It will be observed that it is provided that any Indian residing in said town site and in possession of lots of ground with improvements shall have the same right to purchase under the town-site laws as white citizens; also that the tract of land situated near to and north of the town of Wadsworth, upon which is located the Pyramid Lake Indian school, containing about 110 acres, is reserved from the town site established, unless it shall be determined by the Department that the tract is not needed for Indian school purposes.

July 27, 1898, the Indian agent of the Nevada Agency was furnished with a copy of the act, and directed to notify the Indians of its provisions, and to assist any who might be residing within the town site and be in possession of lots of ground and improvements to obtain title thereto under the town-site laws. Steps have been taken, also, to ascertain whether the school tract is still needed for school purposes.

INDIANS IN NEW YORK.

No change has been made in the condition or political status of the Indians in the State of New York during the past year. The chief obstacle to the betterment of their condition, namely, the claim of the Ogden Land Company, still exists, with no apparent prospect of its being soon removed.

Mention was made in my last annual report of the difficulties that were continually growing out of individual property rights, and that effort would be made to have the New York legislature amend the laws so as to give litigants in property matters the right to appeal from the Peacemakers to the State courts. A petition for such amendment, numerously signed by the Indians, was transmitted to the Department January 8 last, and was, I am informally advised, transmitted to the governor of New York January 13.

A matter of considerable interest to the Indians is the collection of the moneys due from the leasing of town lots in the six villages of the Allegany Reservation. Under existing law these moneys are paid to the treasurer of the Seneca Nation, to be expended for the benefit of the whole people. But it is alleged by many prominent members of the nation that the money is not properly expended, and that when funds are distributed many Indians do not get their share. To remedy this wrong a faction of the Seneca Nation had a bill introduced at the last session of Congress, the purpose of which was to have all lease moneys collected by the United States Indian agent. This bill (S. 2888) was favorably reported on in office letter to the Department, March 10, 1898, and passed the Senate and is now pending in the House.

On April 11 last the Supreme Court of the United States rendered a decision in the case of the New York Indians against the United States. The Indians had sued the United States to recover the value of lands in Kansas which had been set apart as a reservation for them by their treaty of 1838. These lands had never been occupied by the Indians and had been sold by the Government and the proceeds placed

in the United States Treasury. Suit was first brought in the Court of Claims in which judgment was rendered against the Indians. The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Claims and remanded the case to that court with instructions to enter a new judgment in favor of the Indians for the net amount actually received by the Government for the Kansas lands less the amount to which the Tonawanda Senecas would have been entitled and less other just deductions. By their treaty of November 5, 1857, the Tonawanda Senecas surrendered their interest in the Kansas lands and their pro rata share of the fund provided for removal to Kansas. In anticipation of a call by the Court of Claims this office on May 5 last submitted to the Department a statement showing the basis upon which the settlement with the Tonawandas was made.

TURTLE MOUNTAIN CHIPPEWAS, NORTH DAKOTA.

Ratification of the agreement concluded with the Turtle Mountain. Chippewas October 22, 1892, is still delayed, and the Indians therefore continue to be in an unsettled condition, not knowing what to do or to expect. The ratification of this agreement has been repeatedly urged. A bill (House 9282) was introduced during the last session of Congress referring to the Court of Claims the claim of these Indians for payment for about 9,000,000 acres in North Dakota which they declare have never been ceded by them. It was favorably reported by the House Committee on Indian Affairs (House Report 820), and is still pending.

TORTURING AND BURNING OF SEMINOLES IN OKLAHOMA.

Early in January, 1898, alarming reports appeared in the newspapers of an impending outbreak by the Indians of the Seminole Nation along the borders of Oklahoma on account of outrages perpetrated in that vicinity. After a searching investigation it was found that the threatened disturbance was due to the burning of two Seminole Indian boys at the stake by a mob of white men from Oklahoma in revenge for the killing of one Mrs. Leard, a white woman living in the Seminole Nation. The facts as to the murder of this woman and the burning of the Indians are briefly stated by Leo E. Bennett, United States marshal, in his report to the Attorney-General, as follows:

On the evening of December 30, 1897, Mrs. Leard, or Laird, a white woman, residing on the "McGeisy farm," 20 miles west of Wewoka, Seminole Nation, and probably 5 or 6 miles east of the post-office of Maud, Okla., was visited by an Indian, who asked to borrow a saddle. This was refused him. He tarried a while, and Mrs. L. became uneasy at his presence and ordered him away. He left, but very soon after returned, and entering the house unannounced picked up a gun and attempted to shoot the woman. The gun failed to fire, and Mrs. L. started to run, whereupon he struck her with the gun, breaking the

stock from the barrel. He then picked up the barrel of the gun, and as she passed out the door he struck her several times in quick succession, the force of the blows crushing her skull, and from which she died. The Indian then stepped into the house and made a search for money, but did not find any. He then went out of the house, and drawing the woman's infant of a few months from under her dead body he put the child in the house and left the place.

