33 Stat. L. 573
AN ACT To provide for additional United States judges in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Sates of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, four additional judges of the United States court in the Indian Territory, one for the northern district, one for the western district, one for the central district, and one for the southern district. And said judges shall have all the authority and exercise all the powers, perform like duties, and receive the same salary as other judges of said court, and shall each serve for a term of four years from date of appointment, unless said offices are sooner abolished by law. Neither the additional judges, nor their successors in office, shall be members of the court of appeals for the Indian Territory, but they shall hold such courts, in their respective districts, as may be directed by the court of appeals of the Indian Territory, or majority of the judges thereof in vacation:
Provided, That none of said judges shall have power to appoint clerks of courts, United States commissioners, or United States constables in said districts, and hereafter at least three terms of court shall be held in each year, at each place of holding court in the Indian Territory, the times to be fixed in the manner now provided by law.
SEC. 2. All the laws of Arkansas heretofore put in force in the Indian Territory are hereby continued and extended in their operation, so as to embrace all persons and estates in said Territory, whether Indian, freedmen, or other wise, and full and complete jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the district courts in said Territory in the settlements of all estates of decedents, the guardianship of minors and incompetents, whether Indians, freedmen, or otherwise. That the sum of twenty thousand dollars is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the payment of salaries of the judges hereby authorized, the same to be immediately available.
Approved, April 28, 1904.