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Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1913.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the inhabitants of all that part of the area of the United States now constituting the Territory of Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, as at present described, may adopt a constitution and become the State of Oklahoma, as hereinafter provided: Provided, That nothing contained in the said constitution shall be construed to limit or impair the rights of person or property pertaining to the Indians of said Territories (so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished) or to limit or affect the authority of the Government of the United States to make any law or regulation respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights by treaties, agreement, law, or otherwise, which it would have been competent to make if this act had never been passed.1
That all male persons over the age of twenty-one years, who are citizens of the United States, or who are members of any Indian nation or tribe in said Indian Territory and Oklahoma, and who have resided within the limits of said proposed State for at least six months next preceding the election, are hereby authorized to vote for and choose delegates to form a constitutional convention for said proposed State; and all persons qualified to vote for said delegates shall be eligible to serve as delegates; and the delegates to form such convention shall be one hundred and twelve in number, fifty-five of whom shall be elected by the people of the Territory of Oklahoma and fifty-five by the people of Indian Territory, and two shall be elected by the electors residing in the Osage Indian Reservation in the Territory of Oklahoma; and the governor, the chief justice, and the secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma shall apportion the Territory of Oklahoma into fifty-six districts, as nearly equal in population as may be, except that such apportionment shall include as one district the Osage Indian Reservation, and the governor, the chief justice, and the secretary of the Territory of Oklahoma shall appoint an election commissioner who shall establish voting precincts in said Osage Indian Reservation, and shall appoint the judges for election in said Osage Indian Reservation; and two delegates shall be elected from said Osage district; and the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, and two judges of the United States courts for the Indian Territory, to be designated by the President, shall constitute a board, which shall apportion the said Indian Territory into fifty-five districts, as nearly equal in population as may be, and one delegate shall be elected from each of said districts; and the governor of said Oklahoma Territory, together with the judge senior in service of the United States courts in Indian Territory, shall, by proclamation in which such apportionment shall be fully specified and announced, order an election of the delegates aforesaid in said proposed State at a time designated by them within six months after the approval of this act, which proclamation shall be issued at least sixty days prior to the time of holding said election of delegates. The election for delegates in the Territory of Oklahoma and in said Indian Territory shall be con–
ducted, the returns made, the result ascertained, and the certificates of all persons elected to such convention issued in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma regulating elections for Delegates to Congress. That the election laws of the Territory of Oklahoma now in force, as far as applicable and not in conflict with this act, including the penal laws of said Territory of Oklahoma relating to elections and illegal voting, are hereby extended to and put in force in said Indian Territory until the legislature of said proposed State shall otherwise provide, and until all persons offending against said laws in the election aforesaid shall have been dealt with in the manner therein provided. And the United States courts of said Indian Territory shall have the same power to enforce the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma, hereby extended to and put in force in said Territory, as have the courts of the Territory of Oklahoma: Provided, however, That said board to apportion districts in Indian Territory shall, for the purpose of said election, appoint an election commissioner for each district who shall distribute all ballots and election supplies, to the several precincts in his district, receive the election returns from the judges in precincts, and deliver the same to the canvassing board herein named, establish and define the necessary election precincts, and appoint three judges of election for each precinct, not more than two of whom shall be of the same political party, which judges may appoint the necessary clerk or clerks; that said judges of election, so appointed, shall supervise the election in their respective precincts, and canvass and make due return of the vote cast, to the election commissioner for said district who shall deliver said returns, poll books, and ballots to said board, which shall constitute the ultimate and final canvassing board of said election, and they shall issue certificates of election to all persons elected to such convention from the various districts of the Indian Territory, and their certificates of election shall be prima facie evidence as to the election of delegates: Provided further, That in said Indian Territory and Osage Indian Reservation, nominations for delegate to said constitutional convention may be made by convention, by the Republican, Democratic, and People’s Party, or by petition in the manner provided by the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma; and certificates and petitions of nomination in said Indian Territory shall be filed with the districting and canvassing board who shall perform the duties of election commissioner under said law, and shall prepare, print, and distribute all ballots, poll books, and election supplies necessary for the holding of said election under said laws. The capital of said State shall temporarily be at the city of Guthrie, in the present Territory of Oklahoma, and shall not be changed therefrom previous to anno Domini nineteen hundred and thirteen, but said capital shall, after said year, be located by the electors of said State at an election to be provided for by the legislature: Provided, however, That the legislature of said State, except as shall be necessary for the convenient transaction of the public business of said State at said capital, shall not appropriate any public moneys of the State for the erection of buildings for capitol purposes during such period.
