Proclamation 1212—Disposal of Lands in the Crow Indian Reservation, Montana

Whereas, the Proclamation issued under the Act of Congress approved April twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and four, (thirty-third United States Statutes at Large, three hundred and fifty-two), on September ninth, nineteen hundred and ten, directed the sale of certain lands in the ceded portion of the Crow Indian Reservation in the State of Montana;

And Whereas, certain portions of said lands were not sold at said sale because of a lack of satisfactory bids:

Now, Therefore, I, William H. Taft, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim and direct that all of the unentered unsold, nonmineral lands in said portion of said reservation which are not at that time embraced in any reservation, withdrawal, or valid, existing claim, shall, on October twenty-first, nineteen hundred and twelve, and thereafter, be offered for sale at public auction under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior or such person as he may designate as superintendent of such sale, at the city of Billings, in the State of Montana, in legal subdivisions approximating three hundred and twenty acres each, as nearly as may be, except in cases where homestead entrymen, or the owners of lands patented under the homestead laws, shall request the offering of smaller legal subdivisions adjacent to the lands held by them.

No person will be permitted to purchase more than four quarter sections of said lands, or more than such area as will, when added to the lands heretofore purchased by him at said sale, not exceed four quarter sections, or at a less price than one dollar and fifty cents per acre, and each purchaser must pay not less than one-fifth of the purchase price thereof before four-thirty o'clock, P.M., on the sale day following the day on which such purchase is made. The remainder of the purchase money may be paid in four equal, annual installments in one, two, three and four years after the date of the sale. If any purchaser shall at any time fail to make any payment when it becomes due, all rights under his purchase and all moneys theretofore paid thereunder will be forfeited.

All lands offered but not sold at the sale herein directed shall thereafter be subject to purchase at private sale in the areas, at the price and under the terms, conditions and limitations herein prescribed after said sale has been finally closed.

The Secretary of the Interior and the Superintendent of the sale may, as emergencies arise, make and prescribe such rules and regulations not in conflict herewith as the proper conducting of the sale may require, and the Superintendent of the sale may reject any and all bids and may indefinitely postpone the sale, or adjourn it from time to time, as occasion may require.

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 ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and twelve, and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-seventh.

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

By the President.

PC KNOX

Secretary of State.