This agreement, by and between the United States, entered into in its behalf by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, Henry L. Dawes, Tams Bixby, Thomas B. Needles, and Clifton R. Breckinridge, duly appointed and authorized thereunto, and the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians in Indian Territory, respectively, entered into in behalf of such Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes by Gilbert W. Dukes, Thos. D. Ainsworth, William W. Wilson, Alonzo J. Harkins, Cyrus B. Wade, Simon E. Lewis, and David C. McCurtain, in behalf of the Choctaw tribe of Indians, and Douglas H. Johnston, Calvin J. Grant, Holmes Willis, Edward B. Johnson, and John W. Connelly, in behalf of the Chickasaw tribe of Indians, duly appointed and authorized thereunto,
Witnesseth, that in consideration of the mutual undertakings herein contained it is agreed as follows:
DEFINITIONS.
1. Whenever used in this agreement the terms "nations" and "tribes" shall each be held to mean the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations or tribes of Indians in Indian Territory
2. The term "executives" shall be held to mean the governor of the Chickasaw Nation and the principal chief of the Choctaw Nation.
3. The terms "members" and "citizens" shall be held to mean recognized members or citizens of the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribes of Indians in Indian Territory, not including freedmen, who have been duly and lawfully enrolled or admitted as such.
4. The term "Atoka agreement" shall be held to mean the agreement made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes with the commissions representing the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, at Atoka, Indian Territory, on the twenty-third day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and embodied in the act of Congress approved June 28, 1898 (30 Stats., 495).
ROLLS OF CITIZENS.
5. The rolls of the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizens and of Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen shall be made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes as of September first, nineteen hundred and one.
6. No child born to any citizen or freedman after September first, nineteen hundred and one, nor any white person who intermarries with a Choctaw or Chickasaw citizen after said date, shall be entitled to enrollment.
7. No person whose name appears upon the rolls made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes as a citizen or freedman of any tribe shall be enrolled as a citizen or freedman of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations.
8. No person shall be enrolled who claims right to enrollment by virtue of a decision of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, or of a judgment of the United States court in Indian Territory admitting such applicant to citizenship in the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations under the act of Congress approved June 10, 1896 (29 Stats., 321), unless it appears to the said commission that notice of the institution of such suit had been given and decision or judgment rendered against both the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.
9. No application shall be received by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes of, or on behalf of, any person for enrollment as a citizen or freedman of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations after November thirtieth, nineteen hundred one.
10. Said rolls shall, except as herein provided, be made in strict compliance with the provisions of existing acts of Congress relating thereto.
11. For the purpose of making citizenship rolls as herein provided, the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes is vested with plenary power, and its judgment shall be deemed one of final review of all proceedings regarding citizenship matters, and said rolls, when so made, shall constitute the final rolls of the Choctaws and Chickasaws upon which allotment of lands and distribution of tribal property shall be made.
12. If any person whose name appears upon said final rolls shall, at the time of allotment of lands, be found to be dead, the lands to which such person would be entitled, if living, shall be allotted in his name, and shall, together with his proportionate share of other tribal property, descend to his heirs according to the law of descent and distribution, as provided in chapter 49 of Mansfield's Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas, provided that the allotment thus to be made shall be selected by a duly appointed administrator or executor. If however, such administrator or executor be not duly and expeditiously appointed or fails to act promptly when appointed, or if for any other cause such selection be not so made within a reasonable and practicable time, the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall designate the lands thus to be allotted.
MISSISSIPPI CHOCTAWS.
13. All persons heretofore identified by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes as Mississippi Choctaws, and whose names appear upon the schedule dated March 10, 1899, prepared by said commission under the provisions of the act of Congress approved June 28, 1898 (30 Stats., 495), and such full-blood Choctaw Indians residing in the State of Mississippi, and such full-blood Choctaw Indians as may have removed from the State of Mississippi to Indian Territory, as may be identified by said commission, shall alone constitute the "Mississippi Choctaws" entitled to benefits under this agreement.
14. All "Mississippi Choctaws," as herein defined, who shall remove to and in good faith establish their residence upon the lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes within six months after the ratification of this agreement shall be enrolled by said commission upon a separate roll designated "Mississippi Choctaws;" and lands equal in value to lands allotted to citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes shall be set apart for each of them. All such persons who reside continuously upon the lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes for a period of three years after enrollment as above provided shall, upon proof of such continuous residence, receive patents as provided in the Atoka agreement, and they shall hold the lands thus allotted to them as provided in the Atoka agreement for citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes.
15. If, at the end of three years after such enrollment, any such "Mississippi Choctaw" fails to make proof of continuous bona fide residence upon said lands as above provided, he shall be deemed to have acquired no interest in the lands thus set apart to him, and the said lands shall be sold at public auction for cash under rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior and the proceeds paid into the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. Such lands shall not be sold for less than their appraised value according to the appraisement provided for in the Atoka agreement. Upon payment of the full purchase price patent shall issue to the purchaser in accordance with the provisions of the Atoka agreement wherein it provides for patents to allottees.
CHICKASAW FREEDMEN.
