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Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1913.
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 to cause to be surveyed all the lands embraced within the limits of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, in the State of Montana, and to cause an examination of the lands within such reservation to be made by the Reclamation Service and by experts of the Geological Survey, and if there be found any lands which it may be deemed practicable to bring under an irrigation project, or any lands bearing lignite coal, the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to construct such irrigation projects and reserve such lands as may be irrigable therefrom, or necessary for irrigation works, and also coal lands as may be necessary to the construction and maintenance of any such projects.
That as soon as all the lands embraced within the said Fort Peck Indian Reservation shall have been surveyed the Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall cause allotments of the same to be made under the provisions of the allotment laws of the United States to all Indians belonging and having tribal rights on said reservation; and there shall be allotted to each such Indian three hundred and twenty acres of grazing land, and there shall also be made an additional allotment of not less than two and one-half acres nor more than twenty acres of timberland to heads of families and single adult members of the tribe over eighteen years of age: Provided, That should it be determined as feasible, after examination, to irrigate any of said lands, the irrigable land shall be allotted in equal proportions to such only of the members of said tribe as shall be living at the day of the beginning of
the work of allotment on said reservation by the special allotting agent, and such allotment of irrigable land shall be in addition to the allotments of grazing and timber lands aforesaid, but no member shall receive more than forty acres of such irrigable land; and to pay the costs of examination provided for herein and for the construction of irrigation systems to irrigate lands which may be found susceptible of irrigation, there is hereby appropriate two hundred thousand dollars, to be immediately available, the said sum and any and all additional sums hereafter appropriated to pay the cost of such examination and irrigation systems to be reimbursed from proceeds of sales of lands within the said reservation: Provided, however, That any land irrigable by any system constructed under the provisions of this act may be disposed of subject to the following conditions: The entryman or owner shall, in addition to the payments required by section eight of this act, be required to pay for a water right the proportionate cost of the construction of said system in not more than fifteen annual installments, as fixed by the Secretary of the Interior, with a view to the return of all moneys expended thereon, the same to be paid at the local land office, and the register and receiver shall be allowed the usual commissions on all moneys paid.
The entryman of lands to be irrigated by said system shall, in addition to compliance with the homestead laws, reclaim at least one-half of the total irrigable area of his entry for agricultural purposes, and before receiving patent for the lands covered by his entry shall pay the charges apportioned against such tract, nor shall any such lands be subject to mineral entry or location. No right to the use of water shall be disposed of for a tract exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to any one person, and the Secretary of the Interior may limit the areas to be entered at not less than forty nor more than one hundred and sixty acres each.
A failure to make any two payments when due shall render the entry and water-right application subject to cancellation, with the forfeiture of all rights under this act, as well as of any moneys paid thereon. The funds arising hereunder shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States and be added to the proceeds derived from the sale of the lands. No right to the use of water for lands in private ownership shall be sold to any landowner unless he be an actual bona fide resident on such land or occupant thereof residing in the neighborhood of such land, and no such right shall permanently attach until all payments therefor are made.
All applicants for water rights under the systems constructed in pursuance of this act shall be required to pay such annual charges for operation and maintenance as shall be fixed by the Secretary of the Interior, and the failure to pay such charges when due shall render the water-right application and the entry subject to cancellation, with the forfeiture of all rights under this act as well as of any moneys already paid thereon.
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to fix the time for the beginning of such payments and to provide such rules and regulations in regard thereto as he may deem proper. Upon the cancellation of any entry or water-right application, as herein provided, such lands or water rights may be disposed of under the terms of this act and at such price and on such conditions as the Secretary of the Interior may determine, but not less nor more than the cost as originally fixed.
In every case in which a forfeiture is enforced and the land and rights of an entryman are made the subject of resale then, after the payment of the balance due from the entryman and the cost and charges, if any attendant on the forfeiture and resale, any surplus remaining out of the proceeds of such sale shall be refunded to said entryman or his heirs.
