Appropriation Act of May 27, 1902, 32 Stat. L. 245

For salaries of four commissioners appointed under acts of Congress, approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, and March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, to negotiate with the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory, twenty thousand dollars : Provided, That said Commission shall exercise all the powers heretofore conferred upon it by Congress : Provided further, That all children born to duly enrolled and recognized citizens of the Creek Na tion up to and including the twenty-fifth day of May, nineteen hundred and one, and then living, shall be added to the rolls of citizenship of said nation made under the provisions of an act entitled "An act to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Muscogee or Creek tribe of Indians, and for other purposes," approved March first, nineteen hundred and one, and if any such child has died since the twenty-fifth day of May, nineteen hundred and one, or may hereafter die, before receiving his allotment of land and distributive share of the funds of the tribe, the lands and moneys to which he would be entitled if living shall descend to his heirs and be allotted and distributed to them accordingly : And pro vided further, That the act entitled "An act to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Muscogee or Creek tribe of Indians, and for other purposes," approved March first, nineteen hundred and one, in so far as it provides for descent and distribution according to the laws of the Creek Nation, is hereby repealed, and the descent and distribution of lands and moneys provided for in said act shall be in accordance with the provisions of chapter forty-nine of Mansfield s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas in force in Indian Territory.

For expenses of commissioners and necessary expenses of employees, and three dollars per diem for expenses of a clerk detailed as special disbursing agent by the Interior Department while on duty with the Commission, shall be paid there from, for clerical help, including secretary of the Commission and interpreters (act of March third, nineteen hundred and one, volume thirty-one, page one thousand and seventy-four, section one), ninety three thousand dollars; contingent expenses of the Commission (same act), two thousand dollars: Provided further, That this appropriation may be used by said Commission in the prosecution of all work to be done by or under its direction as required by- law ; and said commissioners shall at once make an itemized statement to the Secretary of the Interior of all their expenditures up to January first, nineteen hundred and one, and annually thereafter: And provided further, That not to exceed ten thousand four hundred dollars of the above amount may be used in the temporary employment in the office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of three clerks, at the rate of one thousand six hundred dollars per annum ; one clerk, At the rate of one thousand four hundred dollars, and one clerk at the rate of one thousand two hundred dollars, who shall be competent to examine records in disputed citizenship cases and law contests growing out of the work of said Com mission, and in the temporary employment in said office of three competent stenographers, at the rate of one thousand dollars each per annum.

To pay all expenses incident to the survey, platting, and appraisement of town sites in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee nations, Indian Territory, as required by sections fifteen and twenty-nine of an act entitled "An act for the protection of the people of the Indian Territory, and for other pur poses," approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and all acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto, fifty thousand dollars: Provided, That hereafter the Secretary of the Interior may, whenever the chief executive of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations fails or refuses to appoint a town-site commissioner for any town, or to fill any vacancy caused by the neglect or refusal of the town-site commissioner appointed by the chief executive of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations to qualify or act, in his discretion, appoint a commissioner to fill the vacancy thus created : Provided further, That the limits of such towns in the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw nations having a population of less than two hundred people, as in the judgment of the Secretary of the Interior should be established, shall be defined as early as practicable by the Secretary of the Interior in the same manner as provided for towns having over two hundred people under existing law, and the same shall not be subject to allotment. That the land so segregated and reserved from allotment shall be disposed of, in such manner as the Secretary of the Interior may direct, by a town-site commission, one member to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior and one by the executive of the nation in which such land is located ; proceeds arising from the disposition of such lands to be applied in like manner as the proceeds of other lands in town sites.

For the purpose of removing intruders and placing allottees in unrestricted possession of their allotments, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior and to be immediately available, fifteen thousand dollars ; in all, one hundred and sixty thousand dollars: Provided,  That it shall hereafter be unlawful to remove or deport any person from the Indian Territory who is in lawful possession of any lots or parcels of land in any town or city in the Indian Territory which has been designated as a town site under existing laws and treaties, and no part of this appropriation shall be used for the deportation or removal of any such person from the Indian Territory : Provided, That the just and reasonable share of each member of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee nations of Indians, in the lands belonging to the said tribes, which each member is entitled to hold in his possession until allotments are made, as provided in the act entitled "An act for the protection of the people of the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, be, and the same is hereby, declared to be three hundred and twenty acres for each member of the Chickasaw Nation, three hundred and twenty acres for each member of the Choctaw Nation, one hundred and sixty acres for each member of the Creek Nation, and one hundred acres for each member of the Cherokee Nation.

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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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