Public Number 258
AN ACT Making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes, and for other purposes, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and seven.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, and they are hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of paying the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes, and in full compensation for all offices the salaries for which are specially provided for herein for the service of the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nine teen hundred and seven, namely:
To enable the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to take action to suppress the traffic of intoxicating liquors among Indians, twenty-five thousand dollars, fifteen thousand dollars of which to be used exclusively in the Indian Territory and Oklahoma.
Indian Territory
For pay of Indian agent at the Union Agency, Indian Territory, three thousand dollars.
For special clerical force in the office of the United States Indian agent, Union Agency, and miscellaneous expenses in connection with entering of remittances received in account of payments of town lots and issuance of patents, and conveying same, ten thousand dollars.
For clerical work and labor connected with the sale and leasing of Creek and the leasing of Cherokee lands, thirty thousand dollars.
That there shall be reserved from allotment one acre of the unallotted lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes for each church under the control of or used exclusively by the Choctaw or Chickasaw freedmen; and there shall be reserved from allotment one acre of said lands for each school conducted by Choctaw or Chickasaw freedmen, under the supervision of the authorities of said tribes and officials of the United States, and patents shall issue, as provided by law, to the person or organization entitled to receive the same. There are also reserved such tracts from said lands as the Secretary of the Interior may approve for cemeteries; and such cemeteries may be reserved, respectively, for Indians, freedmen, and whites, as the Secretary may designate.
That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and empowered to segregate and reserve from allotment, and to cancel any filings or applications that may heretofore have been made with a view to allotting, the following-described lands, situate in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, to wit:
The northwest quarter of section twelve, in township five north, range fifteen east, containing in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres more or less.
That the provisions of sections fifty-six to sixty-three, inclusive, of the Act of Congress approved July first, nineteen hundred and two, entitled “An Act to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, and for other purposes,” be, and the same are hereby, made applicable to the lands above described, the same as if the said described lands had been made a part of the segregation as contemplated by said sections fifty-six to sixty-three, inclusive, of said above Act approved July first, nineteen hundred and two: Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, add to and make a part of the coal mining leases now in effect, and to which said lands are contiguous, the northwest quarter of section twelve, in township five north, of range fifteen east, Government subdivisions being followed as nearly as possible:
Provided further, That the holder or holders of the lease or leases to which such lands shall be added shall, before the same are added, pay the Indian or Indians who have filed upon or applied for such lands as their allotments, or who are in possession thereof, the value of the improvements placed on the land by said Indian or Indians, such value to be determined under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.
That there is appropriated, out of any money in the United States Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of one thousand two hundred and thirty-six dollars, to pay Toney E. Proctor two dollars per day in lieu of subsistence from August thirteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, until April twenty-third, nineteen hundred and one, while serving as town-site appraiser of Wagoner, Indian Territory, Creek Nation.
Removal of intruders, Five Civilized Tribes:
For the purpose of removing intruders and placing allottees in unrestricted possession of their allotments, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, twenty thousand dollars.
That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to make such contract as in his judgment seems advisable for the care of orphan Indian children at the Whittaker Home, Pry or Creek, Indian Territory, and for the purpose of carrying this provision into effect, the sum of ten thousand dollars, or so much thereof as is necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Ten thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary to be immediately available, in the payment of indebtedness already incurred, necessarily expended in suppressing the spread of smallpox in the Indian Territory during the fiscal year ended June thirtieth, nineteen hundred, all accounts to be first examined and approved by the Secretary of the Interior as just and reasonable before being paid.
To enable the Secretary of the Interior to carry out the provisions of the Act approved April twenty-first, nineteen hundred and four, for the removal of restrictions upon the alienation of lands of all allottees of the Five Civilized Tribes, eighteen thousand dollars : Provided, That so much as may be necessary may be used in the employment of clerical force in the office of the Com missioner of Indian Affairs.
For general incidental expenses of the Indian Service in the Indian Territory, and for pay of employees, eighteen thousand dollars.
