February 7, 1901
The agreement bearing date the 7th day of February, 1901, negotiated between the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, on the part of the United States, and certain persons as commissioners on behalf of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, is hereby amended to read as herein set forth, and as so amended is hereby ratified, subject to the ratification thereof by the legal voters of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations in the manner therein provided, and if so ratified by the voters of said nations shall take effect and be in force from and after the date of the proclamation of the result of the vote thereon, as provided therein. As so amended the said agreement is as follows:
AGREEMENT.
This agreement, by and between the United States, entered into in its behalf by Henry L. Dawes, Tams Bixby, Thomas B. Needles, and Clifton R. Breckinridge, commissioners 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 1». Johnson, and John W. Connelly, in behalf of the Chickasaw tribe of Indians, commissioners duly appointed and authorized thereunto.
Witnesseth, That in consideration of the mutual undertakings herein contained, it is agreed as follows:
DEFINITIONS.
1. Wherever 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 Stat., 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 other tribe shall be enrolled as a citizen or freedman of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations.
8. It being claimed and insisted by the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations that the United States courts in Indian Territory, acting under the act of Congress approved June 10, 1896, have admitted persons to citizenship, or to enrollment as such citizens, in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, respectively, without notice of the proceeding in such courts being given to each of said nations, and it being insisted by said nations that in such proceedings notice to each of said nations was indispensable, and it being desirable to finally determine this question, either of said nations may, within ninety days after this agreement becomes effective, by a bill in equity filed in the United States court for the southern district of Indian Territory, seek the annulment and vacation of all such decisions by said courts. The other of said nations shall be a party defendant to such suit, and ten persons so admitted to citizenship or enrollment by said courts, with notice to one but not to both of said nations, shall be made defendants to said suit as representatives of the entire class of persons similarly situated, the number of such persons being too numerous to require all of them to be made individual parties to the suit; but any person so situated may, upon his application, be made a party defendant to the suit.
Notice of the institution of said suit shall be personally served upon the chief executive of the defendant nation and upon each of said ten representative defendants, and shall also be published for a period of four weeks in at least two weekly newspapers having general circulation in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. Such notice shall set forth the nature and prayer of the bill, with the time for answering the same, which shall not be less than thirty days after the last publication. Full jurisdiction and authority to entertain said suit and finally determine said question is hereby conferred upon said court. Any party feeling aggrieved by the decision of said court may appeal directly to the Supreme Court of the United States within ninety days thereafter. Said suit shall take precedence on the dockets of both courts, and shall be determined at the earliest practicable time. Said suit shall be confined to a final determination of the question of law here named, and shall be without prejudice to the determination of any charge or claim that the admission of such persons to citizenship or enrollment by said United States courts in Indian Territory was obtained by fraudulent practices.
In the event it shall be finally determined that the courts in Indian Territory were without jurisdiction to admit persons to citizenship, or to enrollment as citizens in either of said nations, in the absence of notice of such court proceedings to both nations, all persons who are thus deprived of a favorable judgment upon their citizenship, may, at any time within ninety days from the time such question is so finally determined, apply to the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes for admission to citizenship or to enrollment as citizens in the Choctaw or Chickasaw Nation, and the commission shall speedily and finally determine the merits of such applications, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.
The United States courts in IndianTerritory shall have full jurisdiction of suits to annul and vacate judgments of such courts under the act of Congress of June 10, 1896, admitting persons to citizenship or to enrollment as citizens in either of said nations where it is charged and claimed that such judgments were obtained by fraudulent practices, but such suits can only be instituted by one or the other of said nations before September 1, 1901. Such suits shall take precedence upon the dockets of said courts and shall be as speedily determined as may be consistent with due consideration of the rights of all parties.
9. Except as provided in article eight hereof, no application shall be received by the Commission to the Five CivilizedTribes from or on behalf of any person for enrollment as a citizen or freedman of the Choctaw or Chickasaw nations after December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and 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. Said rolls as made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, when approved by the Secretary of the Interior, shall constitute the final rolls of the Choctaws and Chickasaws upon which allotments of land 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 laws 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 notduly 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 duly identified as Mississippi Choctaws by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes under the act of Congress approved June 28, 1898, or the act of Congress approved May 31, 1900, may, at any time prior to September 1,1901, make bona fide settlement within the Choctaw-Chickasaw country, and on proof of such settlement to such commission on or before December 31, 1901, may be enrolled by such commission as Mississippi Choctaws entitled to allotment, which enrollment shall be final when approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
14. When any such Mississippi Choctaw shall have continuously resided upon the lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations for a period of three years, including his residence thereon before and after such enrollment, he shall, upon due proof of such continuous residence, made in such manner and before such officer as may be designated by the Secretary of the Interior, receive a patent for his allotment, as provided in the Atoka agreement, and he shall hold the lands allotted to him, as provided in that agreement for citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.
