Chapter CXLI. to provide for the Removal of the Kansas Tribe of Indians to the Indian Territory, and to dispose of their Lands in Kansas to actual Settlers
1,161 words·~5 min read·
/statutes-at-large/vol-17/chapter-cxli-389321·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. CXLI.— An Act to provide for the Removal of the Kansas Tribe of Indians to the Indian Territory, and to dispose of their Lands in Kansas to actual Settlers.May 8, 1872. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* ThatUnsold lands in Kansas of the Kansas Indians to be appraised and sold.Vol. xii. p. 1111.Mode of appraisement, &c. the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized and empowered to cause to be appraised and sold so much of the lands heretofore owned by the Kansas tribe of Indians in the State of Kansas, and which was ceiled to the United States in trust in the treaty made by the United States and said Indians proclaimed November seventeenth, anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty, and which remain unsold, in the following manner, viz.:
The said Secretary shall appoint three disinterested and competent persons, who shall, after being duly sworn to perform said service faithfully and impartially, personally examine and appraise said lands by legal subdivisions of one hundred and sixty acres or less, separately from the value of any improvements on the same, and also the value of said improvements, distinguishing between improvements made by members of said Indian tribe, the United States, and white settlers, and make return thereof to the commissioner of Indian affairs: *Provided,*Appraisement may be set aside.
That the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, set aside any appraisements that may be made under the provisions of this section, and cause a new appraisement to be made. Sec. 2. ThatBona-fide settlers, &c., and their heirs, may purchase not over 160 acres of such lands and improvements at the appraised value. each bona-fide settler at the time occupying any portion of said lands and having made valuable improvements thereon, or the heirs at law of such, who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his intention to become such, shall be entitled, at any time within one year from the approval of said appraisement, to purchase, for cash, the land so occupied and improved by him, not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres in each case, at the appraised value thereof, including the appraised value of any improvements which may have been made by the United States or any of said Indians on the same, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe.
Sec. 3. ThatOccupied lands unsold after one year, &c., to be sold at public sale.Unoccupied lands may lie sold after approval of appraisement.Limit to price. all the lands mentioned in the first section of tills act now occupied by bona-fide settlers, as mentioned in the second section of this act, remaining unsold at the expiration of one year from the approval of said appraisement, shall be sold at public sale, after due advertisement, to the highest bidder for cash, in tracts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres; and all the lands mentioned in the first section of this act which shall be unoccupied by bona-fide settlers at the date of such appraisement may he sold at any time after the approval of said appraisement, at public sale, after due advertisement, to the highest bidder for cash, in tracts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe: *Provided,* That in no case shall any of the lands mentioned in this act be sold at less than86FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS.
Sess. II. Ch. 141, 142. 1872. theirLands unsold after, &c. appraised value: *And provided further,* That the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, open any of said lands remaining unsold after having been publicly offered to cash entry at their appraised value, subject to the rights of bona-fide settlers as provided for in this act;Proceeds of sales of lands how to be applied. *Provided, however,* That the proceeds of the sale of said lands and improvements, after paying the expenses of said appraisement and sale, shall be applied in accordance with the provisions of said treaty in the payment of the liquidated indebtedness of said Kansas tribe of Indians pro rata as the same shall be received, and the excess, if any, shall be distributed to the said Indians, per capita, in money.
Sec. 4. ThatThe diminished reserve of the Kansas Indians to be appraised and sold, &c., if, &c.Mode of appraisement and sale. if said Kansas tribe of Indians shall signify to the President of the United States their desire to sell their diminished reserve, as indicated in said treaty, including lands held in severalty and in common, and to remove from the State of Kansas, and shall so agree in such manner as the President may prescribe, the Secretary of the Interior may cause the same to be appraised in legal subdivisions as hereinbefore provided for the appraisement of the so-called “trust lands,” and sold in quantities not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres at not less than its appraised value, after due notice, to the highest bidder or bidders on sealed bids,Improvements. including improvements of every character, and no preference shall be given to settlers on any part of said diminished reserve, and the appraised value of any improvements on any part of said diminished reserve made by any member of said tribe shall be paid to him or her in person,Proceeds of sales. and the residue of the proceeds of said sales shall belong to said tribe in common, fifty per centum of which shall be placed to their credit on the books of the treasury, and bear interest at the rate of five per centum per annum, said interest to be paid to them semiannually for the term of twenty years, after which period the principal shall be paid to the members of said tribe per capita, and the remaining fifty per centum of the proceeds of sales as aforesaid shall be used in providing and improving for them new homes in the Indian Territory, and in subsisting them until they may become self-sustaining:Adult members of tribe desiring to remain upon the reservation, may receive patent for their allotment, exempt, &c. *Provided,* That if any adult member of said tribe to whom an allotment was assigned under the provision of articles one and two of said treaty of November, eighteen hundred and sixty, shall desire to remain upon the same, such member of said tribe shall, upon satisfying the Secretary of the Interior that he or she is the person to whom such allotment was originally assigned, and that he or she lias, since the date of such assignment, continued to occupy and cultivate the same, be entitled to demand and receive for such allotment a patent in fee-simple; but such land so patented shall be exempt from levy, taxation, or sale during the natural life of such Indian.
Approved, May 8, 1872.