The only persons present were the woman and the Indian and the woman's children, the eldest a lad of 8 years, the next a girl of 4 years, and the infant. It was not possible for the children to get their mother's body into the house, and it lay outside during the night. Upon the coming of daylight of the following morning the little boy hastened away to the neighbors for assistance. Upon his return with some of the neighbors it was found that the hogs had gotten into the yard and had partially devoured the body of the woman. The body was then cared for and decently interred and a messenger dispatched for the husband of the woman, who was several miles away. Mr. Leard was accompanied to his home by a number of persons from Oklahoma, and as soon as the burial services were closed those present organized a posse to hunt down the woman's murderer. This posse was heavily armed, and rode all over the western border of the Seminole Nation, taking into custody nearly every Indian who came across its path. All were taken before the little boy for identification, and many of them he was able to state positively did not do the bloody deed. Others he was doubtful in so clearly stating their innocence, and all such Indians were then tortured in an effort to make them confess that they were the ones or had had something to do with the crime.

Finally a confession of guilt was extorted from Palmer Sampson, an ignorant, full-blood Seminole Indian, who also implicated Lincoln McGeisy. The latter denied the charge and until the very last declared his entire innocence. The mob held these boys (for I am advised they were about 18 or 19 years of age) several days, and on the night of Friday, January 7, carried them over into Oklahoma, and chaining them together by their necks with chains, securely fastened them to a tree and piled hay and brush around them, and about 3 o'clock of the morning of the 8th set fire thereto and burned them alive. They continued to burn for about twelve hours, and when found by a searching party their legs and arms were burned from their trunks. The tree was cut down Saturday (8th) afternoon and their remains taken to the Seminole Nation and buried, still chained together.

The first information received of there being any trouble in that country reached me on Saturday night (8th) in a telegram from Deputy Marshal Buchner, who was at Holdenville, and who wired me that there was a raging mob in the Seminole Nation, and asked for instructions. I immediately endeavored to ascertain the cause of the disturb ance, and was advised of the death of the two boys as above related, also that the mob had burned the farmhouses on the McGeisy place. The mob having dispersed before this information reached me, I consulted with United States Judge William M. Springer, and wired my deputies at Holdenville and Wewoka to meet United States Commissioner Fears at Wewoka and obey his orders concerning an investigation. Commissioner Fears went to Wewoka on the 10th and at once issued process for witnesses and a warrant for the interpreter who had served the purposes of the mob. On the 10th I also wired Assistant United States Attorney Parker, then at South McAlester, requesting him to proceed to Wewoka and aid in the investigation. Mr. Parker did so. I would

have personally proceeded to the scene, but could not see the necessity for so doing at the time the information reached me. I was also preparing to transport some prisoners from Muscogee to the penitentiary and had all arrangements made to leave with them.

On the night of the 11th telegrams reached me describing scenes of bloodshed and terror because of an alleged uprising of the Indians, it being positively set forth that the town of Maud, Okla., had been burned and that more than twenty-five men, women, and children had been murdered by the Seminole Indians. This information was traced directly to the telegraph operator of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway at Earlsboro, Okla., who gave them out as facts. About noon I received telegrams from my deputies and other officials then at the scene of the alleged trouble that the reports sent out by the operator at Earlsboro were all fakes and wholly unfounded, but had been circulated for the purpose of creating a sentiment to shield the members of the mob who came from Oklahoma and burned the two Indian boys. Commissioner Fears also wired me that there was no necessity for my going to Wewoka, as all was then being done that was possible to discover the identity of those who composed the mob.

