Agreement with Cherokee, July 1, 1902

AN ACT To provide for the allotment of the lands of the Cherokee Nation, for the disposition of town sites therein, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.

Definition of Words Employed Herein

SEC. 1. The words "nation" and "tribe" shall each be held to refer to the Cherokee Nation or tribe of Indians in Indian Territory.

SEC. 2. The words "principal chief" or "chief executive" shall be held to mean the principal chief of said tribe.

SEC. 3. The words "Dawes Commission" or "Commission" shall be held to mean the United States Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes.

SEC. 4. The word "minor" shall be held to mean males under the age of twenty-one years and females under the age of eighteen years.

SEC. 5. The terms "allottable lands" or "lands allottable" shall be held to mean all the lands of the Cherokee tribe not herein reserved from allotment.

SEC. 6. The word "select" and its various modifications, as applied to allotments and homesteads, shall be held to mean the formal application at the land office, to be established by the Dawes Commission for the Cherokee Nation, for particular tracts of land.

SEC. 7. The words "member" or "members" and "citizen" or "citizens" shall be held to mean members or citizens of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory.

SEC. 8. Every word in this act importing the masculine gender may extend and be applied to females as well as males, and the use of the plural may include also the singular, and vice versa.

This agreement ratified by Cherokee Nation at an election held August 7, 1902.

Appraisement of Lands

SEC. 9. The lands belonging to the Cherokee tribe of Indians in Indian Territory, except such as are herein reserved from allotment, shall be appraised at their true value : Provided, That in the determination of the value of such land consideration shall not be given to the location thereof, to any timber thereon, or to any mineral deposits contained therein, and shall be made without reference to improvements which may be located thereon.

SEC. 10. The appraisement, as herein provided, shall be made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.

Allotment of Lands

SEC. 11. There shall be allotted by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes and to each citizen of the Cherokee tribe, as soon as practicable after the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of his enrollment as herein provided, land equal in value to one hundred and ten acres of the average allottable lands of the Cherokee Nation, to conform as nearly as may be to the areas and boundaries established by the Government survey, which land may be selected by each allottee so as to include his improvements.

SEC. 12. For the purpose of making allotments and designating homesteads hereunder, the forty-acre, or quarter of a quarter section, subdivision established by the Government survey may be dealt with as if further subdivided into four equal parts in the usual manner, thus making the smallest legal subdivision ten acres, or a quarter of a quarter of a quarter of a section.

SEC. 13. Each member of said tribe shall, at the time of the selection of his allotment, designate as a homestead out of said allotment land equal in value to forty acres of the average allottable lands of the Cherokee Nation, as nearly as may be, which shall be inalienable during the lifetime of the allottee, not exceeding twenty-one years from the date of the certificate of allotment. Separate certificate shall issue for said homestead. During the time said homestead is held by the allottee the same shall be nontaxable and shall not be liable for any debt contracted by the owner thereof while so held by him.

SEC. 14. Lands allotted to citizens shall not in any manner whatever or at any time be encumbered, taken, or sold to secure or satisfy any debt or obligation, or be alienated by the allottee or his heirs, before the expiration of five years from the date of the ratification of this act.

SEC. 15. All lands allotted to the members of said tribe, except such land as is set aside to each for a homestead as herein provided, shall be alienable in five years after issuance of patent.

SEC. 16. If for any reason an allotment should not be selected or a homestead designated by or on behalf of any member of the tribe, it shall be the duty of said Commission to make said selection and designation.

SEC. 17. In the making of allotments and in the designation of homesteads for members of said tribe, said Commission shall not be required to divide lands into tracts of less than the smallest legal subdivision provided for in section twelve hereof.

SEC. 18. It shall be unlawful after ninety days after the ratification of this act by the Cherokees for any member of the Cherokee tribe to enclose or hold possession of, in any manner, by himself or through another, directly or indirectly, more lands in value than that of one hundred and ten acres of average allottable lands of the Cherokee Nation, either for himself or for his wife, or for each of his minor children, if members of said tribe; and any member of said tribe found in such possession of lands, or having the same in any manner enclosed, after the expiration of ninety days after the date of the ratification of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

SEC. 19. Any person convicted of violating any of the provisions of section eighteen of this act shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, shall stand committed until such fine and costs are paid (such commitment not to exceed one day for every two dollars of said fine and costs), and shall forfeit possession of any property in question, and each day on which such offense is committed or continues to exist shall be deemed a separate offense.

The United States district attorney for the northern district is required to see that the provisions of said section eighteen are strictly enforced, and he shall immediately, after the expiration of the ninety days after the ratification of this act, proceed to dispossess all persons of such excessive holdings of lands and to prosecute them for so unlawfully holding the same, and the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall have authority to make investigations of all violations of section eighteen and make report thereon to the United States district attorney.

SEC. 20. If any person whose name appears upon the roll prepared as herein provided shall have died subsequent to the first day of September, nineteen hundred and two, and before receiving his allotment, the lands to which such person would have been entitled if living shall be allotted in his name, and shall, with his proportionate share of other tribal property, descend to his heirs according to the laws of descent and distribution as provided in chapter forty-nine of Mansfield s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas: Provided, That the allotment thus to be made shall be selected by a duly appointed administrator or executor. If, however, such administrator or executor be not duly and expeditiously appointed, or fails to act promptly when appointed, or for any other cause such selection be not so made within a reasonable and proper time, the Dawes Commission shall designate the lands thus to be allotted.