16. The United States Court of Claims shall determine, upon suit instituted therein as hereinafter provided, the rights, if any, to which Chickasaw freedmen are entitled, under the treaty of 1866 between the United States and the Choctaws and Chickasaws, in and to the lands allotted or to be allotted to them under and by virtue of the terms of the Atoka agreement.
17. If the decision of the court is adverse to said freedmen, the Chickasaw tribe shall be compensated by the United States, at a rate per acre to be fixed by said court, for the lands allotted or to be allotted said Chickasaw freedmen under said Atoka agreement, after which such allotments shall become final.
18. The term "Chickasaw freedmen," as herein used, shall be held to mean those persons enrolled as such by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes under the provisions of said Atoka agreement, and none other.
19. Said suit shall be instituted in the name of the governor of the Chickasaw Nation for the benefit of the Chickasaw tribe against "Chickasaw freedmen" within sixty days after the ratification of this agreement by petition filed in said court specifically setting forth the laws and treaties relating to the question submitted.
20. A copy of such petition shall be published for four consecutive weeks in two newspapers published and of general circulation in the Chickasaw Nation, and such publication, upon proof thereof, shall be deemed sufficient service. Said "Chickasaw freedmen" may make answer to such petition in the name of a trustee to be selected by them within sixty days from and after the date of last publication of the petition as aforesaid, said trustee to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and in case a trustee is not selected and approved by said Secretary as herein provided, it shall be the duty of said Secretary to select counsel to represent the Chickasaw freedmen, and said counsel shall have sixty days after such selection to make answer to the petition herein referred to, and shall receive for services rendered such compensation as the Court of Claims may adjudge. A copy of the petition and answer, in either event, shall be served upon the Attorney-General of the United States.
21. The governor of the Chickasaw Nation shall employ counsel to represent the Chickasaws in such suit, and compensation therefor shall be fixed by the Court of Claims and paid out of the tribal funds of the Chickasaws in the hands of the Government of the United States at the Treasury of the United States.
TOWN SITES.
22. The Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes hereby assent to the act of Congress approved May 31, 1900 (31 Stat., 221), in so far as it pertains to town sites in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, ratifying and confirming all acts of the Government of the United States thereunder, and consent to a continuance of the provisions of said act not in conflict with the terms of this agreement.
23. As to those town sites heretofore set aside by the Secretary of the Interior on the recommendation of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, as provided in said act of Congress of May 31, 1900, such additional acreage may be added thereto in like manner as the original town site was set apart, as in the judgment of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes may be necessary for the present needs and reasonable prospective growth of town sites, not to exceed six hundred and forty acres for each town.
24. The lands which may hereafter be set aside and reserved for town sites upon the recommendation of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes under the provisions of said act of May 31, 1900, shall embrace such acreage as in the judgment of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes may be necessary for the present needs and reasonable prospective growth of said towns, not to exceed six hundred and forty acres for each town.
25. Whenever any tract of land shall be set aside for town-site purposes, as provided in said act of May 31, 1900, or by the terms of this agreement, which is occupied by any member of the tribe, such occupant shall be fully compensated for his improvements thereon out of the funds of the tribes arising from the sale of town sites, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, the value of such improvements to be determined by a board of appraisement, one member of which shall be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, one by the chief executive of the tribe in which the town site is located, and one by the occupant of the land.
26. All town sites in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, whether set aside or established under the provisions of said act of May 31, 1900, or otherwise, shall be appraised and sold strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Atoka agreement, as embodied in the act of June 28, 1898 (30 Stats., 495): Provided, That in town sites set aside and established under the provisions of the said act of May 31, 1900, and of this agreement the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes shall receive the full appraised value of all lots upon which improvements, as defined by said Atoka agreement, have been made prior to November 1, 1901, and that lots upon which improvements may be placed subsequent to that date shall be sold as though no improvements had been placed thereon.
27. There shall be appointed, in the manner provided in said Atoka agreement for appointment of town-site commissions, such additional town-site commissions as the Secretary of the Interior may deem necessary for the speedy disposal of all town sites in said nations: Provided, That the jurisdiction of said additional town-site commissions shall extend to such town sites only as shall be designated by the Secretary of the Interior.
28. Upon payment of the full amount of the purchase price of any lot in any town site in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, appraised and sold as herein provided, the chief executives of said nations shall jointly execute, under their hands and the seals of the respective nations, and deliver to the purchaser of said lot a patent conveying to him all right, title, and interest of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations in and to said lot.
29. All town lots in any one town site to be conveyed to one person shall, as far as practicable, be included in one patent, and all patents shall be executed free of charge to the grantee.
30. All lands which may have been heretofore set aside, or which may be hereafter set aside, for town-site purposes under the provisions of said act of May 31, 1900, and the terms of this agreement, shall, immediately upon being so set aside, be taken possession of by the Secretary of the Interior, and before said town site is appraised and sold as herein provided no person, company, or corporation shall erect any building or place any improvements of any character on any lands, lots, or parcels of ground within the established limits of said town site, unless said person, company, or corporation shall have first obtained from said Secretary a permit, which shall be nontransferable.
