INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES. Vol. 1, Laws

Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.

Chapter 157
Sections 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Margin Notes
Chap. 157	Preamble. 14 Stat., 799.
Chap. 157	Certain Cherokee lands in Kansas to be surveyed and offered for sale.
Chap. 157	Price.
Chap. 157	Fractions of less than 40 acres. Vol. 2, p. 942.
Sec. 2	Heads of families, etc., settlers, etc., upon these lands may enter and purchase not over 160 acres. 29 Apr. 1874, c. 137, s. 2, 18 Stat., 41.
Sec. 2	Price and payment.
Sec. 2	Heads of families, etc., who may settle, etc., within one year.
Sec. 2	Lands not sold within, etc., to be sold, on sealed bids, after, etc.
Sec. 2	Proof of settlement, entry, and payment.
Sec. 2	Town-site laws made applicable.
Sec. 2	Public advertisement.
Sec. 3	Certain Cherokee citizens, etc., to receive proceeds of sales of certain lands.
Sec. 4	Proceeds of sales under this act to be invested. Vol. 2, p. 949.
Sec. 5	Sales not to be made until provisions of this act are accepted by Cherokee national council, etc. Accepted by delegates May 12, 1872 (see Cherokee, I, 79).

Chapter 157
May 11, 1872. | 17 Stat., 98.

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An Act to carry out certain provisions of the Cherokee treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and for the relief of settlers on the Cherokee lands in the State of Kansas.^a

^aSales of Cherokee lands: By the above act the sale of what is known as the Public Land Strip was authorized. The act of February 28, 1877, post, p. 172, authorized the sale of the balance of the strip then remaining at a reduced price. The old Cherokee Reservation in Arkansas was sold under the provisions of the act of July 2, 1886 (24 Stat., 121). By the act of May 2, 1890 (26 Stat., 82 and 86), the Public Land Strip was made a part of Oklahoma, and the jurisdiction of courts therein defined. The act of March 3, 1893, post, p. 489, provided for the sale of the Cherokee Outlet.

Trust funds: By the various acts relative to the sales of land referred to above, provision is also made for the investment and disposal of the proceeds. Their funds are further affected by the acts of February 14, 1873, post, p. 141, and March 3, 1873, post, p. 142, relative to the Osage purchase; March 3, 1875 (18 Stat., 447), and August 15, 1876, post, p. 167, relative to the funds of the Eastern Cherokee; October 19, 1888, post, p. 299, provides for the distribution between the Cherokee and the freedmen and adopted members of the tribe; August 4, 1892, post, p. 457, provides for the payment of annual taxes on community lands of the Eastern Band from their trust funds.

Claims: The claims in which the Cherokee have been from time to time involved have, by various acts, been referred to the Court of Claims for adjudication. These are the acts of March 3, 1883, post, p. 216; February 25, 1889, post, p. 316; October 1, 1890, post, p. 372; July 6, 1892, post, p. 446; March 2, 1895, post, p. 558; June 28, 1898, sec. 25, ante, p. 100.

Miscellaneous: The leasing of salt deposits on Cherokee lands in the Indian Territory is permitted by act of August 7, 1882, post, p. 214. The act of March 2, 1889, authorizes the appointment of commissioners, with authority to make agreements with the Cherokee for the cession of lands in the Indian Territory west of the 96th degree, and provides for the disposal of such land as may be ceded. By the general allotment act of 1887 the Cherokee were expressly excluded from its provisions. The act of March 3, 1893, section 15, post, p. 498, authorizes allotments not to exceed 160 acres to an individual. The act of June 28, 1898, chapter 517, ante, p. 98, provides for the enrollment of the Cherokee.

The act of March 1, 1901, post, p. 715, ratifying the agreement made with the Dawes Commission contains numerous provisions relative to the tribe and their lands. See, also, the act of July 1, 1902, post, p. 787.

Whereas in order that certain provisions of the treaty of July nineteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, between the United States and the Cherokee nation may be rendered clearer, and made more satisfactory to settlers upon the lands known as the “Cherokee strip,” in the State of Kansas, said settlers having moved thereon since the date of said treaty, and for the purpose of facilitating the sale of said lands: Therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the strip of land lying west of the Neosho River, and included in the State of Kansas, conveyed to the Cherokee nation of Indians by the United States, and now belonging to said nation, shall be surveyed, under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land-Office, in the same

manner as the public lands of the United States are surveyed, and shall be by him offered for sale under the provisions and restrictions of this act; and all the lands in said tract lying east of the Arkansas River shall be sold at two dollars per acre, and all lands in said tract lying west of said river shall be sold at one dollar and fifty cents per acre, except as hereinafter provided: Provided, That, where there is a fraction of land less than forty acres, the same shall be sold with the contiguous tract, expense of survey to be paid out of the proceeds of said land, in accordance with the treaty of July ninth [nineteenth], eighteen hundred and sixty-six.

That each person being the head of a family or over twentyone years of age who has made a bona-fide settlement and improvement upon any portion of said lands, and is now occupying the same, or, in case of his or her death, the heirs of such, or, if such heirs are minors, their guardians for them, shall be entitled to enter and purchase the lands so settled upon and occupied, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, at the price fixed in the first section of this act, payment for which shall be made at any time within one year from the date of the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of the acceptance of the provisions of this act, as provided for in the fifth section hereof; and all persons heads of families or over twenty-one years of age who may settle upon said lands at any time within one year from the date of the passage of this act, may purchase the land so settled upon, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, at the price fixed in the first section of this act, and shall make payment therefor within one year from the date of said settlement: Provided, That all lands not sold under the foregoing provisions of this section, and all lands settled upon but unpaid for at the expiration of the limitation named in the foregoing provisions of this act, shall, unless such payment be suspended by reason of contest or appeal, be sold by the Secretary of the Interior, on sealed bids, after due advertisement, in tracts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, and at not less than the price fixed in the first section of this act: And Provided further, That proof of settlement, entry, and payment shall be made at the land-office of the proper district, under such regulations as the Commissioner of the General Land-Office shall prescribe: And provided further, That the townsite laws shall be, and hereby are, extended to and made applicable to said lands, subject to the provisions of this act: And provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior may cause public advertisement to be made of the provisions of this act.

That any Cherokee citizen, or the heirs-at-law of such who had rights under the Cherokee laws to any portion of said lands, and whose titles were valid at the date of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and who may be able to establish such validity within one year from the date of the passage of this act, under such rules as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe, shall receive the proceeds of the sale of such identical lands, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, instead of their being invested as hereinafter provided for in the fourth section of this act.

That all moneys accruing from the sales of land under this act shall, without unnecessary delay, be invested in the registered five per centum bonds of the United States, as provided in the twenty-third article of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six.

That the sale of said lands, as hereinbefore provided for, shall not take place until the provisions of this act are accepted by the Cherokee national council, or by a delegation duly authorized thereby; which acceptance shall be filed with the Secretary of the Interior, and, when approved by him, the same shall be final and conclusive.