32 Stat. L., 982
For salaries of four commissioners appointed under acts of Congress approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, and March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, to negotiate with the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory, twenty thousand dollars : Provided, That said Commission shall exercise all the powers heretofore conferred upon it by Congress.
Expenses of commissioners and necessary expenses of employees, and three dollars per diem for expenses of a clerk detailed as special disbursing agent by the Interior Department while on duty with the Commission, shall be paid therefrom; for clerical help, including secretary of the Commission and interpreters (act of March third, nineteen hundred and one, volume thirty-one, page one thousand and seventy-four, section one), two hundred thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars; contingent expenses of the. Commission (same act), two thousand dollars: Provided further, That this appropriation may be used by said Commission in the prosecution of all work to be done by or under its direction as required by law; in all, two hundred and twenty-two thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars: And provided further. That not to exceed ten thousand eight hundred dollars of the above amount may be used in the temporary employment in the office of the Commissioner of Indian affairs of four clerks, at the rate of one thousand six hundred dollars per annum; one clerk, at the rate of one thousand four hundred dollars, and who shall be competent to examine records in disputed citizenship cases and law contests growing out of the work of said Commission, and in the temporary employment in said office of three competent stenographers, at the rate of one thousand dollars each per annum.
For personal and traveling expenses of the three judges of the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship court, five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary ; for one stenographer to each of said judges, to be appointed by them, respectively, at one hundred dollars per month each, three thousand six hundred dollars; for traveling expenses and subsistence of said stenographers, the reporter, and the bailiff of said court, not to exceed three dollars per day each, one thousand five hundred dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary ; in all, ten thousand one hundred dollars, to be immediately available.
The Supreme Court of the United States may transfer to the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship court the papers in the cases of Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship appealed from the United States courts in the Indian Territory to the Supreme Court during the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight.
That all causes transferred under section thirty-one of the Act of Congress of July first, nineteen hundred and two, entitled “An act to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, and for other purposes,” to the citizenship court for the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations provided in said act shall be tried and determined under the provisions of section thirty-two of said act and disposed of the same as if appealed to such court under the provisions of section thirty-two of the said act:
Provided, That upon the final determination of cases within the jurisdiction of said citizenship court said court may fix reasonable compensation to the attorneys employed by contract dated January seventeenth, nineteen hundred and one, with the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, and such determinations shall be made irrespective of the rate fixed in said contract between said attorneys and said nations, or either of them, unless the same shall have received the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. And upon the final determination of said cases by said citizenship court the Treasurer of the United States is hereby directed to pay to said attorneys on the warrant or warrants drawn by the Secretary of the Interior the amount of such compensation out of any funds in the Treasury belonging to said nations. And the existence of the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship court is hereby extended until December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and four.
To pay all expenses incident to the survey, platting, and appraisement of town sites in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee nations, Indian Territory, as required by sections fifteen and twenty-nine of an act entitled “An act for the protection of the people of the Indian Territory, and for other purposes,” approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and all acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto, twenty-five thousand dollars : Provided, That the money hereby appropriated shall be applied only to the expenses incident to the survey, platting, and appraisement of town sites heretofore set aside and reserved from allotment: And provided further, That nothing herein contained shall prevent the survey and platting, at their own expense, of town sites by private parties where stations are located along the lines of railroads, nor the unrestricted alienation of lands for such purposes, when recommended by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes and approved by the Secretary of the Interior. That hereafter the Secretary of the Interior may, whenever the chief executive of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations fails or refuses to appoint a town-site commissioner for any town, or to fill any vacancy caused by the neglect or refusal of the town-site commissioner appointed by the chief executive of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations to qualify or act, in his discretion, appoint a commissioner to fill the vacancy thus created.
That the sum of twenty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as is necessary, is hereby appropriated, to be immediately available, for the purpose of aiding indigent and identified full-blood Mississippi Choctaws to remove to the Indian Territory, to be expended at the discretion and under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.
SEC. 8. That the tribal government of the Seminole Nation shall not continue longer than March fourth, nineteen hundred and six : Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior shall at the proper time furnish the principal chief with blank deeds necessary for all conveyances mentioned in the agreement with the Seminole Nation contained in the act of July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight (Thirtieth Statutes, page five hundred and sixty-seven), and said principal chief shall execute and deliver said deeds to the Indian allottees as required by said act, and the deeds for allotment, when duly executed and approved, shall be recorded in the office of the Dawes Commission prior to delivery and without expense to the allottee until further legislation by Congress, and such records shall have like effect as other public records:
Provided further, That the homestead referred to in said act shall be inalienable during the lifetime of the allottee, not exceeding twenty-one years from the date of the deed for the allotment. A separate deed shall be issued for said homestead, and during the time the same is held by the allottee it shall not be liable for any debt contracted by the owner thereof.