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!
It is further agreed that there shall be appointed a commission for each of the two nations. Each commission shall consist of one member, to be appointed by the executive of the tribe for which said commission is to act, who shall not be interested in town property other than his home, and one to be appointed by the President of the United States. Each of said commissions shall lay out town sites, to be restricted as far as
possible to their present limits, where towns are now located in the nation for which said commission is appointed. Said commission shall have prepared correct and proper plats of each town, and file one in the clerk s office of the United States district court for the district in which the town is located, and one with the principal chief or governor of the nation in which the town is located, and one with the Secretary of the Interior, be
approved by him before the same shall take effect. When said towns are so laid out, each lot on which permanent, substantial, and valuable improvements, other than fences, tillage, and temporary houses, have been made, shall be valued by the commission provided for the nation in which the town is located at the price a fee-simple title to the same would bring in the market at the time the valuation is made, but not to include in such value
the improvements thereon. The owner of the improvements on each lot shall have the right to buy one residence and one business lot at fifty per centum of the appraised value of such improved property, and the remainder of such improved property at sixty-two and one-half per centum of the said market value within sixty days from date of notice served on him that such lot is for sale, and if he purchases the same he shall, within ten days
from his purchase, pay into the Treasury of the United States one-fourth of the purchase price, and the balance in three equal annual installments, and when the entire sum is paid shall be entitled to a patent for the same. In case the two members of the commission fail to agree as to the market value of any lot, or the limit or extent of said town, either of said commissioners may report any such disagreement to the judge of the district
in which such town is located, who shall appoint a third member to act with said commission, who is not interested in town lots, who shall act with them to determine said value.
If such owner of the improvements on any lot fails within sixty days to purchase and make the first payment on same, such lot, with the improvements thereon, shall be sold at public auction to the highest bidder, under the direc tion of the aforesaid commission, and the purchaser at such sale shall pay to the owner of the improvements the price for which said lot shall be sold, less sixty-two and one-half per cent of said appraised value of
the lot, and shall pay the sixty-two and one-half per cent of said appraised value into United States Treasury, under regulations to be established by the Secretary of the Interior, in four installments, as hereinbefore provided. The commission shall have the right to reject any bid on such lot which they consider below its value.
All lots not so appraised shall be sold from time to time at public auction (after proper advertisement) by the commission for the nation in which the town is located, as may seem for the best interest of the nations and the proper development of each town, the purchase price to be paid in four installments, as hereinbefore provided for improved lots. The commission shall have the right to reject any bid for such lots which they consider
below its value.
All the payments herein provided for shall be made under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior into the United States Treasury, a failure of sixty days to make any one payment to be a forfeiture of all payments made and all rights under the contract : Provided, That the purchaser of any lot shall have the option of paying the entire price of the lot before the same is due.
No tax shall be assessed by any town government against any town lot unsold by the commission, and no tax levied against a lot sold, as herein provided, shall constitute a lien on same till the purchase price thereof has been fully paid to the nation.
The money paid into the United States Treasury for the sale of all town lots be for the benefit of the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes (freedmen excepted), and at the end of one year from the ratification of this agreement, and at the end of each year thereafter, the funds so accumulated shall be divided and paid to the Choctaws and Chickasaws (f reedmen excepted), each member of the two tribes to receive an equal portion
thereof.
That no law or ordinance shall be passed by any town which interferes with the enforcement of or is in conflict with the laws of the United States in force in said Territory, and all persons in such towns shall be subject to said laws, and the United States agrees to maintain strict laws in the territory of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes against the introduction, sale, barter, or giving away of liquors and intoxicants of any kind or
quality.
That said commission shall be authorized to locate, within a suitable distance from each town site, not to exceed five acres to be used as a cemetery, and when any town has paid into the United States Treasury, to be part of the fund arising from the sale of town lots, ten dollars per acre there for, such town shall be entitled to a patent for the same, as herein provided for titles to allottees, and shall dispose of same at reasonable
prices in suitable lots for burial purposes, the proceeds derived from such sales to be applied by the town government to the proper improvement and care of said cemetery.
