Location. Branch in Choctaw Nation. vidual Indians within the Territory of Oklahoma, commencing at a Branch in Seminole Right of way. Addition tions, etc. for sta Additional for cuts and fills. SEC. 2. That the said corporation is authorized to take and use for all purposes of railway, and for no other purpose, a right of way one hundred feet in width through said Indian Territory and other Indian reservations, or lands reserved for Indian purposes or allotted to individual Indians, in Oklahoma Territory for said main line and branches of the Interoceanic Railway Company; and to take and use a strip of land three hundred feet in width, with a length of three thousand feet, in addition to right of way, for stations, for every ten miles of road, with the right to use such additional ground where there are s heavy cuts or fills as may be necessary for the construction and maintenance of the roadbed, not exceeding one hundred feet in width on each side of said right of way, or as much thereof as may be included in said cut or fill: Provided, That no more than said addition of land shall be taken for any one station: Provided further, That no part of the lands herein authorized to be taken shall be leased or sold by the company, and they shall not be used except in such manner and for such purposes only as shall be necessary for the construction and convenient operation of said railroad, telegraph, and telephone lines; and when any portion thereof shall cease to be so used such portion shall revert to the nation or tribe of Indians or individual allottee from which the same shall be taken. Proviso. Limit. Lands not to be sold, etc. Reversion. Damages. SEC. 3. That before said railway shall be constructed through any lands held by individual occupants according to the laws, customs, and usages of any of the Indian nations or tribes through which it may be constructed, or by allotment under any law of the United States or agreement with the Indians, full compensation shall be made to such occupants for all property to be taken or damage done by reason of the construction of such railway. In case of failure to make amicable set- Referees. tlement with any occupant such compensation shall be determined by the appraisement of three disinterested referees, to be appointed, one (who shall act as chairman) by the President, one by the chief of the nation to which said occupant belongs, or, in the case of an allottee, by said allottee or by his duly authorized guardian or representative, and one by said railway company, who, before entering upon the duties of their appointment, shall take and subscribe, before a district judge, clerk of a district court, or United States commissioner, an oath that Oath, etc. they will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of their appointment, which oath, duly certified, shall be returned with their award to and filed with the Secretary of the Interior within sixty days from the completion thereof; and a majority of said referees shall be competent to act in case of the absence of a member, after due notice. And upon the failure of either party to make such appointment within thirty days after the appointment made by the President, the vacancy Substitution on failure to appoint. Hearings. Costs. Award. Costs on appeal. depositing award. double shall be filled by the district judge of the United States district court held in the Territory where the property is situated, upon the application of the other party. The chairman of said board shall appoint the time and place for all hearings within the nation to which said occupant belongs. Each of said referees shall receive for his services. the sum of four dollars per day for each day they are engaged in the trial of any case submitted to them under this act, with mileage at five cents per mile. Witnesses shall receive the usual fees allowed by the courts of said nations. Costs including compensation of the referees, shall be made a part of the award and be paid by such railway company. In case the referees can not agree, then any two of them are authorized to make the award. Either party being dissatisfied with the finding of the referees shall have the right, within ninety days after the making of the award and notice of the same, to appeal by original petition to the United States district court held nearest the property, which court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the subject matter of said petition, according to the laws of the Territory in which the same shall be heard provided for determining the damage when property is taken for railroad purposes. If, upon the hearing of said appeal, the judgment of the court shall be for a larger sum than the award of the referees, the cost of said appeal shall be adjudged against the railway company. If the judgment of the court shall be for the same sum as the award of the referees, then the costs shall be adjudged against the appellant. If the judgment of the court shall be for a smaller sum than the award of the referees, then the costs shall be adjudged against the Work may begin on party claiming damages. When proceedings have been commenced in court the railway company shall pay double the amount of the award into court to abide the judgment thereof, and then have the right to enter upon the property sought to be condemned and proceed with the construction of the railroad. Freight charges. Provisos. Passenger rates. charges. of SEC. 4. That said railway company shall not charge the inhabitants of said Territories a greater rate of freight than the rate authorized by the laws of the State of Arkansas for services and transportation of the same kind: Provided, That passenger rates on said railway shall not exceed three cents per mile. Congress hereby reserves the right to regulate the charges for freight and passengers on said railway and messages on said telegraph and telephone lines until the State government or governments shall exist in said Territories within the limits of which said railway, or a part thereof, shall be located; and then such State government or governments shall be authorized to fix and regulate the cost of transportation of persons and freights within their respective limits by said railway; but