which shall be in a square form, as nearly as possible, and shall be for thirty years. The royalty on coal shall be fifteen cents per ton of two thousand pounds on all coal mined, payable on the twenty-fifth day of the month next succeeding that in which it is mined. Royalty on asphalt shall be sixty cents per ton, payable same as coal: Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior may reduce or advance royalties on coal and asphalt when he deems it for the best interests of the Choctaws and Chickasaws to do so. No royalties shall be paid except into the United States Treasury as herein provided.

All lessees shall pay on each coal or asphalt claim at the rate of one hundred dollars per annum, in advance for the first and second years; two hundred dollars in advance, per annum, for the third and fourth years; and five hundred dollars for each succeeding year thereafter. All such payments shall be treated as advanced royalty on the mine or claim on which they are made; and shall be a credit as royalty when each said mine is developed and operated, and its production is in excess of such guaranteed annual payments, and all persons having coal leases must pay said annual advanced payments on each claim whether developed or undeveloped: Provided, however, That should any lessee neglect or refuse to pay such advanced royalty for the period of sixty days after the same becomes due and payable on any lease on which default is made shall become null and void, and the royalties paid in advance thereon shall become and be the property of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations.

In surface, the use of which is reserved to present coal operators, shall be included such lots in towns as are occupied by lessees' houses-either occupied by said lessees' employees or as officers or warehouse: Provider, however, That in those townsites designated and laid out under the provisions of this agreemnt where coal leases are now being operated and coal is being mined, there shall be reserved from appraisement and sale all lots occupied by houses of miners actually engaged in mining and only while they are so engaged, and in addition thereto a sufficient amount of land, to be determined by the townsite board of appraisers, to furnish homes for the men actually engaged in working for the lessees operating said mines, and a sufficient amount for all buildings and machinery for mining purposes; and Provided further, That when the lessees shall cease to operate said mines, then and in that event the lots of land so reserved shall be disposed of by the coal trustees for the benefit of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes. That whenever the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes shall be required to pay taxes for the support of schools then the fund arising from such royalties shall be disposed of for the equal benefit of their members (freedmen excepted) in such manner as the tribes may direct.

Sec. 16. Jurisdiction Conferred Upon United States Courts. It is further agreed that the United States Courts now existing or that may hereafter be created in the Indian Territory shall have exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies growing out of the titles, ownership, occupation, or use of real estate, coal and asphalt, in the territory occupied by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes; and all persons charged with homicide, embezzlement, bribery, and embracert, breaches, disturbances of the peace, and carrying weapons, hereafter committed in the territory of said tribes, without reference to race or citizenship of the person or persons charged with such crime; and any citizen or officer of the Choctaw or Chickasaw Nations charged with such crimes shall be tried, and if convicted punished as though he were a citizen of the United States.

And sections sixteen hundred and thirty-six to sixteen hundred and forty-four, inclusive, entitled "Embezzlement" and sections seventeen hundred and eleven to seventeen hundred and eighteen, inclusive, entitled "Bribery and Embracery" of Mansfield's Digest of the Laws of Arkansas, are hereby extended over and put in force in the Choctaw and Chickasaw

Nations, and the word "officer," where the same appears in said laws, shall include all officers of the Choctaw and Chickasaw governments; and the fifteenth section of the act of Congress, entitled "An act to establish United States courts in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," approved March first, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, limiting jurors to citizens of the United States, shall be held not to apply to United States courts in the Indian Territory held within the limits of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations; and all members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations otherwise qualified shall be competent jurors in said courts; Provided, That whenever a member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations is indicted for homicide, he may, within thirty days after such indictment and his arrest thereon, and before the same is reached for trial, file with the clerk of the court in which he is indicted, his affidavit that he can not get a fair trial in said court; and it thereupon shall be the duty of the judge of said court to order a change of venue in such case to the United States District Court for the western district of Arkansas, at Fort Smith, Arkansas, or to the United States District Court for the eastern district of Texas, at Paris, Texas, always selecting the court that in his judgment is nearest or most convenient to the place where the crime charged in the indictment is supposed to have been comitted, which courts shall have jurisdiction to try the case; and in all said civil suits said courts shall have full equity powers; and whenever it shall appear to said court, at any stage in the hearing of any case, that the tribe is in any way interested in the subject matter in controversy, it shall have power to summon in said tribe and make the same a party to the suit and proceed therein in all respects as if such tribes were an original party thereto; but in no case shall suit be instituted against the tribal government without its consent.

Sec. 17. Acts of Indian Council to be Approved by President.-It is further agreed that no act, ordinance, or resolution of the council of either the Choctow or Chickasaw tribes, in any manner affecting the land of the tribe, or of the individuals, after allotment, or the moneys or other property of the tribe or citizens thereof (except appropriations for the regular and necessary expenses of the government of the respective tribes) or the rights of any persons 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, ordinances, or resolutions passed by the council of either of said tribes shall be approved by the governor thereof then it shall be the duty of the National Secretary of said tribe to forward them to the President of the United States, duly certified and sealed, who shall, within thirty days after their reception approve or disapprove the same. Said acts, ordinances, or resolutions, when so approved, shall be published in at least two newspapers having the bona fide circulation in the tribe to be affected thereby, and when disapproved shall be returned to the tribe enacting the same.

