and the issuance of a patent therefor. After a review of the proposed measure, I agree with Commissioner Rhoads in his recommendation that it be enacted into law. Very truly yours, RAY LYMAN WILBUR, Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Memorandum for the Secretary: The Indians of the Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, claim a certain tract of land, consisting of approximately 18,000 acres, by grant from Spain in 1689. Although the grant has never been confirmed by the Congress, the Zuni Indians have had the unmolested use of the land for more than 200 years. The land in the grant is entirely surrounded by lands reserved and set apart for the same Indians by Executive orders of March 16, 1877, and May 1, 1883, consisting of about 197,000 acres. By presidential proclamation of November 30, 1917, an additional area of 73,000 acres was excluded from the Manzano National Forest and added to the Zuni reservation. All of this land is located in the western part of New Mexico near the Arizona line. The last census of these Indians shows a population of 1,932. The total area of the reservation, including the unconfirmed grant, is about 288,000 acres, or about 150 acres per capita. The Zuni Indians are anxious to obtain a patent for the land included in the grant. In support of their contention, there are submitted herewith copies of certain letters on file in this office enumerated as follows: 1. Letter of J. L. Bullis to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated December 10, 1896. 2. Letter of Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office to Secretary of the Interior, dated March 8, 1897. 3. Letter of Acting Secretary of the Interior to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated March 9, 1897. 4. Letter of Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated February 2, 1927. In addition to the foregoing, there is also inclosed a reproduction of certain data relating to the claim, from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the year 1898. Particular attention is invited to the letter from the Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office dated February 2, 1927, which gives a brief and concise history of the claim. The records show that these Indians are entitled to have their grant confirmed by Congress, and to have issued to them therefor a patent of the same form as were issued to all other Pueblo Indians in New Mexico. The draft of a bill to authorize survey of the land and issuance of a patent therefor is inclosed, and I, recommend its enactment. C. J. RHOADS, Commissioner. UNITED STATES INDIAN SERVICE, COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C. SIR: Referring to my letter of September 22 last, in which I informed you that all deeds, documents, etc., connected with the Zuni Pueblo grant were lost, and suggested that something might be done in Congress to secure confirmation of their title and give the Indians a patent, I respectfully request to be informed what action, if any, has been taken. I have to inform you that certain papers relating to the grant have been found in the office of the surveyor general of the Territory. In case Congress is not likely to do anything in the matter, I can have a suit instituted in the United States Court of Private Land Claims, now sitting here for the settlement of land grants in this Territory. As the Zuni Indians have had peaceable possession of their lands for at least 200 years, I believe that in accordance with decisions of the court recently rendered there will not be any difficulty in obtaining confirmation of their title. Very respectfully, JOHN L. BULLIS, Captain, Twenty-fourth Infantry, Acting Indian Agent. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., March 8, 1897. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt, by your reference, of a communication from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in relation to the best method of securing patent in favor of the Zuni Indians for the Indian Pueblo of Zuni in New Mexico, for an expression of the views of this office upon the subject. A communication from Capt. John L. Bullis, acting Indian agent at the Pueblo and Jicarilla Agency, is inclosed therewith, in which it is suggested that something should be done by Congress to secure confirmation of the title of the Indians to said Pueblo lands, and that in case Congress is not likely to do anything in the matter, suit could be instituted in the Court of Private Land Claims to have the grant confirmed. The records of this office show that the transcript, in triplicate, of the records of said claim in the office of the surveyor general of New Mexico, was received with the surveyor general's letter of November 20, 1880, and on December 7, 1880, said transcript, in duplicate, was forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior for transmission to Congress. Congress appears to have taken no action in the matter, so far as the records in this office show, but