§ I. By the first section the President is authorized to issue patents for Indian reservations, set apart by treaty or act of Congress, in favor of the several tribes occupying them. Under these patents the United States is to hold the patented land in trust for the several tribes for twenty-five years, and at the end of that time to convey it by patent to the different tribes clear of incumbrance. The President is also given authority to delay in any case the issuing of the final patent if he consider it best for the Indians to do so. These patents are to be recorded and open to inspection.

This first section simply secures the tribe as such in the possession of its reservation. It places the strong restraint of the law upon the unjust occupation of Indian lands in the incessant push of Western settlement.

§ II. The second section authorizes the President, whenever he thinks it for the best interests of the Indians on a reservation, to have it surveyed or resurveyed, and to allot it to the Indians in severalty-to the heads of families onequarter, to single persons over eighteen one-eighth, and to orphan children under eighteen one-eighth of a section; to other persons under eighteen one-sixteenth of a section. If there is not sufficient land on a reservation to make such allotment, the land is to be allotted pro rata.

Treaty stipulations setting apart a reservation and providing for the allotment of land in larger quantities are to be fulfilled. The taking of land for grazing purposes by two or more Indians in common is provided for.

§ III. In section third provision is made for the manner in which the allotments are to be selected by the Indians, with the proviso that if such selection is not made within five years from the direction to take allotments the agent § IV. shall be directed to select for Indians failing to do so. The allotments are to be made under such rules as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe by agents specially appointed by the President.

§ V. Any Indian not residing upon a reservation or belonging to a tribe for which no reservation has been provided is entitled to settle upon unappropriated land of the United States, and on applying to the local land office can have the land allotted to him and to his children in the same manner as Indians residing on a reservation take allotments under the act. The fees of the local land office are to be

paid out of the United States Treasury.

§ VI. The sixth section provides that patents shall be issued to

individual allottees, declaring that the United States will hold the land in trust for the allottee or his heirs for twentyfive years, and then convey it to him or them absolutely and · clear of all incumbrance. The land cannot be conveyed or charged during the time it is so held in trust, and the patents to individual allottees shall override the patent issued to the tribe. After the issue of patents the land shall descend according to the law of the State or Territory in which a reservation is situated. After all the lands on a reservation have been allotted, or sooner, if the President deem it for the best interests of the Indians, the Secretary of the Interior may negotiate with a tribe for the purchase of any unallotted portion of its reservation. This purchase is not complete until ratified by Congress. The principal of the purchase-money shall be held by the United States for twenty-five years to the credit of the tribe, and the interest at five per cent., paid annually to the Secretary of the Interior, to be applied to the education and support of the tribe. After twenty-five years, by express authority of Congress, the principal shall be payable to the tribe. Proper provision is made for religious bodies now occupying land on the reservation.

§ VII. Section Seventh extends over a tribe, upon the completion of the allotments, the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they reside, and prohibits the passage by the local government of any law denying Indians the equal protection of the law.

§ VIII. Section Eighth, in view of the important fact that the value of land in the West often depends largely upon its proper irrigation, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to prescribe such rules as he may deem necessary to secure a just distribution of water among the Indians.

§ IX. Section Ninth excepts the five civilized tribes of Indian Territory and the Seneca Indians of New York from the provisions of the act.

§ X. Section Tenth appropriates one hundred thousand dollars for the survey or resurvey of reservations necessary under the act, and provides that the sum expended be repaid out of the proceeds from the sale of reservation lands.

§ XI. Section Eleventh provides that, except as to the issuing of the tribal patents, the provisions of the act shall not extend to any tribe as such until the consent of two-thirds adult male members shall have been obtained, but that, notwithstanding this, the President may make allotments to individual Indians in the manner provided irrespective of the consent of the two-thirds.

§ XII. Section Twelfth provides that the act shall not affect the right of Congress to grant a right of way for railroads, highways, or telegraph lines for the public use through any lands granted to an Indian or to a tribe upon just compensation being made.

The provisions of this act have been thus stated somewhat in detail because an exact understanding of it is considered most desirable, and because only a close examination reveals the wisdom and care with which many contingencies and possible difficulties have been provided for.

THE MAIN POINTS OF THE BILL.

The broad and general advantages of the bill may be summed up in a few words. It secures the tribes in possession of their reservations, and ends the notorious wrong of taking the Indian's land by fraud or force without his consent. The United

States is to hold the reservations in trust for the tribes, but not as a permanent arrangement. The bill contemplates the breaking up of the entire reservation system; it contemplates the protection of the Indian land from the grasp of unscrupulous whites only until the Indian has been given the proper training and preparation to enable him to take care of his own. In the meanwhile, the bill provides an important part of this training. On the consent of two-thirds of the adult males, allotments are to be made to a whole tribe in severalty. The reservations are divided into separate farms, the members of the tribe are given time to firmly plant and settle themselves before, by the extinguishment of the trust in which the reservation is held for the. tribe, they are left to take care of themselves. Should the consent of the two-thirds not be obtained, the individual Indians can at once take allotments under the act. There is neither a compulsion of the majority nor the slightest disregard of the wants of the minority. The law of the white man is to be extended when, by the completion of the allotments, the Indians have shown themselves reasonably fit for it. Nor does the act overlook the undoubted fact that it is neither wise nor right to let these great, solid blocks of reservations stand in the way of traffic and settlement. Right of way through Indian land can be granted at any time to railroads, highways, and telegraph companies, and at any time unallotted land can be purchased, proper compensation being given. Such is the wise admixture in this bill of what is best in the views of those who regard this question from a radical or a conservative standpoint; land in severalty is to be given at once to all who desire it; the Indian is protected against the greed of the whites; a process of tribal disintegration is at once started, and the blotting out of the reservations as fast as it can be safely done is the ultimate object of the bill.

In the light of the lasting importance of this measure to so many who are unrepresented among the legislators we have selected to do our will, you are asked to fairly and honestly consider it, and if it seems to you desirable and right, you are most

earnestly and respectfully reminded that there rests on you a personal responsibility to give your influence, your time, and thought to secure its passage.

October 9th, 1884.

a. Industrial.

b. Intellectual.

HENRY S. PANCOAST,

Chairman of the Committee on Laws.

EDUCATION.

c. Moral and religious.

6th. Resolved, That from testimony laid before the Conference, our confidence in the good results flowing from the education of Indians has been confirmed, and that we regard with great satisfaction the increasing appropriations made by Congress for Indian schools, for instruction in farming and trades, for supplies of cattle, for irrigation, and for other means to promote self-supporting industries. That our conviction has been strengthened as to the importance of taking Indian youth from the reservations to be trained in industrial schools placed among communities of white citizens, and we favor the use of a larger proportion of the funds appropriated for Indian education for the maintenance of such schools. The placing of the pupils of these schools in the families of farmers or artisans where they may learn the trades and home habits of their employers has proved very useful and should be encouraged by the Government.

Resolved, That from evidence brought before the Conference it is apparent that the plan carried out to a small extent at Hampton and elsewhere, of bringing young men and their wives to industrial schools and there furnishing them with small houses so that they may be instructed in work and a proper home life, has been successful and should be carried out more largely.

Resolved, That while we approve the methods of Indian education pursued at Hampton and Carlisle, we do not fail to recognize that the schools and other methods of instruction, industrial, intellectual, moral, and religious, as carried on within or near