That no charge or claim shall be made against the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribes by the United States for the expenses of surveying and platting the lands and town sites, or for grading, appraising, and allotting the lands, or for appraising and disposing of the town lots as herein provided.
That the land adjacent to Fort Smith, and lands for court-houses, jails, and other public purposes excepted from allotment, shall be disposed of in the same manner and for the same purposes as provided for town lots herein, but not till the Choctaw and Chickasaw councils shall direct such disposition to be made thereof, and said land adjacent thereto shall be placed under the jurisdiction of the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, for police
purposes.
There shall be set apart and exempted from appraisement and sale in the towns lots upon which churches and parsonages are now built and occupied, not to exceed fifty feet front and one hundred feet deep for each church or parsonage : Provided, That such lots shall only be used for churches and parsonages, and when they cease to be used shall revert to the members of the tribes to be disposed of as other town lots: Provided further, That
these lots may be sold by the churches for which they are set apart if the purchase money there for is invested in other lot or lots in the same town, to be used for the same purpose and with the same conditions and limitations.
It is agreed that all the coal and asphalt within the limits of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations shall remain and be the common property of the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes (f reedmen excepted), so that each and every member shall have an equal and undivided interest in the whole ; and no patent provided for in this agreement shall convey any title thereto. The revenues from coal and asphalt, or so much as shall be
necessary, shall be used for the education of the children of Indian blood of the members of said tribes. Such coal and asphalt mines as are now in operation, and all others which may hereafter be leased and operated, shall be under the supervision and control of two trustees, who shall be appointed by the President of the United States, one on the recommendation of the principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, who shall be a Choctaw by blood,
whose term shall be for four years, and one on the recommendation of the governor of the Chickasaw Nation, who shall be a Chickasaw by blood, whose term shall be for two years ; after which the term of appointees shall be four years. Said trustees, or either of them, may at any time be removed by the President of the United States for good cause shown. They shall each give bond for the faithful performance of their duties, under such rules
as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. Their salaries shall be fixed and paid by their respective nations, each of whom shall make full report of all his acts to the Secretary of the Interior quarterly. All such acts shall be subject to the approval of said Secretary.
All coal and asphalt mines in the two nations, whether now developed or to be hereafter developed, shall be operated, and the royalties there from paid into the Treasury of the United States, and shall be drawn there from under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.
All contracts made by the national agents of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations for operating coal and asphalt with any person or corporation which were, on April twenty-third, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, being operated in good faith, are hereby ratified and confirmed, and the lessee shall have the right to renew the same when they expire, subject to all the provision of this act.
All agreements heretofore made by any person or corporation with any member or members of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations, the object of which was to obtain such member or members permission to operate coal, or asphalt, are hereby declared void : Provided, That nothing herein contained shall impair the rights of any holder or owner of a leasehold interest in any oil, coal rights, asphalt, or mineral which have been assented to by act of
Congress, but all such interests shall continue unimpaired hereby, and shall be assured by new leases from such trustees of coal or asphalt claims described therein by application to the trustees within six months after the ratification of this agreement, subject, however, to payment of advance royalties herein provided for.
All leases under this agreement shall include the coal or asphaltum or other mineral, as the case may be, in or under nine hundred and sixty acres, which shall be in a square as nearly as possible and shall be for thirty years. The royalty on coal shall be fifteen cents per ton of two thousand pounds on all coal mined, payable on the 25th day of the month next succeeding that in which it is mined. Royalty on asphalt shall be sixty cents per
ton, payable same as coal : Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior may reduce or advance royalties on coal and asphalt when he deems it for the best interests of the Choctaws and Chickasaws to do so. No royalties shall be paid except into the United States Treasury, as herein provided.
