While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
AN ACT To ratify and confirm an agreement with the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, and for other purposes."
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following agreement, made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes with the commissions representing the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians on the twenty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and two, be, and the same is hereby, ratified and confirmed, to wit:
Agreement Between The United
States And The Choctaws And Chickasaws
This agreement, by and between the United States, entered into in its behalf by Henry L. Dawes, Tarns Bixby, Thomas B. Needles, and Clifton R. Breckinridge, commissioners duly appointed and authorized thereunto, and the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians in Indian Territory, respectively, entered into in behalf of such Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes by Gilbert W. Dukes, Green
McCurtain, Thomas E. Sanguin, and Simon E. Lewis in behalf of the Choctaw tribe of Indians; and Douglas II. Johnston, Calvin J. Grant, Holmes Willis, Edward B. Johnson, and Benjamin H. Colbert in behalf of the Chickasaw tribe of Indians, commissioners duly appointed and authorized thereunto
Witnesseth that, in consideration of the mutual undertakings herein contained, it is agreed as follows:
1. Wherever used in this agreement the words "nations" and "tribes" shall each be held to mean the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations or tribes of Indians in Indian Territory.
2. The words "chief executives" shall be held to mean the principal chief of the Choctaw Nation and the governor of the Chickasaw Nation.
3. The words "member" or "members" and "citizen" or "citizens" shall be held to mean members or citizens of the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribe of Indians in Indian Territory, not including freedmen.
4. The term "Atoka agreement " shall be held to mean the agreement made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes with the commissioners representing the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians at Atoka, Indian Territory, and embodied in the act of Congress approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. (30 Stats., 495.)
5. The word "minor" shall be held to mean males under the age of twenty-one years and females under the age of eighteen years.
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 Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes for the Choc taw and Chickasaw nations, for particular tracts of land.
7. Every word in this agreement 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.
8. The terms "allottable lands" or "lands allottable" shall be deemed to mean all the lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes not herein reserved from allotment.
"This agreement was ratified by the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations at an election held September 25, 1902.
9. All lands belonging to the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes in the Indian Territory, except such as are herein reserved from allotment, shall be appraised at their true value: Provided, That in determining such value consideration shall not be given to the location thereof, to any mineral deposits, or to any timber except such pine timber as may have been heretofore estimated by the Com mission to the Five Civilized Tribes, and
without reference to improvements which may be located thereon.
10. The appraisement as herein provided shall be made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, and the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes shall each have a representative, to be appointed by the respective executives, to cooperate with the said Commission.
11. There shall be allotted to each member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes as soon as practicable after the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of his enrollment as herein provided, land equal in value to three hundred and twenty acres of the average allottable land of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, and to each Choctaw and Chickasaw freedman, as soon as practicable after the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of
his enrollment, land equal in value to forty acres of the average allottable land of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations ; 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. For the purpose of making allotments and designating homesteads hereunder, the forty-acre or quarter-quarter sub divisions 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.
12. Each member of said tribes shall, at the time of the selection of his allotment, designate as a homestead out of said allotment land equal in value to one hundred and sixty acres of the average allottable land of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, as nearly as may be, which shall be inalienable during the lifetime of the allottee, not exceeding twenty-one years from the date of certificate of allotment, and separate certificate
and patent shall issue for said home stead.
13. The allotment of each Choctaw and Chickasaw freedman shall be inalienable during the lifetime of the allottee, not exceeding twenty-one years from the date of certificate of allotment.
14. When allotments as herein provided have been made to all citizens and freedmen, the residue of lands not herein reserved or otherwise disposed of, if any there be, shall be sold at public auction under rules and regulations and on terms to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, and so much of the proceeds as may be necessary for equalizing allotments shall be used for that purpose, and the balance shall be paid into the
Treasury of t4ie United States to the credit of the Choctaws and Chickasaws and distributed per capita as other funds of the tribes.
15. Lands allotted to members and freedmen shall not be affected or encumbered by any deed, debt, or obligation of any character contracted prior to the time at which said land may be alienated under this act, nor shall said lands be sold except as herein provided.
16. All lands allotted to the members of said tribes, except such land as is set aside to each for a homestead as herein provided, shall be alienable after issuance of patent as follows : One-fourth in acreage in one year, one-fourth in acre age in three years, and the balance in five years; in each case from date of patent: Provided, That such land shall not be alienable by the allottee or his heirs at any time before the expiration
of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribal governments for less than its appraised value.
17. If for any reason an allotment should not be selected or a homestead designated by, or on behalf of, any member or freedman, it shall be the duty of said Commission to make said selection and designation.
18. In the making of allotments and in the designation of homesteads for members of said tribes, under the provisions of this agreement, said Commission shall not be required to divide lands into tracts of less than the smallest legal subdivision provided for in paragraph eleven hereof.
19. It shall be unlawful after ninety days after the date of the final ratification of this agreement for any member of the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribes to enclose or hold possession of in any manner, by himself or through another, directly or indirectly, more lands in value than that of three hundred and twenty acres of average allottable lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, as pro vided by the terms of this agreement, either
for himself or for his wife, or for each of his minor children, if members of said tribes ; and any member of said tribes 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 final ratification of this agreement, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
20. It shall be unlawful after ninety days after the date of the final ratification of this agreement for any Choctaw or Chickasaw freedman to enclose or hold possession of in any manner, by himself or through another, directly or indirectly, more than so much land as shall be equal in value to forty acres of the average allottable lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes as provided by the terms of this agreement, either for
himself or for his wife, or for each of his minor children, jf they be Choctaw or Chickasaw freedmen ; and any freedman 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 final ratification of this agreement, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
21. Any person convicted of violating any of the provisions of sections 19 and 20 of this agreement shall be punished by a fine not less than one hundred dollars, and 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. And the United States district attorneys for the districts in which said nations are situated are required to see that the provisions of said sections are strictly enforced, and they shall immediately after the expiration of ninety days after the date of the final ratification of this agreement proceed to dispossess all per sons 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 investigation of all violations of sections 10 and 20 of this agreement, and make report thereon to the United States district attorneys.
