These additional deeds were made necessary by a slight change in the location of the road. August 16 the Secretary of the Interior approved the amended map of definite location showing the change referred to in the deeds. This change in location affected but two allotments in the northwest quarter of section 25, township 51 north, range 4 west.

Sioux Reservation, S. Dak.-Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company. By act of Congress of June 25, 1898 (30 Stats., 748), the Secletary of the Interior is authorized and directed to return and refund to the above-named company the sum of $15,335.76, deposited by the company with this Department in payment for right of way and depot grounds through certain lands which were afterwards ceded to the United States, and which lands the company claimed that it had never secured or used.

CONDITIONS TO BE COMPLIED WITH BY RAILROAD COMPANIES.

In the construction of railways through Indian lands a systematic compliance with the conditions expressed in the right-of-way acts will prevent much unnecessary delay. I therefore quote the requirements, which have been stated in previous reports. Each company should file in this office

(1) A copy of its articles of incorporation, duly certified to by the proper officers under its corporate seal.

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(2) Maps representing the definite location of the line. In the absence of any special provisions with regard to the length of line to be represented upon the maps of definite location, they should be so prepared as to represent sections of 25 miles each. If the line passes through surveyed land, they should show its location accurately according to the sectional subdivisions of the survey; and if through unsurveyed land, it should be carefully indicated with regard to its general direction and the natural objects, farms, etc., along the route. Each of these maps should bear the affidavit of the chief engineer, setting forth that the survey of the route of the company's road from a distance of miles (giving termini and distance), was made by him (or under his direction), as chief engineer, under authority of the company, on or between certain dates (giving the same), and that such survey is accurately represented on the map. The affidavit of the chief engineer must be signed by him officially and verified by the certificates of the president of the company, attested by its secretary under its corporate seal, setting forth that the person signing the affidavit was either the chief engineer or was employed for the purpose of making such survey, which was done under the authority of the company. Further, that the line of route so surveyed and represented by the map was adopted by the company by resolution of its board of directors of a certain date (giving the date) as the definite location of the line of road from to

-, a distance of miles (giving the termini and distance), and that the map has been prepared to be filed for the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, in order that the company may obtain the benefits of the act of Congress approved

(giving date).

(3) Separate plats of ground for station purposes, in addition to right of way, should be filed, and such grounds should not be represented upon the maps of definite location, but should be marked by station numbers or otherwise, so that their exact location can be determined upon the maps. Plats of station grounds should bear the same affidavits and certificates as maps of definite location.

All maps presented for approval should be drawn on tracing linen, the scale not less than 2,000 feet to the inch, and should be filed in duplicate.

These requirements follow, as far as practicable, the published regulations governing the practice of the General Land Office with regard to railways over the public lands, and they are, of course, subject to modification by any special provisions in a right-of-way act.

INDIAN DEPREDATION CLAIMS.

The number of Indian depredation claims of record in this office is 8,007. At the date of the last annual report there were 4,260 claims remaining in the office to be disposed of in accordance with the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stats., 851). Since then, up to June 30, 1898, the papers on file in 62 claims have been transmitted to the court and 6 claims have been reported as having been previously transmitted to Congress. There remain, therefore, 4,192 claims to be disposed of in accordance with the act aforesaid.

Considerable work devolves upon the office in the care and custody of the papers, making transfers of claims to the court with reports thereon, keeping proper records, and furnishing miscellaneous information to interested parties. During the past year there have been more calls than usual for information by attorneys, claimants, and others interested in the prosecution of Indian depredation claims.

In the last annual report it was stated that $1,120,680.29 had been appropriated by Congress for the payment of judgments of the Court of Claims rendered in pursuance of the act of March 3, 1891. By act of July 7, 1898, $331,771.55 was appropriated for the same purpose, making the total amount appropriated for the payment of judgments of the Court of Claims $1,452,451.84. The records of the office show that up to June 30, 1898, judgments have been paid and charged against those appropriations amounting to $1,144,863.77.

A few small judgments have been paid and charged against the tribal funds of different tribes in accordance with the sixth section of the act of March 3, 1891.

At the last session of Congress there was introduced House bill No. 6712, "To amend an act entitled 'An act to provide for the adjudication and payment of claims arising from Indian depredations,' approved March 3, 1891." The first paragraph of the act of March 3, 1891, now in force, providing for the adjudication of claims, reads as follows:

All claims for property of citizens of the United States taken or destroyed by Indians belonging to any band, tribe, or nation in amity with the United States, without just cause or provocation on the part of the owner or agent in charge, and not returned or paid for.

The proposed amendment substantially provides for adjudicating three classes of claims not provided for in the act of March 3, 1891, viz: (1) All claims for property of any "inhabitant" of the United States; (2) claims for property merely "damaged," and (3) claims against Indians not "in amity" with the United States.

In office report on this bill dated May 6, 1898, after reciting the

laws heretofore passed relating to Indian depredation claims, particularly with reference to the questions involved in the proposed amendment, attention was called to the fact that while possibly it may have been the intention of Congress prior to March 3, 1885, to consider claims of "inhabitants" as well as claims of "citizens" of the United States against tribes in amity with the United States, yet the act of 1885 plainly provided only for the investigation of claims of citizens, excluding claims of "inhabitants;" as did also the act of 1891. (Johnson v. The United States, 160 U. S., p. 546.)

Attention was also invited to the fact that while it has been the policy of the Government for the past century to make provision for the satisfaction of just and bona fide claims for property taken or destroyed, yet no provision has ever been made for the adjudication of claims for property merely "damaged."

