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Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That the sum of one million nine hundred and twelve thousand nine hundred and forty-two dollars and two cents be, and the same hereby is, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to pay in full the Seminole Nation of Indians for all the right, title, interest, and claim which said nation of Indians may have in and to certain lands ceded by article three of the treaty between the United States and said nation of Indians, which was concluded June fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and proclaimed August sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and which land was then estimated to contain two million one hundred and sixty-nine thousand and eighty acres, but which is now, after survey, ascertained to contain two million thirty-seven thousand four hundred and fourteen and sixty-two hundredths acres, said sum of money to be paid as follows: One million five hundred thousand dollars to remain in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of said nation of Indians and to bear interest at the rate of five per centum per annum from July first, eighteen hundred and eighty nine, said interest to be paid semiannually to the treasurer of said nation, and the sum of four hundred and twelve thousand nine hundred and forty-two dollars and twenty cents to be paid to such person or persons as shall be duly authorized by the laws of said nation to receive the same, at such times and in such sums as shall be directed and required by the legislative authority of said nation, to be immediately available; this appropriation to become operative upon the execution by the duly appointed delegates of said nation, specially empowered so to do, of a release and conveyance to the United States of all the right, title, interest, and claim of said nation of Indians in and to said lands, in manner and form satisfactory to the President of the United States, and said release and conveyance, when fully executed and delivered, shall operate to extinguish all claims of every kind and character of said Seminole Nation of Indians in and to the tract of country to which said release and conveyance shall apply, but such release conveyance, and extinguishment shall not inure to the benefit of or cause to vest in any railroad company any right, title, or interest whatever in or to any of said lands, and all laws and parts of laws so far as they conflict with the foregoing, are hereby repealed, and all grants or pretended grants of said lands or any interest or right therein now existing in or on behalf of any railroad company, except rights of way and depot grounds, are hereby declared to be forever forfeited for breach of condition.
That the lands acquired by the United States under said agreement shall be a part of the public domain, to be disposed of only as herein provided, and sections sixteen and thirty-six of each township, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, are hereby reserved for the use and benefit of the public schools, to be established within the limits of said lands under such conditions and regulations as may be hereafter enacted by Congress.
That the lands acquired by conveyance from the Seminole Indians hereunder, except the sixteenth and thirty-sixty sections shall be disposed of to actual settlers under the homestead laws only, except as
herein otherwise provided (except that section two thousand three hundred and one of the Revised Statutes shall not apply): And provided further, That any person who having attempted to, but for any cause, failed to secure a title in fee to a homestead under existing law, or who made entry under what is known as the commuted provision of the homestead law, shall be qualified to make a homestead entry upon said lands: And provided further, That the rights of honorably discharged Union soldiers and sailors in the late civil war as defined and described in sections twenty-three hundred and four and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes shall not be abridged: And provided further, That each entry shall be in square form as nearly as practicable and no person be permitted to enter more than one-quarter section thereof, but until said lands are opened for settlement by proclamation of the President, no person shall be permitted to enter upon and occupy the same, and no person violating this provision shall ever be permitted to enter any of said lands or acquire any right thereto.
The Secretary of the Interior may, after said proclamation and not before, permit entry of said lands for town-sites, under sections twenty-three hundred and eighty-seven and twenty-three hundred and eighty-eight of the Revised Statutes, but no such entry shall embrace more than one-half section of land.
That all the foregoing provisions with reference to lands to be acquired from the Seminole Indians including the provisions pertaining to forfeiture shall apply to and regulate the disposal of the lands acquired from the Muscogee or Creek Indians by articles of cession and agreement made and concluded at the city of Washington on the nineteenth day of January in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and eighty-nine.
The President is hereby authorized to appoint three commissioners, not more than two of whom shall be members of the same political party, to negotiate with the Cherokee Indians and with all other Indians owning or claiming lands lying west of the ninety-sixth degree of longitude in the Indian Territory for the cession to the United States of all their title, claim, or interest of every kind or character in and to said lands, and any and all agreements resulting from such negotiations shall be reported to the President and by him to Congress at its next session and to the council or councils of the nation or nations, tribe or tribes, agreeing to the same for ratification, and for this purpose the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, to be immediately available: Provided, That said Commission is further authorized to submit to the Cherokee nation the proposition that said nation shall cede to the United States in the manner and with the effect aforesaid, all the rights of said nation in said lands upon the same terms as to payment as is provided in the agreement made with the Creek Indians of date January nineteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and ratified by the present Congress; and if said Cherokee nation shall accept, and by act of its legislative authority duly passed, ratify the same, the said lands shall thereupon become a part of the public domain for the purpose of such disposition as is herein provided, and the President is authorized as soon thereafter as he may deem advisable, by proclamation open said lands to settlement in the same manner and to the same effect, as in this act provided concerning the lands acquired from said Creek Indians, but until said lands are opened for settlement by proclamation of the President, no person shall be permitted to enter upon and occupy the same, and no person violating this provision shall be permitted to enter any of said lands or acquire any right thereto.
That the President may whenever he deems it necessary create not to exceed two land districts embracing the lands which he may open to settlement by proclamation as hereinbefore provided, and he is empowered to locate land offices for the same appointing thereto in conformity to existing law registers and receivers and for the purpose of carrying out this provision five thousand dollars or so much thereof as may be necessary is hereby appropriated.
Approved, March 2, 1889.
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