the legislature of said State passed on the sixteenth day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, subject to the limitations therein contained; and the United States Indian agent of the Sac and Fox Agency, Iowa, and the governor of the State of Iowa, respectively, are hereby authorized to transfer by deed of conveyance, for the use and benefit of said Indians, the legal title held by them in trust, respectively, and the trusteeship of the lands of the Sac and Fox Indians of Tama County, Iowa, to the Secretary of the Interior and his successors in office.
For support and maintenance of day and industrial schools, including purchase, erection, and repairs of school buildings, in accordance with article seven of the treaty of April twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, which article is continued in force for twenty years by section seventeen of the Act of March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, twenty-five thousand dollars; in all, one million three hundred and forty-eight thousand five hundred dollars: Provided, That the provisions of section seventeen of the Act entitled “An Act to divide a portion of the reservation of the Sioux Nation of Indians in Dakota into separate reservations, and to secure the relinquishment of the Indian title to the remainder, and for other purposes,” approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, shall be construed to extend and apply to each head of a family or single person over the age of eighteen years of the Flandreau band of Sioux Indians and of the Santee Sioux in Nebraska, who was entitled under section seven of said Act to take an allotment or not, at his or her option, and who accepted one dollar per acre in lieu of such allotment, and each head of a family or single person over the age of eighteen years shall be entitled to all the rights and benefits of said section seventeen, except that of taking an allotment, in the same manner as though he or she had taken an allotment thereunder.
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to ascertain the number of Sioux and Ponca Indians in South Dakota and Nebraska who would not be benefited by the fulfillment of the proviso of section seventeen of an Act entitled “An Act to divide a portion of the reservation of the Great Sioux Nation of Indians in Dakota into separate reservations and secure the relinquishment of the Indian title
to the remainder, and for other purposes,” approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, by the receipt from the United States of the articles of personal property therein mentioned and who desire to have the same converted into money, and in lieu of such articles of personal property, or any part thereof he may think proper, the Secretary of the Interior shall convert or commute the same, or so much thereof as he may think proper, into money, and pay the amount thereof to such Indians; and the payment under the provisions of this Act shall be held to be a liquidation of the obligation of the United States to said Indians under that portion of said section seventeen, so far as the articles of personal property therein named are concerned.
That the Lower Brulé Indians who were living on the Rosebud Reservation, in South Dakota, south of White River, prior to the third day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety, are hereby allowed to return and select the allotments of land occupied by them prior to July third, eighteen hundred and ninety; and said lands shall be surveyed and patented to said Indians under the provisions of the Acts of Congress in relation to the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians.
That such of the Lower Brulé Indians as desire to do so may take allotments of land on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, south of White River, in South Dakota, the same as they might have done prior to March, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine; and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed to pay to the Rosebud Indians the sum of one dollar per acre for all lands so taken and allotted, and the money to make such payment is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and charged against any funds belonging to said Lower Brulé Indians now in the Treasury of the United States.
To carry out the provisions of the Act of February twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, the Secretary of the Interior shall cause rations and supplies to be issued each month at Ignacio, La Plata County, Colorado, and at Arboles, Archuleta County, Colorado, to all Southern Ute Indians to whom lands have been allotted and who are residing on their allotments. And the Secretary of the Interior shall establish an agency on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, at Navajo Springs, in the county of Montezuma, Colorado, and shall cause rations and supplies to be issued each month or oftener at that point to all Southern Ute Indians who have not elected to take land in severalty, under the provisions of the Act entitled “An Act to disapprove the treaty heretofore made with the Southern Ute Indians to be removed to the Territory of Utah, and providing for settling them in severalty when they may so elect and are qualified, and to settle all those not electing to take lands in severalty on the west forty miles of the present reservation and in portions of New Mexico, and for other purposes, and to carry out the provisions of the treaty with said Indians June fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty,” approved February twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five.
