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in 1871, and 1876, it was necessary to make a complete registry of the tribe. The duty demanded patience, tact, and persistency, as the Indians had never before been thus questioned and registered. The census rolls of a tribe, while they may represent the number of persons living, do not give a correct statement of the relationships of the people to each other, as it is a common practice for children to be "enrolled" with persons not their parents, in order to increase the annuity payments, by the showing of a family of minors. My registry, while it has served to make the present allottment accurate, and to rightfully dispose of the patented land to the proper heirs, has a greater value for the future, not only to the Indians, but to the Country which is now being organized upon the land formerly known as the Omaha and Winnebago Reservations. The Act of Feb. 8, 1887, in Sec. 5, provides that the land allotted shall follow the heirs, "according to the laws of the State or Territory in which such land is located;" therefore, without the proper data to trace the heirs, the land would be either under a clouded title or the Indian deprived of his inheritance. This registry

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