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

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

Chapter 93
Sections 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Margin Notes
Chap. 93	Arkansas Northwestern Railway Company granted right of way, Indian Territory.
Chap. 93	Location.
Sec. 2	Width.
Sec. 2	Stations, etc.
Sec. 2	Provisos. Limit for stations.
Sec. 2	Reversion for non-user.
Sec. 3	Payment to individuals.
Sec. 3	Appraisement. Referees.
Sec. 3	Substitution on failure to appoint.
Sec. 3	Hearings.
Sec. 3	Compensation, etc.
Sec. 3	Costs.
Sec. 3	Appeals.
Sec. 3	Costs on appeals.
Sec. 3	Work may begin on paying double award.
Sec. 4	Freight charges.
Sec. 4	Provisos. Passenger rates.
Sec. 4	Regulations.
Sec. 4	Maximum.
Sec. 4	Mails.
Sec. 5	Compensation to tribes.
Sec. 5	Provisos. Appeal by general councils.
Sec. 5	Award in lieu of compensation.
Sec. 5	Annual rental.
Sec. 5	Apportionment.
Sec. 5	Taxation.
Sec. 5	Survey.
Sec. 6	Maps to be filed.
Sec. 6	Proviso. Approval by Secretary of the Interior.
Sec. 7	Employees may reside on right of way.
Sec. 8	Commencement and completion. Amended, post p. 687.
Sec. 8	Fences, etc.
Sec. 9	Condition of acceptance.
Sec. 9	Proviso. Violation to forfeit.
Sec. 10	Record of mortgages.
Sec. 11	Amendment, etc.

Chapter 93
Apr. 6, 1896. | 29 Stat., 87.

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An act authorizing the Arkansas Northwestern Railway Company to construct and operate a railway through the Indian Territory, 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 Arkansas Northwestern Railway Company, a corporation created under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Arkansas, be, and the same is hereby, authorized and invested and empowered with the right of locating, constructing, owning, equipping, and operating, using, and maintaining a railway and telegraph and telephone lines through the Indian Territory upon a line beginning at a point to be selected by said railway company at or near the town of Southwest City, in the county of McDonald, State of Missouri, and running thence in a northwest direction over the most practicable route through the Indian Territory, to a point between

Chetopa and Baxter Springs, in the State of Kansas, with the right to construct, use, and maintain such tracks, turn-outs, sidings, and extensions through such Territory as said company may deem to their interests to construct along and upon the right way and depot grounds herein provided for.

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 laws of the United States or agreement with the Indians, full compensation shall be made to such occupants for all property to be taken or damages done by reason of the construction of such railway. In case of failure to make amicable settlement with any occupant such compensation shall be determined by the appraisement of three disinterested persons or 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 case of an allottee, by said allottee or by his duly authorized guardian or legal 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 the district court, or United States commissioner, an oath that 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 shall be filled by the district judge of the court held at Fort Smith, Arkansas, 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 the occupant belongs. Each of said referees shall receive for his services the sum of four dollars per day for each and every day they are engaged in the trial of any case submitted to them under this Ad, with mileage of five cents per mile. Witnesses shall be allowed the usual fees allowed by the courts of said nation. The costs, including the compensation of the referees, shall be made a part of the award, and to be paid by said railway company. In case the referees can not agree, then two of them are authorized to make the award. Either party being dissatisfied with the findings 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 district court for the northern division of the Indian Territory exercising jurisdiction over the territory in which the lands sought to be condemned are situate,

which court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the subject-matter of said petition according to the laws of the State of Arkansas providing for the determining of damages when property is taken for railway purposes. If, upon the hearing of said appeal, the judgment of the court shall be for a larger sum than the awards 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 cost shall be adjudged against the 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 railway.

That the said company shall not charge the inhabitants of said Territory a greater rate of freight than the rate authorized by the laws of the State of Arkansas for services or transportation of the same kind: Provided, That the passenger rate shall not exceed three cents per mile. Congress hereby reserves the right to regulate the charges for freight and passengers on said railway and of messages on said telegraph and telephone lines until State governments are formed and shall exist in said Territory within the limits of which said railway, or a part thereof, shall be located, and then such State government shall be authorized to fix and regulate the cost of transportation of persons and freight 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 said railway company whenever such transportation shall extend from one State into another, or shall extend into more than one State: Provided, That the rate of such transportation of passengers, local or interstate, shall not exceed the rate expressed: Provided further, That said railway company shall carry the mails 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.

That said railway company shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior, for the benefit of the particular nations or tribes through whose lands said line may be located, the sum of fifty dollars, in addition to the compensation provided for in this Act, for property taken and damage done to individual occupants by the construction of the railway for each mile of railway constructed in said Territory, said payments to be made in installments of five hundred dollars as each ten miles of road is located and graded: Provided, That if the general council of either of the nations or tribes through whose lands said railway may be located shall, within four months after the filing of maps of definite locations, as set forth in section six of this Act, dissent from the allowances provided for in this section, and certify the same to the Secretary of the Interior, then all compensation to be paid to such dissenting nations or tribes 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 occupant of lands, with the right of appeal to the courts upon the same terms, conditions, and requirements as therein provided: Provided further, That 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 foregoing provisions, except as to annual tax. Said company shall also pay, so long as said reservations are owned and occupied by the Indians, to the Secretary of the Interior the sum of fifteen dollars per annum for each mile of railway it shall construct in the said reservations. 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, among the different nations or tribes, according to the number of miles of railway that may be constructed by said railway company through their lands: Provided further, That Congress shall have the right, so long as said lands are occupied and possessed by said nations or tribes, to impose such additional taxes upon said railroads as it may deem just and proper for their benefit. And any Territory or State hereinafter formed through which said railway shall have been established may exercise the like power as to such part of said railway as may be within its limits. Said railway company shall have the right to survey and locate its railway immediately after the passage of this Act.

That said railway company shall cause maps showing the route of its located line through said reservations 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 claims for a subsequent settlement and improvement upon the right of way shown by said maps shall be valid as against said company: Provided, That a map showing the entire line of the said railway in the Indian Territory shall be filed with and approved by the Secretary of the Interior before the construction of said railway in the Indian Territory shall be begun.

That the officers, servants, and employees of said company necessary to the construction and management of said road shall be allowed to reside, while so engaged, upon said 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.

That said railway company shall build at least one hundred miles of its railway within three years after the passage of this Act or the rights herein granted shall be forfeited as to that portion not built. That said railway company shall construct and maintain continually all fences, road and highway crossings, and necessary bridges over said railway wherever said roads or 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.

That the Arkansas Northwestern Railway Company shall accept this grant of the 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 toward the changing or extinguishing the present tenure of the Indians in their land, and will not attempt to secure from the Indian nations or tribes any further grant of land or its occupancy than is herein provided for: Provided, That any violation of the conditions mentioned in this section shall operate as a forfeiture of all rights and privileges of said railway company under this Act.

That all mortgages executed by said railway company conveying any portion of its railway, with its franchises, that may be constructed in said reservation 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.

[NOTE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.—The foregoing act having been presented to the President of the United States for his approval, and not having been returned by him to the house of Congress in which it originated within the time prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, has become a law without his approval.]