For completing the work of the Puyallup Indian Commission appointed under the Act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, to select and appraise such portions of the allotted lands within the Puyallup Indian Reservation, Washington, as are not required for homes for the Indian allottees; and also that part of the agency tract exclusive of the burying ground not needed for school purposes, and for the purpose of defraying the expenses of said commission, four thousand dollars to be reimbursed to the United States out of the proceeds of the sale of the agency tract and allotted lands, as provided in said Act, to be immediately available, and said commission shall
conclude its work and terminate on or before the first day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-six.
That the time for the completion of the canal, or any part thereof, authorized by an Act entitled “An act granting to the Columbia Irrigation Company a right of way through the Yakima Indian Reservation, in Washington,” be, and is hereby, extended two years from July twenty-fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six.
That the adult allottees of sections twenty-one and twenty-eight, in township twenty-seven north, of range twenty-four east, in the Wyandotte Reservation, Indian Territory, may sell and convey the land allotted to them in said sections: Provided, That the land so conveyed shall not exceed one-half of the land owned by each of them within the limits of the Quapaw Agency, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.
That any adult Peoria or Ottawa Indian, an allottee under any Act of Congress, may, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, sell and convey to the Miami Town Company, a company chartered under the laws of Kansas, forty acres of ground near Miami, Indian Territory, to be used exclusively for cemetery purposes and no other: Provided, That forty acres shall not exceed half of his or her allotment.
That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, directed to withhold any further distribution and payment out of the money derived from thirty-five per centum of the judgment in favor of the Old Settler or Western Cherokee Indians against the United States, in the sum of eight hundred thousand three hundred and eighty-six dollars and thirty-one cents, set apart for the payment of expenses and for legal services justly and equitably payable on account of the prosecution of said claim, until otherwise authorized by law.
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to locate and establish certain Kansas Indians known as the Absentee Wyandotte Indians in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, in accordance with the provisions of articles thirty, thirty-one and thirty-seven of the treaty made between the Government of the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations April twenty-eighth, anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and the sum of fifteen thousand six hundred and eighty-six dollars and eighty cents, appropriated by Act of August fifteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, made for the purpose of buying homes for the said Absentee Wyandotte Indians, and the additional sum of six thousand dollars, appropriated by Act of March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, shall constitute a fund to be used by the Secretary of the Interior for the payment to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, according to the provisions of article thirty-seven of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six herein referred to not less than eighty acres per capita for the said Absentee Wyandotte Indians, which said fund shall be paid to the national treasurers of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in the proportions of three-fourths to the former and one-fourth to the latter, the tender of the same being equivalent to the payment thereof. And the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to carry out and enforce the said articles thirty, thirty-one and thirty-seven of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six in such manner as may be necessary and sufficient for the purposes of this Act.
Whereas William C. Pollock, George Bird Grinnell, and Walter M. Clements, commissioners on the part of the United States, did on the ninth day of October, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-five, conclude an agreement with the Indians of the Fort Belknap Reservation in the State of Montana, which said agreement is in words and figures as follows (Senate Document Numbered One hundred and seventeen Fifty-fourth Congress, first session), to wit:
Agreement concluded October ninth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, with the Indians of the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana, by William C. Pollock, George Bird Grinnell, and Walter M. Clements, commissioners.
This agreement, made and entered into this ninth day of October, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-five, by and between William C. Pollock, George Bird Grinnell, and Walter M. Clements, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the undersigned Indians, residing upon and attached to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in the State of Montana, the same constituting a majority of the male adult Indians belonging upon said reservation, witnesseth that,
For and in consideration of the sum to be paid and the obligations assumed on the part of the United States, as hereinafter set forth, said Indians of the Fort Belknap Reservation hereby convey, relinquish, and release to the United States all their right, title, and interest in and to that portion of their present reservation, in the State of Montana, lying and being within the following described lines, to wit: Beginning at the 54-mile boundary monument, at a point about the middle of the crest of Mission Butte, and following a straight line, bearing (magnetic) north 17 degrees 30 minutes west, to the highest point on a limestone ridge on the south side of the north fork of People’s Creek, and running at right angles to the course of said creek at this point; thence in a straight line, bearing (magnetic) north 2 degrees 45 minutes west, to a rounded, timbered knob on the crest of the limestone reef on the north side of the north fork of People’s Creek, and parallel with its general course; thence easterly, following the crest of the last-mentioned limestone reef north of the north fork of People’s Creek, to a low rounded hill on said limestone reef, where it dips down to the valley of Lodge Pole, or Red Mountain Creek; thence in a straight line, north 74 degrees east (magnetic) to the wooded limestone ridge known as Travois Butte, where a line drawn from the summit of Granite Butte (the peak south of the 611/2 mile boundary monument) north 15 degrees east (magnetic) would intersect it; thence along said straight line to the southern boundary line of the present reservation; thence along said southern boundary line of the present reservation to the point of beginning.
