Final Proof.

See School Land.

Page.

In case of a defective notice of final proof
on a homestead entry, by reason of the er-
roneous description therein of a part of the
land involved, under which notice proof
was made and final certificate issued, and
the giving thereafter of a new and correct
notice, the final certificate will stand as of
the date issued, where the final proof is
satisfactory and it is not shown that by rea-
son of such erroneous description the right
or claim of anyone has been prejudiced;
and inquiry as to the character of the tract
erroneously described, as well as of the other
tracts embraced in the entry, will not be
allowed to include evidence of any explora-
tion or discovery of mineral thereon subse-
quent to the date of said certificate ..............

216

195

The provisions relating to the prepara-
tion, execution, and issuance of patents for
lands, found in sections 171, 172, and 200 of
the laws of Hawaii (1897), are not specific-
ally repealed by the act of Congress of April
30, 1900, and, as modified by the substitu-
tions and amendments made by said act,
said sections are and must remain in force
until Congress shall otherwise provide..... 295

Hearing.

See Practice.

Homestead.

See Oklahoma Lands.

GENERALLY.

Circular of June 5, 1900, under act of May
17, 1900, with respect to free homesteads... 50
Circular of June 27, 1900, under act of
June 6, 1900, relating to homestead entries
by married women.

Instructions of June 27, 1900, under act of
June 5, 1900, relating to second homestead
entries...

Circular of June 21, 1901, under act of
March 1, 1901, relative to homestead rights
of soldiers and sailors of the Spanish war
and Philippine insurrection....

The act of June 6, 1900, removed the dis-
qualification resulting from marriage, but
the right of a woman who had settled upon
public land and thereafter married, to com-
plete entry of such land under the home-
stead laws, is subject to all the require-
ments of those laws as to residence; and
while said act was retroactive in the matter

313

374

623

Page.

of removing the disqualification resulting
from marriage, it did not revive a claim initi-
ated prior to its passage, by a single woman,
and lost by reason of actual abandonment
of the land

525

Under the act of June 6, 1900, amending
section three of the act of May 14, 1880, an
unmarried woman who settles upon, im-
proves, and establishes and maintains a
bona fide residence upon a tract of public
land, with the intention of obtaining title
thereto under the homestead law, and there-
after marries, is not by her marriage dis-
qualified from making entry for said tract. 156
A married woman, in the absence of legal
cause for separation from her husband, is
not free to select or maintain a separate
residence, and is therefore disqualified to
make homestead entry.

A married woman is not a qualified home-
stead applicant..................

The qualifications requisite to make
homestead entry must exist at the date of
entry, and any rights acquired by the filing
of an application are lost where the appli-
cant subsequently and prior to entry be-
comes disqualified to enter..

The qualifications requisite on the part of
a homesteader must exist at the date of en-
try, and if after settlement and prior to en-
try the settler for any reason becomes dis-
qualified, the privilege gained by settle-
ment is lost..

9

8

8

To constitute one the head of a family it
is not necessary that he or she should be
under a legal obligation to support the
family; it is sufficient if, acting from a sense
of moral duty, one undertakes the care, at-
tention, support and maintenance of a fam-
ily to which he owes such moral duty...... 306
A minor child may be the head of a fam-
ily, within the meaning of the homestead
law

Lands "in the possession, occupation and
use of Indian inhabitants" are not "unap-
propriated public lands" within the mean-
ing of section 2289 of the Revised Statutes,
and are therefore not subject to entry un-
der said section....

COMMUTATION.

Instructions of March 21, 1901, under act
of January 26, 1901, relative to commutation
of homestead entries....

306

125

540

The first proviso to the act of May 17,
1900, does not extend the commutation
provisions of section 2301 of the Revised
Statutes to the lands within the purview of
said act, it merely declaring that where
such provisions already apply they shall
remain in full force and effect; hence said
proviso is not applicable to reservations for
which, prior to the passage of the act, no
right of commutation had been provided.. 78
INDIAN.

