Proclamation 632—Uncompahgre Indian Reservation

Whereas, by the act of Congress approved June 7, 1897 (30 Stats., 87) it was provided:

The Secretary is hereby directed to allot agricultural lands in severalty to the Uncompahgre Ute Indians now located upon or belonging to the Uncompahgre Indians Reservation in the State of Utah, said allotments to be upon the Uncompahgre and Uintah Reservations or elsewhere in said State. And all the lands of said Uncompahgre Reservation not theretofore allotted in severalty to said Uncompahgre Utes shall, on and after the first day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, be open for location and entry under all the land laws of the United States; excepting, however, therefrom all lands containing gilsonite, asphalt, elaterite, or other like substances.

And the title to all of the said lands containing gilsonite, asphaltum, elaterite, or other like substances, is reserved to the United States.

And Whereas, it is provided by the act of Congress approved March 3, 1903 (32 Stats., 998), entitled "An act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department," etc., as follows:

That in the lands within the former Uncompahgre Indian Reservation, in the State of Utah, containing gilsonite, asphaltum, elaterite, or other like substances, which were reserved from location and entry by provision in the Act of Congress entitled 'An Act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and for other purposes,' approved June seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, all discoveries and locations of any such minerals lands by qualified persons prior to January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, not previously discovered and located, who recorded notices of such discoveries and locations prior to January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, either in the State of Colorado, or in the office of the County recorder of Uintah County, Utah, shall have all the force and effect accorded by law to locations of mining claims upon the public domain. All such locations may hereafter be perfected, and patents shall be issued therefor upon compliance with the requirements of the mineral land laws, provided that the owners of such location shall relocate their respective claims and record the same in the office of the County recorder of Uintah County, Utah, within ninety days after the passage of this act. All locations of any such mineral lands made and recorded on or subsequent to January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, are hereby declared to be null and void; and the remainder of the lands heretofore reserved as aforesaid because of the mineral substances contained in them, in so far as the same may be within even numbered sections, shall be sold and disposed of in tracts not exceeding forty acres, or a quarter of a quarter of a section, in such manner and upon such terms and with such restrictions as may be prescribed in a proclamation of the President of the United States issued for that purpose not less than one hundred and twenty days after the passage of this Act, and not less than ninety days before the time of sale or disposal, and the balance of said lands and also all the mineral therein are hereby specifically reserved for future action of Congress.

Now, Therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the power vested in me by law, do hereby declare and make known that the even-numbered sections of surveyed lands in said former Uncompahgre Indian Reservation in Utah, heretofore reserved by said Act of June 7, 1897, to the United States as containing deposits of gilsonite, asphaltum, elaterite, or other like substances, saving and excepting such of said even numbered sections as may be appropriated and claimed under discoveries and locations made and recorded prior to January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and relocated and re-recorded as specified by said Act of March third, nineteen hundred and three (32 Stat., 998) and saving and excepting lands allotted to Indians, and all other lands legally reserved or appropriated, shall be offered for sale upon sealed bids at the Vernal, Utah, land office in tracts not exceeding forty acres in the aggregate, or the smallest legal subdivision approximating that area; and that the even numbered sections of said lands, now unsurveyed, after the date on which the township plat of survey thereof is officially filed in the local land office in the usual manner, as well as any of the lands offered at this sale remaining unsold may be advertised and sealed bids invited therefor upon the same terms at the same place and at such time as may be specified in a public notice duly given by direction of the Secretary of the Interior. Inasmuch as the government is unable to determine definitely those tracts in the surveyed even numbered sections principally valuable for deposits of gilsonite, asphaltum, elaterite or other like substances bids may be offered for any forty-acre tract or lot approximating that area subject to the regulations as to proof of character of the land, to be hereafter issued.

The bids for the lands offered will be opened at the Vernal, Utah, land office on Saturday, September 15, 1906, commencing at one o'clock P.M., mountain standard time, and will continue from day to day until all bids have been examined.

All bids to receive consideration must be filed in the district land office at Vernal, Utah, before 4:30 o'clock P.M. of the day preceding that set for the opening of the bids.

The right is reserved to reject any and all bids.

As an individual, or as a member of an association, the purchaser must be twenty-one years of age and a citizen of the United States or have declared his intention to become such citizen.

Bids for said lands shall be in accordance with such form, and at such minimum price as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior who shall also prescribe all additional rules and regulations necessary to carry into full effect the sale herein provided for.

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 6th day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and six, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirtieth.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

By the President:

ELIHU ROOT

Secretary of State.