31. Before said permit is issued the person, company, or corporation applying therefor shall deposit with said Secretary the sum of twenty-five dollars for each lot and parcel of ground upon which he or it desires to build or erect improvements.
32. Should said person, company, or corporation build or erect improvements upon said lot or parcel of ground, said twenty-five dollars shall be credited on the purchase price of said lot or parcel of ground.
33. If said person, company, or corporation fail to build or erect improvements upon said lot or parcel of ground before the first day of November, 1901, the permit which he or it has received shall be cancelled and the twenty-five dollars deposited as aforesaid shall be forfeited and paid by said Secretary into the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes.
34. No permit, as hereinbefore provided for, shall be issued by said Secretary after the first day of November, nineteen hundred and one.
MISCELLANEOUS.
35. The acceptance of patents for minors, prisoners, convicts, and incompetents by persons authorized to select their allotments for them shall be sufficient to bind such minors, prisoners, convicts, and incompetents as to the conveyance of all other lands of the tribes.
36. All patents when executed shall be recorded in the office of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes within said nation in a book appropriate for the purpose until such time as Congress shall make other suitable provision for record of land titles, as provided in the Atoka agreement, without expense to the grantee; and such records shall have like effect as other public records.
37. The provisions of section 3 of the act of Congress approved June 28, 1898 (30 Stats., 495), shall not apply to or in any manner affect the lands or other property of the Choctaws and Chickasaws.
38. A certificate of allotment issued by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall be conclusive evidence of the right of the allottee named therein to the unrestricted possession and occupancy of the land described in said certificate, and it shall be the duty of the United States Indian agent, Union Agency, upon the written request of said allottee, accompanied by such allotment certificate, or a certified copy thereof, to enforce the following provision of the Atoka agreement:
39. No act of Congress or treaty provision, nor any provision of the Atoka agreement, inconsistent with this agreement, shall be in force in said Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.
40. The allotment of Choctaw and Chickasaw lands to the members of said tribes, provided for by the terms of the Atoka agreement, shall be made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes in conformity with the areas and boundaries established by the Government survey; and in no instance shall said commission be required to subdivide lands into tracts of less than ten acres.
41. Allotments may be selected and homesteads designated for minors by a guardian or curator, or by the father or mother, if members, or the administrator having charge of their estates, in order named; and for prisoners, convicts, and aged and infirm persons by duly appointed agents under power of attorney; and for incompetents by guardians, curators, or other suitable persons akin to them; but it shall be the duty of said commission to see that such selections are made for the best interests of such parties.
42. No allotment of land or other tribal property shall be made to anyone or to the heirs or assigns of anyone whose name is on said rolls and who died prior to September 1, 1901. All such lands and other tribal property shall revert to the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, to be disposed of as may be provided by law; and any person or persons who may conceal the death of anyone on said rolls as aforesaid, for the purpose of profiting by said concealment, or who shall knowingly receive any portion of any land or other tribal property, or of the proceeds thereof, arising from any allotment prohibited by this section, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and shall be proceeded against as may be provided in other cases of felony, and the penalty for this offense shall be confinement at hard labor for a period of not less than one year nor more than five years, and in addition thereto the forfeiture to the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations of all lands and other tribal property and the proceeds so obtained.
43. All controversies arising between members as to their right to select particular tracts of land shall be determined by said Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes.
44. This agreement shall be binding upon the United States and upon the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and all Choctaws and Chickasaws when ratified by Congress and by a majority of the whole number of votes cast by the legal voters of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, in the manner following: The principal chief of the Choctaw Nation and the governor of the Chickasaw Nation shall, within ten days after the ratification of this agreement by Congress, make public proclamation that the same shall be voted upon at a special election to be held for that purpose within thirty days thereafter, on a certain day therein named; and all male citizens of each of said tribes qualified to vote under tribal laws shall have a right to vote at the election precinct most convenient to his residence, whether the same be within the bounds of his tribe or not.
45. The votes cast in both said tribes or nations shall be forthwith returned and duly certified by the precinct officers to the national secretaries of said tribes, and shall be presented by said national secretaries to a board of commissioners consisting of the principal chief and the national secretary of the Choctaw Nation, the governor and national secretary of the Chickasaw Nation, and two members of the commission to the Five Civilized Tribes; and said board shall meet without delay at Atoka, Indian Territory, and canvass and count said votes and make proclamation of the result.
In witness whereof the said commissioners do hereunto affix their names, at Muskogee, Indian Territory, this the seventh day of February, nineteen hundred and one.
Henry L. Dawes,
Tams Bixby,
Thomas B. Needles,
Clifton R. Breckinridge,
United States Commissioners.
Douglas H. Johnston,
Governor and ex officio Chairman.
Calvin J. Grant,
Holmes Willis,
Edward B. Johnson,
John W. Connelly,
Chickasaw Commissioners.
Gilbert W. Dukes,
Principal Chief and ex officio Chairman.
Thos. D. Ainsworth,
Wm. W. Wilson,
Alonzo J. Harkins,
Cyrus B. Wade,
Simon E. Lewis,
David C. McCurtain,
Choctaw Commissioners.