Cherokee Allotment Act

An Act To provide for the allotment of the lands of the Cherokee Nation, for the disposition of town sites therein, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Section 1. The words "nation" and "tribe" shall each be held to refer to the Cherokee Nation or tribe of Indians in Indian Territory.

Sec. 2. The words "principal chief" or "chief executive" shall be held to mean the principal chief of said tribe.

Sec. 3. The words "Dawes Commission" or "Commission " shall be held to mean the United States Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes.

Sec. 4. The word "minor" shall be held to mean males under the age of twenty-one years and females under the age of eighteen years.

Sec. 5. The terms "allottable lands" or "land allottable" shall be held to mean all the lands of the Cherokee tribe not herein reserved from allotment.

Sec. 6. The word "select" and its various modifications, as applied to allotments and homesteads, shall be held to mean the formal application at the land office, to be established by the Dawes Commission for the Cherokee Nation, for particular tracts of land.

Sec. 7. The words "member" or "members" and "citizen" or "citizens" shall be held to mean members or citizens of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory.

Sec. 8. Every word in this Act importing the masculine gender may extend and be applied to females as well as males, and the use of the plural may include also the singular, and vice versa.

Sec. 9. The lands belonging to the Cherokee tribe of Indians in True value. Indian Territory, except such as are herein reserved from allotment, shall be appraised at their true value: Provided, That in the determination of the value of such land consideration shall not be given to the location thereof, to any timber thereon, or to any mineral deposits contained therein, and shall be made without reference to improvements which may be located thereon.

Sec. 10. The appraisement, as herein provided, shall be made by Appraisements by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, under the direction of Tribes the Secretary of the Interior.

Sec. 11. There shall be allotted by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes and to each citizen of the Cherokee tribe, as soon as practicable after the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of his enrollment as herein provided, land equal in value to one hundred and ten acres of the average allottable lands of the Cherokee Nation, to conform as nearly as may be to the areas and boundaries established by the Government survey, which land may be selected by each allottee so as to include his improvements.

Sec. 12. For the purpose of making allotments and designating homesteads hereunder, the forty-acre, or quarter of a quarter section, sub- division established by the Government survey may be dealt with as if further subdivided into four equal parts in the usual manner, thus making the smallest legal subdivision ten acres, or a quarter of a quarter of a quarter of a section.

Sec. 13. Each member of said tribe shall, at the time of the selection of his allotment, designate as a homestead out of said allotment land equal in value to forty acres of the average allotable lands of the Cherokee Nation, as nearly as may be, which shall be inalienable during the lifetime of the allottee, not exceeding twenty-one years from the date of the certificate of allotment. Separate certificate shall issue for said homestead. During the time said homestead is held by the allottee the same shall be nontaxable and shall not be liable for any debt contracted by the owner thereof while so held by him.

Sec. 14. Lands allotted to citizens shall not in any manner whatever or at any time be encumbered, taken, or sold to secure or satisfy any debt or obligation, or be alienated by the allottee or his heirs, before the expiration of five years from the date of the ratification of this Act.

Sec. 15. All lands allotted to the members of said tribe, except such land as is set aside to each for a homestead as herein provided, shall be alienable in five years after issuance of patent.

Sec. 16. If for any reason an allotment should not be selected or a homestead designated by or on behalf of any member of the tribe, it shall be the duty of said Commission to make said selection and designation.

Sec. 17. In the making of allotments and in the designation of homesteads for members of said tribe, said Commission shall not be required to divide lands into tracts of less than the smallest legal subdivision provided for in section twelve hereof.

Sec. 18. It shall be unlawful after ninety days after the ratification of this Act by the Cherokees for any member of the Cherokee tribe to inclose or hold possession of, in any manner, by himself or through another, directly or indirectly, more lands in value than that of one hundred and ten acres of average allottable lands of the Cherokee Nation, either for himself or for his wife, or for each of his minor children, if members of said tribe; and any member of said tribe found in such possession of lands, or having the same in any manner inclosed, after the expiration of ninety days after the date of the ratification of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.