The act of July 4, 1884, confers the bene-
fits of the homestead law upon "Indians"

Page.

as distinguished from "citizens of the
United States," and an Indian who, by vir-
tue of having been allotted a tract of land,
is a citizen of the United States and no
longer an Indian within the purview of
said act, is not entitled to take a homestead
by virtue of its provisions....

A member of the Citizen Band of Potta-
watomie Indians, in Oklahoma, who has
received an allotment of his proportionate
share of the land held in common by his
tribe, is not thereby disqualified from tak-
ing land for a homestead as a citizen of the
United States.

SOLDIERS' ADDITIONAL.

See Reservation.

Circular of May 8, 1901, relative to assign-
ments of soldiers' additional rights .

The Department will not undertake to
determine rights claimed under an alleged
assignment of a soldiers' additional home-
stead, in the absence of an application for
the exercise of said privilege...

Where the owner of a soldiers' additional
right executes a power of attorney to another
to sell any lands he may then own or there-
after acquire under said right, and delivers
with it a blank application to enter, signed
by himself, having reference to no particu-
lar lands but to be filled in as the holder of
the power may elect, he thereby sells and
assigns and vests in the grantee all his rights
with full ownership thereof.........................................

A soldiers' additional homestead entry
upon which the final commissions have not
been paid and the final receipt has not
issued is not within the confirmatory pro-
visions of section 7 of the act of March 3,
1891...

Lands which for a long period of time
have been with the knowledge and acquies-
cence of the Government included within
the limits of a reservoir used as a feeder of
a canal, in the maintenance and operation
of which the government is interested, are
not "unappropriated public lands" and are
therefore not subject to soldiers' additional
homestead entry

Indemnity.

See Railroad Grant; School Land.

Indian Lands.

See Mining Claim.

Circular instructions of April 21, 1900, un-
der section 21, act of March 2, 1889, relating
to Great Sioux lands..

375

375

604

39

486

547

611

354

Page.

Instructions of January 4, 1901, relative to
survey of lands within the Klamath Indian
Reservation and the selection of swamp
lands therein by the State..

Regulations of April 10, 1901, under see-
tion 4, act of February 8, 1887, concerning
Indian allotments..

In neither the joint resolution of Decem-
ber 19, 1893, nor that of May 27, 1898, is there
any absolute confirmation of entries there-
tofore made, but only a conditional confir-
mation, dependent upon the requirement
that such entries shall be made regularly in
accordance with the public land laws

395

546

125

Section 2 of the act of August 7, 1882.
which defines the class of persons entitled
to purchase the lands opened to settlement
by said act in the Omaha Indian Reserva-
vation, does not refer to settlers under the
homestead laws; hence the act of May 17,
1900, which is expressly limited to "settlers
under the homestead laws of the United
States," has no application to said lands... $2
If a lessee holding under a farming and
grazing lease, executed by an Indian allot-
tee, in pursuance of the act of February 28,
1891, and acts amendatory thereof, fails to
comply with the terms and conditions of the
lease, the Secretary of the Interior has the
right to declare the expiration thereof; but
such declaration, in the absence of a stipu-
lation to the contrary in the lease, will not
preclude judicial inquiry as to whether
there was proper cause therefor.................................. 114
The commutation provision contained in
section 2301, Revised Statutes, is applicable
to Nez Perce ceded lands, but "the mini-
mum price" provided for therein must.
under the act of May 17, 1900, be determined
without reference to that provision of the
act of August 15, 1894, which requires each
settler to pay $3.75 per acre for said lands,
and as though no such provision had ever
been made

The issuance of a first or trust patent on
an Indian allotment does not terminate the
jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior
over the lands covered thereby as public
lands, but until the issuance of the second
or final patent he has authority, after due
notice to all parties in interest, to investi-
gate and determine as to the legality of any
Indian allotment and to cancel such first
or trust patent based upon an allotment
erroneously allowed.....

196

258

By the act of March 2, 1889, the govern-
ment is authorized to appraise and sell pat-
ented Indian lands in the Bitter Root Val-
ley, with the consent and for the benefit of
the Indians, and in the discharge of this
duty, which is in the nature of a trust, it
must observe and pursue the requirements
and directions contained in the statute,
which require that such lands should not
be sold for less than the appraised value of
the land and improvements thereon....... 292

Page.

