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United States. Office of Indian Affairs / Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the year 1879
([1879])
Report of commission to reappraise Kaw lands in Kansas, pp. 182-183
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Page 182
REPORT OF COMMISSION TO REAPPRAISE RAW LANDS IN KANSAS. COUNCIL GROVE, KANS., June 15, 1878. SIR: The undersigned, commissioners appointed to reappraise the Kaw Indian lands in Kansas, have the honor to submit the following report: Pursuant to instructions from your office dated November 30, 1877, the commission convened in Council Grove, said State, were individually sworn and affirmed, and se- lected Thomas S. Huffaker as chairman of the board. Preliminary to active field operations, careful and thorough inquiry was made in the best informed and most re- liable quarters to ascertain the average depreciation in the prices of real estate since the appraisement of 1872, and the present cash value of lands outside, but in the vicin- ity of the reservation. Full information was also obtained as to the facilities for trans- portation from the Indian lands in question, and the market value of all agricultural productions, and every effort was made to secure reliable data upon which to base an equitable reappraisement. Securing the service of a surveyor and flagman the commission entered regularly upon its field-work and prosecuted the same with all practicable speed. During the winter and a portion of the spring months unprecedented rains and swollen streams greatly retarded our labors, but in view of the magnitude of the task, and the dif- ficulties to be surmounted, we felicitate ourselves upon the dispatch with which we have completed an exceedingly difficult and laborious duty. The result of our labors we respectfully submit as follows: 1st. A schedule embracing all the unpaid-for "trust lands" in said reservation described by the smallest legal subdivision, together with the appraised value of each tract, and a statement of the nature and value of the improvements thereon (where such were found), and the names of the former and present occupants of such im- proved lands. 2d. A schedule containing a similar description and valuation of all the unpaid-for lands in the "diminished reserve," with a statement of the nature and value of the improvements made thereon by the government, and by individuals, with the names of the former and present occupants thereof. 3d. An abstract showing the names of all settlers upon, and claimants of, the "'trust lands," with a description and valuation of the tracts claimed by each, with the nature and value of the improvements thereon, and the names of the former and present occupants of the same. 4th. A journal of the daily proceedings of the commission. In all cases where two or more persons claimed the same lands, we have reported the names of all as contestants, our instructions expressly forbidding us to take testi- mony as to questions of settlement, and, by consequence, priority of right. The second and third abstracts required by said instructions cannot be furnished, for the reason that no unclaimed improvements were found upon the "Itrust lands," and no improvements, whatever, made by Indians, were found upon the "diminished reserve." Many improvements, such as buildings, breaking, and fencing, reported by the com- mission of 1872, have since disappeared or become worthless, and do not appear upon the schedules submitted herewith. We have the honor to say that, after careful personal inspection of every tract of unpaid-foreland upon the entire Kaw Indian Reservation, we have appraised the same at what appeared to us, acting unanimously in all cases, to be its present actual cash value. Very respectfully, your obedient servants, T. S. HUFFAKER, H. W. JONES, M. H. NEWLIN, Commissioners. Hon. E. A. HAYT, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. COUNCIL GROVE, KANS., December 20, 1878. SIR: We, the undersigned, commissioners appointed to reappraise the Kaw Indian lands in Kansas, have the honor to submit our final report. Reassembling here pursuant to instructions from your office dated October 25, 1878, we deemed it advisable after full consultation to re-examine some portions of said lands. In this work we spent several days, after which we agreed upon a basis of 182
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