That whenever any of the lands acquired by the agreement with said Crow Indians hereby ratified and confirmed shall by operation of law or the proclamation of the President of the United States be open to settlement, they shall, except mineral lands, be disposed of to actual settlers only under the provisions of the homestead laws, except section 2301 of the Revised Statutes, which shall not apply: Provided, however, That each settler under and in accordance with the provisions of said homestead laws shall before receiving a patent for his homestead pay to the United States for the land so taken by him, in addition to the fees provided by law, and within five years from the date of the first original entry, the sum of $1.50 for each acre thereof, one-half of which shall be paid within two years; and any person otherwise qualified who has attempted to but for any cause failed to secure a title in fee to a homestead under existing law, or who made entry under what is known as the commuted provision of the homestead law, shall be qualified to make a homestead entry upon any of said lands in conformity with the provisions of this section; that any person who may be entitled to the privilege of selecting land in severalty under the provisions of article 6 of the treaty of May 7, 1868, with the Crow Indians, and which provisions were continued in force by the agreement with said Indians ratified and confirmed by the act of Congress approved April 11, 1882, or any other act or treaty, shall have the right for a period of sixty days to make such selections in any part of the territory by said agreement ceded, and such locations are hereby confirmed: Provided further, That all white persons who located upon said Crow Reservation by reason of an erroneous survey of the boundary and were afterwards allowed to file upon their location in the United States land office shall have thirty days in which to renew their filings, and their locations are hereby confirmed; and that in all cases where claims were located under the mining laws of the United States, and such location was made prior to December 1, 1890, by a locator qualified therefor who believed that he or she was so locating on lands outside the Crow Indian Reservation, such locator shall be allowed thirty days within which to relocate the said mining claims so theretofore located by them within the limits of the ceded portion of said Crow Indian Reservation, and upon such relocation such proceedings shall be had as are conformable to law and in accordance with the provisions of this act.
And whereas the boundary lines of said ceded lands have been duly surveyed and marked as stipulated in the thirteenth clause or section of said agreement; and
Whereas a written agreement was concluded with said Crow Indians on the 27th day of August, 1892, under and by virtue of the following clause in the Indian appropriation act of Congress approved July 13, 1892, to wit:
* * * To enable the Secretary of the Interior, in his discretion, to appoint a commission to negotiate with the Crow Indians of Montana for a modification of the agreement concluded with said Indians December 8, 1890, and ratified by Congress March 3, 1891, and to pay the necessary and actual expenses of said commissioners: Provided, That no such modification shall be valid unless assented to by a majority of the male adult members of the Crow tribe of Indians and be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
Which said agreement was assented to by a majority of the male adult members of the Crow tribe of Indians, as attested by their signatures thereto, and has been duly approved by the Secretary of the Interior; and
Whereas it is stipulated and agreed in the first clause or section of said agreement of August 27, 1892, that the persons named in a schedule attached to and made a part of said agreement, marked "Schedule A," include all the members of said Crow tribe who are entitled to the benefits of the eleventh section of said agreement of December 8, 1890, and that each of said persons is entitled to the land therein described as his selection in full satisfaction of his claim under said section; and that the persons named in a schedule attached to and made a part of said agreement of August 27, 1892, marked "Schedule B," include all the members of said tribe who are entitled to the benefits of the twelfth section of said agreement of December 8, 1890, and of the proviso of the thirty-fourth section of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, extending the privilege of making selections on the ceded lands for a period of sixty days, and that each of the said persons therein named is entitled to retain the tract of land theretofore selected by him within the limits of the tract of land therein described as containing his selection of his claim under the said section (or the said proviso); and
Whereas it is stipulated and agreed by the second clause or section of said agreement of August 27, 1892, that all lands ceded by said agreement may be opened to settlement, upon the approval of the said agreement, by proclamation of the President:
Provided, That all lands within the ceded tract selected or set apart for the use of individual Indians and described in the aforesaid Schedules "A" and "B" shall be exempt from cession and shall remain a part of the Crow Indian Reservation, and shall continue under the exclusive control of the Interior Department until they shall have been surveyed and certificates or patents issued therefor as provided in the agreement of December 8, 1890, or until relinquished or surrendered by the Indian or Indians claiming the same: Provided further, That such lands shall be described as set forth in Schedules "A" and "B," and shall be exempted from settlement in the proclamation of the President opening the ceded lands, and that where lands so set apart are not described by legal subdivisions then the township or section or tract of land within whose limits such Indians' selections are located shall not be opened to settlement until the Indian allotments therein contained shall have been surveyed and proper evidence of title issued therefor.
Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by the agreements and statutes hereinbefore mentioned and by other the laws of the United States, do hereby declare and make known that all of the lands within that portion of the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana ceded to the United States by the said agreement of December 8, 1890, and hereinbefore described, except those hereinafter mentioned and described, are open to settlement under the terms of and subject to all the conditions, limitations, reservations, and restrictions contained in the thirty-fourth section of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, and hereinbefore quoted, and other laws applicable thereto.
The lands exempted from the operation of this proclamation, being those embraced in Schedules "A" and "B" attached to the agreement of August 27, 1892, are described as follows: