Chapter CLXV. for the Relief of Preëmptors on the Home Reservation of the Winnebagoes, in the Blue-earth Region, in the State of Minnesota
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Chap. CLXV.— An Act for the Relief of Preëmptors on the Home Reservation of the Winnebagoes, in the Blue-earth Region, in the State of Minnesota. July 14, 1862. Preamble.Whereas certain individuals have memorialized Congress, setting forth that they were bona fide actual settlers, under the preemption laws of the United States, in the tract of country known as the eighteen-milesquare home reservation of the Winnebagoes, in the Blue-earth region, Minnesota, at a period of time when the Indian title had been extinguished, and prior to the setting apart by legal divisions of the said Indian home reservation, under the second article of the treaty of the twenty-seventh of February, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, and that by reason of the setting apart of said home reservation they were forced from their settlements and subjected to loss and damage by the destruction of their improvements; therefore— *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, * Certain settlers in the Blue-earth Region, Minnesota, may perfect their rights as preëmptors.
That it shall and may be lawful for each of such settlers, within three months from and after the passage of this act, to file his declaratory statement with the proper register and receiver, descriptive of the tract so settled upon and improved; and under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, said settler shall be permitted to establish his claim by the production of testimony showing compliance with all the requirements of the preemption law up to the period when said settler was ousted by reason of the premises falling within the aforesaid Indian home reservation; that the testimony required under this act shall be the affidavit of the claimant himself, taken before the register and receiver, and shall show the date of the commencement and the period of continuance of his improvements, the extent of the same, size of his habitation, the time and labor required in its construction, extent of other improvements, and the cost to him and value of the same, and value of crop derived from the same.
The affidavit to be corroborated by disinterested testimony. Sec. 2. Secretary of Interior to determine on validity of claim. *And be it further enacted, *That upon the return of such testimony to the department, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior finally to adjudge the validity or invalidity of each claim; and in regard to those shown to be bona fide under the preemption law, to report a list of the same, with all the testimony, to Congress, stipulating such award as should be paid as damages growing out of the loss and destruction of such improvements, by reason of the appropriation of such settlements to the Indian reservation, as aforesaid:
Provided, That the land Land officers to have no additional fees.officers of the local land office herein mentioned shall not receive any additional pay or fees for the services hereby required of them. Approved, July 14, 1862.