Senate bill 897, which was introduced in the Fifty-third Congress, first session, contemplated amendments similar in effect to House bill 6712, but it never became a law. It proposed to omit from the first paragraph of the act of March 3, 1891, the words "in amity with the United States." With the same end in view, House bill 6712 proposes to insert "or which had, prior to such taking or destruction, entered into any treaty of amity, peace, or friendship with the United States." In the same report of May 6, reference was made to the case of Marks et al. v. The United States et al. (160 U. S., p. 297 et seq.), and it was stated that if the above-quoted clause of House bill 6712 were enacted into law, Indians actually at war with the United States would be compelled to pay, out of their annuities and trust funds, claims for property taken or destroyed by them during the existence of war, a policy contrary to all former policies of this Government.

There are no doubt many claims that have been rejected which would be allowed if the proposed amendments were adopted, and possibly some of them were just and proper at the time the depredations were alleged to have been committed; yet they were not adjudicated under the laws then in force, and the changes in the condition of the affairs of the Indians which have taken place since a large portion of these depredations were committed, and the difficulty. the Government would now find in verifying the evidence of the claimants, in view of the great length of time which has elapsed since the commission of the depredations, would render the injustice to the present generation of Indians many-fold greater than any injustice which the claimants would suffer under the law now in force. Not only would it impose an unreasonable hardship upon the present generation of Indians, who are trying amid adversities to advance in civilization, by compelling them to make compensation for depredations committed by their ancestors while in a state of savagery, but it would take millions of dollars from the United States Treasury to pay claims, of which many would at least seem questionable. *

ASSAULT UPON NAVAJOES, ARIZONA.

A detailed statement was given in the last annual report of an assault upon sixteen Navajo families who were tending their flocks in the grazing district bounded on the east and north by the Little Colorado River and on the west by the Colorado River, a portion of the tract being within the boundaries of the Grand Canyon, National Park. From this district they were ejected by the officials of Coconino County, Ariz., with alleged losses to their flocks and herds. Since that time. this office has received a report on the subject from the acting agent of the Navajo Agency, and also, by reference from the Department, has received reports from the United States district attorney for Arizona and from the governor of that Territory. The Indian agent contends that the Indians sustained considerable loss in their forcible removal by the county officials, while the district attorney and governor claim that no harm was done to the Indians, either in person or property. On these reports no action has yet been taken and the office is in doubt whether under the circumstances civil action should be instituted to recover damages which it is alleged the Indianssustained to their property.

MISSION INDIANS, CALIFORNIA.

During the year patents have been issued for the Temecula allotments. No new allotments have been made in the field, nor have the allotments which were made several years ago on the Rincon, Potrero, and Capitan Grande reservations been completed, because the plats of survey have not yet been furnished by the General Land Office. The proposed exchange of 1ds with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, affecting four reser ations, has not yet been completed, this part of the business being also before the General Land Office.

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Additional tracts of land are needed for several of the reservations. It was the duty of the Mission Indians Commission, under the act of January 12, 1891, to select as reservations for the several bands or villages of Indians the lands that were at that time in their possession and occupation. But this the commission failed to do in several cases, and it was found that the failure could be remedied only by a special act of Congress. In compliance with Department instructions, this office prepared and submitted, January 5 last, draft of bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to cause to be patented to the Mission Indians such tracts of the public lands in the State of California as he shall find upon examination to have been in the occupation of the Indians, and are now required and needed by them, and were not selected for them by the commission. This draft is contained in Senate Doc. No. 54, Fifty-fifth Congress, second session.

KILLING OF UTES IN COLORADO.

On the 24th of October, 1897, when a party of Ute Indians from the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah were hunting on the north side of Snake River in Colorado, two of them were killed and two were wounded by a squad of game wardens of Colorado. Immediately, the newspapers contained the usual startling accounts of an Indian outbreak; that the Utes were on the warpath, and settlers in southwestern Colorado were fleeing for their lives, etc.

November 1, Capt. W. H. Beck, U. S. A., the acting agent for the Uintah and Ouray Agency, who was then in this city, received the fol lowing telegram from the clerk whom he had left in charge of the agency:

Two White River Utes were killed and squaws wounded in first encounter, as reported; have heard of the second encounter. Dr. Reamer left last evening to attend the wounded squaws. Indians here are much agitated. I respectfully ask that you request troops be stationed at agency at once.

In accordance with Captain Beck's recommendation the War Department was requested to direct such movement of the troops at Fort Duchesne as would assure protection to the agency, and suppress any hostile demonstration which the White River Utes might attempt to make; which request was complied with.

November 3, 1897, this office recommended that an inspector be sent to the Uintah and Ouray Agency to ascertain the facts, and Special Indian Agent E. B. Reynolds was ordered to make such investigation. December 16, 1897, he rendered his report, of which the following is a summary:

On the 23d of November, at the Uintah Agency, he took the statements of the Indians, and, according to the uncontradicted testimony of Ungut sho one Star, four men and thr women were in camp 3 miles from what is known as Thompson's ranch, while the rest of their party were out hunting. On the morning of October 26 Star and So on a munche Kent, on their way to Thompson's ranch, met and had a little conversation with two white men, one of whom was armed with a Winchester rifle and pistol. A short distance farther on they saw a squad of men whom they knew to be game wardens, whereupon they turned back to the camp. So on a munche Kent got away, but Star was captured and disarmed by the wardens, who took him with them to the camp. Upon their arrival at the camp, about 10 a. m., they immediately covered Shinaraff and Coo a munche with their rifles, and afterwards told the Indians that they wished them to go to Thompson's, and endeavored to arrest the men, who resisted and got away. In the afternoon, three or four hours after their arrival, the wardens commenced firing on the Indians, and, after killing two men and wounding two of the women, left the camp. The Indians who had escaped or were out hunting returned and buried the dead, and all started that evening for the agency, traveling all night.