Congress expressly reserves the right to fix and regulate at all times the cost of such transportation by Interstate transpor- said railway or said company whenever such transportation shall tation. Maximum. Mails. Additional compensation to tribes. extend from one State into another or shall extend into more than one State: Provided, however, That the rate of such transportation of passengers, local or interstate, shall not exceed the rate above expressed: And provided further, That said railway company shall carry the mail at such prices as Congress may by law provide; and until such rate is fixed by law the Postmaster-General may fix the rate of compensation. SEC. 5. That said railway company shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior, for the benefit of the particular nations or tribes through whose lands the said railway may be located, the sum of fifty dollars, in addition to compensation provided for in this act, for property taken and damages done to individual occupants by the construction of the railway, for each mile of railway that it may construct in said Territories, said payments to be made in installments of five hundred dollars as each ten miles of road is graded: Provided That if the genAppeal by general eral council of either of the nations or tribes through whose lands said railway may be located shall, within four months after the filing of Provisos. councils. Award to be in lieu maps of definite location as set forth in section six of this act, dissent from the allowance herein before provided for, and shall certify the same to the Secretary of the Interior, then all compensation to be paid to such dissenting nation or tribe under the provisions of this act shall be determined as provided in section three for the determination of the compensation to be paid to the individual occupants of lands, with the right of appeal to the courts upon the same terms, conditions, and requirements as therein provided: Provided further, That of compensation. the amount awarded or adjudged to be paid by said railway company for said dissenting nation or tribe shall be in lieu of the compensation that said nation or tribe would be entitled to receive under the foregoing provision. Said company shall also pay, so long as said lands Annual rental. are owned and occupied by the Indians in their present tribal relations and not as citizens of the United States, to the Secretary of the Interior, the sum of fifteen dollars per annum for each mile of railway it shall construct through said lands. The money paid to the Secretary of the Interior under the provisions of this act shall be apportioned by him, in accordance with the laws and treaties now in force between the United States and said nations and tribes, according to the number of miles of railway that may be constructed by said railway company through their lands: Provided, That Congress shall have the right, so long as said lands are occupied and possessed by said nations and tribes, to impose such additional taxes upon said railroad as it may deem just and proper for their benefit; and any Territory or State hereafter formed, through which said railway shall have been established, may exercise the like power as to such part of said railway as may lie within its limits. Said railway company shall Survey, etc. have the right to survey and locate its railway immediately after the passage of this act. Taxation. .SEC. 6. That said company shall cause maps showing the route of its Maps to be filed. located lines through said Territories to be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Interior, and also to be filed in the office of the principal chief of each of the nations or tribes through whose lands said railway may be located; and after the filing of said maps no claim for a subsequent settlement and improvement upon the right of way shown by said maps shall be valid as against said company: Provided, That, Provisos. when a map showing any portion of said railway company's located line Grading to begin on is filed as herein provided for, said company shall commence grading filing of map. said located line within six months thereafter, or such location shall be void; and said location shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior in sections of twenty-five miles before construction of any such section shall be begun. Employees may re SEC. 7. That the officers, servants, and employees of said company side on right of way. necessary to the construction and management of said road shall be allowed to reside, while so engaged, upon such right of way, but subject to the provisions of the Indian intercourse laws and such rules and regulations as may be established by the Secretary of the Interior in accordance with said intercourse laws. SEC. 8. That the United States circuit and district courts for the western district of Arkansas and the northern district of Texas, and such other courts as may be authorized by Congress, shall have, without reference to the amount in controversy, concurrent jurisdiction over all controversies arising between said Interoceanic Railway Company and the nations and tribes through whose territory said railway shall be constructed. Said courts shall have like jurisdiction, without reference to the amount in controversy, over all controversies arising between the inhabitants of said nations or tribes and said railway company; and the civil jurisdiction of said courts is hereby extended within the limits of said Indian Territory, without distinction as to citizenship of parties, so far as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this act. Jurisdiction. Construction. Crossings, etc. Condition of accept ance. SEC. 9. That said railway company shall build at least fifty miles of its railway in said Territory within three years after the passage of this act, and complete the main line of the same within said Territory within three years thereafter, or the rights herein granted shall be forfeited as to that portion not built; that said railway company shall construct and maintain continually all road and highway crossings and necessary bridges over said railway wherever said roads and highways do now or may hereafter cross said railway's right of way or