A conveyance of lands allotted to Peoria
and Miami Indians under the act of March
2, 1889, made by the heirs of the allottee,
within the period of inhibition named in
the statute, is not effective to transfer title
until approved by the Secretary of the Inte-
rior

The terms of the agreement of May 20,
1890, with the Iowa tribe of Indians con-
template a personal selection on the part of
a person entitled thereto, or a selection in
behalf of one in being or alive at the time,
and there is no provision in said agreement
for making a selection on behalf of a de-
ceased person

The act of August 15, 1894, opening to set-
tlement and entry certain lands in the Si-
letz Indian Reservation, constitutes the only
authority for the disposal of such lands, and
provides for their disposal only under the
mineral and townsite laws or to actual set-
tlers under the homestead laws; hence said
lands are not subject to the provisions of
the law relating to the sale of isolated or
disconnected tracts..

Children born of a white man, a citizen
of the United States, and an Indian woman,
his wife, follow the status of the father in
the matter of citizenship, and are therefore
not entitled to allotments under section 4,
act of February 8, 1887, as amended by the
act of February 28, 1891

Isolated Tracts.

The act of August 15, 1894, opening to set-
tlement and entry certain lands in the Siletz
Indian Reservation, constitutes the only au-
thority for the disposal of such lands, and
provides for their disposal only under the
mineral and townsite laws or to actual set-
tlers under the homestead laws; hence said
lands are not subject to the provisions of the
law relating to the sale of isolated or dis-
connected tracts

The act of May 11, 1896, provides an exclu-
sive mode for the disposition of public
reservations within vacated townsites and
additions thereto, where "patents for the
public reservations in such vacated town-
site, or additions thereto, have not been is-
sued:" first, a preferred right of purchase
is accorded the original entryman; second,
if such right is not exercised the land then
becomes subject to disposition under the
laws regulating the disposal of isolated
tracts..

457

532

536

606

536

352

160

Land Department.

Page.

A deputy mineral surveyor who has no
interest, real or contingent, in a mining
claim at the date of the survey thereof by
him, nor at the date of the application for
patent thereto, but who subsequently makes
entry thereof, does not come within the
spirit of section 452 of the Revised Statutes,
prohibiting employees of the General Land
Office from "purchasing or becoming inter-
ested in the purchase of the public land".. 139

Lieu Selection.

See Reservation, sub-title Forest Lands;
School Lands.

Marriage.

See Homestead.

Mineral Lands.

See Coal Lands; Townsite.

A hearing to ascertain the character of
the land involved will not be ordered upon
a protest by a mineral claimant against
the patenting of a homestead claim upon
which final proof has been made and cer-
tificate issued, in the absence of an allega-
tion or showing by the protestant that the
land in question, or a part thereof, was
known to be valuable for its deposits of
mineral at the date of the issuance of the
final certificate.....

Land not shown to contain deposits, in
paying quantities, of any of the mineral
substances usually developed by mining
operations, but which appears to be valu-
able and to be desired by the parties at-
tempting to secure title thereto chiefly be-
cause of a cave or cavern the entrance to
which is situated thereon, and for the crys-
talline deposits, and formations of various
kinds, such as stalactites, stalagmites,
geodes, etc., found therein, which are made
the subject of sale by the parties not as
minerals but as natural curiosities, is not
mineral land within the meaning of the
mining laws..

Lands valuable on account of limestone
deposits contained therein, and more val-
uable on account of such deposits than for
agricultural purposes, are mineral lands
within the meaning of the mining laws,
and are therefore mineral lands within the
meaning of the act of February 26, 1895,
providing for the classification of lands
within the limits of the Northern Pacific
Railroad grant..

216

357

475

In case of a protest filed under the fifth
section of the act of February 26, 1895,
against the classification of land under said
act, the Department will apply substan-
tially the same rules, in determining the
character of the land, that the classification
commissioners are directed by said act to
442
apply......

Page.

