Proclamation 1367—Opening to Settlement Lands Within the Former Fort Berthold Indian Reservation

Whereas, the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1917 (Pub. No. 386), provides:

That section three of the Act entitled "An Act to provide for the disposal of certain lands in the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota," approved August third, nineteen hundred and fourteen, be, and is hereby, so amended as to authorize the classification and appraisal of unallotted lands in sections sixteen and thirty-six, containing coal and for such reason reserved by the terms of section one, Act of June first, nineteen hundred and ten (Thirty-sixth Statutes at Large, page four hundred and fifty-five), pending provision for their disposal by Congress; said lands when so classified and appraised to be subject to disposal under the laws applicable to other reserved coal lands within said former reservation.

Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the aforesaid Acts of Congress, do hereby prescribe, proclaim and make known that unallotted coal lands in Sections 16 and 36 in the former Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota, reserved by the terms of Section 1 of the Act of June 1, 1910, above cited, and which under the provisions of the aforesaid Act of March 3, 1917, have been classified and appraised as agricultural lands of the first class, agricultural lands of the second class and grazing lands, shall be disposed of under the general provisions of the homestead laws and of the said Acts of Congress and be opened to settlement and entry and be settled upon, occupied and entered in the following manner and not otherwise: Provided, That patents issued for such lands shall contain a reservation to the United States of any coal that such lands may contain, to be held in trust for the Indians belonging to and having tribal rights on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, but any entryman shall have the right at any time before making final proof of his entry, or at the time of making such final proof, to a hearing for the purpose of disproving the classification as coal land of the land embraced in his entry, and if such land is shown not to be coal land a patent without reservation shall issue.

1. Execution and Presentation of Applications. - - Any person who is qualified to make entry under the general provisions of the homestead laws may swear to and present an application to make homestead entry of these lands on or after April 20, 1917, or any such person who is entitled to the benefits of Sections 2304, 2305 and 2307, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, may file a declaratory statement for these lands on or after said date. Each application to make homestead entry and each declaratory statement filed in person must be sworn to by the applicant before the Register or the Receiver of the United States land office at Minot, North Dakota, or before a United States Commissioner, or a judge or a clerk of a court of record residing in the county in which the land is situated, or before any such officer who resides outside the county and in the land district and is nearest or most accessible to the land. The agent's affidavit to each declaratory statement filed by agent must be sworn to by the agent before one of such officers on or after April 20, 1917, but the power of attorney appointing the agent may be sworn to by the declarant on or after the date hereof before any officer in the United States having a seal and authority to administer oaths. After applications have been so sworn to, they must be presented to the Register and Receiver of the Minot land office. Applicants may present the applications in person, by mail, or otherwise. No person shall be permitted to present more than one application in his own behalf.

2. Purchase Money, Fees and Commissions. - - One-fifth of the appraised price of the land applied for must be paid at the time of entry and a sum equal thereto must be tendered with all applications to make homestead entry. Such sum will also be required with declaratory statements presented on or before April 30, 1917, and when so tendered will be disposed of as hereinafter provided. In addition, each application to make homestead entry must be accompanied by a fee of $5, if the area is less than 81 acres or $10, if 81 acres or more, and commissions at the rate of $1 for each 40-acre tract applied for; and each declaratory statement must be accompanied by a fee of $2.

