Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/900

 886 7EDEBAL BEPOBTEB. �steps to give him even an inchoate homestead or pre^emption right. He could not, of course, if these lands were subject to the homestead and pre-emption laws, hold what he claims to have settled on, to-wit, section 14, because, under the law, one person can only homestead or pre-empt 160 acres. Eev. St. §§ 2259, 2289. Did he havethe right to homestead or pre-empt any of the lands conveyed by the Seminole treaty of 1866? �Section 2258, Eev. St., provides — "That lands included in any reservation by any treaty, law, or proolamatiork of the president, for any purpose, sliall not be subject to the riglit of pre- emption unless otherwise specially provlded by law." �Section 2258 of the same statute provides — "Tliat every person who is the head of a family, or who bas arrived at the age of 21 years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who bas flled his declaration of intention to become 8ucb,ii3 required by the naturalization laws, shall be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unapproprlated public lands upon which sucb person may have Bled a pre- emption claim, or whicb may at the time the application is made be subject to pre-emption, at one dollar and twenty-flve cents an acre." �Are these lands reserved by any treaty, law, or proclamation of th« president? If se, they are not sobject to pre-emption settlement. Are they unappropriated public lands? If they are appropriated for another purpose than homestead settlement, or if they are not sub- ject to pre-emption, they cannot be settled upon and acquired under the homestead laws. If these lands are included in a reservation for any lawful purpose, made by treaty, law, or proclamation of the pres- ident, they cannot be settled upon and claimed by eitizens of the United States, and the defendant would be wrongfully upon them. The lands upon which the defendant claims to have settled were origi- nally a part of the Louisiana purchase. By such purchase the title thereto was vested in the United States. By the act of congress of May 28, 1830, the president was authorized to set apart the country now known as the Indian country or Indian Territory into certain districts for the use and occupancy of Indians to be removed there from east of the Mississippi river. �The provisions of the act of 1830 were supplemented by treaties bargaining and conveying certain tracts to certain tribes, by far the greater part of it having been conveyed to five nations, to-wit : the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. These assignments were made to these tribes by the several treaties made with them, and the president, under the act of 1830, put them in possession thereof. The lands in controversy are a part of those ��� �