For and in consideration of the conveyance, cession, and relinquishment hereinbefore made, the United States hereby convenants and agrees to advance and expend during the period of four years, beginning from and after the expiration of the payments provided for in the agreement made between the parties hereto on the eleventh day of February, A. D. eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and ratified by Congress on the first day of May, A. D. eighteen hundred and eighty- eight, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior for the
Indians, the sum of three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. It is agreed that the said money shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States immediately upon the expiration of the payments under the said agreement of 1887, to bear interest at the rate of four per centum per annum, and there shall be expended the sum of ninety thousand dollars yearly, or so much thereof as may be necessary, as hereinafter provided. It is provided that any surplus accumulated under and remaining at the expiration of payments under the agreement of 1887 shall also bear interest at the rate of four per centum per annum.
Such sums, or so much thereof as may be necessary in any one year, shall be expended in the purchase of cows, bulls, and other live stock, goods, clothing, subsistence, agricultural implements; in providing employees, in the education of Indian children, in procuring medicine and medical attendance, in the care and support of the aged, sick, and infirm, and helpless orphans; in the erection and keeping in repair of such new agency and school buildings, mills, blacksmith, carpenter and wagon shops, as may be necessary; in assisting the Indians to build and keep in repair their houses, enclose and irrigate their farms, and in such other ways as may best promote their civilization and improvement.
It is agreed that in the employment of all agency and school employees preference in all cases be given to Indians residing on the reservation, who are well qualified for such positions, and that all cattle issued to said Indians for stock-raising purposes, and their progeny, shall bear the brand of the Indian Department, and shall not be sold, exchanged, or slaughtered except by the consent of the agent in charge, until such time as this restriction shall be removed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
In order to encourage habits of industry and to reward labor, it is further understood and agreed that in the giving out or distribution of cattle or other stock, goods, clothing, subsistence, and agricultural implements, as provided in Article II, preference shall be given to Indians who endeavor by honest labor to support themselves, and especially to those who in good faith undertake the cultivation of the soil and engage in pastoral pursuits as a means of obtaining a livelihood, and the distribution of these benefits shall be made from time to time in such manner as shall best promote the objects specified.
As the scarcity of water on this reservation renders the pursuit of agriculture difficult and uncertain, and since the reservation is well adapted to stock raising, and it seems probable that the main reliance of these Indians for self-support is to be found in cattle raising, it is agreed that during the existence of this agreement no allotments of land in severalty shall be made to them, but that this whole reservation shall continue to be held by these Indians as a communal grazing tract, upon which their herds may feed undisturbed; and that after the expiration of this agreement the land shall continue to be so held until such time as a majority of the adult males of the tribes shall request in writing that allotment in severalty shall be made of their lands: Provided, That any member of the tribes may, with the approval of the agent in charge, fence in such area of land as he and the members of his family would be entitled to under the allotment act, and may file
with the agent a description of such land and of the improvements that he had made on the same, and the filing of such description shall give the said member of the tribes the right to take such land when allotments of the lands in severalty shall be made.
So soon as this agreement shall have received the approval of Congress, the boundary lines described in Article I shall be surveyed, designated, and marked by monuments not more than one-half mile apart. The expense of such survey shall be borne by the United States, but the unskilled laborers employed in the work shall be hired from among the Indians residing on this reservation.
Such survey and the markings of the above-described boundary lines shall be done immediately—not later than ninety days after the approval of this agreement by Congress—and completed as speedily as possible, and the ceded portion of the reservation shall not be thrown open to occupancy by the whites until after the new boundaries of the reservation shall have been established and marked.