SEC. 21. Allotment certificates issued by the Dawes Commission shall be conclusive evidence of the right of an allottee to the tract of land described therein, and the United States Indian agent for the Union Agency shall, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, upon the application of the allottee, place him in possession of his allotment, and shall remove there from all per sons objectionable to him, and the acts of the Indian agent hereunder shall not be controlled by the writ or process of any court.

SEC. 22. Exclusive jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to determine all matters relative to the appraisement and the allotment of lands.

SEC. 23. All Delaware Indians who are members of the Cherokee Nation shall take lands and share in the funds of the tribe, as their rights may be determined by the judgment of the Court of Claims, or by the Supreme Court if appealed, in the suit instituted therein by the Delawares against the Cherokee Nation, and now pending; but if said suit be not determined before said Commission is ready to begin the allotment of lands of the tribe as herein provided, the Commission shall cause to be segregated one hundred and fifty-seven thousand six hundred acres of land, including lands which have been selected and occupied by Delawares in conformity to the provisions of their agreement with the Cherokees dated April eighth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, such lands so to remain, subject to disposition according to such judgment as may be rendered in said cause ; and said Commission shall thereupon proceed to the allotment of the remaining lands of the tribe as aforesaid. Said Commission shall, when final judgment is rendered, allot lands to such Delawares in conformity to the terms of the judgment and their individual rights there under. Nothing in this act shall in any manner impair the rights of either party to said con tract as the same may be finally determined by the court, or shall interfere with the holdings of the Delawares under their contract with the Cherokees of April eighth, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, until their rights under said contract are determined by the courts in their suit now pending against the Cherokees, and said suit shall be advanced on the dockets of said courts and determined at the earliest time practicable.

Reservations

SEC. 24. The following lands shall be reserved from the allotment of lands herein provided for:

• (a) All lands set apart for town sites by the provision of the act of Congress of June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight (Thirtieth Statutes, page four hundred and ninety-five), the provisions of the act of Congress of May thirty-first, nineteen hundred (Thirty-first Statutes, page two hundred and twenty-one), and by the provisions of this act.

• (b) All lands to which, upon the date of the ratification of this act, any rail road company may, under any treaty or act of Congress, have a vested right for right of way, depots, station grounds, water stations, stock yards, or similar uses only, connected with the maintenance and operation of the railroad.

• (c) All lands selected for town cemeteries not to exceed twenty acres each.

• (d) One acre of land for each Cherokee schoolhouse not included in town sites or herein otherwise provided for.

• (e) Four acres for Willie Halsell College at Vinita.

• (f ) Four acres for Baptist Mission school at Tahlequah.

• (g) Four acres for Presbyterian school at Tahlequah.

• (h) Four acres for Park Hill Mission school south of Tahlequah.

• (i) Four acres for Elm Springs Mission school at Barren Fork.

• (j) Four acres for Dwight Mission school at Sallisaw.

• (k) Four acres for Skiatook Mission near Skiatook.

• (1) Four acres for Lutheran Mission school on Illinois River north of Tahle quah.

• (in) Sufficient ground for burial purposes where neighborhood cemeteries are now located, not to exceed three acres each.

• (n) One acre for each church house outside of towns.

• (o) The square now occupied by the capitol building at Tahlequah.

• (p) The grounds now occupied by the national jail at Tahlequah.

• (q) The grounds now occupied by the Cherokee Advocate printing office at Tahlequah.

• (r) Forty acres for the Cherokee Male Seminary near Tahlequah.

• (s) Forty acres for the Cherokee Female Seminary at Tahlequah.

• (t) One hundred and twenty acres for the Cherokee Orphan Asylum on Grand River.

• (u) Forty acres for colored high school in Tahlequah district.

• (v) Forty acres for the Cherokee Insane Asylum.

• (w) Four acres for the school for blind, deaf, and dumb children near Fort Gibson.

The acre so reserved for any church or schoolhouse in any quarter section of land shall be located where practicable in a corner of such quarter section adjacent to the section lines thereof.

Provided, That the Methodist Episcopal Church South may, within twelve months after the ratification of this act, pay ten dollars per acre for the one hundred and sixty acres of land adjacent to the town of Vinita, and heretofore set apart by act of the Cherokee national council for the use of said church for missionary and educational purposes, and now occupied by Willie Halsell College (formerly Galloway College), and shall thereupon receive title thereto; but if said church fail so to do it may continue to occupy said one hundred and sixty acres of land as long as it uses same for the purposes aforesaid.

Any other school or college in the Cherokee Nation which claims to be entitled under the law to a greater number of acres than is set apart for said school or college by section twenty-four of this act may have the number of acres to which it is entitled by law. The trustees of such school or college shall, within sixty days after the ratification of this act, make application to the Secretary of the Interior for the number of acres to which such school or college claims to be entitled, and if the Secretary of the Interior shall find that such school or college is, under the laws and treaties of the Cherokee Nation in force prior to the ratification of this act, entitled to a greater number of acres of land than is provided for in this act, he shall so determine and his decision shall be final. The amount so found by the Secretary of the Interior shall be set apart for the use of such college or school as long as the same may be used for missionary and educational purposes : Provided, That the trustees of such school or college shall pay ten dollars per acre for the number of acres so found by the Secretary of the Interior and which have been heretofore set apart by act of the Cherokee national council for use of such school or college for missionary or educational purposes, and upon the payment of such sum within sixty days after the decision of the Secretary of the Interior said college or school may receive a title to such land.

 

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Laws, Decisions and Regulations Affecting the work of the Commissioners to Five Civilized Tribes, 1893-1906, Copyright 1906

Laws Affecting the Five Civilized Tribes

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