to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in accordance with the following regulations:

1. Entries under said section must be made according to the legal subdivision of the land, and no application for a less quantity than is embraced in a legal subdivision or for land involved in any contest will be received.

2. An entryman desiring to commute his homestead entry, in whole or in part, for town-site purposes shall present his application (Form 4-001 p. 234) at the local land office of the district in which his land is situated, and if his application and the status of his homestead entry are found to be in accord with the foregoing requirements, the register and receiver will permit him to make publication of notice of his intention to submit commutation town-site proof in accordance with the law herein referred to. The notice of intention to make proof as above provided shall be the same in all respects as that required of a claimant in making final homestead proof, with the addition that it shall state that said proof will be made under section 22 of the act of May 2, 1890. 3. Proof in accordance with the published notice, consisting of the testimony of the claimant and two of the advertised witnesses, must be furnished relating

First. To evidence that the tract sought to be purchased is required for town-site purposes.

Second. To the observance by the entryman of the provisions of the law and of the President's proclamation under which settlement on the land sought to be purchased became permissible.

Third. To the claimant's citizenship and qualifications in all other respects, as a homesteader, the same as in making final homestead or commutation proof.

Fourth. To due compliance with all the requirements of the homestead law by the claimant up to the date of submitting proof.

Proof of publication of notice must also be furnished as in ordinary

cases.

4. At the time of submitting proof, as provided in the preceding paragraph, the entryman shall file therewith triplicate plats of the survey of the land applied for, duly verified by the oaths of himself and the surveyor. Such plats shall be made on tracing linen and on a scale of 100 feet to 1 inch; they shall be provided with a margin sufficient to contain the oaths of the entryman and the surveyor and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior; they must state the name of the city or town, describe the exterior boundaries thereof according to the lines of public surveys, exhibit the streets, squares, blocks, lots, and alleys, and must specifically set forth the size of the same, with measurements and area of each municipal subdivision; and if the survey was made subsequent to May 2, 1890, the plats must also show that the provisions of the first proviso of the section of the act under consideration have been complied with, viz, the setting apart of "reservations for parks (of substantially equal area if more than one park) and for schools and other public purposes, embracing in the aggregate not less than ten nor more than twenty acres."

5. It is of the utmost importance that all plats of town sites should be correct. The size of each lot should be stated, and if the lot is irregular in shape the width at each end should be indicated; the width of each street and alley should be marked, and the dimensions, together with the area of the reservations and parks, indicated.

Whenever an entry is made adjacent to a town already in existence the streets must conform to the streets already established, and this

must be stated in the affidavit of the surveyor. The affidavit of the surveyor shall also contain a statement of what tract of land is surveyed as the town site and that the tracts reserved for public purposes contain the requisite amount of land.

The affidavit of the party applying to make the entry shall embrace the statement that the application to enter the described tract of land as the town site of is made under the provisions of the second proviso to section 22 of the act of May 2, 1890, entitled "An act to provide a temporary government for the Territory of Oklahoma," etc., that all streets, alleys, parks, and reservations are dedicated to public use and benefit, and that the plat is correct according to the survey made by the proper surveyor.

6. At the time of submitting proof and filing the triplicate plats the claimant shall tender to the receiver the purchase price of the land applied for, exclusive of the portions reserved for parks, schools, and other public purposes (which are to be patented as a donation to the town when organized as a municipality, for the specific purposes for which they were reserved), payment to be made by draft on New York made payable to the order of the Secretary of the Interior, at the rate of $10 per acre for that portion of the land actually entered.

The register and receiver will thereupon transmit the proof and triplicate plats to this office for examination and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, together with the application to make entry and their joint report as to the status of the land applied for, and at the same time they will transmit to the Secretary of the Interior the draft tendered in payment for the land, making references in each letter to the other.

7. When the proof and triplicate plats are received by this office, if found to be regular and in accordance with these regulations, they will be forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior with recommendation that the plats be approved.

Should the triplicate plats be approved, and receipt of the purchase price of the land be acknowledged by the Secretary, one of said approved plats will be retained in this office and the other two will be returned to the district land office with directions to the register to issue final certificate for the land embraced in said approved plats (exclusive of the lands to be donated and maintained for public purposes as heretofore provided). Receipt of the purchase money having been acknowledged by the Secretary of the Interior, no final receipt will be issued by the receiver. One of the approved plats returned to the register and receiver will be retained in their office and the other they will deliver to the applicant to be by him filed and made of record in the office of the recorder of deeds of the county in which the town is situated.