may be by the proper authorities laid out across the same. SEC. 10. That the said Interoceanic Railway Company shall accept this right of way upon the express condition, binding upon itself, its successors, and assigns, that they will neither aid, advise, nor assist in any effort looking towards the changing or extinguishing of the present tenure of the Indians in their land, and will not attempt to secure from the Indian nations any further grant of land, or its occupancy, Violation, to forfeit, than is hereinbefore provided: Provided, That any violation of the condition mentioned in this section shall operate as a forfeiture of all the rights and privileges of said railway company under this act. Proviso. Record of gages. mort Amendment, etc. No assignment before construction. SEC. 11. That all mortgages executed by said railway company conveying any portion of its railroad, with its franchises, that may be constructed in said Indian Territory, shall be recorded in the Department of the Interior, and the record thereof shall be evidence and notice of their execution, and shall convey all rights and property of said company as therein expressed. SEC. 12. That Congress may at any time amend, add to, alter, or repeal this act. SEC. 13. That the right of way herein and hereby granted shall not be assigned or transferred in any form whatever prior to the construcConstruction liens, tion and completion of the road, except as to mortgages or other liens that may be given or secured thereon to aid in the construction thereof. Approved, March 3, 1893. etc., excepted. January 18, 1893. 27 Stat., 753. Choctaw and Chick asaw Indians. RESOLUTION No. 7.-Joint resolution to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to cover back into the Treasury forty-eight thousand eight hundred dollars of the appropriation to Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed to retain and cover back into Excess for lands the Treasury forty-eight thousand eight hundred dollars of the appropriation made by Congress to pay the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes 1891, ch. 543, ante of Indians for their interest in lands of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe See note to 1898, ch. Reservation, dated March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one; covered into the Treasury. p. 418. 517, post p. 656. Proviso. No liability to pay district." which amount has been ascertained, by a recount of the allottees of said Cheyennes and Arapahoes, to be by that amount more than is due the said Choctaws and Chickasaws upon the purchase and settlement for their said interest: Provided, however, That neither the passage of the for lands in "leased original act of appropriation to pay the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians for their interest in the lands of the Cheyennes and Arapahoe reservation, dated March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, nor of this resolution, shall be held in any way to commit the Government to the payment of any further sum to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians for any alleged interest in the remainder of the lands situated in what is commonly known and called the "leased district." Approved, January 18, 1893. ACTS OF FIFTY-THIRD CONGRESS-FIRST SESSION, 1893. CHAP. 5.-An act granting settlers on certain lands in Oklahoma Territory the right to commute their homestead entries, and for other purposes. Oct. 20, 1893. 28 Stat., 3. Public lands. make first payment. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the homestead settlers on the Absentee Shawnee, Pottawatomie, and Cheyenne and Arapahoe in Oklahoma granted Indian lands, in Oklahoma Territory be, and they are hereby, granted extension of time to an extension of one year within which to make the first payment provided for in section sixteen of the act of Congress approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, entitled 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 year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and for other purposes," and such payment may be made at any time within three years from the date of the entry of such lands. Patent may be issued in one year on payment of full price. 1891. c. 543, ante, p. 414, and note. SEC. 2. That any person entitled by law to take a homestead in said SEC. 3. That all acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. Proviso. County, ACTS OF FIFTY-THIRD CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, 1893-94. CHAP. 9.-An Act To grant the right of way to the Kansas, Oklahoma Central and Dec. 21, 1893. 28 Stat., 22. Kansas, Oklahoma western Railway Com- way, etc., line through Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Kansas, Oklahoma choma Central and Southwestern Railway Company, a corporation created under and by virtue of the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, be, and the same is hereby, invested and empowered with the right of locating, constructing, equipping, operating, using, and maintaining a railway, telegraph, and telephone line through the Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory, including lands that have been allotted to Indians in severalty or reserved for Indian purposes, beginning at any point Location. to be selected by said railway company on the south line of the State of Kansas, in the county of Montgomery, on the south line of section numbered thirteen or section numbered fourteen, township numbered thirty-five, range numbered thirteen east of the sixth principal meridian, or on the south line of section numbered thirteen or section numbered fourteen, township numbered thirty-five, range sixteen east of the sixth principal meridian, and running thence by the most practi-1899, c. cable route through the Indian Territory to the west line thereof; thence in a south or southwesterly direction by the most practicable Oklahoma Terriroute into and through Oklahoma Territory to a point on the Texas tory. State line and on Red River between said State of Texas and the Comanche and Apache Indian Reservation, in said Oklahoma Territory, by way of, at, or near Stillwater, Guthrie, and Elreno, in Okla Indian Territory. 1897, c. 230, post, 178, post, p. 617. p. 678. |