The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-17

Washington January 16.-(Special)- Following is the full text of the letter from the Secretary of the Interior ex- blaming the status of the Alabama and Mississippi Indian lands. titles to which have come into question and for an in yestigatio1 of which titles Senator John- ston recently introduced bill in the Sen ate asking for an appropriation of $10- GOO.
 Department of the Interior,
 Washington, January 12, 1912. Hon. Robert l. Gamble, Chairman, Com
 mittee on Indian Affairs, United States
 Senate:
 Sir: In compliance with your request for report upon Senate Bill No. 93O6, entitled: "A bill to authorize the Sec retary of the Interior to investigate the status of the Indian reserves set aside under the Choctaw treaty of 1S30 and the Creek and Chickasaw treaties of 1882, for which no patents have been issued and the ownership of which is in question, and approprating money therefor" have the honor to report:
 The Choctaw treaty of September 2T, 1880 c Stat, 3S3), provides, by the 14th article thereof, that those Indians, be- ing the heads of families, who are desir- ous of remaining on the Ckoctaw Reser- vation, in the states of Mississippi and Alabama, and of becoming citizens of the United States, shall receive a certain amount of land for themselves and cer- tain lands for each child, patent in fee to issue for such tracts, if residence thereon is maintained for a period of five years after the ratification of the treaty.
 By the 18th article other proyi- sions are made for reservations of land tC different classes of Indians, which lands could not be sold without the con sent of the President of the United States.
 While number of patents have been issued to Choctaw Indians under this treaty a considerable number of tracts are shown on the records of the general land office as "wanted" for the Indians, according to the reports made to the gen eral land office by the commission of h. dian affairs.
 These tracts are, it is understood, largely in the possession of persons who have held the same through means of conveyance for many years, under the belief of ownership. but the relative rights of these holders and the Indian reserves for whom they were originally reserved, are not known to this depart nleHt, anu Wnllo IL IS pOSSlDle that Ire legal rights of the different parties might, in many cases, be ascertained from the records of the department, the equitable rights of innocent holders cannot be learned without special investigation.
 The treaty of March 24. 1892 q Stat, 360, provided by article thereof, that the principal chiefs and heads of families of the Creeks shall be allowed to select tracts of a section or half section, ac- cording to their degree.
 Article thereof provides that these tracts may be sold by the persons select ing the same to any other persons for fair consideration in such manner as the President might direct. The contract is required to be certified to by some per- son appointed for that purpose by the President, the sale not to be valid until after approval by the President. It is provided that title shall be given by the United States on the completion of the payment.
 Article of the treaty provides that at titled to selections and desirous of re- maining on the lands selected, shall re- ceive patents. therefor in fee simple from the United States.
 So far as is known to this department none of the Creeks remained on the land reserved for them, but were all removed to their reservation in the present state of Oklahoma The lands reserved for individual Indians, as~provided for in the treaty, between 6000 and 1000 in number, were sold by the Indian reservees.
 The act of March 3, 1887 0 Stat, 1s6),