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!
Witnesseth, That in consideration of the mutual undertakings, herein contained, it is agreed as follows :
That all the lands within the Indian Territory belonging to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians shall be allotted to the members of said tribes so as to give to each member of these tribes so far as possible a fair and equal share thereof, considering the character and fertility of the soil and the location and value of the lands.
That all the lands set apart for town sites, and the strip of land lying between the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the Arkansas and Poteau rivers, extend ing up said river to the mouth of Mill Creek ; and six hundred and forty acres each, to include the buildings now occupied by the Jones Academy, Tushkahoma Female Seminary, Wheelock Orphan Seminary, and Armstrong Orphan Academy, and ten acres for the capitol building of the Choctaw
Nation ; one hundred and sixty acres each, immediately contiguous to and including the buildings known as Bloomfield Academy, Lebanon Orphan Home, Harley Institute, Rock Academy, and Collins Institute, and five acres for the capitol building in the Chickasaw Nation, and the use of one acre of land for each church house now erected outside of the towns, and eighty acres of land each for J. S. Murrow, H. R. Schermerhorn, and the widow of R.
S. Bell, who have been laboring as missionaries in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations since the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six, with the same conditions and limitations as apply to lands allotted to the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw T nations, and to be located on lands not occupied by a Choctaw or a Chickasaw, and a reason able amount of land, to be determined by the town-site commission, to include all court-houses and jails
and other public buildings not hereinbefore provided for, shall be exempted from division. And all coal and asphalt in or under the lands allotted and reserved from allotment shall be. reserved for the sole use of the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, exclusive of freedmen : Provided, That where any coal or asphalt is hereafter opened on land allotted, sold, or reserved, the value of the use of the necessary surface for
prospecting or mining, and the damage done to the other lands and improvements, shall be ascertained under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior and paid to the allottee or owner of the land by the lessee or party operating the same, before operations begin. That in order to such equal division, the lands of the Choc-taws and Chickasaws shall be graded and appraised so as to give to each member, so far as possible, an equal value
of the land : Provided further, That the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall make a correct roll of Chickasaw freedmen entitled to any rights or benefits under the treaty made in eighteen hundred and sixty-six between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes and their descendants born to them since the date of said treaty, and forty acres of land, including their present residences and improvements, shall be allotted
to each, to be selected, held, and used by them until their rights under said treaty shall be determined, in such manner as shall hereafter be pro vided by act of Congress.
That the lands allotted to the Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen are to be deducted from the portion to be allotted under this agreement to the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes so as to reduce the allotment to the Choctaws and Chickasaws by the value of the same.
That the said Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen who may be entitled to allotments of forty acres each shall be entitled each to land equal in value to forty acres of the average land of the two nations.
That in the appraisement of the lands to be allotted the Choctaw and Chicka saw tribes shall each have a representative, to be appointed by their respective executives, to cooperate with the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, or anyone making appraisements under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior in grading and appraising the lands preparatory to allotment. And the land shall be valued in the appraisement as if in its
original condition, excluding the improvements thereon.
That the appraisement and allotment shall be made under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and shall begin as soon as the progress of the surveys, now being made by the United States Government, will admit.
That each member of the Choc-taw and Chickasaw tribes, including Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen, shall, where it is possible, have the right to take his allotment on land the improvements on which belong to him, and such improvements shall not be estimated in the value of his allotment. In the case of minor children allotments shall be selected for them by their father, mother, guardian, or the administrator having charge of their estate,
preference being given in the order named, and shall not be sold during his (or her) minority. Allotments shall be selected for prisoners, convicts, and incompetents by some suitable per son akin to them, and due care taken that all persons entitled thereto have allotments made to them.
All the lands allotted shall be nontaxable while the title remains in the original allottee, but not to exceed twenty-one years from date of patent, and each allot tee shall select from his allotment a homestead on one hundred and sixty acres, for which he shall have a separate patent, and which shall be inalienable for twenty-one years from date of patent. This provision shall also apply to the Choctaw and Chickasaw freedman to the extent
of his allotment. Selections for homesteads for minors to be made as provided herein in case of allotment, and the remainder of the lands allotted to said members shall be alienable for a price to be actually paid, and to include no former indebtedness or obligation one-fourth of said remainder in one year, one-fourth in three years, and the balance of said alienable lands in five years from the date of the patent.
That all contracts looking to the sale or incumbrance in any way of the land of an allottee, except the sale hereinbefore provided, shall be null and void. No allottee shall lease his allotment, or any portion thereof, for a longer period than five years, and then without the privilege of renewal. Every lease which is not evidenced by writing, setting out specifically the terms thereof, or which is not recorded in the clerk s office of the
United States court for the district in which the land is located, within three months after the date of its execution, shall be void, and the purchaser or lessee shall acquire no rights whatever by an entry or holding there under, and no such lease or any sale shall be valid as against the allottee unless providing to him a reasonable compensation for the lands sold or leased.
That all controversies arising between the members of said tribes as to their right to have certain lands allotted to them shall be settled by the commission making the allotments.
That the United States shall put each allottee in possession of his allotment and remove all persons there from objectionable to the allottee.
That the United States shall survey and definitely mark and locate the ninety-eighth (98th) meridian of west longitude between Red and Canadian rivers before allotment of the lands herein provided for shall begin.
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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
