Such Commissioner, if he believes the public interests will be subserved thereby, will, if the Secretary of the Interior approve thereof, issue an order withdrawing the lands described in such petition, or any portion thereof, from homestead entry and settlement and directing that the same be held for the time being for townsite settlement, entry, and disposition only. In such event the lands so withheld from homestead entry and settlement will, at the time of said opening, and not before, become subject to settlement, entry, and disposition under the general townsite laws of the United States. None of said ceded lands will be subject to settlement, entry, or disposition under such general townsite laws except in the manner herein prescribed until after the expiration of sixty days from the time of said opening. All persons are especially admonished that under the said act of Congress approved April 27, 1904, it is provided that no person shall be permitted to settle upon, occupy, or enter any of said ceded lands except in the manner prescribed in this proclamation until after the expiration of sixty days from the time when the same are opened to settlement and entry. After the expiration of the said period of sixty days, but not before, any of said lands remaining undisposed of may be settled upon, occupied, and entered under the general provisions of the homestead and townsite laws of the United States in like manner as if the manner of effecting such settlement, occupancy, and entry had not been prescribed herein in obedience to law, subject, however, to the payment of four dollars and fifty cents per acre for the land entered, in the manner and at the times required by the said act of Congress above mentioned. The Secretary of the Interior shall prescribe all needful rules and regulations necessary to carry into full effect the opening herein provided for. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington this 2nd day of June, in the year of our Lord 1904, and of the Independence of the United [SEAL.] States the one hundred and twenty-eighth. By the President: JOHN HAY, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Secretary of State. REGULATIONS CONCERNING OPENING OF CEDED LANDS OF SISSETON, WAHPETON, AND CUT-HEAD BANDS OF SIOUX INDIANS OF DEVILS LAKE RESERVATION, NORTH DAKOTA. Register and Receiver, CIRCULAR. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 3, 1904. United States Land Office, Devils Lake, North Dakota. GENTLEMEN: The following regulations are hereby prescribed for the purpose of carrying into effect the opening of the ceded lands of the Sisseton, Wahpeton, and Cut-Head bands of the Sioux tribe of Indians of the Devils Lake Reservation in North Dakota, provided for in the act of Congress of April 27, 1904 (33 Stat., 319), and in the President's proclamation of June 2, 1904, thereunder: First. Applications either to file soldiers' declaratory statement or make homestead entry of these ceded lands must, on presentation, in accordance with proclamation opening said lands to entry and settlement, be accepted or rejected, but local officers may, in their discretion, permit amendment of a defective application during the day only on which same is presented. Second. No appeal to General Land Office will be allowed or considered unless taken within one day, Sundays excepted, after the rejection of the application. Third. After rejection of an application, whether an appeal be taken or not, the land will continue to be subject to entry as before, excepting that any subsequent applicant for the same land must be informed of the prior rejected application and that the subsequent application, if allowed, will be subject to the disposition of the prior application upon the appeal, if any is taken from the rejection thereof, which fact must be noted upon the receipt or certificate issued upon the allowance of the subsequent application. Fourth. Where an appeal is taken the papers will be immediately forwarded to the General Land Office, where they will be at once carefully examined and forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior with appropriate recommendation, when the matter will be promptly decided and closed. Fifth. Applications to contest entries allowed for these lands filed. during the sixty days from date of opening will also be immediately forwarded to the General Land Office, where they will be at once carefully examined and forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior with proper recommendation, when the matter will be promptly decided. Sixth. These regulations will supersede, during the sixty days from the opening of these ceded lands, any rule of practice or other regulation governing the disposition of applications with which they may be in conflict, and will apply to all appeals taken from the action of the local officers during said period of sixty days. Seventh. The purpose of these regulations is to provide an adequate and speedy method of correcting any material errors in local offices, and at the same time to discourage groundless appeals and put it out of the power of a disappointed applicant to indefinitely tie up the land or force another to pay him to withdraw his appeal. Give all possible publicity, through the press and otherwise, to these regulations. W. A. RICHARDS, Commissioner of the General Land Office. Approved: THOS. RYAN, Acting Secretary. CEDED LANDS OF THE SISSETON, WAHPETON, AND CUT-HEAD BANDS OF SIOUX INDIANS OF DEVILS LAKE RESERVATION-HOMESTEAD ENTRY-QUALIFICATIONS. CIRCULAR. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., June 3, 1904. The following persons are not qualified to make homestead entry of the ceded lands of the Sisseton, Wahpeton, and Cut-Head bands of the Sioux tribe of Indians of the Devils Lake Reservation in North Dakota: 1. Any person who has made a prior homestead entry and is not entitled to make a second homestead entry. Under the act of June 5, 1900 (31 Stat., 267), any person who prior to June 5, 1900, made a homestead entry, but from any cause had lost, forfeited, or commuted the same, is entitled to make a second homestead entry; under the act of May 22, 1902 (32 Stat., 203), any person who made final five-year proof, prior to May 17, 1900, on lands to be sold for the benefit of Indians and paid the price provided by law opening the land to settlement, and who would have been entitled under the "free homestead" law to have received title without such payment, had not proof been made prior thereto, is entitled to make a second homestead entry; under the act of April 28, 1904 (33 Stat., 527), any person who prior to April 28, 1904, made homestead entry but was unable to perfect the entry on account of some unavoidable complication of his personal or business affairs, or on account of an honest mistake as to the character of the land, provided he made a bona fide effort to comply with the homestead law and did not relinquish his entry for a consideration, is entitled to make a second homestead entry; under section 2 of said act any person who has made a homestead entry of a quantity of land containing less than 160 acres, contiguous to the ceded lands of said reservation, and is still owning and occupying the same, may enter a sufficient quantity of said lands to make up the full amount of 160 acres; under section 6 of the act of March 2, 1889 (25 Stat., 854), any person who has made a homestead entry for less than 160 acres, and has received the receiver's final receipt therefor, is entitled to enter enough additional land, not necessarily contiguous to the original entry, to make 160 acres. 2. A married woman, unless she has been deserted or abandoned by her husband. 3. One not a citizen of the United States, and who has not declared his intention to become such. 4. Anyone under 21 years of age, not the head of a family, unless he served in the army or navy of the United States for not less than fourteen days during actual war. 5. Anyone who is the proprietor of more than 160 acres of land in any State or Territory. 6. One who has acquired title to, or is now claiming under any of the agricultural public land laws, in pursuance of settlement or entries made since August 30, 1890, an amount of land which, with the tract now sought to be entered, will exceed in the aggregate 320 acres. W. A. RICHARDS, Approved: THOS. RYAN, Commissioner. Acting Secretary. TIMBER AND STONE ENTRIES-CONFIRMATION—SECTION 7, ACT OF MARCH 3, 1891. Timber and stone entries under the act of June 3, 1878, are within the intent and operation of the confirmatory provisions of the act of March 3, 1891. The general departmental order of November 18, 1902, suspending action in all timber and stone entries in the States of California, Oregon and Washington, pending investigation, is not a contest or protest within the meaning of section 7 of the act of March 3, 1891, and does not bar the operation of the confirmatory provisions of said section. Acting Secretary Ryan to the Commissioner of the General Land (F. L. C.) Office, June 3, 1904. (J. R. W.) The Department is in receipt of your office letter of December 3, 1903, calling attention to the departmental direction of November 18, 1902, to suspend action in all timber and stone entries in the States of California, Oregon, and Washington, and asking instructions whether, first, such entries are within the confirmatory provisions of section 7 of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1095, 1099), and, second, is the departmental action of November 18, 1902, such a protest or contest as will bar the running of the statute. Section 7 of the act of March 3, 1891, supra, is limited by a proviso, viz: Provided, That after the lapse of two years from the date of the receiver's receipt upon the final entry of any tract of land under the homestead, timber culture, desert land or preemption laws, or under this act, and when there shall be no pending contest or protest against the validity of such entry, the entryman shall be entitled to a patent. Timber and stone entries under the act of June 3, 1878 (20 Stat., 89), are not in terms referred to in the act of March 3, 1891, and the question is, whether entries under that act are within the intent and operation of its confirmatory proviso. The term "preemption" in the act of 1891 soon after its passage was construed by the Department as generic and to include any entry under a law whereby, by a preliminary declaration or other act, one intending and desiring to purchase, acquired a preference right. Thus in Johnson v. Burrow (12 L. D., 440), May 1, 1891, it was construed as including an Osage entry under the act of May 28, 1880 (21 Stat., 143). In Fleming . Bowe (13 L. D., 78), July 21, 1891, reviewing many decisions of the Department and the courts, upon a very full consideration of the subject, "preemption" was held to include an entry for Otoe and Missouria Indian reservation lands subject to sale under the act of August 15, 1876 (19 Stat., 208), and its amendments. This was not a new interpretation of the term but merely followed the construction long before given and then well established. Fraser . Ringgold (3 L. D., 69, 71); Jefferson. Winter (5 L. D., 694); Sears . Almy (6 L. D., 1); Mary Stanton (7 L. D., 227). . The cases last above cited have especial force upon the construction of the word from the fact that they construe the word "preemption" as used in the act of May 14, 1880 (21 Stat., 140), giving a preference right of entry to the successful contestant of."any preemption, homestead, or timber culture entry." In construction of this act "preemption" has been held to include a desert land entry, Fraser. Ringgold, supra; Kansas Indian trust land entries, Bunger 7. Dawes (9 L. D., 329, 331-2); mineral entries, Dornen. Vaughn (16 L. D., 8, 11); Sioux half-breed scrip locations, McGee . Ortley (14 L. D., 523, 524); Hobe . Strong (25 L. D., 92, 94); coal land entries, Garner . Mulvane (12 L. D., 336, 342); and townsite entries, Brummett ». Winfield (28 L. D., 530, 534). By analogy of reasoning, because the act of 1880, supra, was remedial in character and aimed at the prevention and defeat of fraudulent entries, its benefit was extended to successful |