Buck—The Settlement of Oklahoma. 
367 
shall prescribe the maimer in which these lands may be settled 
upon, occupied and entered by persons: entitled thereto under 
the acts ratifying said agreements, respectively, and no per¬ 
son shall be permitted to settle upon, occnpy or enter any of 
said lands except as prescribed in such 1 proclamation nntil after 
the expiration of sixty days from the time: when the same are 
opened to settlement and entry.” 
It provided that the Secretary of the Interior should sub¬ 
divide the reservation into counties and reserve three hun¬ 
dred and twenty acres for county seats in each. This was 
to be surveyed and platted to make a, town-site and the lots were 
to be sold at auction, no person being allow r ed to purchase more 
than one business and one residence lot. The receipts: were to 
be used to build a court house at each place, to pay the expenses 
of the county governments until the first collection of taxes and 
for the construction of roads and bridges. Two land districts 
were to be established, with offices at El Keno and the county 
seat nearest to Fort Sill. 
In accordance with this act, President McKinley issued his 
proclamation on July 4, 1901, opening the unreserved lands to 
entry after nine A. M., August 6th, and prescribing the manner 
of entry. It was provided that from July 10th to July 26, 1901, 
the land offices at E'l Peno< and Lawton near Fort Sill should 
be open for the registration of all desiring to homestead land in 
the reservations. The applicant was to give proof of his qual¬ 
ifications to make entry, and then be given a certificate per¬ 
mitting him to go upon and examine the lands. The order in 
which these registered applicants were to be allowed to make 
entry was to be determined by drawings for both districts to 
take place at El Keno beginning July 29, 1901. Entry was to 
begin August 6, 1901, in the order established by the drawing, 
and to continue at the rate of one hundred and twenty-five a 
day, and not until after sixty days was the land to be open to 
settlement under the homestead laws. 1 
On the 21st of June, Secretary Hitchcock established the 
counties of Caddo, Cbmanche and Kiowa, and Pioger Mills, 
1 Sec. Int. Rept., 1901, p. ccxl. 