That the delegates to the convention thus elected shall meet at the seat of government of said Oklahoma Territory on the second Tuesday after their election, excluding the day of election in case such day shall be Tuesday, but they shall not receive compensation for more than sixty days of service, and, after organization, shall declare, on behalf of the people of said proposed State, that they adopt the Constitution of the United States; whereupon the said convention shall, and is hereby authorized to, form a constitution and State government for said proposed State. The constitution shall be republican in form, and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account
of race or color, and shall not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And said convention shall provide in said constitution—
First. That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and that no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship, and that polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited.
Second. That the manufacture, sale, barter, giving away, or otherwise furnishing, except as hereinafter provided, of intoxicating liquors within those parts of said State now known as the Indian Territory and the Osage Indian Reservation and within any other parts of said State which existed as Indian reservations on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and six, is prohibited for a period of twenty-one years from the date of the admission of said State into the Union, and thereafter until the people of said State shall otherwise provide by amendment of said constitution and proper State legislation. Any person, individual or corporate, who shall manufacture, sell, barter, give away, or otherwise furnish any intoxicating liquor of any kind, including beer, ale, and wine, contrary to the provisions of this section, or who shall, within the above-described portions of said State, advertise for sale or solicit the purchase of any such liquors, or who shall ship or in any way convey such liquors from other parts of said State into the portions hereinbefore described, shall be punished, on conviction thereof, by fine not less than fifty dollars and by imprisonment not less than thirty days for each offense: Provided, That the legislature may provide by law for one agency under the supervision of said State in each incorporated town of not less than two thousand population in the portions of said State hereinbefore described; and if there be no incorporated town of two thousand population in any county in said portions of said State, such county shall be entitled to have one such agency, for the sale of such liquors for medicinal purposes; and for the sale, for industrial purposes, of alcohol which shall have been denaturized by some process approved by the United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue; and for the sale of alcohol for scientific purposes to such scientific institutions, universities, and colleges as are authorized to procure the same free of tax under the laws of the United States; and for the sale of such liquors to any apothecary who shall have executed an approved bond, in a sum not less than one thousand dollars, conditioned that none of such liquors shall be used or disposed of for any purpose other than in the compounding of prescriptions or other medicines, the sale of which would not subject him to the payment of the special tax required of liquor dealers by the United States, and the payment of such special tax by any person within the parts of said State hereinabove defined shall constitute prima facie evidence of his intention to violate the provisions of this section. No sale shall be made except upon the sworn statement of the applicant in writing setting forth the purpose for which the liquor is to be used, and no sale shall be made for medicinal purposes except sales to apothecaries as hereinabove provided unless such statement shall be accompanied by a bona fide prescription signed by a regular practicing physician, which prescription shall not be filled more than once. Each sale shall be duly registered, and the register thereof, together with the affidavits and prescriptions pertaining thereto, shall be open to inspection by any officer or citizen of said State at all times during business hours. Any person who shall knowingly make a false affidavit for the purpose aforesaid shall be deemed guilty of perjury. Any physician who shall prescribe any such liquor, except for treatment of disease which after his own personal diagnosis he shall deem to require such treatment, shall upon conviction thereof, be punished for each offense by fine of not less
than two hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not less than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; and any person connected with any such agency who shall be convicted of making any sale or other disposition of liquor contrary to these provisions shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year and one day. Upon the admission of said State into the Union these provisions shall be immediately enforceable in the courts of said State.1
Third. That the people inhabiting said proposed State do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title in or to any unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian, tribe, or nation; and that until the title to any such public land shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the jurisdiction, disposal, and control of the United States. That land belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the limits of said State shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the land belonging to residents thereof; that no taxes shall be imposed by the State on lands or property belonging to or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States or reserved for its use.2
Fourth. That the debts and liabilities of said Territory of Oklahoma shall be assumed and paid by said State.
Fifth. That provisions shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of said State and free from sectarian control; and said schools shall always be conducted in English: Provided, That nothing herein shall preclude the teaching of other languages in said public schools: And provided further, That this shall not be construed to prevent the establishment and maintenance of separate schools for white and colored children.
Sixth. That said State shall never enact any law restricting or abridging the right of suffrage on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
That upon the admission of the State into the Union sections numbered sixteen and thirty six, in every township in Oklahoma Territory, and all indemnity lands heretofore selected in lieu thereof, are hereby granted to the State for the use and benefit of the common schools: Provided, That sections sixteen and thirty-six embraced in permanent reservations for national purposes shall not at any time be subject to the grant nor the indemnity provisions of this act, nor shall any lands embraced in Indian, military, or other reservations of any character, nor shall land owned by Indian tribes or individual members of any tribe be subjected to the grants or to the indemnity provisions of this act until the reservation shall have been extinguished and such lands be restored to and become a part of the public domain: Provided, That there is sufficient untaken public land within said State to cover this grant: And provided, That in case any of the lands herein granted to the State of Oklahoma have heretofore been confirmed to the Territory of Oklahoma for the purposes specified in this act, the amount so confirmed shall be deducted from the quantity specified in this act.
