Indian Appropriations Act of 1902

An Act Making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and three, and for other purposes.

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 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, nineteen hundred and three, and fulfilling treaty stipulations for the various Indian tribes . . .

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: Provided further, That all children born to duly enrolled and recognized citizens of the Creek Nation up to and including the twenty-fifth day of May, nineteen hundred and one, and then living, shall be added to the rolls of citizenship of said nation made under the provisions of an Act entitled "An Act to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Muscogee or Creek tribe of Indians and for other purposes," approved March first, nineteen hundred and one, and if any such child has died since the twenty-fifth day of May, nineteen hundred and one, or may hereafter die, before receiving bis allotment of land and distributive share of the funds of the tribe, the lands and moneys to which he would be entitled if living shall descend to his heirs and bee allotted and distributed to them accordingly: And provided further, That the Act entitled "An Act to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Muscogee or Creek tribe of Indians, and for other purposes," approved March first, nineteen hundred and one, in so far as it provides for descent and distribution according to the laws of the Creek Nation, is hereby repealed and the descent and distribution of lands and moneys provided for in said Act shall be in accordance with the provisions of chapter forty-nine of Mansfield’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas in force in Indian Territory. . . .

Provided, That the just and reasonable share of each member of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee nations of Indians, in the lands belonging to the said tribes, which each member is entitled to hold in his possession until allotments are made, as provided in the 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, be, and the same is hereby, declared to be three hundred and twenty acres for each member of the Chickasaw Nation, three hundred and twenty acres for each member of the Choctaw Nation, one hundred and sixty acres for each member of the Creek Nation, and one hundred acres for each member of the Cherokee Nation. . . .

Sec. 7. That the adult heirs of any deceased Indian to whom a trust from Indians may be or other patent containing restrictions upon alienation has been or conveyed in fee. shall be issued for lands allotted to him may sell and convey the lands inherited from such decedent, but in case of minor heirs their interests shall be sold only by a guardian duly appointed by the proper court upon the order of such court, made upon petition filed by the guardian, but all such conveyances shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, and when so approved shall convey a full title to the purchaser, the same as if a final patent without restriction upon the alienation had been issued to the allottee. All allotted land so alienated by the heirs of an Indian allottee and all land so patented to a white allottee shall thereupon be subject to taxation under the laws of the State or Territory where the same is situate: Provided, That the sale herein provided for shall not apply to the homestead during the life of the father, mother or the minority of any child or children.

Sec. 8. That the part of the northern district of the Indian Territory consisting of the Creek country, the Seminole country, and all that portion of the Cherokee and Choctaw nations included in the following-described boundaries, to wit: Commencing at the northeast corner of the Creek Nation and running east on the line between townships nineteen and twenty, to its intersection with the dividing line between ranges twenty and twenty-one, east, thence south on said line to its intersection with the Arkansas River, thence down the Arkansas River to its intersection with the Canadian River, thence up the Canadian River to its intersection with the dividing line between ranges twenty and twenty-one, east, thence south to the intersecting line between townships seven and eight, thence west on the intersecting line between townships seven and eight to the Creek Nation, be, and the same is hereby, made the western district in said Territory, and the places of holding courts in said western district shall be Muscogee, Wagoner, Sapulpa, Wewoka, Eufaula and Okmulgee. . . . 

Approved, May 27, 1902.