February 20, 1893
[Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from the United States Statutes at Large, Volume 27, which contains the public laws passed by the Fifty-Second Congress during its second session in 1893. The following text is from Chapter 148 (27 Stat. 470). The text references a Seneca Nation council agreement entered into on January 3, 1893.]
CHAP. 148. — An act to ratify and confirm an agreement made between the Seneca Nation of Indians and William B. Barker.
Whereas, the Seneca Nation of Indians in council, January third, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, duly entered into an agreement with William B. Barker, whereby said nation leased to said Barker the Oil Springs, the Cattaraugus and the Allegany reservations, situate in western New York, for the purpose of boring and testing said territory for gas and oil, on condition that if oil was found in paying quantities said nation should receive one-eighth part thereof, and if gas should be found in paying quantities said nation should receive forty dollars per annum for each gas well drilled and used, and in addition that each Seneca Indian family residing on either of said reservations should, if gas is found, have sufficient fuel for domestic use from any gas wells drilled on said territory free of charge, all of which is provided in said agreement, which was duly recorded in the Seneca Nation deed book, volume five, page three hundred and forty-one, January fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, at three o'clock post meridian of that day: Therefore
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the agreement above recited be, and the same hereby is, in all things ratified, accepted, and confirmed.
Approved, February 20, 1893.