Creek Agreement, Titles

23. Immediately after the ratification of this agreement by Congress and the tribe the Secretary of the Interior shall furnish the principal chief with blank deeds necessary for all conveyances herein provided for, and the principal chief shall thereupon proceed to execute in due form and deliver to each citizen who has selected or may hereafter select his allotment, which is not contested, a deed conveying to him all right, title, and interest of the Creek Nation and of all other citizens in and to the lands embraced in his allotment certificate, and such other lands -as may have been selected by him for equalization of his allotment.

The principal chief shall, in like manner and with like effect, execute and deliver to proper parties deeds of conveyance in all other cases herein provided for. All lands or town lots to be conveyed to any one person shall, so far as practicable, be included in one deed, and all deeds shall be executed free of charge.

All conveyances shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, which shall serve as a relinquishment to the grantee of all the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to the lands embraced in his deed.

Any allottee accepting such deed shall be deemed to assent to the allotment and conveyance of all the lands of the tribe, as provided herein, and as a relinquishment of all his right, title, and interest in and to the same, except in the proceeds of lands reserved from allotment.

The acceptance of deeds of minors and incompetents, by persons authorized to select their allotments for them, shall be deemed sufficient to bind such minors and incompetents to allotment and conveyance of all other lands of the tribe, as provided herein.

The transfer of the title of the Creek tribe to individual allottees and to other persons, as provided in this agreement, shall not inure to the benefit of any railroad company, nor vest in any railroad company any right, title, or interest in or to any of the lands in the Creek Nation.

All deeds when so executed and approved shall be filed in the office of the Dawes Commission, and there recorded without expense to the grantee, and such records shall have like effect as other public records.

Reservations

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

• All lands herein set apart for town sites.

• All lands to which, at the date of the 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.

• Forty acres for the Eufaula High School.

• Forty acres for the Wealaka Boarding School.

• Forty acres for the Newyaka Boarding School.

• Forty acres for the Wetumka Boarding School.

• Forty acres for the Euchee Boarding School, (h) Forty acres for the Coweta Boarding School, Forty acres for the Creek Orphan Home.

• Forty acres for the Tallahassee Colored Boarding School.

• Forty acres for the Pecan Creek Colored Boarding School.

• Forty acres for the Colored Creek Orphan Home.

• All lands selected for town cemeteries, as herein provided.

• The lands occupied by the university established by the American Baptist Home Mission Society, and located near the town of Muskogee, to the amount of forty acres, which shall be appraised, excluding improvements thereon, and said university shall have the right to purchase the same by paying one-half the appraised value thereof, on terms and conditions herein provided. All improvements made by said university on lands in excess of said forty acres shall be appraised and the value thereof paid to it by the person to whom such lands may be allotted.

• One acre each for the six established Creek court-houses, with the improvements thereon.

• One acre each for all churches and schools outside of towns now regularly used as such.

All reservations under the provisions of this agreement, except as otherwise provided herein, when not needed for the purposes for which they are at present used, shall be sold at public auction to the highest bidder, to citizens only, under directions of the Secretary of the Interior.

Municipal Corporations

25. Authority is hereby conferred upon municipal corporations in the Creek Nation, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to issue bonds and borrow money thereon for sanitary purposes, and for the construction of sewers, lighting plants, waterworks, and schoolhouses, subject to all the provisions of laws of the United States in force in the organized Territories of the United States in reference to municipal indebtedness and issuance of bonds for public purposes ; and said provisions of law are hereby put in force in said nation and made applicable to the cities and towns therein the same as if specially enacted in reference thereto.

Claims

26. All claims of what so ever nature, including the " Loyal Creek claim " under article four of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and the " Self-emigration claim " under article twelve of the treaty of eighteen hundred and thirty-two, which the tribe or any individual thereof may have against the United States, or any other claim arising under the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, or any claim which the United States may have against said tribe, shall be submitted to the Senate of the United States for determination ; and within two years from the ratification of this agreement the Senate shall make final determination thereof ; and in the event that any sums are awarded the said tribe, or any citizen thereof, provision shall be made for immediate payment of same.

Of these claims the " Loyal Creek claim," for what they suffered because of their loyalty to the United States Government during the civil war, long delayed, is so urgent in its character that the parties to this agreement express the hope that it may receive consideration and be determined at the earliest practicable moment.

Any other claim which the Creek Nation may have against the United States may be prosecuted in the Court of Claims of the United States, with right of appeal to the Supreme Court; and jurisdiction to try and determine such claim is hereby conferred upon said courts.

Funds Of The Tribe

27. All treaty funds of the tribe shall hereafter be capitalized for the purpose of equalizing allotments and for other purposes provided in this agreement.

Rolls Of Citizenship

28. No person, except as herein provided, shall he added to the rolls of citizenship of said tribe after the date of this agreement, and no person whomsoever shall be added to said rolls after the ratification of this agreement.

All citizens who were living on the first day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, entitled to be enrolled under section twenty-one of the act of Congress approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, entitled "An act for the protection of the people of the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," shall be placed upon the rolls to he made by said Com mission under said act of Congress, and if any such citizen has died since that time, or may hereafter die, before receiving his allotment of lands and distributive share of all the funds of the tribe, the lands and money to which he would be entitled, if living, shall descend to his heirs according to the laws of descent and distribution of the Creek Nation, and be allotted and distributed to them accordingly.

All children born to citizens so entitled to enrollment, up to and including the first day of July, nineteen hundred, and then living, shall be placed on the rolls made by said Commission; and if any such child die after said date, the lands and moneys to which it would be entitled, if living, shall descend to its heirs according to the laws of descent and distribution of the Creek Nation, and be allotted and distributed to them accordingly.

The rolls so made by said Commission, when approved by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be the final rolls of citizenship of said tribe, upon which the allotment of all lands and the distribution of all moneys and other property of the tribe shall be made, and to no other persons.

29. Said Commission shall have authority to enroll as Creek citizens certain full-blood Creek Indians now residing in the Cherokee Nation, and also certain lull-blood Creek Indians now residing in the Creek Nation who have recently removed there from the State of Texas, and families of full-blood Creeks who now reside in Texas, and such other recognized citizens found on the Creek rolls as might, by reason of nonresidence, be excluded from enrollment by section twenty-one of said act of Congress approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight: Provided, That such nonresidents shall, in good faith, remove to the Creek Nation before said Commission shall complete the rolls of Creek citizens as aforesaid.

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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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