allotment, or the moneys or other property of the nation, or citizens thereof (except appropriations for the regular and necessary expenses of the government of the said nation), or the rights of any person to employ any kind of labor, or the rights of any persons who have taken or may take the oath of allegiance to the United States, shall be of any validity until approved by the President of the United States. When such act, ordinance, or resolution passed by the council of said nation shall be approved by the executive thereof, it shall then be the duty of the national secretary of said nation to forward same to the President of the United States, duly certified and sealed, who shall, within thirty days after receipt thereof, approve or disapprove the same, and said act, ordinance, or resolution, when so approved, shall be published in at least two newspapers having a bona fide circulation throughout the territory occupied by said nation, and when disapproved shall be returned to the executive of said nation.

MISCELLANEOUS.

34. Neither the town lots nor the allotment of land of any citizen of the Muskogee or Creek Nation shall be subjected to any debt contracted by him prior to the date of his patent.

35. All payments herein provided for shall be made, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, into the United States Treasury, and shall be for the benefit of the citizens of the Muscogee or Creek Nation. All payments hereafter to be made to the members of said nation shall be paid directly to each individual member by a bonded officer of the United States, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, which officer shall be required to give strict account for such disbursements to the Secretary.

36. The United States agrees to maintain strict laws in the territory of said nation against the introduction, sale, barter, or giving away of liquors and intoxicants of any kind or quality.

37. All citizens of said nation, when the tribal government shall cease, shall become possessed of all the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States.

38. This agreement shall in no wise affect the provisions of existing treaties between the Muscogee or Creek Nation and the United States, except in so far as it is inconsistent therewith.

In witness whereof, the said Commissioners do hereunto affix their names at Muscogee, Indian Territory, this the twenty-seventh day of September, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven. [Here follow the signatures.] [30 Stat. L. 514.]

[Appeals from United States courts, Indian Territory-direct to Supreme Court.] Appeals shall be allowed from the United States courts in the Indian Territory direct to the Supreme Court of the United States to either party, in all citizenship cases, and in all cases between either of the Five Civilized Tribes and the United States involving the constitutionality or validity of any legislation affecting citizenship, or the allotment of lands, in the Indian Territory, under the rules and regulations governing appeals to said court in other cases: Provided, That appeals in cases decided prior to this Act must be perfected in one hundred and twenty days from its passage; and in cases decided subsequent thereto, within sixty days from final judgment; but in no such case shall the work of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes be enjoined or suspended by any proceeding in, or order of, any court, or of any judge, until after final judgment in the Supreme Court of the United States. In case of appeals,

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[30 Stat.

as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the Supreme Court to advance such cases on the docket and dispose of the same as early as possible. L. 591.]

The above is from section 1 of the Indian Appropriation Act of July 1, 1898, ch. 545, 30 Stat. L. 571.

The retrospective provision is constitutional, and not invalid as an invasion of the judicial domain, and destructive of vested rights. While legislatures cannot set aside the judgments of courts, compel them to grant new trials, order the discharge of offenders, or direct what steps shall be taken in the

progress of a judicial inquiry, the grant of a new remedy by way of review may be sustained under particular circumstances. Stephens . Cherokee Nation, (1899) 174 U. S. 477. The appeal extends only to the constitutionality or validity of the legislation affecting citizenship or the allotment of lands in the Indian Territory. Stephens . Cherokee Nation, (1899) 174 U. S. 477. See also Ansley v. Ainsworth, (1901) 180 U. S. 259.

[Commissioners to Five Civilized Tribes - authority continued.] 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 the number of said commissioners is hereby fixed at four. That said commission shall continue to exercise all authority heretofore conferred on it by law. L. 939.]

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This is from the Indian Appropriation Act of March 1, 1899, ch. 324.

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[30 Stat.

An Act For the appointment of an additional United States commissioner in the northern judicial district of the Indian Territory.

[Act of May 7, 1900, ch. 384, 31 Stat. L. 170.]

[United States commissioner for Wewoka.] That the judge of the United States court in the Indian Territory presiding in the northern judicial district thereof is hereby authorized and empowered to appoint an additional United States commissioner within said district, who shall be permanently located at Wewoka, in the Seminole Nation, and to prescribe by metes and bounds the portion of the district for which such commissioner is appointed. [31 Stat. L. 170.]

