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Proclamation 1361—Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana

March 21, 1917


By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas, the act of Congress approved May 30, 1908 (35 Stat., 558), providing for the survey and allotment of lands within the former Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana, and the sale and disposal of all the surplus lands after allotment, among other things directed that prior to the disposition of the surplus lands, such lands should be classified and appraised by three commissioners as agricultural land, grazing land, arid land and mineral land, the mineral land, the mineral land not to be appraised;

And Whereas, the commissioners appointed for the purpose of making the classifications and appraisals in some cases designated and appraised lands as agricultural or grazing which the United States Geological Survey classified as coal lands;

And Whereas, a number of homestead entries have been made for such lands, although the lands were not subject to such disposition when the entries were allowed;

And Whereas, the Act of Congress approved February 27, 1917, entitled "An Act To authorize agricultural entries on surplus coal lands in Indian reservations", provides that restored surplus coal lands within such reservations may be classified, appraised and disposed of in the manner prescribed by law for the noncoal lands, the coal deposits to be reserved to the United States;

And Whereas, the said Act of May 30, 1908, directed that surplus lands within the Fort Peck Indian Reservation shall be opened to settlement and entry by proclamation of the President:

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 the agricultural entries heretofore allowed for said coal lands classified and appraised as aforesaid, may be perfected by the respective entrymen, subject to the provisions of the said act of February 27, 1917. If any such entry is canceled, the lands will be subject to re-entry in the same manner.

The said coal lands not heretofore entered under agricultural laws will not become subject to disposition hereunder. A proclamation will hereafter issue prescribing the time when and the manner in which agricultural entries may be made for such lands.

The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to make and prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry this proclamation into full force and effect.

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

Done at the city of Washington, this 21st day of March, in the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen and of the Independence of the United States, the One Hundred and Forty first.

Signature of Woodrow Wilson

WOODROW WILSON

By the President:

ROBERT LANSING

Secretary of State.

Woodrow Wilson, Proclamation 1361—Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/277103

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