All lessees shall pay on each coal or asphalt claim at the rate of one hundred dollars per annum, in advance, for the first and second years ; two hundred dollars per annum, in advance, for the third and fourth years ; and five hundred dollars for each succeeding year thereafter. All such payments shall be treated as advanced royalty on the mine or claim on which they are made, and shall be a credit as royalty when each said mine is
developed and operated and its production is in excess of such guaranteed annual advance payments ; and all persons having coal leases must pay said annual advanced payments on each claim whether developed or undeveloped: Provided, however. That should any lessee neglect or refuse to pay such advanced annual royalty for the period of sixty days after the same becomes due and payable on any lease, the lease on which default is made shall
become null and void, and the royalties paid in advance thereon shall then become and be the money and property of the Choc-taw and Chickasaw nations.
In surface, the use of which is reserved to present coal operators, shall be included such lots in towns as are occupied by lessees houses either occupied by said lessees employees or as offices or warehouses: Provided, however, That in those town sites designated and laid out under the provision of this agreement where coal leases are now being operated and coal is being mined, there shall be reserved from appraisement and sale all lots
occupied by houses of miners actually engaged in mining, and only while they are so engaged, and in addition thereto a sufficient amount of land, to be determined by the town-site board of appraisers, to furnish homes for the men actually engaged in working for the lessees operating said mines and a sufficient amount for all buildings and machinery for mining purposes: And provided further, That when the lessees shall cease to operate said
mines, then and in that event the lots of land so re served shall be disposed of by the coal trustees for the benefit of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes.
That whenever the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes shall be required to pay taxes for the support of schools, then the fund arising from such royalties shall be disposed of for the equal benefit of their members (freedmen excepted) in such manner as the tribes may direct.
It is further agreed that the United States courts now existing, or that may hereafter be created, in the Indian Territory shall have exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies growing out of the titles, ownership, occupation, possession, or use of real estate, coal, and asphalt in the territory occupied by the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes ; and of all persons charged with homicide, embezzlement, bribery and embracery, breaches or
disturbances of the peace, and carrying weapons, hereafter committed in the territory of said tribe, without reference to race or citizenship of the person or persons charged with such crime ; and any citizen or officer of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations charged with such crime shall be tried and, if convicted, punished as though he were a citizen or officer of the United States.
And sections sixteen hundred and thirty-six to sixteen hundred and forty-four, inclusive, entitled " Embezzlement," and sections seventeen hundred and eleven to seventeen hundred and eighteen, inclusive, entitled " Bribery and embracery." of Mansfield s Digest of the Laws of Arkansas, are hereby extended over and put in force in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations; and the word "officer," where the same appears in said laws, shall include all
officers of the Choctaw and Chickasaw governments ; and the fifteenth section of the act of Congress entitled "An act to establish United States courts in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," approved March first, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, limiting jurors to citizens of the United States, shall be held not to apply to United States courts in the Indian Territory held within the limits of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations ;
and all members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, otherwise qualified, shall be competent jurors in said courts: Provided, That whenever a member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations is indicted for homicide, he may, within thirty days after such indictment and his arrest thereon, and before the same is reached for trial, file with the clerk of the court in which he is indicted his affidavit that he can not get a fair trial in said court
; and it thereupon shall be the duty of the judge of said court to order a change of venue in such case to the United States district court for the western district of Arkansas, at Fort Smith, Arkansas, or to the United States district court for the eastern district of Texas, at Paris, Texas, always selecting the court that in his judgment is nearest or most convenient to the place where the crime charged in the indictment is supposed to
have been committed, which courts shall have jurisdiction to try the case ; and in all said civil suits said courts shall have full equity powers ; and whenever it shall appear to said court, at any stage in the hearing of any case, that the tribe is in any way interested in the subject-matter in controversy, it shall have power to summon in said tribe and make the same a party to the suit and proceed therein in all respects as if such
tribe were an original party thereto ; but in no case shall suit be instituted against the tribal government without its consent.