There is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of five million dollars for the use and benefit of the common schools of said State in lieu of sections sixteen and thirty-six, and other lands of the Indian Territory. Said appropriation shall be paid by the Treasurer of the United States at such time and to such person or persons as may be authorized by said
State to receive the same under laws to be enacted by said State, and until said State shall enact such laws said appropriation shall not be paid, but said State shall be allowed interest thereon at the rate of three per centum per annum, which shall be paid to said State for the use and benefit of its public schools. Said appropriation of five million dollars shall be held and invested by said State, in trust, for the use and benefit of said schools, and the interest thereon shall be used exclusively in the support and maintenance of said schools: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall repeal or affect any act of Congress relating to the Sulphur Springs Reservation as now defined or as may be hereafter defined or extended, or the power of the United States over it or any other lands embraced in the State hereafter set aside by Congress as a national park, game preserve, or for the preservation of objects of archaeological or ethnological interest; and nothing contained in this act shall interfere with the rights and ownership of the United States in any land hereafter set aside by Congress as national park, game preserve, or other reservation, or in the said Sulphur Springs Reservation, as it now is or may be hereafter defined or extended by law; but exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, shall be exercised by the United States, which shall have exclusive control and jurisdiction over the same; but nothing in this proviso contained shall be construed to prevent the service within said Sulphur Springs Reservation or national parks, game preserves, and other reservations hereafter established by law, of civil and criminal processes lawfully issued by the authority of said State, and said State shall not be entitled to select indemnity school lands for the thirteenth, sixteenth, thirty-third, and thirty-sixth sections that may be embraced within the metes and bounds of the national park, game preserve, and other reservation or the said Sulphur Springs Reservation, as now defined or may be hereafter defined.
That section thirteen in the Cherokee Outlet, the Tonkawa Indian Reservation and the Pawnee Indian Reservation, reserved by the President of the United States by proclamation issued August nineteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, opening to settlement the said lands, and by any act or acts of Congress since said date, and section thirteen in all other lands which have been or may be opened to settlement in the Territory of Oklahoma, and all lands heretofore selected in lieu thereof, is hereby reserved and granted to said State for the use and benefit of the University of Oklahoma and the University Preparatory School, one-third; of the normal schools now established or hereafter to be established, one-third; and of the Agricultural and Mechanical College and the Colored Agricultural Normal University, one-third. The said lands or the proceeds thereof as above apportioned shall be divided between the institutions as the legislature of said State may prescribe: Provided, That the said lands so reserved or the proceeds of the sale thereof shall be safely kept or invested and held by said State, and the income thereof, interest, rentals, or otherwise, only shall be used exclusively for the benefit of said educational institutions. Such educational institutions shall remain under the exclusive control of said State, and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands herein granted for educational purposes, or the income or rentals thereof, shall be used for the support of any religious or sectarian school, college, or university.
That section thirty-three, and all lands heretofore selected in lieu thereof, heretofore reserved under said proclamation, and acts for charitable and penal institutions and public buildings, shall be approtioned and disposed of as the legislature of said may prescribe.
Where any part of the lands granted by this act to the State of Oklahoma are valuable for minerals, which terms shall also include gas and oil, such lands shall not be sold by the said State prior to Jan–
uary first, nineteen hundred and fifteen; but the same may be leased for periods not exceeding five years by the State officers duly authorized for that purpose, such leasing to be made by public competition after not less than thirty days’ advertisement in the manner to be prescribed by law, and all such leasing shall be done under sealed bids and awarded to the highest responsible bidder. The leasing shall require and the advertisement shall specify in each case a fixed royalty to be paid by the successful bidder, in addition to any bonus offered for the lease, and all proceeds from leases shall be covered into the fund to which they shall properly belong, and no transfer or assignment of any lease shall be valid or confer any right in the assignee without the consent of the proper State authorities in writing: Provided, however, That agricultural lessees in possession of such lands shall be reimbursed by the mining lessees for all damage done to said agricultural lessees’ interest therein by reason of such mining operations. The legislature of the State may prescribe additional legislation governing such leases not in conflict herewith.