by act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 854), jurisdiction over certain private land claims, of which the Pueblo of Zuni is one, was conferred upon the Court of Private Land Claims. Section 12 of said act provides "that all claims * * * which are by the provisions of this act authorized to be prosecuted shall, at the end of two years from the taking effect of this act, if no petition in respect to the same shall have been filed as hereinbefore provided, be deemed and taken, in all courts and elsewhere, to be abandoned and shall be forever barred." Under this provision of the law, it seems to me that it is now too late for the claim of the Pueblo of Zuni to be presented to the Court of Private Land Claims for confirmation, and I see no way by which the title to said grant can be confirmed but by special act of Congress, either confirming the claim outright, or permitting suit to be brought against the United States in the said Court of Private Land Claims, notwithstanding the expiration of the limit fixed for such purpose by the act of March 3, 1891. The papers transmitted are herewith returned. E. F. BEST, Acting Commissioner. The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, SIR: I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th of January last, transmitting one from Capt. John L. Bullis, United States Army, acting Indian agent at the Pueblo and Jicarilla Agency, N. Mex., dated December 10, 1896, respecting the course to be taken to secure the issue of patent in favor of the Zuni Indians, for their pueblo grant in New Mexico. In accordance with your suggestion, the matter was referred to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, for an expression of his views as to what method should be adopted and steps taken to secure title of the Zuni Pueblo grant in and to the said Indians, and I now transmit, for your information, a copy of his reply, dated the 8th instant, in which he states that these Indians have forfeited their claims to the grant in question, under the operations of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 854), they having failed to take the necessary steps to confirm their title, within the limit of time prescribed in the act named. The commissioner further states that he sees no way by which the title to the grant can be confirmed to the Indians, except by special act of Congress, either confirming the claim outright, or permitting suit to be brought against the United States in the Court of Private Land Claims, notwithstanding the limit for such actions fixed by the act of 1891. It appearing, by the statement of Captain Bullis, that these Indians have enjoyed peaceable possession of their lands for at least 200 years, and it appearing also, from the records of the department, that a transcript of their claim was submitted to Congress on December 11, 1880, upon which no action seems to have been taken by that body, it seems but fair and just to the Indians that the necessary steps be taken to secure their homes to them, as has been done in the case of other Indians similarly located. To this end, you will cause the draft of the necessary legislation to be prepared, for submission to Congress at its next regular session. Captain Bullis's letter is herewith returned. Very respectfully, WM. H. SIMS, Acting Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, February 2, 1927. The COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. MY DEAR MR. BURKE: Replying to your letter of January 22, 1927, the pueblo of Zuni was contained in the report dated October 4, 1849, by James S. Calhoun, then United States Indian agent at Santa Fe, N. Mex., and was included in the list of "pueblos or towns of the civilized Indians" referred to in the instructions of August 21, 1854, under the act of July 22, 1854 (10 Stat. 309). These instructions are published in The Public Domain (p. 394). The papers on file (P. L. C. 215, N. Mex.) consist of miscellaneous correspondence and the transcript of an alleged grant, under date of September 25, 1689, by Domingo Jironza Perotz de Cruzate, Governor and Captain General of the Province of New Mexico, to the Indians of the pueblo of Zuni. The document was filed July 3, 1875, in the office of the surveyor general of New Mexico by B. M. Thomas, United States agent for the Pueblo Indians. The surveyor general approved the claim September 25, 1879, stating that the pueblo had been abandoned many years ago and the inhabitants had removed to Zuni Nuevo, or New Zuni, between 3 and 4 miles to the northwest. A preliminary survey, approved September 25, 1880, segregates the claim, containing 17,581.25 acres, located with reference to the original pueblo on the mesa. cording to the plat, the new Zuni pueblo was outside of the boundaries of that survey. Ac Duplicate and triplicate copies of the surveyor general's report were transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior under date of December 7, 1880. A copy of the report was sent