8. Upon the issuance of final certificate the register and receiver will note on their records the commutation of the applicant's homestead entry, in whole or in part, as the case may be. When patent is ready for delivery the entryman will be required to surrender his duplicate homestead receipt for transmittal to this office if the entire homestead entry is commuted, or to deliver the same to the register and receiver to have the commuted town-site entry noted thereon and returned to the entryman if the homestead entry is commuted in part only, before said patent will be delivered.

9. The foregoing regulations will be observed in all cases in which the entry and claimant's application to commute for town-site purposes are

free from protest, contest, or other adverse proceedings. But in all cases in which, at the time of submitting proof, or prior thereto, a protest or an affidavit of contest is filed, the register and receiver will take appropriate action on such protest or contest in accordance with the prevailing practice in ordinary homestead, commutation, or final-proof cases before transmitting the papers to this office, and should such action be adverse to the application to commute, or favorable thereto, and an appeal be filed by the contestant, they will not require tender of the purchase price of the land sought to be purchased for town-site purposes until they are advised of the final determination of such protest or contest proceedings by this office or the Department favorable to the application to purchase. When so advised they will require the applicant to make immediate tender of the purchase money, which they will transmit to the Secretary of the Interior and advise this office thereof as hereinbefore provided.

Protest or contest affidavits filed in the district land office after the transmittal of the proof and triplicate plats to this office will not be considered by the register and receiver, but must be promptly transmitted to this office for appropriate action. After the approval of the triplicate plats by the Secretary of the Interior no protest or contest relating thereto will be entertained by the district land office or this office, but should one be filed with the register and receiver it will be forwarded to this office, to be transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior for appropriate action.

10. In all contested cases the contestant will be required to file in the district land office a sworn and corroborated statement of his grounds of action, and that the contest is not initiated for the purpose of harassing the claimant and extorting money from him under a compromise, but in good faith to prosecute the same to a final determination, and if the allegations therein contained are considered sufficient to warrant the ordering of a hearing the same will be ordered upon compliance by the contestant with the condition that he shall deposit a sufficient sum to cover the cost thereof.

Notice of actions or decisions in all matters affecting an entry, or an application to commute for town-site purposes, under the foregoing instructions, and the proof thereof, shall be the same as in ordinary cases; and any person feeling aggrieved by the judgment of the register and receiver in such matters may, within thirty days from notice thereof, appeal to this office. Within the time allowed for filing an appeal, the appellant shall serve a copy of the same on the appellee, who will be allowed ten days from such service within which to file his brief and argument.

Appeals from the decisions of this office lie to the Secretary of the Interior the same as in other matters of like character, such appeal and service thereof to be filed within sixty days from notice of the decision of this office from which appeal is taken, in accordance with the Rules of Practice.

Motions for review of the decisions of the district land office shall be filed and served within the time allowed for appeal, and motions for review of the decisions of this office and of the Secretary of the Interior shall be filed and served within thirty days from notice thereof.

11. The act under consideration provides that the sums received by the Secretary of the Interior for commuted town-site entries shall be paid over to the proper authorities of the muncipalities when organized, to be used by them for school purposes only.

Before the money can be paid over there must be satisfactory evidence that the municipality has been organized as required by the laws of Oklahoma.

In support of an application by the proper municipal officers for payment of the money deposited with the Secretary of the Interior for a particular commuted town site entry the following evidence shall be furnished:

First. A duly certified copy, under seal of the order of the board of county commissioners, declaring that the specified territory shall, with the assent of the qualified voters, be an incorporated town; also the notice for a meeting of the electors, as required by paragraph 5 of article 1, chapter 16, of the statutes of Oklahoma.

Second. A like certified copy of the statement of the inspectors filed with the board of county commissioners, also a like certified copy of the order of said board, declaring that the town has been incorporated, as provided by paragraph 9 of said article 1.

Third. A like certified copy of the statement of the inspectors, filed with the county clerk, declaring who were elected to the office of trustees, clerk, marshal, assessor, treasurer, and justice of the peace, as provided by paragraph 16 of said article 1.