That said sections sixteen and thirty-six, and lands taken in lieu thereof, herein granted for the support of the common schools, if sold, may be appraised and sold at public sale in one hundred and sixty acre tracts or less, under such rules and regulations as the legislature of the said State may prescribe, preference right to purchase at the highest bid being given to the lessee at the time of such sale, the proceeds to constitute a permanent school fund, the interest of which only shall be expended in the support of such schools. But said lands may, under such regulations as the legislature may prescribe, be leased for periods not to exceed ten years; and such lands shall not be subject to homestead entry or any other entry under the land laws of the United States, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for school purposes only.
That said sections thirteen and thirty-three, aforesaid, if sold, may be appraised and sold at public sale, in one hundred and sixty acre tracts or less, under such rules and regulations as the legislature of said State may prescribe, preference right to purchase at the highest bid being given to the lessee at the time of such sale, but such lands may be leased for periods of not more than five years, under such rules and regulations as the legislature shall prescribe, and until such time as the legislature shall prescribe such rules these and all other lands granted to the State shall be leased under existing rules and regulations, and shall not be subject to homestead entry or any other entry under the land laws of the United States, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for designated purposes only, and until such time as the legislature shall prescribe as aforesaid such lands shall be leased under existing rules: Provided, That before any of the said lands shall be sold, as provided in sections nine and ten of this act, the said lands and the improvements thereon shall be appraised by three disinterested appraisers, who shall be nonresidents of the county wherein the land is situated, to be designated as the legislature of said State shall prescribe, and the said appraisers shall make a true appraisement of said lands at the actual cash value thereof, exclusive of improvements, and shall separately appraise all permanent improvements thereon at their fair and reasonable value, and in case the leaseholder does not become the purchaser, the purchaser at said sale shall, under such rules and regulations as the legislature may prescribe, pay to or for the leaseholder the appraised value of said improvements, and to the State the amount bid for the said lands, exclusive of the appraised value of improvements; and at said sale no bid for any tract at less than the appraisement thereof shall be accepted.
That an amount equal to five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within said State shall be paid to the said State, to be used as a permanent fund, the interest only of which shall be expended for the support of the common schools within said State.
That in lieu of the grant of land for purposes of internal improvement made to new States by the eighth section of the act of September fourth, eighteen hundred and forty-one, which section is hereby repealed as to said State, and in lieu of any claim or demand of the State of Oklahoma under the act of September twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and fifty, and section twenty-four hundred and seventy-nine of the Revised Statutes, making a grant of swamp and overflowed lands, which grant it is hereby declared is not extended to said State of Oklahoma, the following grant of land is hereby made to said State from public lands of the United States within said State, for the purposes indicated, namely: For the benefit of the Oklahoma University, two hundred and fifty thousand acres; for the benefit of the University Preparatory School, one hundred and fifty thousand acres; for the benefit of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, two hundred and fifty thousand acres; for the benefit of the Colored Agricultural and Normal University, one hundred thousand acres; for the benefit of normal schools, now established or hereafter to be established, three hundred thousand acres. The lands granted by this section shall be selected by the board for leasing school lands of the Territory of Oklahoma immediately upon the approval of this act. Said selections as soon as made shall be certified to the Secretary of the Interior, and the lands so selected shall be thereupon withdrawn from homestead entry.
That the constitutional convention may be ordinance provide for the election of officers for a full State government, including members of the legislature and five Representatives to Congress, and shall constitute the Osage Indian Reservation a separate county, and provide that it shall remain a separate county until the lands in the Osage Indian Reservation are allotted in severalty and until changed by the legislature of Oklahoma, and designate the county seat thereof, and shall provide rules and regulations and define the manner of conducting the first election for officers in said county. Such State government shall remain in abeyance until the State shall be admitted into the Union and the election for State officers held, as provided for in this act. The State legislature when organized shall elect two Senators of the United States, in the manner now prescribed by the laws of the United States, and the governor and secretary of said State shall certify the election of the Senators and Representatives in the manner required by law; and said Senators and Representatives shall be entitled to be admitted to seats in Congress and to all the rights and privileges of Senators and Representatives of other States in the Congress of the United States. And the officers of the State government formed in pursuance of said constitution, as provided by said constitutional convention, shall proceed to exercise all the functions of such State officers; and all laws in force in the Territory of Oklahoma at the time of the admission of said State into the Union shall be in force throughout said State, except as modified or changed by this act or by the constitution of the State, and the laws of the United States not locally inapplicable shall have the same force and effect within said State as elsewhere within the United States.
That the constitutional convention provided for herein shall, by ordinance irrevocable, accept the terms and conditions of this act.
Approved, June 16, 1906.
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