It is further agreed and provided that none of the money realized from the sale of this land shall be applied to the payment of any judgment which has been or may hereafter be rendered upon any claim for damages because of depredations committed by said Indians prior to the date of this agreement.
All of the provisions of the agreement between the parties hereto, made February 11, 1887, not in conflict with the provisions of this agreement, are hereby continued in full force and effect.
It is understood and declared that whenever the word Indian is used in this agreement it includes mixed bloods as well as full bloods.
This agreement shall not be binding upon either party until ratified by Congress.
Dated and signed at the Fort Belknap Agency, Montana, on the ninth day of October, 1895.
WILLIAM C. POLLOCK. [SEAL.]
GEO. BIRD GRINNELL. [SEAL.]
HOUGA DJU SHI NA, his x mark, (LITTLE CHIEF) and others.
FORT BELKNAP AGENCY, MONT., October 9, 1895.
We, James Matt, Charles Buckman, Chas. Perry, and James Perry, do certify that the annexed and foregoing agreement by and between the United States and Indians residing upon and attached to the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana was fully interpreted to said Indians and they made to understand the same; that after said interpretation the said Indians, whose names appear subscribed to said agreement, signed the same in our presence.
We further certify that said Indians are members of said tribes and
reside upon said reservation, set apart for said Indians in Montana, and that said subscribers are male adults over the age of 21 years.
Given under our hand at the Fort Belknap Agency this 9th day of October, 1895.
CHARLES PERRY.
CHARLIE BUCKMAN.
JAMES MATT.
JAMES PERRY.
FORT BELKNAP AGENCY, MONT., October 9, 1895.
I hereby certify that there are 181 male adult Assinniboine and 153 male adult Gros Ventre Indians, making a total of 334 male adult Indians residing on this reservation and drawing rations and annuities at this agency, as shown by the records of the agency office.
LUKE C. HAYS,
United States Indian Agent.
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That said agreement be, and the same is hereby, accepted, ratified, and confirmed.
That for the purpose of making the survey of the boundary lines described in article one as provided for by article six of said agreement, there be, and hereby is, appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one thousand five hundred dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, the same to be immediately available.
That upon the filing in the United States local land office for the district in which the lands surrendered by article one of the foregoing agreement are situated, of the approved plat of survey authorized by this section, the lands so surrendered shall be open to occupation, location, and purchase, under the provisions of the mineral-land laws only, subject to the several articles of the foregoing agreement: Provided, That said lands shall be sold at ten dollars per acre: And provided further, That the terms of this section shall not be construed to authorize the occupancy of said lands for mining purposes prior to the date of filing said approved plat of survey. * * *
Whereas William C. Pollock, George Bird Grinnell, and Walter M. Clements, commissioners on the part of the United States, did on the twenty-sixth day of September, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-five, conclude an agreement with the Indians of the Blackfeet Reservation, in the State of Montana, which said agreement is in words and figures as follows (Senate Document Numbered One hundred and eighteen, Fifty-fourth Congress, first session), to wit:
Agreement concluded September twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, with the Indians of the Blackfeet Reservation, in Montana, by William C. Pollock, George Bird Grinnell, and Walter M. Clements, commissioners.
