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 Provide for the Allotment of Lands in Severalty to Indians on the
Various Reservations (General Allotment Act or Dawes Act), Statutes at Large
24, 388-91,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That
in all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been, or shall hereafter be,
located upon any reservation created for their use, either by treaty stipulation
or by virtue of an act of Congress or executive order setting apart the same for
their use, the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized,
whenever in his opinion any reservation or any part thereof of such Indians is
advantageous for agricultural and grazing purposes, to cause said reservation,
or any part thereof, to be surveyed, or resurveyed if necessary, and to allot
the lands in said reservation in severalty to any Indian located thereon in
quantities as follows:
To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section;
To each single person over eighteen years of age,
one-eighth of a section;
To each orphan child under eighteen years of age,
one-eighth of a section; and
To each other single person under eighteen years now
living, or who may be born prior to the date of the order of the President
directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any reservation, one-sixteenth
of a section: Provided, That in case there is not sufficient land in any
of said reservations to allot lands to each individual of the classes above
named in quantities as above provided, the lands embraced in such reservation or
reservations shall be allotted to each individual of each of said classes pro
rata in accordance with the provisions of this act: And provided further,
That where the treaty or act of Congress setting apart such reservation provides
the allotment of lands in severalty in quantities in excess of those herein
provided, the President, in making allotments upon such reservation, shall allot
the lands to each individual Indian belonging thereon in quantity as specified
in such treaty or act: And provided further, That when the lands allotted
are only valuable for grazing purposes, an additional allotment of such grazing
lands, in quantities as above provided, shall be made to each individual.
SEC. 2. That all allotments set apart under the provisions of this act shall be
selected by the Indians, heads of families selecting for their minor children,
and the agents shall select for each orphan child, and in such manner as to
embrace the improvements of the Indians making the selection. where the
improvements of two or more Indians have been made on the same legal subdivision
of land, unless they shall otherwise agree, a provisional line may be run
dividing said lands between them, and the amount to which each is entitled shall
be equalized in the assignment of the remainder of the land to which they are
entitled under his act: Provided, That if any one entitled to an
allotment shall fail to make a selection with in four years after the President
shall direct that allotments may be made on a particular reservation, the
Secretary of the Interior may direct the agent of such tribe or band, if such
there be, and if there be no agent, then a special agent appointed for that
purpose, to make a selection for such Indian, which selection shall be allotted
as in cases where selections are made by the Indians, and patents shall issue in
like manner.
SEC. 3. That the allotments provided for in this act shall be made by special
agents appointed by the President for such purpose, and the agents in charge of
the respective reservations on which the allotments are directed to be made,
under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may from time
to time prescribe, and shall be certified by such agents to the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, in duplicate, one copy to be retained in the Indian Office and
the other to be transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior for his action, and
to be deposited in the General Land Office.
SEC. 4. That where any Indian not residing upon a reservation, or for whose
tribe no reservation has been provided by treaty, act of Congress, or executive
order, shall make settlement upon any surveyed or unsurveyed lands of the United
States not otherwise appropriated, he or she shall be entitled, upon application
to the local land-office for the district in which the lands arc located, to
have the same allotted to him or her, and to his or her children, in quantities
and manner as provided in this act for Indians residing upon reservations; and
when such settlement is made upon unsurveyed lands, the grant to such Indians
shall be adjusted upon the survey of the lands so as to conform thereto; and
patents shall be issued to them for such lands in the manner and with the
restrictions as herein provided. And the fees to which the officers of such
local land-office would have been entitled had such lands been entered under the
general laws for the disposition of the public lands shall be paid to them, from
any moneys in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, upon
a statement of an account in their behalf for such fees by the Commissioner of
the General Land Office, and a certification of such account to the Secretary of
the Treasury by the Secretary of the Interior.