22. If any person whose name appears upon the rolls, prepared as herein pro vided, shall have died subsequent to the ratification of this agreement and before receiving his allotment of land, the lands to which such person would have been entitled if living shall be allotted in his name, and shall, together 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, how ever, 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 practicable time, the Commission to the Five
Civilized Tribes shall designate the lands thus to be allotted.
23. Allotment certificates issued by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall be conclusive evidence of the right of any allottee to the tract of land described therein ; and the United States Indian agent at the Union Agency Khali, upon the application of the allottee, place him in possession of his allotment, and shall remove there from all persons objectionable to such allottee, and the acts of the Indian agent hereunder
shall not be controlled by the writ or process of any court.
24. Exclusive jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes to determine, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, all matters relating to the allotment of land.
25. After the opening of a land office for allotment purposes in both the Choc taw and the Chickasaw nations any citizen or freedman of either of said nations may appear before the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes at the land office in the nation in which his land is located and make application for his allotment and for allotments for members of his family and for other persons for whom he is lawfully authorized to apply for
allotments, including home steads, and after the expiration of ninety days following the opening of such land offices any such applicant may make allegation that the land or any part of the land that he desires to have allotted is held by another citizen or person in excess of the amount of land to which said citizen or person is lawfully entitled, and that he desires to have said land allotted to him or members of his family as herein
provided; and thereupon said Commission shall serve notice upon the person so alleged to be holding land in excess of the lawful amount to which he may be entitled, said notice to set forth the facts alleged and the name and post-office address of the person alleging the same, and the rights and consequences herein provided, and the person so alleged to be holding land contrary to law shall be allowed thirty days from the date of the
service of said notice in which to appear at one of said land offices and to select his allotment and the allotments he may be lawfully authorized to select, including homesteads: and if at the end of the thirty days last provided for the person upon whom said notice has been served has not selected his allotment and allotments as provided, then the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall immediately make or reserve said allotments
for the person or persons w r ho have failed to act in accordance with the notice aforesaid, having due regard for the best interest of said allottees ; and after such allotments have been made or reserved by said Commission, then all other lands held or claimed, or previously held or claimed by said person or persons, shall be deemed a part of the public domain of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and be subject to disposition as such :
Provided, That any persons who have previously applied for any part of said lands shall have a prior right of allotment of the same in the order of their applications and as their lawful rights may appear.
If any citizen or freedman of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations shall not have selected his allotment within twelve months after the date of the opening of said land offices in said nations, if not herein otherwise provided, and provided that twelve months shall have elapsed from the date of the approval of his enrollment by the Secretary of the Interior, then the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes may immediately proceed to select an
allotment, including a homestead for such person, said allotment and homestead to be selected as the Commission may deem for the best interest of said person, and the same shall be of the same force and effect as if such selection had been made by such citi zen or freedman in person, and all lands held or claimed by persons for whom allotments have been selected by the Commission as provided, and in excess of the amount included in said
allotments, shall be a part of the public domain of-the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and be subject to disposition as such.
26. The following lands shall be reserved from the allotment of lands herein provided for:
All lands set apart for town sites either by the terms of the Atoka agreement, the act of Congress of May 31, 1900 (31 Stats., 221), as herein assented to, or by the terms of this agreement.
All lands to which, at the date of the final ratification of this agreement, any railroad 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 connected with the maintenance and operation of the railroad.
The strip of land lying between the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the Arkansas and Poteau rivers, extending up the said Poteau River to the mouth of Mill Creek.
All lands which shall be segregated and reserved by the Secretary of the Interior on account of their coal or asphalt deposits, as hereinafter provided. And the lands selected by the Secretary of the Interior at and in the vicinity of Sulphur, in the Chickasaw Nation, under the cession to the United States hereunder made by said tribes.
One hundred and sixty acres for Jones Academy.
One hundred and sixty acres for Tuskahoma Female Seminary.
One hundred and sixty acres for Wheelock Orphan Seminary,
One hundred and sixty acres for Armstrong Orphan Academy.
Five acres for capitol building of the Choctaw Nation.
One hundred and sixty acres for Bloomfield Academy.
One hundred and sixty acres for Lebanon Orphan Home.
One hundred and sixty acres for Harley Institute.
One hundred and sixty acres for Rock Academy.
One hundred and sixty acres for Collins Institute.
Five acres for the capitol building of the Chickasaw Nation.
Eighty acres for J. S. Murrow.
Eighty acres for H. R. Schermerhorn.
Eighty acres for the widow of R. S. Bell.
A reasonable amount of land, to be determined by the town-site commissioners, to include all tribal court-houses and jails and other tribal public buildings.
Five acres for any cemetery located by the town-site commissioners prior to the date of the final ratification of this agreement.
One acre for any church under the control of and used exclusively by the Choctaw or Chickasaw citizens at the date of the final ratification of this agreement.
One acre each for all Choctaw or Chickasaw schools under the super vision of the authorities of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations and officials of the United States.
And the acre so reserved for any church or school in any quarter section of land shall be located when practicable in a corner of such quarter section lying adjacent to the section line thereof.
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includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Laws, Decisions and Regulations Affecting the work of the Commissioners to Five Civilized Tribes, 1893-1906, Copyright 1906