This agreement, made and entered into the twenty-sixth day of September, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-five, by and between William C. Pollock, George Bird Grinnell, and Walter M. Clements, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the uudersigned Indians, both full bloods and mixed bloods, residing upon and attached to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, in the State of Montana, the same constituting a majority of the male adult Indians belonging upon said reservation, both full bloods and mixed bloods,
the latter’s rights to participate in all business proceedings of said tribe and to share in all the benefits accruing to said tribes from a sale of land or otherwise being hereby recognized as equal to the full bloods, witnesseth that:
For and in consideration of the sums to be paid and the obligations assumed upon the part of the United States, as hereinafter set forth, said Indians of the Blackfeet Reservation hereby convey, relinquish, and release to the United States all their right, title, and interest in and to that portion of their present reservation in the State of Montana lying and being west of the following-described line, to wit:
Beginning at a point on the northern boundary of the reservation due north from the summit of Chief Mountain, and running thence south to said summit; thence in a straight line to the most northeasterly point of Flat Top Crag; thence to the most westerly of the mouths of Divide Creek; thence up said creek to a point where a line drawn from the said northeasterly point of Flat Top Crag to the summit of Divide Mountain intersects Divide Creek; thence to the summit of Divide Mountain; thence in a straight line to the western extremity of the lower Two Medicine Lake; thence in a straight line to a point on the southern line of the right of way of the Great Northern Railway Company four miles west of the western end of the railway bridge across the north fork of the Two Medicine River; thence in a straight line to the summit of Heart Butte, and thence due south to the southern line of the present reservation: Provided, That said Indians shall have, and do hereby reserve to themselves, the right to go upon any portion of the lands hereby conveyed so long as the same shall remain public lands of the United States, and to cut and remove therefrom wood and timber for agency and school purposes, and for their personal uses for houses, fences, and all other domestic purposes: And provided further, That the said Indians hereby reserve and retain the right to hunt upon said lands and to fish in the streams thereof so long as the same shall remain public lands of the United States under and in accordance with the provisions of the game and fish laws of the State-of Montana.
For and in consideration of the conveyance, cession, and relinquishment hereinbefore made the United States hereby covenants and agrees to advance and expend during the period of ten years beginning from and after the expiration of the payments provided for in the agreement made between the parties hereto on the eleventh day of February, A. D. eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and ratified by Congress on the first day of May, A. D. eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior for the Indians, both full bloods and mixed bloods, now attached to and receiving rations and annuities at the Blackfeet Agency, and all who shall hereafter be declared by the tribes located upon said reservation, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, entitled to membership in those tribes, the sum of one million five hundred thousand ($1,500,000.00) dollars.
It is agreed that said money shall be paid as follows: The first year after the expiration of payments under the agreement of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven (1887), three hundred thousand ($300,000.00) dollars, one-half of which shall be deposited in the United States Treasury and bear interest at four per centum per annum, and one-half, or so much thereof as shall be necessary, shall be expended as hereinafter provided; and annually thereafter for eight years the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand ($150,000.00) dollars: Provided, That any surplus accumulated under and remaining at the expiration of the agreement of 1887, and any surplus that may remain from any annual
payment provided for herein, shall also be placed in the United States Treasury to the credit of said Indians, and shall bear interest at the rate of four per centum per annum. Such sums, or so much thereof as may be necessary in any one year, shall be expended in the purchase of cows, bulls, and other live stock, goods, clothing, subsistence, agricultural implements, in providing employees, in the education of Indian children, in procuring medicine and medical attendance, in the care and support of the aged, sick, and infirm, and of helpless orphans, in the erection and keeping in repair of such new agency and school buildings, mills, blacksmith, carpenter, and wagon shops as may be necessary, in assisting the Indians to build and keep in repair their houses, inclose and irrigate their farms, and in such other ways as may best promote their civilization and improvement.
It is agreed that in the employment of all agency and school employees preference in all cases be given to Indians residing on the reservation, who are well qualified for such positions; and that all cattle issued to said Indians for stock-raising purposes, and their progeny, shall bear the brand of the Indian Department, and shall not be sold, exchanged, or slaughtered, except by the consent of the agent in charge, until such time as this restriction shall be removed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
In order to encourage habits of industry and to reward labor, it is further understood and agreed that, in the giving out or distribution of cattle or other stock, goods, clothing, subsistence, and agricultural implements, as provided in Article II, preference shall be given to Indians who endeavor by honest labor to support themselves, and especially to those who in good faith undertake the cultivation of the soil and engage in pastoral pursuits as a means of obtaining a livelihood, and the distribution of these benefits shall be made from time to time, in such manner as shall best promote the objects specified.
