WILLIAM McKINLEY.
By the President:
JOHN HAY,
_Secretary of State._
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, by the provisions of an act approved February 20, 1895,
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 down in severalty where 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 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," the agreement made by the commissioners on the part
of the United States with the Southern Ute Indians of Colorado bearing
date November thirteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, was
annulled and the treaty made with said Indians June fifteenth, eighteen
hundred and eighty, was directed to be carried out as therein provided
and as further provided by general law for settling Indians in
severalty; and
Whereas it was further provided by said act that within six months
after the passage thereof, the Secretary of the Interior should cause
allotment of land, in severalty, to be made to such of the Southern Ute
Indians in Colorado, as might elect and be considered by him qualified
to take the same out of the agricultural lands embraced in their present
reservation in Colorado, such allotments to be made in accordance with
the provisions of the act of Congress approved June fifteenth, eighteen
hundred and eighty, entitled "An act to accept and ratify the agreement
submitted by the confederated bands of Ute Indians in Colorado for the
sale of their reservation in said State and for other purposes, and to
make the necessary appropriations for carrying out the same," and the
amendments thereto, as far as applicable, and the treaties theretofore
made with said Indians; and
Whereas it was further provided that for the sole and exclusive use of
such of said Indians as might not elect or be deemed qualified to take
allotments in severalty as provided, there should be set apart and
reserved all that portion of their reservation lying west of the range
line between ranges thirteen and fourteen west of the New Mexico
Principal Meridian, and also all of townships thirty-one and thirty-two
of ranges fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen west of the New Mexico
Principal Meridian and lying in the Territory of New Mexico, subject
to the right of the Government to erect and maintain agency buildings
thereon, and to grant rights of way through the same for railroads,
irrigation ditches, highways and other necessary purposes; and
Whereas under the provisions of section four of said act it was made the
duty of the President of the United States to issue his proclamation
declaring the lands within the reservation of said Indians except such
portions as might have been allotted or reserved under the provisions of
the preceding sections of said act, open to occupancy and settlement,
said unallotted and unreserved lands to be and become a part of the
public domain of the United States and to become subject to entry, under
the desert, homestead, and townsite laws and the laws governing the
disposal of coal, mineral, stone and timber lands, but providing that no
homestead settler should receive a title to any portion of such lands at
less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and such settlers
should be required to make a cash payment of fifty cents per acre at the
time filing is made upon any of said lands; and providing that before
said lands should be open to public settlement the Secretary of the
Interior should cause the improvements belonging to the Indians on the
lands then occupied by them to be appraised and sold at public sale to
the highest bidder, except improvements on lands allotted to the Indians
in accordance with this act; and providing that no sale of such
improvements should be made for less than the appraised value and that
the several purchasers of said improvements should, for thirty days
after the issuance of the President's proclamation have the preference
right of entry of the lands upon which the improvements purchased by
them should be situated, but that the said purchase should not exceed
one hundred and sixty acres and that the proceeds of such improvements
should be paid to the Indians owning the same; and
Whereas it is further provided that the provisions of said act should
take effect only upon the acceptance thereof and consent thereto by a
majority of all the male adult Indians then located or residing upon the
reservation, which acceptance should be at once obtained under such
regulations as the Secretary of the Interior might prescribe; and
Whereas allotments have been made as provided for in said act, and
all the other terms and considerations as required therein have been
complied with, precedent to opening the unallotted and unreserved
lands in said reservation to settlement and entry, except the sale of
improvements on the NE 1/4 NW 1/4, S 1/2 NW 1/4 and NW 1/4 SW 1/4 Sec.
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