3. Disposition of Applications. - - All homestead applications and declaratory statements received by the Register and Receiver on or after April 20, 1917, and on or before April 30, 1917, will be treated as filed simultaneously, and where there is no conflict such applications and statements, if in proper form and accompanied by the required payment, will be allowed. If such applications or statements conflict in whole or in part, the right of the respective applicants will be determined by a public drawing, to be conducted by or under the supervision of the Superintendent of Openings and Sales of Indian Reservations, at the Minot land office, beginning at 10 o'clock a.m., on May 3, 1917. The names of the persons who presented the conflicting applications and statements will be written on cards and these cards shall be placed in envelopes upon which there are no distinctive or identifying marks. These envelopes shall be thoroughly and impartially mixed, and, after being mixed, shall be drawn one at a time by some disinterested person. As the envelopes are drawn the cards shall be removed, numbered beginning with number one, and fastened to the applications of the proper persons, which shall be the order in which the applications and statements shall be acted upon and disposed of. If homestead application or declaratory statement cannot be allowed for any part of the land applied for, it shall be rejected. If it may be allowed for part of, but not for all, the land applied for, the applicant, or the declarant through his agent, shall be allowed thirty days from receipt of notice within which to notify the Register and Receiver what disposition to make thereof. During such time, he may request that the application or statement be allowed for the land not in conflict and rejected as to the land in conflict, or that it be rejected as to all the land applied for; or he may apply to have the application or statement amended to include other land which is subject to entry and to inclusion in his application or statement, provided he is the prior applicant. If it is determined by the drawing that a declaratory statement shall be acted upon and disposed of before a homestead application for the same land, the homestead applicant shall be allowed thirty days from receipt of notice within which to advise the Register and Receiver whether to allow or to reject the application. If an applicant, or a declarant or his agent, fails to notify the Register and Receiver within the time allowed what disposition to make of the application or statement, it will be rejected as to all the land applied for. Homestead applications and declaratory statements which are presented after April 30, 1917, will be received and noted in the order of their filing, and will be acted upon and disposed of in the usual manner after all such applications and statements presented on or before that date have been acted upon and disposed of.

4. Disposition of Moneys. - - Moneys tendered with applications and statements presented on or before April 30, 1917, except fees for filing declaratory statements, will be deposited by the Receiver of the Minot land office to his official credit and properly accounted for. The fee for filing a declaratory statement must be paid even though the application is rejected, and such fee will be properly applied when the statement is filed. When a homestead application is allowed in whole or in part, the sums required as fees, commissions and purchase money will be properly applied, and any sum in excess of the required amount will be returned to the applicant. When a declaratory statement is allowed in whole or in part, the sum which will be required as purchase money if entry is made under the declaratory statement will be held until entry has been allowed under the statement or the time has expired within which entry may be made and any sum in excess of the required amount will be returned to the declarant. The moneys held will not be returned until the time has expired within which entry may be made under the statement but will be returned as soon as possible thereafter if entry is not made. Moneys tendered with applications and statements which are rejected in whole, except fees for filing declaratory statements, will be returned. If an applicant or declarant fails to secure all the land applied for and amends his application or statement to embrace other lands, the moneys theretofore tendered will be applied on account of the required payment under the amended application. If it is not sufficient, the applicant or declarant will be required to pay the deficiency, and if it is more than sufficient, the excess will be returned. Moneys returned to applicants or declarants will be returned by the official check of the Receiver. Moneys tendered with applications or statements presented after April 30, 1917, will be deposited by the Receiver in the usual manner.

5. Listed tracts. - - All entries must, as far as possible, embrace only lands listed and appraised as one tract, and no applicant will be permitted to omit any unentered part of a listed tract from his application and include therein, in lieu thereof, part of another or different listed tract; but where a listed tract embraces less than a quarter section, it and part of another and different listed tract may be imbraced in the same entry. In cases where an applicant desires to enter less than a quarter section, he may apply for any legal subdivision, or subdivisions, of a listed tract, and where part of a listed tract has been entered the remaining part and part of another adjacent listed tract may be embraced in the same entry.

6. Deferred Payments. - - The purchase money not required at the time of entry may be paid in five equal, annual installments, unless commutation proof is made. These payments will become due at the end of two, three, four, five and six years after the date of entry. The time for the payment of any such installment may be extended for one year at a time, upon the payment of interest in advance at the rate of five per centum per annum; Provided, the last payment and all other payments must be made within seven years from the date of entry. If commutation proof is made, all the unpaid installments must be paid at that time. Where three-year proof is submitted, the entryman may make payment of the unpaid installments at that time or at any time before they become due and final certificate will issue, in the absence of objection, upon such payment being made.

7. Forfeitures. - - Failure to make any payment that may be due, unless the same be extended, or to make any extended payment at or before the time to which such payment has been extended, as herein provided, shall forfeit the entry and the same shall be canceled, and any and all payments theretofore made shall be forfeited.

8. Settlement in Advance of Entry. - - Claims may be initiated to these lands by settlement in advance of entry on and after June 1, 1917, and not before then.

9. Rules and Regulations. - - The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to make and prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry the provisions of this Proclamation into full force and effect.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen and of the Independence of the United States the One Hundred and Forty-first.

WOODROW WILSON

By the President:

ROBERT LANSING,

Secretary of State.