Since the situation of the Blackfeet Reservation renders it wholly unfit for agriculture, and since these Indians have shown within the past four years that they can successfully raise horned cattle, and there is every probability that they will become self-supporting by attention to this industry, it is agreed that during the existence of this agreement no allotments of land in severalty shall be made to them, but that this whole reservation shall continue to be held by these Indians as a communal grazing tract upon which their herds may feed undisturbed; and that after the expiration of this agreement the lands shall continue to be held until such time as a majority of the adult males of the tribe shall request in writing that allotment in severalty shall be made of their lands: Provided, That any member of the tribe may, with the approval of the agent in charge, fence in such area of land as he and the members of his family would be entitled to under the allotment act, and may file with the agent a description of such land and of the improvements that he has made on the same, and the filing of such description shall give the said members of the tribe the right to take such land when allotments of the land in severalty shall be made.
So soon as this agreement shall have received the approval of Congress the boundary lines described in Article I shall be surveyed and designated by two engineers, one of whom shall be selected by the
Indians and one by the Secretary of the Interior; the said boundaries shall at once be marked by monuments, not more than one-half mile apart; the points at the mouth of Divide Creek and the westernmost extremity of the lower Two Medicine Lake, after they have been marked, shall be fixed and remain unchanged, no matter what alterations may hereafter take place in the course of said creek, or in the level of said lake. The expense of said survey should be shared equally between the United States and the tribes occupying this reservation, but the unskilled laborers employed in the work shall be hired from among the Indians residing on this reservation.
Such survey and the marking of the above-described boundary lines shall be begun immediately—not later than ninety days after the approval of this agreement by Congress—and completed as speedily as possible, and the ceded portion of the reservation shall not be thrown open to occupancy by the whites until after the new boundaries of the reservation shall have been established and marked.
It is further agreed that whenever, in the opinion of the President, the public interests require the construction of railroads or other highways, telegraph or telephone lines, canals and irrigating ditches, through any portion of this reservation, right of way shall be and is hereby granted for such purposes, under such rules, regulations, limitations, and restrictions as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe; the compensation to be fixed by said Secretary and by him expended for the benefit of the Indians.
It is further agreed and provided that none of the money realized from the sale of this land shall be applied to the payment of any judgment which has been or may hereafter be rendered upon any claim for damages because of depredations committed by said Indians prior to the date of this agreement.
The provisions of Article VI of the agreement between the parties hereto, made February 11, 1887, are hereby continued in full force and effect, as are also all the provisions of said agreement not in conflict with the provisions of this agreement.
It is understood and declared that wherever the word Indian is used in this agreement it includes mixed bloods as well as full bloods.
This agreement shall not be binding upon either party until ratified by Congress.
Dated and signed at Blackfeet Agency, Montana, on the twenty-sixth day of September, eighteen hundred and ninety-five (A. D. 1895).
WILLIAM C. POLLOCK. [SEAL.]
GEO. BIRD GRINNELL. [SEAL.]
WALTER M. CLEMENTS. [SEAL.]
O NIS TAI PO KAH, his x mark (WHITE CALF), and others.
Witness:
J. E. WEBB.
A. B. HAMILTON.
GEORGE STEELL,
United States Indian Agent.
BLACKFEET INDIAN AGENCY, September 28, 1895.
I, J. W. Schultz, hereby certify that I wrote the names appearing upon the foregoing pages, the same being those that were signed by the parties by making their mark; that the same was done by them freely and voluntarily, and the names appearing thereon are Indians, both full bloods and mixed bloods, belonging upon and attached to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
Given under my hand at the Blackfeet Agency this the 28th day of September, 1895.
J. W. SCHULTZ.
BLACKFEET AGENCY, MONT., September 28, 1895.
We, Charles Simon, James Perrine, and Richard Sanderville, do certify that the annexed and foregoing agreement by and between the United States and Indians, both full bloods and mixed bloods, residing upon and attached to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, in Montana, was fully interpreted to said Indians and they made to understand the same; that after said interpretation the said Indians whose names appear subscribed to said agreement signed the same in our presence.
We further certify that said Indians are members of said tribe and reside upon said reservation, set apart for said Indians in Montana, and that said subscribers are male adults over the age of 21 years.
Given under our hands at the Blackfeet Indian Agency this 28th day of September, 1895.
CHARLES SIMON,
Special Interpreter.
JAMES PERRINE,
Indian Interpreter.
RICHARD SANDERVILLE,
United States Agency Interpreter.
BLACKFEET AGENCY, MONT., September 28, 1895.