To carry out the provisions of section ten of the supplemental agreements with the Creek Nation, as ratified by the Act of June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and two, and section thirty-seven of the Cherokee agreement, as ratified by the Act of July first, nineteen hundred and two, eight thousand dollars.
Inspector
For clerical and incidental expenses of the United States inspector s office, Indian Territory, in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-seven of the Act of 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,” ten thousand dollars.
To enable the Secretary of the Interior to investigate, or cause to be investigated, any lease of allotted land in the Indian Territory which he has reason to believe has been obtained by fraud, or in violation of the terms of existing agreements with any of the Five Civilized Tribes, as provided by the Act approved March third, nineteen hundred and five, ten thousand dollars.
Schools
For the maintenance, strengthening, and enlarging of the tribal schools of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations, and making provision for the attendance of children of parents of other than Indian blood therein, and the establishment of new schools under the control of the Department of the Interior, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be placed in the hands of the Secretary of the Interior, and disbursed by him under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe.
That the Court of Claims be, and is hereby, authorized and empowered, upon final determination of the case or cases involving the claim of the intermarried white persons in the Cherokee Nation to share in the common property of the Cherokee people, and to be enrolled for such purpose (being numbers four hundred and nineteen, four hundred and twenty, four hundred and twenty-one, and four hundred and twenty-two, on the docket of the United States Supreme Court for October term, nineteen hundred and five), to ascertain and determine the amount to be paid the attorney and counsel of record for the Cherokee Indians by blood in said cases, in reimbursement of necessary expenses incurred, and as reasonable compensation for services rendered in such proceedings not exceeding sixty thousand dollars. Such court shall further designate the persons, class, or body of persons by whom such payment should equitably be made and the fund or funds held by the United States out of which the same shall be paid and enter a decree for the amount so found; and the sum necessary to pay the same is hereby appropriated out of the fund or funds designated by the court, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall pay the same:
Provided, That notice of hearing of such application to determine such compensation shall be given the governor of the Cherokee Nation or the attorney of record thereof and the Secretary of the Interior, at least thirty days before the day of said hearing.
The amount awarded by the court when paid shall be in full for all expenses and services of said attorney and counsel in connection with the claim of the intermarried whites.
Five Civilized Tribes
For the completion of the work heretofore required by law to be done by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, two hundred thousand dollars. Said appropriation to be disbursed under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.
That the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes is hereby authorized to add the names of the following persons to the final roll of the citizens by blood of the Choctaw tribe: Malinda Pickens, Morris Battiest, and Samuel Sydney Burris; and the names of the following persons to the final roll of the citizens by blood of the Chickasaw tribe ; Rebecca Pitts, Maggie Wade; and the names of Nancy Bigknife, Alice Owen and her children, to the final roll of the citizens by blood of the Cherokee tribe, the said persons being either Choctaw, Chickasaw, or Cherokee Indians by blood, whose names, through neglect on their part or on the part of their parents, have been omitted from the tribal rolls : Pro ruled, That the enrollment of said persons by the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes shall not be objected to by the said tribes, and shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
That the Secretary of the Interior shall upon completion of the approved rolls, have prepared and printed in a permanent record book such rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes and that one copy of such record book shall be deposited in the office of the recorder in each of the recording districts for public inspection. That any person who shall copy any roll of citizenship of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, or Seminole tribes of Indians, prepared by or under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes or the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, whether completed or not, or any person who shall, directly or indirectly, exhibit, sell, offer to sell, give away, offer to give away, or in any manner or by any means offer to dispose of, or who shall have in his possession, any such roll or rolls, any copy of the same, or a copy of any portion thereof, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by imprisonment for not exceeding two years : Provided, That this Act shall not apply to any persons authorized by the Secretary of the Interior, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, or the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes to copy, exhibit, or use such rolls, or a copy thereof, for any purpose necessary or required by law.
No distinction shall be made in the enrollment of full-blood Mississippi Choctaws who have been identified by the United States Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, and who had removed to the Indian Territory prior to March fourth, nineteen hundred and six, and who shall furnish proof thereof.