The rules prescribed by the act of Febru-
ary 26, 1895, differ from those applied by
the Department in ordinary contests involv-
ing the character of land in that mining
locations made in any section of land are
declared by said act to be prima facie evi-
dence of the mineral character of the forty-
acre subdivision embracing the same...... 442
Mining Claim.

GENERALLY.

Circular of July 11, 1900, under act of June
6, 1900, relating to mining rights and claims
in Alaska....

The phrase "as in the case of mining
claims," occurring in section 32 of instruc-
tions of June 8, 1898, was not intended to
modify or change the existing practice con-
trolling the survey of mining claims.
LOCATION.

Paragraph 7 of regulations approved June
24, 1899, amended, and paragraph 8 abol-
ished

The location of a mining claim can be
made only upon the public lands of the
United States; and there is no authority for
placing the lines of a location within, upon,
or across other claims embracing lands
which have been patented or regularly en-
tered under the public land laws and have
thereby become the property of private in-
dividuals.

The location lines of a lode mining claim
are used only to describe, define, and limit
property rights in the claim, and may be
laid within, upon, or across the surface of
patented lode mining claims for the pur-
pose of claiming the free and unappro-
priated ground within such lines and the
veins apexing in such ground, and of de-
fining and securing extralateral under-
ground rights upon all such veins, where
such lines (a) are established openly and
peaceably, and (b) do not embrace any
larger area of surface, claimed and un-
claimed, than the law permits.....

The location lines of a lode mining claim
may be laid within, upon, or across the sur-
face of patented agricultural land for the
purpose of claiming the free and unappro-
priated ground within such lines and the
veins apexing in such ground, and of de-
fining and securing extralateral under-
ground rights upon all such veins, where
such lines (a) are established openly and
peaceably, and (b) do not embrace any
larger area of surface, claimed and un-
claimed, than the law permits.............

In a controversy between conflicting
claimants to the same land, arising upon
protest by a mineral locator against an ap-
plication to purchase under the act of June
3, 1878 (amended by act of August 4, 1892),
where it appears that the mineral location
is based upon the discovery within its lim-
its of a vein or lode of quartz, bearing cop-

142

40

43

191

420

481

Page.

per and gold, that the same is in all other
respects regular, and that the time inter-
vening between the date of the location
and the filing of the application to purchase
under said act was so short as not to afford
the mineral locator a reasonable opportu-
nity to develop his claim sufficiently to as-
certain with certainty the extent or value
of the mineral deposit contained therein,
such location is a "mining claim" within
the meaning of the proviso to said act, and
the land embraced therein is not subject to
purchase thereunder

Lands included in a valid mining loca-
tion at the date of the Executive order of
May 17, 1884, setting apart certain territory
in Arizona as an Indian reservation, come
within the purview of the proviso or ex-
cepting clause of said order, and therefore
never became a part of the reservation, but
remained a part of the public domain, sub-
ject, so far as that order is concerned, to
the operation of the laws affecting or pro-
viding for the disposal of public lands,
without regard to what may afterwards
have been done in the way of perfecting or
maintaining such location. Whatever priv-
ilege of going upon or across said reserva-
tion may be accorded to persons claiming
an interest in such excluded lands under a
mining location existing at the date of the
order, for the purpose of enabling them to
maintain and develop their claims under
the mining laws, must also be accorded, on
equal terms, to all persons claiming an in-
terest therein under a subsequent relocation
under those laws....

APPLICATION.

The failure of an applicant for patent
to a mining claim to prosecute his applica-
tion to completion, by filing the necessary
proofs and making payment for the land,
within a reasonable time after the expira-
tion of the period of publication of notice
of the application, or after the termination
of adverse proceedings in the courts, con-
stitutes a waiver by the applicant of all
rights obtained by the earlier proceedings
upon the application.....

The proceedings necessary to the comple-
tion of an application for patent to a min-
ing claim, against which an adverse claim
or protest has been filed, if taken by the ap
plicant at the first opportunity afforded
therefor under the law and departmental
practice, will be as effective as if taken at
the date when, but for the adverse claim or
protest, the proceedings on the application
could have been completed ..........

