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![handle is hein.amindian/lanseni0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 49TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. REPORT
1st Session. No. 2344.
LANDS OF THE SENECA INDIANS.
MAY 11, 1886.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.
Mr. STORM, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the
following
REPORT:
[To accompany bill H. R. 8746.]
The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R.
1642) to allot the lands of the Seneca Indians in New York, having had
the same under consideration, make the jollowiing report:
The said bill, as amended by the committee, seeks to allot the lands
comprising the Oattaraugus and Allegany Reservations, in the State
of New York, to the Seneca tribe of Indians occupying the same in
severalty.
The first section of the bill declares these Indians to be citizens of the
United States. If they are competent to hold their lands in severalty
they ought to enjoy all the privileges and perform all the duties of citi-
zenship.
The second section directs the President of the United States to
appoint three commissioners to allot and divide the lands of the said
reservation among the resident Indians, share and share alike, on the
basis of the value of the same, the children and women to share equally
with male adults.
By the third section the allotments are to be so made as to include
the improvements made by any Indian on his piece of land.
Sections 4 and 5 extend the laws of the State of New York as to
rights of property, and as to inheritance of real and personal estate,
to the Indians on the reservations; except, however, that the lands
allotted to each individual Indian shall remain inalienable for a period
of twenty-five years; nor shall such Indian in any way encumber the
same during said period of time, and during said term of twenty-five
years they shall be exempt from all taxation. And at the end of said
twenty-five years the President of the United States may, if he shall
deem it for the best interest of the said Indians, continue the exemption
of said lands from conveyance, encumbrance, and taxation for twenty-
five years more.
Section 6 relates to the duties of the commissioners in preparing the
maps of said survey, marking the boundaries, and allotting the lands,
the return to be made by them; and for the patent to be issued by the
Secretary of the Interior to the several allottees.
Section 7 appropriates the fund of $233,050 now in the United States
Treasury belonging to the said Indians to their use, and properly
guards this fund against loss while in the hands of the commissioners
for disbursement.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.amindian/lanseni0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)