15. If within four years after such enrollment any such Mississippi Choctaw, or his heirs or representative if he be dead, fails to make proof of such continuous bona fide residence for the period so prescribed or up to the time of the death of such Mississippi Choctaw in case of his death after enrollment, he, and his heirs and representatives if he be dead, shall be deemed to have acquired no interest in the lands set apart to him, and the same 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.
16. Authority is hereby conferred upon the Court of Claims to determine the existing controversy respecting the relations of the Chickasaw freedmen to the Chickasaw Nation and the rights of such freedmen in the lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations under the third article of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and under any and all laws subsequently enacted by the Chickasaw legislature or by Congress.
17. To that end the Attorney-General of the United States is hereby directed, on behalf of the United States, to file in said Court of Claims, within sixty days after this agreement becomes effective, a bill of interpleader against the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and the Chickasaw freedmen, setting forth the existing controversy between the Chickasaw Nation and the Chickasaw freedmen and praying that the defendants thereto be required to interplead and settle their respective rights in such suit.
18. Service of process in the suit may be had on the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, respectively, by serving upon the principal chief of the former and the governor of the latter a certified copy of the bill, with a notice of the time for answering the same, which shall not be less than thirty nor more than sixty days after such service, and may be had upon the Chickasaw freedmen by serving upon each of three known and recognized Chickasaw freedmen a certified copy of the bill, with a like notice of the time for answering the same, and by publishing a notice of the commencement of the suit, setting forth the nature and prayer of the bill, with the time for answering the same, for a period of three weeks in at least two weekly newspapers having general circulation in the Chickasaw Nation.
19. The Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, respectively, may, in the manner prescribed in sections twenty-one hundred and three to twenty-one hundred and six, both inclusive, of the Revised Statutes, employ counsel to represent them in such suit and protect their interests therein; and the Secretary of the Interior shall employ competent counsel to represent the Chickasaw freedmen in said suit and to protect their interests therein; and the compensation of counsel so employed for the Chickasaw freedmen, including all costs of printing their briefs and other incidental expenses on their part, not exceeding six thousand dollars, shall be paid out of the Treasury of the United States upon the certificate of the Secretary of the Interior setting forth the employment and the terms thereof and stating that the required service has been duly rendered.
20. Any party feeling aggrieved at the decree of the Court of Claims, or any part thereof, may, within sixty days after the rendition thereof, appeal to the Supreme Court, and in each of said courts the suit shall be advanced for hearing and decision at the earliest practicable time.
21. In the meantime the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall make a roll of the Chickasaw freedmen and shall make allotments to them, as provided in the Atoka agreement, which said allotments shall be held by the said Chickasaw freedmen, not as temporary allotments, but as final allotments, subject only to the terms and conditions which apply to allotments to Chickasaw citizens; and in the event that it shall be finally determined in said suit that the Chickasaw freedmen are not, independently of this agreement, entitled to allotments in the Choctaw and Chickasaw lands, the Court of Claims shall render a decree in favor of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, according to their respective interests, and against the United States, for the value of the lands so allotted to the Chickasaw freedmen, as ascertained by the appraisal thereof made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes for the purpose of allotment, which decree shall take the place of the said lands and shall be in full satisfaction of all claim by the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations against the United States or the said freedmen on account of the taking of the said lands for allotment to said freedmen.
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 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 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, said board of appraisement to be paid such rates as may be determined by the Secretary of the Interior out of any appropriation for the surveying, laying out, platting, and selling town sites.
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 Stat., 495). Whenever the chief executive of the Choctaw or Chickasaw Nation 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 Nation to qualify or act, or otherwise, the Secretary of the Interior, in his discretion, may appoint a commissioner to fill the vacancy thus created: 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.
MISCELLANEOUS.
30. 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.
31. All patents, when executed, shall be recorded in the office of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes within said nations, 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.
32. The provisions of section 3 of the act of Congress approved June 28, 1898 (30 Stat., 495), shall not apply to or in any manner affect the lands or other property of the Choctaws or Chicksaws, or Choctaw or Chickasaw freedmen.
33. 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:
That the United States shall put each allottee in possession of his allotment and remove all persons therefrom objectionable to the allottee.
34. 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.
35. 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 for that purpose forty-acre tracts or quarter-quarter sections may be subdivided into four parts, as quarter sections are now subdivided, but in no instance shall any further subdivision be made for purposes of allotment. Subject to this direction the provisions of the Atoka agreement that equality in value rather than equality in acreage shall control in making allotments, shall be adhered to, each freedman receiving, as near as may be according to such subdivisions, lands which in value are equal to forty acres of the average lands of the two nations.
36. 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.
37. No allotment of land or other tribal property shall be made to anyone or to the heirs of anyone whose name is on said rolls and who died prior to September 1, 1901. The right of such person to any interest in the lands or other tribal property shall be deemed to have become extinguished and to have passed to the tribe in general upon his death before September 1, 1901; 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 the lands, other tribal property, and proceeds so obtained.
38. 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, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.
39. 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.
40. 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.