teenth July, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, above referred to, chapter eighty-three,* be, and the same is hereby, amended, so that the body of land known as the half-breed tract, lying on the west side of Lake Pepin, and the Mississippi River, in the Territory of Minnesota, and which is authorized to be surveyed by the said act of eighteen hundred and fiftyfour, shall be subject to the operation of the laws regulating the sale and disposition of the public lands; and settlements heretofore made thereon are declared valid so far as they do not conflict with settlements made by half-breeds, and that the settlers shall have the benefit of the pre-emption laws of the United States, any location of half-breed scrip thereon, after the date of the settlement, notwithstanding: Provided, The declaration of pre-emption be filed within three months after public notice is given of the passage of this act in the proper land district: And provided, That when two or more persons have settled on the same quarter section, prior to the passage of this act, they shall be permitted to enter the same, and the rights of each shall be determined according to the provisions of the act relating to pre-emptions, passed March third, eighteen hundred and fortythree.t

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of this act shall not extend to any tract or subdivision, within the body of land aforesaid, which shall have been settled upon in good faith by, and is in the occupancy of, any of the said half-breeds or mixed-bloods; which lands, so settled upon and occupied by the half-breeds, are hereby expressly declared to be subject to no other disposition than location by the "certificates" or "scrip" authorized to be issued by the said act of eighteen hundred and fifty-four, for the benefit of said Indians. Nor shall the provisions of this act extend to any lands which may have been located prior to its passage with half-breed scrip, with the consent of the settlers thereon. Approved, May 19, 1858.

No. 331.-An Act to create a land district in the Territory of New Mexico.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the public lands in the Territory of New Mexico, to which the Indian title shall have been extinguished, shall constitute a land district to be called the "District of New Mexico," the office for which shall be established at such place within said district as the President of the United States may from time to time direct.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, for the purpose of carrying this act into effect, the President shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or during the recess thereof, a register and receiver for the district hereby created, who shall be required to reside at the site of the office, and whose powers, duties, obligations, and responsibilities shall be the same as are now prescribed by law for other land officers, (so far as they apply to these officers.)

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That this act shall not take effect in less than six months after its passage.

Approved, May 24, 1858.

No. 332.-An Act for the relief of Isaac Drew and other settlers upon the public lands in the State of Wisconsin.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Isaac Drew, and such other persons as may have settled, in good faith, in the State of Wisconsin, since the first day of July, eighteen hundred and fifty, upon any portion of the lands that were erroneously selected by said State as a part of the five hundred thousand acre grant, which selections were not confirmed, and who were at that date, or since that time have become, an actual settler and housekeeper, and made improvements on any tract embraced among said erroneous selections, are hereby entitled to the same right of pre-emption, and upon the same terms and conditions, as are prescribed by an act entitled, "An Act to appropriate the Proceeds of the Sales of the Public Lands and grant Pre-emption Rights," approved September fourteenth, [fourth,] eighteen hundred and forty-one:* Provided, such lands shall be paid for by such settlers at the minimum price.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That where persons have erroneously entered any of the lands named in the first section of this act, and shall satisfactorily show to the register and receiver that, prior to, or within three months after, the passage of this act, they have made an actual settlement on the lands mentioned in the first section, the Commissioner of the General Land-Office is hereby authorized to issue patents therefor: Provided, That it shall be satisfactorily made to appear to him that the entry of the tract or tracts sought to be patented does not interfere with the rights or occupancy of any actual settler.

Approved, May 24, 1858.

No. 333.-An Act for extending the land laws east of the Cascade Mountains, in Oregon and Washington Territories.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the existing laws relating to the survey and disposal of the public lands in the Territories of Oregon and Washington, west of the Cascade Mountains, be, and the same are hereby, extended and made applicable also to the lands lying east of said mountains within said Territories.

Approved, May 29, 1858.

No. 334.-An Act to provide for the location of certain confirmed private land claims in the State of Missouri, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the decisions in favor of certain land claimants herein made by the recorder of land titles in the State of Missouri and the two commissioners associated with him, by virtue

* See No. 48.

of an act entitled "An Act for the final adjustment of Private Land Claims in Missouri," approved July nine, eighteen hundred and thirty-two, and an act supplemental thereto, approved second March, eighteen hundred and thirty-three,* as entered in the transcript of decisions transmitted by the said recorder and commissioners to the Commissioner of the General LandOffice, which said claims are named and numbered as follows: Manuel de Liza, number thirty-three; John Coontz and Hempstead, number fortyfour; Matthew Saucier, number fifty-seven; Charles Tayon, number sixtyseven; the sons of Joseph M. Pepin, number seventy-four; Louis Lorimier, number eighty-seven; Bartholomew Cousin, number eighty-nine; Manuel Gonzales Moro, number ninety-five; Seneca Rawlins, number one hundred and four; William L. Long, number one hundred and six; Joachim Liza, number one hundred and thirty-three; Francis Lacombe, number thirtyfour; Israel Dodge, number three hundred and thirty-eight; Joseph Silvain, number two hundred and ninety-three; John P. Cabanis, number two hundred and ninety-eight; William Hartley, number three hundred and one; Andrew Chevalier, number two hundred and ninety-two; Wilnumber liam Morrison, number three hundred and seven; Solomon Bellew, three hundred and eight; Paschal Detchemendez, number three hundred and nine; Baptiste Amure, number three hundred and ten; Alexander Maurice, number three hundred and twenty-three; John Baptiste Vallee, number three hundred and thirty-four; said decisions above named being in the first class of claims acted upon by said board; also the claim of Regis Loisel, number six, in the second class, acted on by said board, be, and the same are hereby, confirmed to the respective claimants or their legal representatives.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the decisions in favor of land claimants made by P. Grimes, Joshua Lewis, and Thomas B. Robertson, commissioners appointed to adjust private land claims in the eastern district of the Territory of Orleans, communicated to the House of Representatives by the Secretary of the Treasury, on the ninth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twelve, and which is [are] found in the American State Papers, Public Lands, (Duff Green's edition,) volume two, from page two hundred and twenty-four to three hundred and sixty-seven inclusive, be, and the same are hereby, confirmed, saving and reserving, however, to all adverse claimants the right to assert the validity of their claims in a court or courts of justice: Provided however, That any claim so recommended for confirmation, but which may have been rejected, in whole or in part, by any subsequent board of commissioners, be, and the same is hereby, specially excepted from confirmation.†

