3. QUAPAW AREA FIELD OFFICE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: We wish to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated April 17, 1958, with the enclosure of questionnaire on disposition and acquisition of Indian lands under this jurisdiction. We are returning your questionnaire on individually owned Indian land with the attachment of a questionnaire on the disposition and acquisition of individual Indian lands in the past 10 years. The information that we are furnishing you is on six tribes of Indians in northeastern Oklahoma combined; namely, Quapaws, Senecas, Eastern Shawnees, Ottawas, Modocs, and Wyandottes. We trust that this is the information desired by you and assure you that we are happy to cooperate with you in this matter. Sincerely yours, E. E. LAMB, Supervisory, Field Representative. QUAPAW QUESTIONNAIRE ON THE DISPOSITION AND ACQUISITION OF INDIAN LAND IN THE LAST 10 YEARS PART 1 As to tribal and individually owned trust or restricted land: 1. There were 1,693 acres of land under tribal ownership in 1947, all of which was in trust for the tribes. During the 10-year period, 100 acres more land was acquired by the tribes. 2. There were 29,877 acres of trust or restricted land in individual ownership as of July 1, 1947. 3. See chart. 4. See chart. 5. See chart. 6. See chart. 7. See chart. 8. See chart. 9. See chart. 10. See chart. 11. One thousand seven hundred and ninety-three acres were in tribal ownership on December 31, 1957. All of the tribal land is held in trust for the tribes. 12. There were 23,599 acres of trust or restricted land under individual Indian ownership on December 31, 1957. 13. Termination acts for the Wyandotte, Peoria, and Ottawa Tribes were passed by the 84th Congress in 1956. These termination acts were as follows: Public Law 887, approved August 1, 1956, for the Wyandotte Tribe; Public Law 921, approved August 2, 1956, for the Peoria Tribe; and Public Law 943, approved August 3, 1956, for the Ottawa Tribe. So far, very little has been done by the members of these tribes to take advantage of the terms of the acts to obtain a patent in fee or request the land to be sold. The restrictions on the land belonging to the members of the Peoria Tribe were not renewed in 1915, so there are no tribal or individual trust land owned by the members of this tribe. The Ottawas have disposed of most of their land, so the Wyandotte Tribe has the most land to come under the termination act. The tribal councils have not passed any resolutions pertaining to the disposition of trust or restricted land. 14. Very few of the original allottees are living at this time, so the heirship or multiple-ownership problem is very much a problem at this jurisdiction. It is very difficult to obtain the signatures of the adult owners, when some of them want to sell or to make a long-term lease. Most of the time, it takes months to get a 5-year departmental agricultural lease completed, as it is necessary that the lease be mailed all over the United States to get signatures, and in most cases the owners are slow about signing the papers and returning them to the office so the signatures of others can be obtained. (a) The tribes do not have any undivided ownership problems. (b) There are many undivided interests owned by non-Indians, but in most cases, the non-Indians go along with the restricted interests and their share of income is usually paid direct to them by the lessee. These undivided interests of non-Indians often pose a problem when it comes to the sale of restricted property. Most people do not like to buy fractional interests, but when they do, they discount the value of the land, to compensate for the cost of having to acquire the land in fractional interests. (c) Undivided interests owned by minors on reservations which are. under the Indian Reorganization Act are very few and they are not much of a problem in this area. (d) As a rule, most of the heirs to a tract of restricted land are agreeable, but we do have a few heirs who are not willing to cooperate. (e) We have not had any proposed sale of this category, but we do have several instances, where adult heirs are attempting to sell land but are unable to do so, on account of being unable to locate one or more of the heirs who, in most cases, only own a small fractional interest in the estate. This is particularly disturbing when a welfare case is involved. None of the tribes in this area have funds to make purchases of this kind. PART II-QUAPAW Since Indian-owned land is checkerboarded with non-Indian land, there are not any particular tracts of land that could be classified as key tracts. PART III-QUAPAW None of the tribes in this area have enough funds to pay an employee, nor do they have funds to purchase additional land. DISPOSALS-REMOVAL FROM INDIAN BUREAU JURISDICTION BY PLACING OF UNRESTRICTED FEE-SIMPLE TITLE IN OWNERS 4. SEMINOLE AGENCY DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Dania, Fla., June 10, 1958. Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, Chairman, Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: In reply to your letter of April 17, 1958, a review of the land records maintained by this agency has been completed and the following report submitted. There are three reservations under the jurisdiction of the Seminole Agency: Big Cypress, Brighton, and Dania Reservations. All of the lands are held in trust for the Seminole Indians by the United States. The establishment of the Big Cypress Reservation began with the purchase of 1,280 acres of land from funds appropriated by the act of August 15, 1894 (28 Stat. 303), subsequent land purchases were made from appropriation for several years thereafter until 1899 and totaled 23,061.72 acres. No additional lands were added to this reservation until 1936, when 10,880 acres were purchased under the Indian reorganization landpurchase program. Since then exchanges were made between the State of Florida and Government-owned scattered lands in Collier and Hendry Counties. A purchase of 7,200 acres completed in September 1943 by the United States Indian Service brought the total land area for the Big Cypress Reservation to 42,663.03 acres, which was the total acreage as of July 1, 1947. Brighton Reservation: The establishment of the Brighton Reservation began with the purchase of 27,086.10 acres of submarginal land in Florida under the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933 (48 Stat. 200), and subsequent acts, to be held by the United States in trust for the Seminole Indians. In 1938 these lands were transferred by Executive Order No. 7868 from the Secretary of Agriculture to the Secretary of the Interior for the use of the Seminole Indians. Additional lands totaling 8,708.93 acres were purchased under authority of the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984), which total amounted to 35,795.03 acres as of July 1, 1947. Dania Reservation: Under authority of Executive Order No. 1379 dated June 28, 1911, certain tracts of land were set aside as a reservation for the Seminole Indians in southern Florida (for acquisition, see Nash report, S. Doc. 314, 71st Cong., 3d sess.). This acquisition |