Sec. 19. Any person convicted of violating any of the provisions of section eighteen of this Act shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, shall stand committed until such fine and costs are paid (such commitment not to exceed one day for every two dollars of said fine and costs), and shall forfeit possession of any property in question, and each day on which such offense is committed or continues to exist shall be deemed a separate offense. The United States district attorney for the northern district is required to see that the provisions of said section eighteen are strictly enforced, and he shall immediately, after the expiration of the ninety days after the ratification of this Act, proceed to dispossess all persons of such excessive holdings of lands and to prosecute them for so unlawfully holding the same, and the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall have authority to make investigations of all violations of section eighteen and make report thereon to the United States district attorney.

Sec. 20. If any person whose name appears upon the roll prepared as herein provided shall have died subsequent to the first day of September, nineteen hundred and two, and before receiving his allotment, the lands to which such person would have been entitled if living shall be allotted in his name, and shall, with his proportionate share of other tribal property, descend to his heirs according to the laws of descent and distribution as provided in chapter forty-nine 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 for any other cause such selection be not so made within a reasonable and proper time, the Dawes Commission shall designate the lands thus to be allotted.

Sec. 21. Allotment certificates issued by the Dawes Commission shall be conclusive evidence of the right of an allottee to the tract of land described therein, and the United States Indian agent for the Union Agency shall, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, upon the application of the allottee, place him in possession of his allotment, and shall remove therefrom all persons objectionable to him, and the acts of the Indian agent hereunder shall not be controlled by the writ or process of any court.

Sec. 22. Exclusive jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to determine all matters relative to the appraisement and the allotment of lands. . . .

Sec. 25. The roll of citizens of the Cherokee Nation shall be made as of September first, nineteen hundred and two, and the names of all persons then living and entitled to enrollment on that date shall be placed on said roll by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes.

Sec. 26. The names of all persons living on the first day of September, nineteen hundred and two, entitled to be enrolled as provided in section twenty-five hereof, shall be placed upon the roll made by said Commission, and no child born thereafter to a citizen, and no white person who has intermarried with a Cherokee citizen since the sixteenth day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, shall be entitled to enrollment or to participate in the distribution of the tribal property of the Cherokee Nation.

Sec. 27. Such rolls shall in all other respects be made in strict compliance with the provisions of section twenty-one of the Act of Congress approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight (Thirtieth Statutes, page four hundred and ninety-five), and the Act of Congress approved May thirty-first, nineteen hundred (Thirty-first Statutes, page two hundred and twenty-one).

Sec. 28. No person whose name appears upon the roll made by the Dawes Commission as a citizen or freedman of any other tribe shall be enrolled as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Sec. 29. For the purpose of expediting the enrollment of the Cherokee citizens and the allotment of lands as herein provided, the said Commission shall, from time to time, and as soon as practicable, forward to the Secretary of the Interior lists upon which shall be placed the names of those persons found by the Commission to be entitled to enrollment. The lists thus prepared, when approved by the Secretary of the Interior, shall constitute a part and parcel of the final roll of citizens of the Cherokee tribe, upon which allotment of land and distribution of other tribal property shall be made. When there shall have been submitted to and approved by the Secretary of the Interior lists embracing the names of all those lawfully entitled to enrollment, the roll shall be deemed complete. The roll so prepared shall be made in quadruplicate, one to be deposited with the Secretary of the Interior, one with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, one with the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, and one to remain with the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes.

Sec. 30. During the months of September and October, in the year nineteen hundred and two, the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes may receive applications for enrollment of such infant children as may have been born to recognized and enrolled citizens of the Cherokee Nation on or before the first day of September, nineteen hundred and two, but he application of no person whomsoever for enrollment shall be received after the thirty-first day of October, nineteen hundred and two.

Sec. 31. No person whose name does not appear upon the roll prepared as herein provided shall be entitled to in any manner participate in the distribution of the common property of the Cherokee tribe, and those whose names appear thereon shall participate in the manner set forth in this Act: Provided, That no allotment of land or other tribal property shall be made to any person, or to the heirs of any person, interests by death. whose name is on said roll and who died prior to the first day of September, nineteen hundred and two. 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 said date, and any person or persons who may conceal the death of anyone on said roll as aforesaid for the purpose of profiting by said concealment, and who shall knowingly receive any portion of any land or other tribal property or of the proceeds so 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 a forfeiture to the Cherokee Nation of the lands, other tribal property, and proceeds so obtained. . . . 

