At the time of the passage of the Osage Allotment Act on June 28, 1906, [“the Act”], the Osage Indians were occupying, as a tribe, their reservation in Oklahoma. Their reservation contained approximately a million and a half acres of land purchased from the Cherokees. Prior to the Act, ownership of all the reservation lands remained in the Osage Tribe. By the Act, the lands were divided and distributed among the 2,229 members of the Osage Tribe with certain restrictions. An Osage Indian, although allowed to sell the surface of the land in certain situations, could not sell the minerals. Mineral ownership for nearly the entire reservation was placed in trust under the federal government and initially reserved to the use of the tribe.