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the locations authorized by the preceding section shall be entered with the register of the proper land-office, who shall, on application for that purpose, make out for such claimant, or his legal representatives, (as the case may be,) a certificate of location, which shall be transmitted to the Commissioner of the General LandOffice; and if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the said commissioner that said certificate has been fairly obtained, according to the true intent and meaning of this act, then, and in that case, patents shall be issued for the land so located as in other cases; and for each and every certificate as aforesaid, issued by the register of any land-office, he shall receive the sum of one dollar; that in all cases of confirmation by this act, or where any private land claim has been confirmed by Congress, and the same, in whole or in part, has not been located or satisfied, either for want of a specific location

prior to such confirmation, or for any reason whatsoever, other than a discovery of fraud in such claim subsequent to such confirmation, it shall be the duty of the surveyor-general of the district in which such claim was situated, upon satisfactory proof that such claim has been so confirmed, and that the same, in whole or in part, remains unsatisfied, to issue to the claimant, or his legal representatives, a certificate of location for a quantity of land equal to that so confirmed and unsatisfied; which certificate may be located upon any of the public lands of the United States subject to sale at private entry, at a price not exceeding one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre: Provided, That such location shall conform to legal divisions and subdivisions.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the register of the proper landoffice, upon the location of such certificate, shall issue to the person entitled thereto a certificate of entry, upon which, if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of the General Land-Office that such certificate has been fairly obtained, according to the true intent and meaning of this act, a patent shall issue as in other cases.

Approved, June 2, 1858.

No. 335.-An Act declaring the title to land warrants in certain cases.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That when proof has been, or shall hereafter be, filed in the Pension Office, during the lifetime of a claimant, establishing, to the satisfaction of that office, his or her right to a warrant for military services, and such warrant has not been, or may not hereafter be, issued until after the death of the claimant, and all such warrants as have been heretofore issued subsequent to the death of the claimant, the title to such warrants shall vest in the widow, if there be one, and if there be no widow, then in the heirs or legatees of the claimant; and all such warrants, and all other warrants issued pursuant to existing laws, shall be treated as personal chattels, and may be conveyed by assignment of such widow, heirs, or legatees, or by the legal representatives of the deceased claimant, for the use of such heirs or legatees only.*

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of the first sections of the act approved March twenty-two, eighteen hundred and fiftytwo, to make land warrants assignable, and for other purposes, shall be so extended as to embrace land warrants issued under the act of the third March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five.† Approved, June 3, 1858.

t

No. 336.—An Act confirming locations of land warrants under certain circumstances.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases in which locations have been made with bounty-land warrants on lands which were sub† See No. 282.

*See No. 190.

ject to entry at private sale, but upon individual competition were put up to the highest bidder, and the excess paid for in cash, such locations shall be, and they are hereby, confirmed, if in all other respects regular, and authority is hereby given to issue patents accordingly: Provided, That such confirmation shall only extend to cases existing prior to the passage of this act. Approved, June 3, 1858.

No. 337.-An Act making an appropriation for the payment of clerks employed in the offices of the registers of the land-offices at Oregon city and Winchester, in the territory of Oregon.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the sum of seven thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to enable the Secretary of the Interior to reimburse the registers of the land-offices at Oregon City and Winchester, in the Territory of Oregon, for expenses incurred by them in the employment of clerks actually required for the transaction of the business of their respective offices, growing out of an act entitled "An act to create the office of surveyor-general of the public lands in Oregon, and to provide for the survey and to make donations to settlers of the said public lands,"* approved September the twentyseventh, one thousand eight hundred and fifty. Approved, June 5, 1858.

No 338.-An Act to confirm the sale of the reservation held by the Christian Indians, and to provide a permanent home for said Indians.

Whereas, by the thirteenth article of a treaty made and concluded at Washington on the sixth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, between the United States of America and the Delaware Indians, a grant of four sections of land was made to the Christian Indians, for which a patent was to be issued to the said Indians, "subject to such restrictions as Congress may provide ;" and whereas a patent. was so issued to them on the twenty-first day of May, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven; and whereas it fully appears, by the evidence and papers on file before the Committee on Indian Affairs, that the four sections of land set apart by said treaty was, on the twenty-ninth day of May, eighteen hundred and fifty seven, sold and conveyed by said Christian Indians to one A. J. Isacks for the consideration of forty-three thousand four hundred dollars, which sum was a fair consideration for said lands: Therefore

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That upon the payment of the said sum of forty-three thousand four hundred dollars by the said A. J. Isacks to the Secretary of the Interior, for the use and benefit of said Christian Indians, within ninety days from the passage of this act, it shall then be the duty of the President of the United States to confirm said sale.

* See No. 181.