Sec. 58. The Secretary of the Interior shall furnish the principal chief with blank patents necessary for all conveyances herein provided for, and when any citizen receives his allotment of land, or when any allotment has been so ascertained and fixed that title should under the provisions of this Act be conveyed, the principal chief shall thereupon proceed to execute and deliver to him a patent conveying all the right, title, and interest of the Cherokee Nation, and of all other citizens, in and to the lands embraced in his allotment certificate.

Sec. 59. All conveyances shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, which shall serve as a relinquishment to the grantee of all the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to the lands embraced in his patent.

Sec. 60. Any allottee accepting such patent shall be deemed to assent to the allotment and conveyance of all the lands of the tribe as provided by this Act, and to relinquish all his right, title, and interest to the same, except in the proceeds of lands reserved from allotment.

Sec. 61. The acceptance of patents for minors and incompetents by persons authorized to select their allotments for them shall be deemed sufficient to bind such minors and incompetents as to the conveyance of all other lands of the tribe.

Sec. 62. All patents, when so executed and approved, shall be filed in the office of the Dawes Commission, and recorded in a book provided for the purpose, until such time as Congress shall make other suitable provision for record of land titles, without expense to the grantee, and such records shall have like effect as other public records.

Sec. 63. The tribal government of the Cherokee Nation shall not continue longer than March fourth, nineteen hundred and six.

Sec. 64. The collection of all revenues of whatsoever character Revenues. belonging to the tribe shall be made by an officer appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, under rules and regulations to be prescribed bv the said Secretary.

Sec. 65. All things necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this Act, not otherwise herein specifically provided for, shall be done under the authority and direction of the Secretary of the Interior.

Sec. 66. All funds of the tribe, and all moneys accruing under the provisions of this Act, shall be paid out under the direction of the et Secretary of the Interior, and when required for per capita payments shall be paid directly to each individual by an appointed officer of the United States, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.

Sec. 67. The Secretary of the Interior shall cause to be paid all just indebtedness of said tribe existing at the date of the ratification of this Act which may have lawfully been contracted, and warrants therefor regularly issued upon the several funds of the tribe, as also warrants drawn by authority of law hereafter and prior to the dissolution of the tribal government, such payments to be made from any funds in the United States Treasury belonging to said tribe, and all such indebtedness of the tribe shall be paid in full before any pro rata distribution of the funds of the tribe shall be made. The Secretary of the Interior shall make such payments at the earliest time practicable and he shall make all needed rules and regulations to carry this provision into effect.

Sec. 68. Jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Court of Claims to examine, consider, and adjudicate, with a right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States by any party in interest feeling aggrieved at the decision of the Court of Claims, any claim which the Cherokee tribe, or any band thereof, arising under treaty stipulations, may have against the United States, upon which suit shall be instituted within two years after the approval of this Act; and also to examine, consider, and adjudicate any claim which the United States may have against said tribe, or any band thereof. The institution, prosecution, or defense, as the case may be, on the part of the tribe or any band, of any such suit, shall be through attorneys employed and to be compensated in the manner prescribed in sections twenty-one hundred and three to twenty-one hundred and six, both inclusive, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, the tribe acting through its principal chief in the employment of such attorneys, and the band acting through a committee recognized by the Secretary of the Interior. The Court of Claims shall have full authority, by proper orders and process, to make parties to any such suit all persons whose presence in the litigation it may deem necessary or proper to the final determination of the matter in controversy, and any such suit shall, on motion of either party, be advanced on the docket of either of said courts and be deter- mined at the earliest practicable time.

Sec. 69. After the expiration of nine months after the date of the original selection of an allotment by or for any citizen of the Cherokee tribe as provided in this Act, no contest shall be instituted against such selection, and as early thereafter as practicable patent shall issue therefor.

Sec. 70. Allotments may be selected and homesteads designated for minors by the father or mother, if citizens, or by a guardian, or curator, or the administrator having charge of their estate, in the order named; and for prisoners, convicts, aged and infirm persons, and soldiers and sailors of the United States on duty outside of the Indian Territory, 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 said selections are made for the best interests of such parties. . . . 

Approved, July 1, 1902.