to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (see your file Land 9290-1897), and is published in the annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1898 (p. 90). By Executive orders of March 16, 1877, and May 1, 1883, approximately 215,040 acres of public land were withdrawn and set aside for the Zuni Indians. By Executive order of November 30, 1917, 73,000 acres were added to the reservation. The claim is included within this reservation, but has not been segregated in extending the surveys of Ts. 9 and 10 N., Rs. 18 and 19 W., N. M. P. M., approved April 10, 1913. According to the township plat the present Zuni village is in sec. 28, T. 10 N., R. 19 W. The claim has never been confirmed by Congress, nor was it submitted to the Court of Private Land Claims under the provisions of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 854). It is hardly possible, however, that such omission was due to either oversight or neglect on the part of the officials or the Indians. In a volume entitled "Spanish Archives of New Mexico" published in 1914 by Ralph Emerson Twitchell, afterwards special assistant attorney general for the Pueblo Indians, it is stated on page. 477: "There seems to be small doubt to-day that the alleged grants made to the Pueblo Indians by Governor and Captain General Don Domingo Jironza Cruzate, at El Paso, in 1689, are spurious. There can also be no doubt that had this fact been known to Congress when these 'grants' were confirmed and later patented, such action would not have been based on the so-called 'grants,' copies of which I have given on the previous pages. It is not believed, however, that Congress would have refused to confirm to the several Pueblos their 'league' of land. The fact that each Pueblo was entitled to a 'league' of land seems to be beyond question, as many of the archives, petitions for other lands made to the several governors and captains general always recognized the league of the Indians whenever it appeared that there was to be a conflict as to boundaries. "After the organization of the Court of Private Land Claims and the attorney for that court had become more or less familiar with the archives, signatures of officers, historical data, etc., aided by his able assistants, he came to the conclusion that every one of the El Paso papers bearing the signatures of Cruzate, Ojeda, and others, were forgeries." On page 483 of the same volume is the statement that the 1689 Spanish document filed as a basis for the claim of the pueblo of Zuni was spurious. The document referred to was probably recovered and placed with the archives of the surveyor general of New Mexico from the same sources as was that for the pueblo of Acoma. The origin and history of that document is recited in the case of De la O v. Acoma (1857), 1 New Mexico 226. There is in the file a copy of a bill (H. R. 8635, 56th Cong., 1st sess.), introduced in 1900 by Representative Curtis, to confirm the title to certain land to the Indians of the pueblo of Zuni. The description of the land is uncertain in that it fails to give the quantity or a definite beginning point. A definite description as to quantity and boundary in any proposed legislation seems necessary to meet the present requirements of the pueblo. As the land is within an existing reservation, I submit the information for your consideration. Very respectfully, THOS. C. HAVELL, PUEBLOS IN NEW MEXICO Zuni grant. By reference to the annual report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the year 1880, page 658, it appears that the Zuni Pueblo was granted to the inhabitants of the pueblo in 1689, by Spain, and the claim therefor was approved by the surveyor general of New Mexico, September 25, 1879, and a survey made of its exterior boundaries in 1880. Its area was found to be 17,581.25 acres, and its location in Valencia Country, N. Mex. It does not appear that the grant was approved by the department or by Congress, although the matter was referred to Congress by the department December 7, 1880, and no patent has ever been issued for that grant. By an act of Congress entitled "An act to establish a Court of Private Land Claims, and to provide for the settlement of private land claims for certain States and Territories," approved March 3, 1891 (28 Stats., p. 854), provision was made in the sixth section of the act for the confirmation of title to all lands under Spanish grant in New Mexico that had not been confirmed by Congress or decided upon legal authority. By the twelfth section all such claims were to be presented within two years from the date upon which the act took effect, otherwise to be considered as abandoned and forever barred. As no petition was filed by the Indians for this pueblo, or by the Government in their behalf, it would appear that their claim to title in said pueblo is forever barred unless the second clause of the thirteenth section shall protect them in that title. It provides that "no claim shall be allowed that shall interfere with or