An applicant for patent to a valid lode
location who excludes from his application
a portion of his claim in conflict with a
placer location, does not thereby waive or
surrender any of his rights with respect to
the possession and enjoyment of any part
of the surface of his location lying without

407

515

202

202

Page.
the conflict, or with respect to any veins,
lodes, or ledges, the tops or apexes of which
may be found, at any point outside the con-
flict, to lie within the surface lines of his loca-
tion extended downward vertically, unless
it clearly appears that by such exclusion he
intended to waive or surrender such rights. 482
DISCOVERY AND EXPENDITURE.

Paragraph 53 of the mining regulations,
as amended March 14, 1898, providing that
proof of the expenditure of five hundred
dollars upon a group of several locations
held in common is sufficient where protests
or adverse claims prevent the application
for patent embracing such locations from
being passed to entry prior to July 1, 1898,
is not applicable where it appears that
under the regulations then in force, irre-
spective of adverse claims or protests, no
entry of the claim could have been allowed
until after said date.

When the right to a patent to a mining
claim has been fully acquired the equitable
title in the purchaser is complete and there
is no obligation on his part to make further
expenditure in labor or improvements on
the claim under section 2324 of the Revised
Statutes, and no interests can thereafter be
acquired by relocation or otherwise as
against him....

The annual expenditure of one hundred
dollars in labor or improvements on a min-
ing claim, required by section 2324 of the
Revised Statutes, is solely a matter between
rival or adverse claimants to the same min-
eral land, and goes only to the right of
possession, the determination of which is
committed exclusively to the courts. It is
a matter with which the land department
has nothing to do, and hence can make no
determination with respect to it

200

202

202

A protest against an application for pat-
ent to a mining claim, alleging failure to
keep up the annual expenditure under sec-
tion 2324 of the Revised Statutes during the
pendency of proceedings upon an adverse
claim, or upon a former protest, and the re-
location of the claim on account thereof,
does not present matters which call for in-
vestigation by the land department.................... 202
No part of the value of permanent and
immovable improvements on a mining
claim, made long prior to the location
thereof, by claimants under a previous lo-
cation embracing the same ground, solely
to improve and develop the prior claim, can
be credited to the later claim toward meet-
ing the requirement of the statute that
five hundred dollars' worth of labor has
been expended or improvements made upon
the claim by himself [the claimant] or

Where the same person or company owns
several contiguous mining claims capable
of being advantageously worked together,
and adopts one general system for the pur-
pose of developing them all, the value of
the work done and improvements made
pursuant to such system, whether done on
only one of the claims or outside of all of
them, is available toward meeting the re-
quirement of section 2325 of the Revised
Statutes relative to expenditure of five hun-
dred dollars for each of such claims ....... 510
It is not necessary in order to have its
due share of such work or improvements
credited to each claim that such claims
should all be embraced in the same pro-
ceedings for patent. If the mining laws are
complied with in other respects such claims
may be applied for and entered singly or
otherwise, and at different times, without
in any way impairing the right to have the
value of such share credited to them, re-
spectively, under that section......

NOTICE.

Notice of application for patent to a min-
ing claim will be held sufficient, where the
locus of the claim is designated therein ac-
cording to the official survey for patent,
which survey ties the claim to what is gen-
erally believed to be a corner of the public
survey, even if it should be ultimately
shown that such is not the true corner.....
Where the notice of an application for
patent to a mining claim gives no connect-
ing line between the claim and a corner of
the public survey, and does not otherwise
designate the situation of the claim upon
the ground with substantial accuracy, a
new notice will be required.....

ADVERSE CLAIM.

An objection to the issuance of a mineral
patent, based on an assertion of prior right
to a portion of the land included in the
entry, will not be entertained where the
protestant fails to file any adverse claim
during the applicant's period of publica-
tion

Where an adverse claimant under the
mining laws has been allowed, through in-
advertence or mistake, to institute patent
proceedings embracing his adverse claim
and to make entry thereof during the pend-
ency in court of a suit involving the same,
the entry will be canceled

510

74

481

67

298