It is further agreed that no act, ordinance, or resolution of the council of either the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribes, in any manner affecting the land of the tribe, or of the individuals, after allotment, or the moneys or other property of the tribe or citizens thereof (except appropriations for the regular and necessary expenses of the government of the respective tribes), or the rights of any persons to employ any kind of labor, or the
rights of any persons who have taken or may take the oath of allegiance to the United States, shall be of any validity until approved by the President of the United States. When such acts, ordinances, or resolutions passed by the council of either of said tribes shall be approved by the governor thereof, then it shall be the duty of the national secretary of said tribe to forward them to the President of the United States, duly certified
and sealed, who shall, within thirty days after their reception, approve or disapprove the same. Said acts, ordinances, or resolutions, when so approved, shall be published in at least two newspapers having a bona fide circulation in the tribe to be affected thereby, and when disapproved shall be returned to the tribe enacting the same.
It is further agreed, in view of the modification of legislative authority and judicial jurisdiction herein provided, and the necessity of the continuance of the tribal governments so modified, in order to carry out the requirements of this agreement, that the same shall continue for the period of eight years from the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. This stipulation is made in the belief that the tribal governments
so modified will prove so satisfactory that there will be no need or desire for further change till the lands now occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes shall, in the opinion of Congress, be prepared for admission as a State to the Union. But this provision shall not be construed to be in any respect an abdication by Congress of power at any time to make needful rules and regulations respecting said tribes.
That all per capita payments hereafter made to the members of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations shall be paid directly to each individual member by a bonded officer of the United States, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, which officer shall be required to give strict account of such disbursements to said Secretary.
That the following sum be, and is hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for fulfilling treaty stipulations with the Chickasaw Nation of Indians, namely :
For arrears of interest, at five per centum per annum, from December thirty-first, eighteen hundred and forty, to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, on one hundred and eighty-four thousand one hundred and forty-three dollars and nine cents of the trust fund of the Chickasaw Nation erroneously dropped from the books of the United States prior to- December thirty-first, eighteen hundred and forty, and restored December
twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, by the award of the Secretary of the Interior, under the fourth article of the treaty of June twenty-second, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, and for arrears of interest, at five per centum per annum, from March eleventh, eighteen hundred and fifty, to March third, eighteen hundred and ninety, on fifty-six thousand and twenty-one dollars and forty-nine cents of the trust fund of the
Chickasaw Nation erroneously dropped from the books of the United States March eleventh, eighteen hundred and fifty, and restored December twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, by the award of the Secretary of the Interior, under the fourth article of the treaty of June twenty-second, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, five hundred and fifty-eight thousand five hundred and twenty dollars and fifty-four cents, to be placed to the
credit of the Chickasaw Nation with the fund to which it properly belongs: Provided, That if there be any attorneys fees to be paid out of same, on contract heretofore made and duly approved by the Secretary of the Interior, the same is authorized to be paid by him.
It is further agreed that the final decision of the courts of the United States in the case of the Choctaw Nation and the Chickasaw Nation against the United States and the Wichita and affiliated bands of Indians, now pending, when made, shall be conclusive as the basis of settlement as between the United States and said Choctaw and Chickasaw nations for the remaining lands in what is known as the " Leased District," namely, the land lying
between the ninety-eighth and one hundredth degrees of west longitude and between the Red and Canadian rivers, leased to the United States by the treaty of eighteen hundred and fifty-five, except that portion called the Cheyenne and Arapahoe country, heretofore acquired by the United States, and all final judgments rendered against said nations in any of the courts of the United States in favor of the United States or any citizen thereof
shall first be paid out of any sum hereafter found due said Indians for any interest they may have in the so-called " Leased District."
It is further agreed that all of the funds invested, in lieu of investment, treaty funds, or otherwise, now held by the United States in trust for the Choc taw and Chickasaw tribes, shall be capitalized within one year after the tribal governments shall cease, so far as the same may legally be done, and be appropriated and paid, by some officer of the United States appointed for the purpose, to the Choctaws and Chickasaws (freedmen
excepted) per capita, to aid and assist them in improving their homes and lands.
It is further agreed that the Choctaws and Chickasaws, when their tribal governments cease, shall become possessed of all the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States.
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Laws, Decisions and Regulations Affecting the work of the Commissioners to Five Civilized Tribes, 1893-1906, Copyright 1906
