Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1873.djvu/47

Rh upon the unsold lands now included within the limits of the late Sioux Indian reservation in the State of Minnesota, shall be allowed until the first day of March, anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy-four, in which to make proof and payment for their claims.

The set approved May 11, 1872 to carry out certain provisions of the Cherokee treaty of 1866, and for the relief of settlers on the Cherokee lands in the State, of Kansas, recognized settlements existing at the date of said act, and such as should be made within one year thereafter; One year from the date of the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of the acceptance of the provisions of the act by the Cherokee national counc11,or a duly authorized delegation therefrom, was given for payment to settlers at the date of the act, and one year from date of settlement when the same was made subsequent to the approval of the act. By instructions from this Office three months from notice mi settlement were allowed each claimant to file his declaratory statement. The period in which settlement was thus authorized expired May' 11, 1873, and the time allowed for filing declaratory statements on the latest settlements ended August 11, 1873. Under said act there had been entered at the Independence and Wichita land offices prior to September 1, 1873, 83,732.27 acres. There had been 1,416 declaratory statements filed at said offices August 11, 1873. The area of land embraced in said filings is not known. If each filing represents 160-acres, the total area filed for would be 226,560 acres. Inasmuch, however, as very many claims embraced less than 160 acres, the area actually covered by declaratory statements will doubtless be much less than said amount. The area which will be entered under the aforesaid provisions cannot be known prior to the receipt of the district landofficers returns for May, 1874; But one town-site entry, that of Coffeyville, has been made on said lands.

No entries have been made under the not of June 5, 1872, entitled "An act to provide for the removal of the Flathead and other Indians from the Bitter Root Valley, in- the Territory of Montana."

By the terms of the act, Indians who at its passage were actually residing upon and cultivating any portion of said lands were allowed to remain in said valley and preempt without cost the land so occupied to the extent of 160 acres. The superintendent of Indian affairs in Montana not having furnished a list of said Indians so entitled, and whose claims must be ascertained before a disposition of lands to other claimants, the execution of the act is necessarily suspended.

The land has been surveyed, instructions furnished to the district land-officers, and nothing which this Office can do in the premises is wanting to carry the law into effect.

The demand for lands by actual settlers under the homestead law continues very large.

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1373, 31,246 preliminary entries were made, covering an. area of 3,752,3417.26 acres. The number of final entries was 9,894, being an increase in final entries of 4,115 over the preneding fiscal year.

This law, with some slight amendments, would meet all the