SEC. 5. That upon the approval of the allotments provided for in this act by the
Secretary of the Interior, he shall cause patents to issue there for in the name
of the allottees, which patents shall be of the legal effect, and declare that
the United States does and will hold the land thus allotted, for the period of
twenty-five years, in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom
such allotment shall have been made, or, in case of his decease, of his heirs
according to the laws of the State or Territory where such land is located, and
that at the expiration of said period the United States will convey the same by
patent to said Indian, or his heirs as aforesaid, in fee, discharged of said
trust and free of all charge or encumbrance whatsoever: Provided, That
the President of the United States may in any case in his discretion extend the
period. And if any conveyance shall be made of the lands set apart and allotted
as herein provided, or any contract made touching the same, before the
expiration of the time above mentioned, such conveyance or contract shall be
absolutely null and void: Provided, That the law of descent and partition
in force in the State or Territory where such lands are situate shall apply
thereto after patents there for have been executed and delivered, except as
herein otherwise provided; and the laws of the State of Kansas regulating the
descent and partition of real estate shall, so far as practicable, apply to all
lands in the Indian Territory which may be allotted in severalty under the
provisions of this act: And provided further, That at any time after lands have
been allotted to all the Indians of any tribe as herein provided, or sooner if
in the opinion of the President it shall be for the best interests of said
tribe, it shall be lawful for the Secretary of the Interior to negotiate with
such Indian tribe for the purchase and release by said tribe, in conformity with
the treaty or statute under which such reservation is held, of such portions of
its reservation not allotted as such tribe shall, from time to time, consent to
sell, on such terms and conditions as shall be considered just and equitable
between the United States and said tribe of Indians, which purchase shall not be
complete until ratified by Congress, and the form and manner of executing such
release prescribed by Congress: Provided however, That all lands adapted
to agriculture, with or without irrigation so sold or released to the United
States by any Indian tribe shall be held by the United States for the sale
purpose of securing homes to actual settlers and shall be disposed of by the
United States to actual and bona fide settlers only tracts not exceeding one
hundred and sixty acres to any one person, on such terms as Congress shall
prescribe, subject to grants which Congress may make in aid of education: And
provided further, That no patents shall issue there for except to the person
so taking the same as and homestead, or his heirs, and after the expiration of
five years occupancy there of as such homestead; and any conveyance of said
lands taken as a homestead, or any contract touching the same, or lieu thereon,
created prior to the date of such patent, shall be null and void. And the sums
agreed to be paid by the United States as purchase money for any portion of any
such reservation shall be held in the Treasury of the United States for the sole
use of the tribe or tribes Indians; to whom such reservations belonged; and the
same, with interest thereon at three per cent per annum, shall be at all times
subject to appropriation by Congress for the education and civilization of such
tribe or tribes of Indians or the members thereof. The patents aforesaid shall
be recorded in the General Land Office, and afterward delivered, free of charge,
to the allottee entitled thereto. And if any religious society or other
organization is now occupying any of the public lands to which this act is
applicable, for religious or educational work among the Indians, the Secretary
of the Interior is hereby authorized to confirm such occupation to such society
or organization, in quantity not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in any
one tract, so long as the same shall be so occupied, on such terms as he shall
deem just; but nothing herein contained shall change or alter any claim of such
society for religious or educational purposes heretofore granted by law. And
hereafter in the employment of Indian police, or any other employees in the
public service among any of the Indian tribes or bands affected by this act, and
where Indians can perform the duties required, those Indians who have availed
themselves of the provisions of this act and become citizens of the United
States shall be preferred.
SEC. 6. That upon the completion of said allotments and the patenting of the
lands to said allottees, each and every number of the respective bands or tribes
of Indians to whom allotments have been made shall have the benefit of and be
subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which
they may reside; and no Territory shall pass or enforce any law denying any such
Indian within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. And every Indian
born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom allotments shall
have been made under the provisions of this act, or under any law or treaty, and
every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States who has
voluntarily taken up, within said limits, his residence separate and apart from
any tribe of Indians therein, and has adopted the habits of civilized life, is
hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled to all the
rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens, whether said Indian has
been or not, by birth or otherwise, a member of any tribe of Indians within the
territorial limits of the United States without in any manner affecting the
right of any such Indian to tribal or other property.
SEC. 7. That in cases where the use of water for irrigation is necessary to
render the lands within any Indian reservation available for agricultural
purposes, the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to
prescribe such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to secure a just
and equal distribution thereof among the Indians residing upon any such
reservation; and no other appropriation or grant of water by any riparian
proprietor shall permitted to the damage of any other riparian proprietor.
SEC. 8. That the provisions of this act shall not extend to the territory
occupied by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and Osage,
Miamies and Peorias, and Sacs and Foxes, in the Indian Territory, nor to any of
the reservations of the Seneca Nation of New York Indians in the State of New
York, nor to that strip of territory in the State of Nebraska adjoining the
Sioux Nation on the south added by executive order.
SEC. 9. That for the purpose of making the surveys and resurveys mentioned in
section two of this act, there be, and hereby is, appropriated, out of any
moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one hundred
thousand dollars, to be repaid proportionately out of the proceeds of the sales
of such land as may be acquired from the Indians under the provisions of this
act.
SEC. 10. That nothing in this act contained shall be so construed to affect the
right and power of Congress to grant the right of way through any lands granted
to an Indian, or a tribe of Indians, for railroads or other highways, or
telegraph lines, for the public use, or condemn such lands to public uses, upon
making just compensation.
SEC. 11. That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent the
removal of the Southern Ute Indians from their present reservation in
Southwestern Colorado to a new reservation by and with consent of a majority of
the adult male members of said tribe.
Approved, February, 8, 1887.
