Indian Appropriations Act of 1904

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 five, 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 appropriations. 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 five, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes. . . .

For compensation of judges of Indian courts, twelve thousand dollars.

To pay such contingent expenses of the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship court and such of its officers as the Secretary of the Interior may deem proper, and for rental of quarters, five thousand dollars, to be immediately available. And the unexpended balance of the appropriation for contingent expenses, as provided in the Act of July first, nineteen hundred and two, of five thousand dollars remaining on the books of the Interior Department December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and three, amounting to one thousand one hundred and thirty-six dollars and twenty-five cents, to the credit of the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship court, is hereby reappropriated for the necessary expenses of the said court until December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and four. . . .

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, and said Commission shall conclude its work and terminate on or before the first day of July, nineteen hundred and five: Provided, That said Commission shall exercise all the powers heretofore conferred upon it by Congress: And provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby granted authority to sell at public sale in tracts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to any one purchaser, under rules and regulations to be made by the Secretary of the Interior, the residue of land in the Creek Nation belonging to the Creek tribe of Indians, consisting of about five hundred thousand acres, and being the residue of lands left over after allotments of one hundred and sixty acres to each of said tribe. And all the restrictions upon the alienation of lands of all allottees of either of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians who are not of Indian blood, except minors, are, except as to homesteads, hereby removed, and all restrictions upon the alienation of all other allottees of said tribes, except minors, and except as to homesteads, may, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, be removed under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe, upon application to the United States Indian agent at the Union Agency in charge of the Five Civilized Tribes, if said agent is satisfied upon a full investigation of each individual case that such removal of restrictions is for the best interest of said allottee. . . .

Approved, April 21, 1904.