[Recording chattel mortgages.] That hereafter all chattel mortgages executed in the Quapaw Agency in the northern district of the Indian Territory shall be recorded in the town of Miami by the clerk of the said northern district of the Indian Territory, or his duly appointed deputy, in a book or books kept for the purpose. [31 Stat. L. 229.]

This is part of section 1 of the Indian Appropriation Act of May 31, 1900, ch. 598.

[Commission to Five Civilized 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 the number of said commissioners is hereby fixed at four.

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[Continuance of authority -no enrollment unless citizen.] That said commission shall continue to exercise all authority heretofore conferred on it by law. But it shall not receive, consider, or make any record of any application of any person for enrollment as a member of any tribe in Indian Territory who has not been a recognized citizen thereof, and duly and lawfully enrolled or admitted as such, and its refusal of such applications shall be final when approved by the Secretary of the Interior:

[Mississippi Choctaws may settle in Choctaw-Chickasaw country-sale of their allotments void.] Provided, That any Mississippi Choctaw duly identified as such by the United States Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall have the right, at any time prior to the approval of the final rolls of the Choctaws and Chickasaws by the Secretary of the Interior, to make settlement within the Choctaw-Chickasaw country, and on proof of the fact of bona fide settlement may be enrolled by the said United States Commission and by the Secretary of the Interior as Choctaws entitled to allotment: Provided further, That all contracts or agreements looking to the sale or incumbrance in any way of the lands to be allotted to said Mississippi Choctaws, shall be null and void.

[Surveys of town sites, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee nations.] To pay all expenses incident to the survey, platting, and appraisement of town sites in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee nations, Indian Territory, as required by sections fifteen and twenty-nine of an 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, for the balance of the current year and for the year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and one, the same to be immediately available, sixty-seven thousand dollars, or so much as may be necessary:

[Plats of towns and villages competent surveyors-plats, where filed.] Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by him, to survey, lay out, and plat into town lots, streets, alleys, and parks, the sites of such towns and villages in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee nations, as may at that time have a population of two hundred or more, in such manner as will best subserve the then present needs and the reasonable prospective growth of such towns. The work of surveying, laying out, and platting such town sites shall be done by competent surveyors, who shall prepare five copies of the plat of each town site which, when the survey is approved by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be filed as follows: One in the office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, one with the principal chief of the nation, one with the clerk of the court within the territorial jurisdiction of which the town is located, one with the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, and one with the town authorities, if there be such.

[Contract work.] Where in his judgment the best interests of the public service require, the Secretary of the Interior may secure the surveying, laying out, and platting of town sites in any of said nations by contract.

[Work of commissions to begin on approval of survey.] Hereafter the work of the respective town-site commissions provided for in the agreement with the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes ratified in section twenty-nine of the Act of June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, entitled "An Act for the protection of the people of the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," shall begin as to any town site immediately upon the approval of the survey by the Secretary of the Interior and not before.

[Creek and Cherokee town-site commissions, how appointed.] The Secretary of the Interior may in his discretion appoint a town-site commission consisting of three members for each of the Creek and Cherokee nations, at least one of

whom shall be a citizen of the tribe and shall be appointed upon the nomination of the principal chief of the tribe.

[Duties.] Each commission, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, shall appraise and sell for the benefit of the tribe the town lots in the nation for which it is appointed, acting in conformity with the provisions of any then existing Act of Congress or agreement with the tribe approved by Congress.

[Valuation.] The agreement of any two members of the commission as to the true value of any lot shall constitute a determination thereof, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, and if no two members are able to agree the matter shall be determined by such Secretary.

[Separate town-site commissions for towns, how appointed.] Where in his judgment the public interests will be thereby subserved, the Secretary of the Interior may appoint in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, or Cherokee Nation a separate town-site commission for any town, in which event as to that town such local commission may exercise the same authority and perform the same duties which would otherwise devolve upon the commission for that Nation. Every such local commission shall be appointed in the manner provided in the Act approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, entitled "An Act for the protection of the people of the Indian Territory."

[Towns may make surveys.] The Secretary of the Interior, where in his judgment the public interests will be thereby subserved, may permit the authorities of any town in any of said nations, at the expense of the town, to survey, lay out, and plat the site thereof, subject to his supervision and approval, as in other instances.