overthrow any just or unextinguished Indian title or right to any land or piece." Capt. J. L. Bullis, acting as Indian agent for the Pueblo and Jicarilla Agency, advised this office, September 22, 1896, that he had ascertained from the_governor of the Zuni Pueblo that all their deeds, documents, etc., were lost. Later he reported that certain papers relating to the Zuni grant had been found in the office of the surveyor general of the Territory of New Mexico, and he recommended that, in case Congress should decline to take action in the matter, a suit be instituted in the United States Court of Private Land Claims, then sitting at Santa Fe for the settlement of land grants in New Mexico. The matter was reported to the department January 27, 1897, with the recommendation that the case be referred to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for an expression of his views as to what method should be adopted to secure the title of the Zuni Pueblo grant in and to the Zuni Indians. The department on the 9th of March informed this office that the Commissioner of the General Land Office saw no way by which the title to the grant could then be confirmed to the Indians, except by special act of Congress, either For use in the preparation of such draft the Commissioner of the General Land Office, April 24, 1897, furnished this office with the following copy of the transcript of the records of the claim of the Zuni Indians for land in New Mexico, furnished by the surveyor general of that Territory in his letter of November 20, 1880: TRANSCRIPT OF INDIAN PUEBLO GRANT V, IN THE NAME OF THE PUEBLO OF ZUNI, Date of grant, September 25, 1689. Date of surveyor general's approval, September 25, 1879. Transmitted to the General Land Office by the surveyor general of New Mexico, November 20, 1880. Letter No. 75342. At the town of Our Lady of Guadalupe del Paso del Rio del Norte, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of September, year one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine, his excellency, the governor and captain general, Don Domingo Jironza y Petroz de Cruzate, declared before me that whereas within the_reach of his authority which he has in New Mexico and of his power over the Queres Indians and over the apostates, and that after having fought all the other Indians of the Pueblos, an Indian called Bartolome de Ojeda, who was the one who distinguished himself most in battle, succoring all points, surrendered himself, finding himself wounded by a gunshot and an arrow, and being already disabled I ordered him to be taken and caused that they should heal him with great care so that he might be examined and state on his confession the condition in which is found the pueblo of Zuni and the other apostates of that kingdom, and as the Indian is versed in the Castillian language, is apt, and can read and write, and as he was the same who had conducted General Pedro de Renero de Possada to that pueblo, he being then on his way back for this place, and he being in the house of Field Marshal Baninguas Mendoza, he was overtaken by the said Indian, and being brought into my presence I ordered that under oath he declare what is his name and whether he is disposed to confess the truth in so far as he might know and might be interrogated. Questioned what is his name, where he is a native of, what is his age and his occupation, and whether he knows how Zuni is, he stated that his name is Bartolome de Ojeda and that he is a native of the Province of New Mexico, at the pueblo of Žia, and must be twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, a little more or less, and that he has not had any other occupation than the practice of agriculture, and that he knows how Zuni is because he was an apostate in that kingdom, and this he answers. Questioned what are the boundaries which Zuni is known to have on account of the crops it has on the Rio Teguello, and whether the pueblo recognizes as its own, because of having crops or because of choice, and whether the Indians will again commit another infamy (torn), other priests, like the one they committed upon the custodian priest (torn), the other priest whom they killed by shooting, and the deponent answers no, that although it was true that all the pueblos had committed violence (torn) priests of the church and that when the war was in Zia all the Indians were there, but that with what had happened to them last year he judged it was impossible that they fail to give obedience; wherefore there were granted by his excellency the governor and captain general, Don Domingo Jironza Petroz de Cruzate, the boundaries that I here state, on the north one league on the east one league and on the west one league and on the south one league, and these being measured from the four corners of the pueblo. And this his excellency provided, ordered, and signed before me, the present secretary of state and war, to which I certify. Before me, DOMINGO JIRONZA PETROZ DE CRUZATE. PEDRO LADRON DE GUItara, |