Fourth. A like certified copy, by the town clerk, of the proceedings of the board of trustees electing one of their number president; also a copy of the qualifications to act, by each of the officers mentioned, as provided by paragraph 19 of said article 1.

Fifth. A certified copy, by the town clerk, of the proceedings of the board of trustees, designating some officer of the municipality to make application for and to receive the money to be paid by the Secretary of the Interior.

Sixth. A proper application for the money by said designated officer. Said application shall be addressed to the Secretary of the Interior and may either be filed in the district land office for transmittal to this office or forwarded by the municipal authorities direct to this office. When the same is received by this office, if the application and accompanying evidence are in accordance with the requirements herein mentioned, it will be transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior and when approved by him the money will be paid over to the designated officer to be used by the municipality for school purposes only as required.

12. When the towns herein provided for are organized as municipalities, applications, accompanied by proof of municipal organization similar to that provided in the preceding paragraph, shall be made for patents for the reservations which the act under consideration provides shall be made for parks, schools, and other public purposes, and which are to be donated to the municipalities when duly organized as such.

The application for patent shall be made by the mayor or other proper municipal authority; shall be addressed to the Secretary of the Interior, and shall particularly describe the reservations to be patented according to the approved plats of said town site. Said application shall be filed in the district land office, and if the register and receiver find the accompanying evidence of municipal organization and authority to make application to be in accordance with these regulations, the register will issue, certificate thereon, of the prescribed form (p. 266). When such certificate is examined and approved by this office patent will issue in accordance therewith.

The regulations of July 18, 1890 (11 L. D., 68), and subsequent modifications thereof, inconsistent herewith, are hereby revoked.

DISPOSAL OF THE GREAT SIOUX INDIAN RESERVATION.

Attention is called to the provisions of an act of Congress, approved March 2, 1889 (25 Stat. L., 888), entitled "An act to divide a portion of the reservation of the Sioux Nation of Indians in Dakota into separate reservations and to secure the relinquishment of the Indian title to the remainder, and for other purposes" (Appendix No. 34, p. 171).

The first six sections of said act set apart certain tracts for separate reservations.

The seventh section provides for allotments to certain members of the Santee Sioux tribe of Indians upon the reservation occupied by them in Nebraska; confirms all allotments to said Indians heretofore made upon said reservation, and provides for allotments, or payments in lieu thereof, to the members of the Flandreau band of Sioux Indians.

The eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth sections provide for. the allotment in severalty of the lands embraced in the separate reservations established by the act, and for the purchase and disposal by the United States of lands embraced therein at some future time.

The thirteenth section provides that any Indian receiving and entitled to rations and annuities at either of the agencies mentioned in the act at the time the same shall take effect, but residing upon any portion of said Great Reservation not included in either of the separate reservations established by said act may, at his option, within a stated time, have the allotment to which he would be otherwise entitled on one of said separate reservations upon the land where such Indian may then reside.

The registers and receivers are therefore directed to exercise every care and precaution to prevent the entry or filing for any lands in said Great Reservation which are in the occupancy of Indians entitled to allotments under the provisions of said act, which occupancy is to be protected to the full extent of the rights granted to the Indians therein. The occupancy and possession of the Indians are regarded as sufficient notice of their rights to all parties concerned.

The registers and receivers are instructed to advise all parties intending to become settlers, either as agriculturists or under the town-site laws, of the extent of the rights of the Indians and of the impossibility of their acquiring rights in conflict therewith, and impressing on them the wrong and injustice of seeking to interfere with the Indians in their rightful occupancy of the lands, and that they can gain nothing thereby. Section 14 provides for regulations whereby the use of water necessary for agricultural purposes upon the separate reservations provided for by the act may be, secured.

Section 15 ratifies and makes valid all allotments of land taken within or without the limits of any of the separate reservations established by this act, in conformity with the provisions of the treaty with the Great Sioux Nation concluded April 29, 1868. (15 Stat. L., 635.) Section 16 provides that the acceptance of the act shall release the Indian title to said Great Reservation, with the exceptions hereinbefore named, and also for certain railroad rights.

Section 17 provides for schools, stock, and seeds for the Indians, punishment for trading with the Indians, and appropriation and expenditure of a permanent fund for the Indians.

Section is grants to religious societies, with certain limitations, any land in said Great Reservation occupied for religious purposes. Said tracts are therefore reserved from disposal under the provisions of this act.