Whereas, by the provisions of an act approved February 20, 1895, entitled "An act to disapprove the treaty heretofore made with the Southern Ute Indians to be removed to the Territory of Utah, and providing for settling them down in severalty where they may so elect and are qualified and to settle all those not electing to take lands in severalty, on the west forty miles of present reservation and in portions of New Mexico, and for other purposes, and to carry out the provisions of the treaty with said Indians June fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty," the agreement made by the commissioners on the part of the United States with the Southern Ute Indians of Colorado bearing date November thirteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, was annulled and the treaty made with said Indians June fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty, was directed to be carried out as therein provided and as further provided by general law for settling Indians in severalty; and
Whereas it was further provided by said act that within six months after the passage thereof, the Secretary of the Interior should cause allotment of land, in severalty, to be made to such of the Southern Ute Indians in Colorado, as might elect and be considered by him qualified to take the same out of the agricultural lands embraced in their present reservation in Colorado, such allotments to be made in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress approved June fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty, entitled "An act to accept and ratify the agreement submitted by the confederated bands of Ute Indians in Colorado for the sale of their reservation in said State and for other purposes, and to make the necessary appropriations for carrying out the same," and the amendments thereto, as far as applicable, and the treaties theretofore made with said Indians; and
Whereas it was further provided that for the sole and exclusive use of such of said Indians as might not elect or be deemed qualified to take allotments in severalty as provided, there should be set apart and reserved all that portion of their reservation lying west of the range line between ranges thirteen and fourteen west of the New Mexico Principal Meridian, and also all of townships thirty-one and thirty-two of ranges fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen west of the New Mexico Principal Meridian and lying in the Territory of New Mexico, subject to the right of the Government to erect and maintain agency buildings thereon, and to grant rights of way through the same for railroads, irrigation ditches, highways and other necessary purposes; and
Whereas under the provisions of section four of said act it was made the duty of the President of the United States to issue his proclamation declaring the lands within the reservation of said Indians except such portions as might have been allotted or reserved under the provisions of the preceding sections of said act, open to occupancy and settlement, said unallotted and unreserved lands to be and become a part of the public domain of the United States and to become subject to entry, under the desert, homestead, and townsite laws and the laws governing the disposal of coal, mineral, stone and timber lands, but providing that no homestead settler should receive a title to any portion of such lands at less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and such settlers should be required to make a cash payment of fifty cents per acre at the time filing is made upon any of said lands; and providing that before said lands should be open to public settlement the Secretary of the Interior should cause the improvements belonging to the Indians on the lands then occupied by them to be appraised and sold at public sale to the highest bidder, except improvements on lands allotted to the Indians in accordance with this act; and providing that no sale of such improvements should be made for less than the appraised value and that the several purchasers of said improvements should, for thirty days after the issuance of the President's proclamation have the preference right of entry of the lands upon which the improvements purchased by them should be situated, but that the said purchase should not exceed one hundred and sixty acres and that the proceeds of such improvements should be paid to the Indians owning the same; and
Whereas it is further provided that the provisions of said act should take effect only upon the acceptance thereof and consent thereto by a majority of all the male adult Indians then located or residing upon the reservation, which acceptance should be at once obtained under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior might prescribe; and
Whereas allotments have been made as provided for in said act, and all the other terms and considerations as required therein have been complied with, precedent to opening the unallotted and unreserved lands in said reservation to settlement and entry, except the sale of improvements on the NE ¼ NW ¼, S ½ NW ¼ and NW ¼ SW ¼ Sec. 1, T. 33 N., R. 9 W., belonging to Ignacio, an Indian, but said sale will be immediately ordered and the rights of the purchaser thereof will be protected for thirty days from date of this proclamation, as provided by the act, by instructions to the register and receiver of the local land office having jurisdiction over the same, and as this exception is not considered a bar to the opening of the unallotted and unreserved lands to settlement; and
Whereas I issued a proclamation on the 29th day of March, last, intended to open the lands to settlement and entry as authorized in said act, but as some question has arisen as to the boundaries proclaimed being sufficiently definite to cover the lands intended to be opened,
Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United States, for the purpose of removing any doubt and making the boundaries of said lands more definite, by virtue of the power in me vested by said act, do hereby issue this, my second proclamation, and do hereby declare and make known that all of the lands embraced in said reservation, saving and excepting the lands reserved for and allotted to said Indians, and the lands reserved for other purposes in pursuance of the provisions of said act, will, at and after the hour of twelve o'clock noon (mountain standard time) on the 4th day of May, A.D., eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and not before, be open to settlement and entry under the terms of and subject to all the conditions, limitations, reservations and restrictions contained in said act, and the laws of the United States applicable thereto.
The lands to be opened to settlement and entry are described as lying within the following boundaries: Beginning at the point established by S.S. Gannett, Special Indian Agent, in June, 1897, at the intersection of the 107th meridian and the 37th parallel of latitude; thence north 15 miles along the eastern boundary of the reservation; thence westerly along the north boundary of the Southern Ute Indian Reservation to its intersection with the range line between ranges thirteen and fourteen west of the New Mexico Principal Meridian; thence south fifteen miles on said range line to the south boundary of the State of Colorado; thence easterly along the south boundary of the State of Colorado to the place of beginning.
The survey of the east boundary of the above tract through townships 32, 33, and 34 N., R. 1 W., and of that part of the north boundary in Tps. 34 N., Rs. 1 and 2 W., being in process of correction owing to errors found in said survey, notice is hereby given to all parties who may elect to make entries of lands adjoining the boundary lines subject to correction, that their entries will be at their own risk, and subject to such changes as to the boundaries of the several tracts so entered as may be found necessary in the progress of the correction of the erroneous survey, and that without recourse to the United States for any damage that may arise as the result of the correction survey.