The land irrigable under the systems herein provided, which has been allotted to Indians in severalty, shall be deemed to have a right to so much water as may be required to irrigate such land without cost to the Indians for the construction of such irrigation systems. The purchaser of any Indian allotment purchased prior to the expiration of the trust period thereon shall be exempt from any and all charge for construction of the irrigation system incurred up to the time of such purchase. All lands allotted to Indians shall bear their pro rata share of the cost of operation and maintenance of the irrigation system under which they lie; and the Secretary of the Interior may withhold from any Indian a sufficient amount of his pro rata share of any moneys subject to distribution to pay any charge assessed against land held in trust for him for operation and maintenance of the irrigation system.
When the payments required by this act have been made for the major part of the unallotted lands irrigable under any system, and subject to charges for construction thereof, the management and operation of such irrigation works shall pass to the owners of the lands irrigated thereby, to be maintained at their expense, under such form of organization and under such rules and regulations as may be acceptable to the Secretary of the Interior.
All appropriations of the waters of the reservation shall be made under the provisions of the laws of the State of Montana.
That the Secretary of the Interior may reserve such lands as he may deem necessary for agency, school, and religious purposes, to remain reserved as long as needed, and as long as agency, school, or religious institutions are maintained thereon for the benefit of said Indians: Provided, however, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to issue a patent in fee simple to the duly authorized missionary board, or other proper authority of any religious organization heretofore engaged in mission or school work on said reservation, for such lands thereon (not included in any town site herein provided for) as have been heretofore set apart to such organization for mission or school purposes: And provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to reserve two and seven hundredths acres of land in the town of Poplar, on said reservation, now occupied for public school purposes, and issue patent in fee for the same to the school trustees of the school district in which said land is situated.
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed, when the said lands are surveyed, to issue to the Great Northern Railway Company a patent or patents conveying for railroad purposes such lands at such point or points as in the judgment of the said Secretary are necessary for the use of said railway company in the construction and maintenance of water reservoirs, dam sites, and for right of way for water pipe lines for use by said railway company in operating its line of railroad over and across said reservation; the said lands so to be conveyed not to exceed forty acres at any one point and not to exceed one tract for each ten miles of the main line of said railway as now constructed within said reservation, and said lands shall be selected in such manner as not to unnecessarily injure or interfere with the selection and location of town sites hereinafter provided for; the said patent or patents to be delivered to said company upon payment by said company, within thirty days after notification of the issuance of patent, of the reasonable value of said lands, not less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre, and also upon payment by said company to said Secretary of any and all damages sustained by individual members of said tribe by reason of the appropriation of said lands for the purposes aforesaid; all moneys so paid for the value of said lands to be deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the
credit of said Indians, and the moneys received by said Secretary as damages sustained by individual members of said tribe shall be by him paid to the individuals sustaining said damages.
That upon the completion of said allotments the President of the United States shall appoint a commission consisting of three persons to inspect, classify, appraise, and value all of said lands that shall not have been allotted in severalty to said Indians or reserved by the Secretary of the Interior, said commission to be constituted as follows: One of said commissioners shall be a person holding tribal relations with said Indians, one a representative of the Indian Bureau, and one a resident citizen of the State of Montana.
That within thirty days after their appointment said commissioners shall meet at some point within the Fort Peck Reservation and organize by election of one of their number as chairman. Said commission is hereby empowered to select, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, such clerks and assistants as may be necessary in the performance of their duties herein specified, the compensation of each such clerk and assistant to be fixed by said Secretary. In no case shall any such clerk or assistant receive a salary exceeding six dollars per day. In addition to the compensation of said clerks and assistants and in addition to the salaries hereinafter provided for the said commissioners, they shall each receive their actual necessary expenses incurred during such time only as they shall be engaged in the performance of their respective duties on said reservation.
That said commissioners shall then proceed to personally inspect and classify and appraise by the smallest legal subdivisions of forty acres each all of the remaining lands embraced within said reservation. In making such classification and appraisement said lands shall be divided into the following classes: First, agricultural land; second, grazing land; third, arid land; fourth, mineral land, the mineral land not to be appraised; that said commissioners shall be paid a salary of not to exceed ten dollars per day each while actually employed in the inspection and classification of said lands, such inspection and classification to be completed within nine months from the date of the organization of said commission.
That when said commission shall have completed the classification and appraisement of said lands and the same shall have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior the lands shall be disposed of under the general provisions of the homestead, desert-land, mineral, and town-site laws of the United States, except sections sixteen and thirty-six of each township, or any part thereof, for which the State of Montana has not heretofore received indemnity lands under existing laws, which sections, or parts thereof, are hereby granted to the State of Montana for school purposes. And in case either of said sections, or parts thereof, is lost to the State by reason of allotment thereof to any Indian or Indians, or by reservation or withdrawal under the provisions of this act or otherwise, the governor of said State, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, is hereby authorized to select other unoccupied, unreserved, nonmineral lands within said reservation, not exceeding two sections in any one township, which selections must be made within the sixty days immediately prior to the date fixed by the President’s proclamation opening the surplus lands to settlement: Provided, That the United States shall pay to the said Indians for the lands in said sections sixteen and thirty-six, so granted, or the lands within said reservation selected in lieu thereof, the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.
That the lands so classified and appraised as provided shall be opened to settlement and entry by proclamation of the President, which proclamation shall prescribe the time when and the manner in which these lands may be settled upon, occupied, and entered by per-
sons entitled to make entry thereof, and no person shall be permitted to settle upon, occupy, or enter any of said lands except as prescribed in such proclamation, until after the expiration of sixty days from the time when the same are opened to settlement and entry: Provided, That the rights of honorably discharged Union soldiers and sailors of the late Civil and Spanish Wars and the Philippine insurrection, as defined and described in sections twenty-three hundred and four and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of March first, nineteen hundred and one, shall not be abridged, but no entry shall be allowed under section twenty-three hundred and six of the Revised Statutes: Provided further, That the price of said lands shall be the appraised value thereof, as fixed by said commission, which in no case shall be less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for agricultural, grazing, and arid land, and shall be paid as follows: Upon all lands entered or filed upon under the provisions of the homestead law, there shall be paid one-fifth of the appraised value of the land when entry or filing is made, and the remainder shall be paid in five equal annual installments in one, two, three, four, and five years, respectively, from and after date of entry or filing, and when an entryman shall have complied with all the requirements of the homestead law and shall have submitted final proof within seven years from date of entry and shall have made all required payments aforesaid, he shall be entitled to a patent for the lands entered: Provided, That aliens who have declared their intentions to become citizens of the United States may become such entrymen, but no patent shall be issued to any person who is not a citizen of the United States at the time of making final proof: And provided further, That the fees and commissions at the time of commutation or final entry shall be the same as are now provided by law where the price of lands is one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre: Provided, That nothing in this act shall prevent a citizen of the United States from commuting his homestead entry under the provisions of section two thousand three hundred and one of the Revised Statutes by paying for the land entered the price fixed by said commission, receiving credits for payments previously made.
That entrymen under the desert-land law shall be required to pay one-fifth of the appraised value of the land in cash at the time of entry, and the remainder in five equal annual installments, as provided in homestead entries; but any such entryman shall be required to pay the full appraised value of the land on or before submission of final proof: Provided, That if any person taking any oath required by the homestead or desert-land laws or the regulations thereunder, shall swear falsely in the premises, he shall be subject to all the pains and penalties of perjury and shall forfeit the money which he may have paid for said land and all right and title to the same, and if any person making homestead or desert-land entry shall fail to comply with the law and the regulations under which his entry is made, or shall fail to make final proof within the time prescribed by law, or shall fail to make all payments or any of them required herein, he shall forfeit all money which he may have paid on the land and all right and title to the same, and the entry shall be canceled.
That if, after the approval of the classification and appraisement, as provided herein, there shall be found lands within the limits of the reservation deemed practicable for irrigation projects deemed practicable under the provisions of the act of Congress approved June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, known as the reclamation act, said lands shall be subject to withdrawal and be disposed of under the provisions of said act, and settlers shall pay, in addition to the cost of construction and maintenance provided therein, the appraised value as provided in this act, to the proper officers, to be covered into the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the Indians.
That all lands hereby opened to settlement remaining undisposed of at the end of five years from the date of President’s proclamation to entry shall be sold to the highest bidder for cash at not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior; and any lands remaining unsold ten years after said lands shall have been opened to entry shall be sold to the highest bidder for cash, without regard to the minimum limit above stated: Provided, That not more than six hundred and forty acres shall be sold to any one person or company.