[Appraisal and sale of lots.] As soon as the plat of any town site is approved, the proper commission shall, with all reasonable dispatch and within a limited time, to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, proceed to make the appraisement of the lots and improvements, if any, thereon, and after the approval thereof by the Secretary of the Interior, shall, under the supervision of such Secretary, proceed to the disposition and sale of the lots in conformity with any then existing Act of Congress or agreement with the tribe approved by Congress,

[Pay of delayed commission.] and if the proper commission shall not complete such appraisement and sale within the time limited by the Secretary of the Interior, they shall receive no pay for such additional time as may be taken by them, unless the Secretary of the Interior for good cause shown shall expressly direct otherwise.

[Removal of commissioners.] The Secretary of the Interior may, for good cause, remove any member of any townsite commission, tribal or local, in any of said nations, and may fill the vacancy thereby made or any vacancy otherwise occurring in like manner as the place was originally filled.

[Corporate and town-site limits.] It shall not be required that the townsite limits established in the course of the platting and disposing of town lots and the corporate limits of the town, if incorporated, shall be identical or coextensive, but such townsite limits and corporate limits shall be so established as to best subserve the then present needs and the reasonable prospective growth of the town, as the same shall appear at the times when such limits are respectively established:

[Exterior limits, how fixed.] Provided further, That the exterior limits of all townsites shall be designated and fixed at the earliest practicable time under rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.

[Town-sites railroad stations.] Upon the recommendation of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes the Secretary of the Interior is hereby author

ized at any time before allotment to set aside and reserve from allotment any lands in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, or Cherokee nations, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in any one tract, at such stations as are or shall be established in conformity with law on the line of any railroad which shall be constructed or be in process of construction in or through either of said nations prior to the allotment of the lands therein, and this irrespective of the population of such townsite at the time.

[Survey and sale.] Such townsites shall be surveyed, laid out, and platted, and the lands therein disposed of for the benefit of the tribe in the manner herein prescribed for other townsites:

[Compensation for occupants' improvements.] Provided further, That whenever any tract of land shall be set aside as herein provided which is occupied by a member of the tribe, such occupant shall be fully compensated for his improvements thereon under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior.

[Existing surveys unaffected.] Nothing herein contained shall have the effect of avoiding any work heretofore done in pursuance of the said Act of June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, in the way of surveying, laying out, or platting the town sites, appraising or disposing of town lots in any of said nations, but the same, if not heretofore carried to a state of completion, may be completed according to the provisions hereof. Stat. L. 236.]

The above paragraphs are from section 1 of the Indian Appropriation Act of May 31, 1900, ch. 598, 31 Stat. L. 236, 237.

Mississippi Choctaws' right to hold land in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. - Before this statute and the Act of June 28, 1898, a Mississippi Choctaw who had not been on the rolls of the Choctaw nation as a citizen,

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could only obtain the right to be placed upon such rolls and the benefit to be derived therefrom by participating in the division of the lands belonging to the Choctaw and Chicksaw nations, by going before the commission and making certain proof, and then being admitted to enrolment. Ikard v. Minter, (Indian Ter. 1902) 69 S. W. Rep. 855.

An Act Changing place for holding court in the central division of the Indian Territory from Cameron to Poteau, and for other purposes.

[Act of June 6, 1900, ch. 795, 31 Stat. L. 657.]

[SEC. 1.] [Central judicial district-terms of court, where held.] That subdivision three, of chapter one hundred and forty-five, of the United States Statutes at Large, approved March first, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, entitled "An Act to provide for the appointment of additional judges of the United States court in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," which said subdivision reads as follows: "The central district shall consist of all the Choctaw country, and the places of holding court in said district shall be at South McAlester, Atoka, Antlers, and Cameron," be amended by striking out of said subdivision the word "Cameron" and inserting in lieu thereof the word 'Poteau," so that said subdivision when amended shall read as follows: "The central district shall consist of all the Choctaw country, and the places of holding court in said district shall be at South McAlester, Atoka, Antlers, and Poteau.” [31 Stat. L. 657.]

SEC. 2. [Pending causes transferred.] That all suits, prosecutions and processes, recognizances, bail bonds, and other proceedings of whatever nature. pending in or returnable to said court at Cameron are hereby transferred to and shall be made returnable and have force in said court at Poteau. [31 Stat. L. 658.1