I, George Steell, United States Indian agent at Blackfeet Agency, Mont., hereby certify that the male adult population of the Indians belonging to the Blackfeet Reservation, both full bloods and mixed bloods, is 381.
This certificate is made upon my best knowledge, information, and belief, derived from the records of my office and fortified by all other sources of reliable information as to ages.
Given under my hand at the Blackfeet Agency this 28th day of September, 1895.
GEORGE STEELL, United States Indian Agent.
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That said agreement be, and the same is hereby, accepted, ratified, and confirmed.
That for the purpose of paying one-half of the expense of making the survey of the boundary line described in article one, as provided by article six of said agreement, there be, and hereby is, appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, the same to be immediately available; and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to use so much of any appropriation heretofore or hereafter made for the benefit of the Indians of the Blackfeet Reservation as may be necessary to pay one-half of the expense of the survey of the said boundary line by the said article six of the agreement to be borne by the Indians.
That upon the filing in the United States local land office for the district in which the lands surrendered by article one of the foregoing
agreement are situated, of the approved plat or survey authorized by this section, the lands so surrendered shall be opened to occupation, location, and purchase under the provisions of the mineral-land laws only, subject to the several articles of the foregoing agreement: Provided, That the terms of this section shall not be construed to authorize occupancy of said lands for mining purposes prior to the date of filing said approved plat of survey. * * *
Whereas Province McCormick, United States Indian inspector, did, on the twenty-fifth day of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress of March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five (Twenty-eighth Statutes at Large, page eight hundred and ninety-four), conclude an agreement with the Indians of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona, for the cession and relinquishment to the United States of the lands of the reservation embracing the coal fields, which said agreement is in words and figures as follows (House Document Numbered Three hundred and twenty, Fifty-fourth Congress, first cession), to wit:
This agreement, made on the twenty-fifth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, pursuant to an item in the Act of Congress making appropriations for current and contingent expenses and fulfilling treaty stipulations with Indian tribes for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896, as follows: “The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to negotiate with the Indians on the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona, through an inspector, for the cession or relinquishment to the United States of the lands embracing the coal fields, and that any agreement made shall be submitted to Congress for its action,” by Province McCormick, United States Indian inspector, on the part of the United States, and the Apache, Mohave, and Yuma Indians, residing on the San Carlos Indian Reservation, in the Territory of Arizona, by their chiefs, headmen, and members of said tribes, embracing a majority of all the male adult Indians occupying said reservation, witnesseth:
That the said Indians do hereby cede, grant, and relinquish to the United States all right, title, and claim which they may have in and to all the land embraced within the following-described tract, now a part of the said San Carlos or White Mountain Indian Reservation, to wit:
All the land lying south of a line, commencing at a point on the present eastern boundary of the said reservation, one mile south of Good-win Spring; thence in a general direction west to the highest point on Mount Turnbull; thence in a westerly direction to a point on a line between the agency building proper and Stanley, or the Saddle butte, seven miles from said building in a southerly direction; thence in a westerly direction at longest possible tangents to the mouth of Hawk Canyon, not crossing said canyon; thence down the Gila River, following the south bank to a point where said Gila River crosses the present western boundary of the reservation.
That in consideration of the lands ceded, relinquished, and conveyed, as aforesaid, the United States stipulates and agrees to place in the Treasury of the United States to the credit and for the sole benefit of the said Apache, Mohave, and Yuma Indians and to account therefor annually, to them through their agent, the net proceeds accruing from the disposal of such coal and mineral lands, lying within the ceded territory, under the laws applicable thereto; and that said money shall
be paid to them in cash from time to time as the same shall become available, pro rata, share and share alike to each man, woman, and child of the tribes now living upon and entitled to the privileges of the said reservation: Provided, That none of the money credited to said Indians under this agreement shall be subject to the payment of any claims, judgments, or demands against said Indians for damages or depredations, claimed to have been committed prior to the signing of this agreement.
That for the purpose of segregating the ceded land from the diminished reservation the new boundary line described in article one of the agreement shall be properly surveyed and permanently marked in a plain and substantial manner by prominent and durable monuments; and that the cost of said survey shall be chargeable to and be paid out of the proceeds of said ceded lands.
This agreement shall not take effect and be in force until ratified by the Congress of the United States.
Dated and signed at San Carlos Agency, Arizona, on the twenty-fifth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six.
PROVINCE MCCORMICK,
United States Indian Inspector.
The foregoing articles of agreement having been fully explained to us in open council, we, the undersigned chiefs, headmen, and members of the several bands of Apache, Mohave, and Yuma Indians, attached to and receiving rations at the San Carlos Agency, in the Territory of Arizona, do hereby consent and agree to all the stipulations therein contained.
Witness our hands and scals at San Carlos Agency, Arizona, this twenty-fifth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six.
(Here follows six hundred and three signatures of the adult male Indians of the San Carlos Reservation.)
Witness:
ALBERT L. MYER,
Capt. Eleventh Infantry, Acting Indian Agent.
D. G. CHEESMAN,
Agency Clerk.
We hereby certify that the foregoing articles of agreement were carefully read and explained to the Indians, parties hereto, in open council, and were thoroughly understood by them before signing the same, and that the agreement was executed and signed by said Indians at the San Carlos Indian Agency, in Arizona Territory, on the twenty-fifth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six.
JAMES STEVENS,
United States Special Interpreter.
CONSTANT BREAD,
United States Agency Interpreter, Apache.Z
MIKE BURNS,
United States Special Interpreter.
ARTHUR DUCAT,
United States Agency Interpreter, Mohave.
Witness:
ALBERT L. MYER,
Capt. Eleventh Infantry, Acting Indian Agent.
D. G. CHEESMAN.
Agency Clerk.
I certify that the records of this office show that the total number of males on this reservation over eighteen years of age, according to last census, was eleven hundred and thirteen, of whom thirty are scouts in the United States service and permanently absent, leaving ten hundred and eighty-three.
ALBERT L. MYER,
Captain Eleventh Infantry, Acting Indian Agent.
SAN CARLOS AGENCY, ARIZ., February 25, 1896.
SAN CARLOS AGENCY, ARIZ. February 25, 1896.
I certify that the records of this office show ten hundred and eighty-three male adult Indians over eighteen years of age now residing on this entire reservation, and that the foregoing agreement has been duly signed by a majority thereof.
PROVINCE MCCORMICK,
United States Indian Inspector.
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That said agreement be, and the same hereby is, accepted, ratified, and confirmed.
The Secretary of the Interior shall cause the said boundary line (estimated length forty-five miles), as described in article three of the agreement quoted and made a part of this Act, to be surveyed, marked, and established, by permanent and durable monuments of stone, the same to be set at each mile and half-mile point and at the angles formed on said line, and set, marked, and witnessed in conformity with instructions to be furnished by said Secretary of the Interior relating thereto; the compensation to be allowed for executing said survey not to exceed the sum of forty dollars per mile, including the monuments.
There is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one thousand eight hundred dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to carry into effect the provisions of the preceding section, said amount to be immediately available: Provided, however, That from the proceeds of the sale of the lands ceded by said agreement there shall first be deducted an amount sufficient to reimburse the United States for the expenditure authorized by this section.
That upon the filing in the United States local land office for the district in which the lands surrendered by article one of the foregoing agreement are situated, of the approved plat or survey authorized by this section, the lands so surrendered shall be open to occupation, location, and purchase under the provisions of the mineral-land laws only, subject to the several articles of the foregoing agreement: Provided, That the terms of this section shall not be construed to authorize occupancy of said lands for mining purposes prior to the date of filing said approved plat of survey: Provided, however, That any persons who in good faith prior to the passage of this Act had discovered and opened, or located, a mine of coal or other mineral, shall have a preference right of purchase for ninety days from and after the official filing in the local land office of the approved plat of survey provided for by this section.
That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed to issue a patent in fee to Benjamin J. Clardy for all the land heretofore allotted to him in the Territory of Oklahoma, as a citizen Pottawatomie Indian, and all restrictions as to the sale, incumbrance, or taxation of said land is hereby removed.
Approved, June 10, 1896.
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