That the lands within said reservation however classified, shall, on and after sixty days from the date fixed by the President’s proclamation opening said lands, be subject to exploration, location, and purchase under the general provisions of the United States mineral and coal land laws at not less than the price therein fixed and not less than the appraised value of the land, except that no mineral or coal exploration, location, or purchase shall be permitted upon any lands allotted to Indians or withdrawn under the provisions of this act.
That nothing in this act contained shall in any manner bind the United States to purchase any part of the land herein described, except sections sixteen and thirty-six, or the equivalent in each township, that may be granted to the State of Montana, the reserved tracts hereinbefore mentioned for agency and school purposes, or to dispose of lands except as provided herein, or to guarantee to find purchasers for said lands, or any part thereof, it being the intention of this act that the United States shall act as trustee for said Indians to dispose of said lands and to expend and pay over the proceeds received from the sale thereof only as received.
That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to reserve and set aside for town-site purposes, and to survey, lay out, and plat into town lots, streets, alleys, and parks, not less than forty acres of said land at the present settlement of Poplar, and at such other places as the Secretary of the Interior may deem necessary or convenient for town sites, in such manner as will best subserve the present needs and the reasonable prospective growth of said settlement. That such town sites shall be surveyed, appraised, and disposed of as provided in section twenty-three hundred and eighty-one of the United States Revised Statutes: Provided, That any person who, at the date when the appraisers commence their work upon the land, shall be an actual resident upon any one such lot and the owner of substantial and permanent improvements thereon, and who shall maintain his or her residence and improvements on such lot to the date of his or her application to enter, shall be entitled to enter, at any time prior to the day fixed for the public sale and at the appraised value thereof, such lot and any four additional lots of which he or she may also be in possession and upon which he or she may have substantial and permanent improvements: Provided further, That before making entry of any such lot or lots the applicant shall make proof, to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the land district in which the land lies, of such residence, possession, and ownership of improvements, under such regulations as to time, notice, manner, and character of proofs as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior: Provided further, That in making their appraisal of the lots so surveyed, it shall be the duty of the appraisers to ascertain the names of the residents upon and occupants of any such lots, the character and extent of the improvements thereon, and the name of the reputed owner thereof, and to report their findings in connection with their report of appraisal, which report of findings shall be taken as prima facie evidence of the facts therein set out. All such lots not so entered prior to the day fixed for the public sale shall be offered at public outcry, in their regular order, with the other unimproved and unoccupied lots. That no lot shall be sold for less than ten dollars: And provided further, That said lots, when surveyed, shall approximate fifty by one hundred and fifty feet in size.
That after deducting the expenses of the commission of classification, appraisement, and sale of the lands, and such other incidental expenses as may necessarily be incurred, including the cost of survey of said lands, the balance realized from the proceeds of the sale of the lands in conformity with the provisions of this act shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States and placed to the credit of said Indian tribe, to draw four per centum per annum, the principal and interest to be expended from time to time by the Secretary of the Interior as he may deem advisable for the benefit of said Indians in their education and civilization, the construction and maintenance of irrigation ditches, should such be determined as feasible and beneficial to said allottes, and suitable per capita cash payments. The remainder of all funds deposited in the Treasury, realized from such sale of lands herein authorized, together with the remainder of all other funds now placed to the credit of or that shall hereafter become due to said tribe of Indians, shall, within three years after the completion of the irrigation systems to be constructed under the provisions of section two hereof, be allotted in severalty to the members of the tribe, the persons entitled to share as members in such distribution to be determined by the Secretary of the Interior.
That there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated in addition to the amount appropriated in section two, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to pay for the lands granted to the State of Montana, and for lands reserved for agency and school purposes, at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; also the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be immediately available, to enable the Secretary of the Interior to survey, allot, classify, and appraise the lands in said reservation as provided herein; and also to defray the expense of the appraisement and survey of town sites, the latter sums to be reimbursable out of the funds arising from the sale of said lands.
Approved, May 30, 1908.
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