Mr. Fears advised me that he had issued certain subpoenas and warrants and that he had no doubt the facts would be developed. That night (12th) I received a telegram from one of my deputies that he had reached Wewoka with one of the parties, and asked instructions as to disposition of prisoner. I directed him to take the prisoner and subpœna witnesses before Commissioner Fears at Eufaula. That night I left for Boonville, Mo., Columbus, Ohio, and Washington, D. C., with United States prisoners. I am advised, under date of the 16th, that one of my deputies has secured a full list of the names of all persons who were implicated in the burning of the two Indians, together with the names of witnesses to the crime, and that the whole matter has been presented to the grand jury, now in session at Vinita. I have this list of names before me, but for obvious reasons deem it proper to omit giving them in this connection. Three or four of those on the list were residents of the Indian Territory, but the majority of the mob was made up of residents of Oklahoma.

I desire to assure you that every officer connected with the United States courts in the northern district of Indian Territory will use all lawful means at his and their command to bring the guilty party before the bar of justice. In another communication I will present to you certain suggestions which are, in my opinion, proper for your attention. It may not be out of place for me to advise you at this time of the fact that along the eastern boundary of Oklahoma, within 200 yards, in some cases a mile, from the west line of the Seminole and Creek nations there have been established a great many whisky joints, from which there are daily sold to these Indians many gallons of the vilest of whisky and of alcohol. Such places are located at Maud, Violet Springs, Earlsboro, Keokuk Falls, Stroud, etc. Nearly all the crime along the western portion of my district arises from the presence of these saloons just across the line, and I believe that fully one-half of the whisky introduced in the northern district comes from Oklahoma. The officers of this district hope to secure the cooperation of the official of Oklahoma in putting a stop to this traffic by the prosecution of those who are engaged therein, and steps in this direction were taken several weeks since.

In response to a resolution of the Senate of January 20, 1898, asking that the Attorney-General and the Secretary of the Interior inform the

Senate as to what steps had been taken to ascertain the facts in the case and to punish the alleged offenders, information and copies of correspondence were given, which will be found in Senate Docs. Nos. 98 and 99 (parts 1 and 2), Fifty-fifth Congress, second session.

In the latter part of January last Hon. John T. Brown, principal chief of the Seminole Nation, officially advised the Department of the outrages perpetrated upon members of the nation, and requested, "in view of article 18 of the treaty with the Creeks and Seminoles dated August 7, 1856, whereby the Seminole Nation was promised protection and guaranteed indemnity for all injuries resulting from invasion or aggression," that a suitable person be appointed to ascertain and report the facts as to the burning of the two young men and the inhuman torture of other Seminole Indians, and also to ascertain and report upon the amount and value of the property destroyed or stolen by the mob, to the end that indemnity might be made by the United States for injuries sustained. Article 18 of the Seminole treaty proclaimed August 29, 1856 (11 Stats., p. 704), provides as follows:

The United States shall protect the Creeks and Seminoles from domestic strife, from hostile invasion, and from aggression by other Indians and white persons not subject to their jurisdiction and laws; and for all injuries resulting from such invasion or aggression full indemnity is hereby guaranteed to the party or parties injured out of the Treasury of the United States, upon the same principle and according to the same rules upon which white persons are entitled to indemnity for injuries or aggressions upon them committed by Indians."

In accordance with Department instructions of January 24, 1898, Dew M. Wisdom, United States Indian agent of the Union Agency, Indian Territory, was directed by this office, January 27, to make the investigation, and was instructed as follows:

In accordance with the above instructions, you will at once make the desired investigation in the premises. Of course, you will take sufficient time in this work to make it thorough and complete; and, so far as possible, all the evidence obtained should be supported by proper and sufficient proof in the form of affidavits, etc. It is presumed in this case that many claims will be made for damages, and great care should therefore be taken in investigating the same, to the end that none but those justly entitled thereto shall be reported to this Department.

The method of procedure in making this investigation will be left largely to your own judgment and discretion; but it is desired that all parties to this unfortunate affair should be given a full hearing, and should be allowed to submit such evidence in relation thereto as they may have or wish to offer.

The agent's reply of March 29, 1898, was transmitted to the Department in office letter of April 4 last. In this report the agent stated in effect that Thomas S. McGeisy and Mrs. Sukey Sampson were the only parties who suffered any loss of property or damage to property at the hands of said mob, and that the following parties, Peter Ossanna, Kenda Palmer, Billy Coker, Chippie Coker, Cobley (or Copley) Wolf, George P. Harjo, Samuel P. Harjo, Duffy P. Harjo, Johnson McKaye, Sever Parnoka, John Washington, George Kernells, Thomas Thompson, Johnny Palmer, Sam Ela, Sepa Palmer, Shawnee Barnett, and Billy