P
File 20466
J. D. Y.G. F. P.
W. H. L.DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
GENERAL LAND OFFICE.
Washington, D. C., September 14, 1904.Address only the
Commissioner of the General Land Office.The Honorable Secretary of the Interior.
Sir:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, by your reference of the 3rd instant for early report in duplicate and return of paper, of a letter from Hon. C. W. Fulton, Astoria, Oregon, dated the 25th ultimo, which is as follows:
I have received a great number of complaints from homestead entrymen on the Siietz Indian Reservation, in Oregon, about the treatment they have received at the hands of the Department. I know how difficult it is for a homesteader to comply with the letter and spirit of the general homestead law in that country. At the same time I realize that you did not make the law and are not responsible for its provisions. That section of the country is so isolated from any inhabited region and so difficult of access that it is very expensive and difficult work to get provisions in to the homesteaders. Being heavily timbered, it is of course very difficult to make a farm out of a tract of land in that locality, and as a result, entryment cannot remain long at a time on their claims, but are compelled to go outside and work. In cases of married men it is difficult to get their wives in to the land and utterly impracticable for them to keep their wives residing there continuously. Nevertheless they are anxious to secure a tract of land on which they will ultimately make their home. I think in construing the homestead law the character of the country in Western Oregon should be taken into consideration. It is not so easy to make a home on a tract of land here as it is in an open prairie country, nevertheless we are very anxious that the country shall be settled up and that homesteaders shall be allowed to exercise the right of entry and to secure their titles and ultimately make their homes on the land. I have therefore prepared and determined to introduce and work to secure the passage of, through the next Congress, a bill for the relief of the settlers in that section of the country. I shall make provision for issuing patents to every homestead entryman who has spent a certain amount in the way of improvements on his tract, whether in labor or cash, without regard to settlement. I will wish to confer with you about the amount of expenditure required, etc. It may be well to require some character of settlement, but 1 wish, and that is the particular thing I do wish to do, to relieve them from the necessity of continued residence on the land. I wish. therefore that you would suspend your investigation of claims in that section and not prosecute matters relative thereto until I can have an opportunity to confer with you relative thereto, and to attempt at least to secure the passage of some measure of relief.
The investigation of all entries in the former Siletz Indian Reservation was directed by letter "P" of March 26. 1903. under departmental letter of March 12, 1903, referring to this office copy of correspondence had with Mr. Warren H. Brown, Agency Clerk at the Yakima Indian Agency, Fort Simcoe, Washington, relative to frauds in connection with such entries.
The special agent to whom the matter was originally referred having been transferred to other territory before he had made any reports, directions were given August 7, 1903, to the agent then in charge, the latter having made general reports touching said entries under dates of August 19, November 7, 8, 9, and 11, 1903, and subsequently thereto, stating in effect that in his investigations of the lands in question lie had found the same heavily timbered, with a dense growth of pine, hemlock, cedar, and other timber, and not exceeding one-tenth of the land would be fit for cultivation if cleared of the timber; that the cost of clearing a sufficient number of acres to make a living upon would entail an expenditure, which would be out of reach of any m;in of ordinary means; that almost the whole of the lands of said reservation have been filed upon, but there are no roads over which the claims may be reached, either with a team or saddle horse, nothing but a few dim foot trails, which are only used semi-annually by these claimants in going to or from their respective entries prior to making proof, and except in few instances never afterwards.
The special agent submitted lists containing a large number of entries which he felt satisfied had not been made in good faith for the purpose of making homes thereon;
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