Sec. 18. Tribal Governments to Continue for Eight Years.-It is further agreed, in view of the modifications of legislative authority and judicial jurisdiction herein provided, and the necessity of the continuance of the tribal governments so modified, in order to carry out the requirements of this agreement, that the same shall continue for the period of eight years from the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. This stipulation is made in the belief that the tribal governments so modified will prove so satisfactory that there will be no need or desire for further change till the lands now occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes shall, in the opinion of Congress, be prepared for admission as a State to the Union. But this provision shall not be construed to be in any respect an abdication by Congress of power at any time to make needful rules and regulations respecting said tribes.

Sec. 19. Per Capita Payments.-That all per capita payments hereafter made to the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations 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 said Secretary. That the following sum be, and is hereby, appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for fulfilling treaty stipulations with the Chickasaw Nation of Indians, namely:

For arrears of interest, at five per centum per annum, from December thirty-first, eighteen hundred and forty, to June thirtieth eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, on one hundred and eighty-four thousand and one hundred and forty-three dollars and nine cents of the trust fund of the Chickasaw Nation erroneously dropped from the books of the United States prior to December thirty-first, eighteen hundred and forty, and restored December twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, by the award of the Secretary of the Interior, under the fourth article of the treaty of June twenty-second, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, and for arrears of interest at five per centum per annum from March eleventh, eighteen hundred and fifty, to March third, eighteen hundred and ninety, on fifty-six thousand and twenty-one dollars and forty-nine cents of the trust fund of the Chickasaw Nation erroneously dropped from the books of the United States March eleventh, eighteen hundred and fifty, and restored December twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven by the award of the Secretary of the Interior, under the fourth article of the treaty of June twenty-second, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, five hundred and fifty-eight thousand five hundred and twenty dollars and fifty-four cents, to be placed to the credit of the Chickasaw Nation with the fund to which it properly belongs: Provided, That if there be any attorney's fees to be paid out of the same, on contract heretofore made and duly approved by the Secreftary of the Interior, the same is authorized to be paid by him.

Sec. 20. Controversy with Other Tribes.-It is further agreed that the final decision of the courts of the United States in the case of the Choctaw Nation and the Chickasaw Nation against the United States and the Wichita and affiliated bands of Indians, now pending when made, shall be conclusive as the basis of settlement as between the United States and said Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations for the remaining lands in what is known as the "Lease District," namely, the land lying between the ninety-eighth and one hundredth degrees of west longitude and between the Red and Canadian rivers, leased to the United States by the treaty of eighteen hundred and fifty-five, except that portion called the Cheyenne and Arapahoe country, heretofore acquired by the United States, and all final judgments rendered against said nations in any of the courts of the United States in favor of the United States or any citizen thereof shall first be paid out of any sum hereafter found due said Indians for any interest they may have in the socalled "Leased District."

Sec. 21. Choctaws and Chickasaws to Become Citizens of the United States. It is further agreed that all of the funds invested, in lieu of investment, treaty funds, or otherwise, now held by the United States in trust for the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, shall be capitalized within one year after the governments shall cease, so far as the same may be legally done, and be appropriated and paid by some officer of the United States appointed for the purpose, to the Choctaws and Chickasaws (freedmen excepted) per capita, to aid and assist them in improving their homes and lands.

It is further agreed that the Choctaws and Chickasaws, when their tribal governments cease, shall become possessed of all the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States.

Sec. 22.-Orphan Land in Mississippi.-It is further agreed that the Choctaw Orphan lands in the State of Mississippi, yet unsold, shall be

taken by the United States at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and the proceeds placed to the credit of the Choctaw orphan fund in the treasury of the United States the number of acres to be determined by the General Land Office.

In witness whereof, the said Commissioners do hereunto affix their names at Atoka, Indian Territory, this the twenty third day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven.

THE CURTIS ACT

JUNE 28, 1898.

SUMMARY,

Defining the word "officer."

Tribe to be made party in suits affecting tribal property.
United States court-jurisdiction over controverted claims

to membership.

IV. Possession by intruders denied citizenship disposition of improvements.

Method of service to quit.

Complaint to be filed by chiefs, etc.

VIII. Judgment of restitution, etc.

Sec.

Sec.

V.

Bond on continuance.

Sec.

Sec.

IX.

Extention of police powers of Fort Smith.

Time within which to bring actions.

Allotment by "Dawes Commission"-Certain reservations, etc.

Confirmation of allotments.

XIII. Lease of oil lands, and provisions relating thereto.
XIV. Incorporating a town, and powers of municipalities.
XV. Commission to lay out townsites-defining procedure.
Royalties and rents.

Excessive holding of lands.

Sec. XVIII. Penalty and enforcement.

Distribution of payments.

XX. Authority delegated to Commission Five Civilized Tribes. XXI. Enrollment of members of the different tribes-powers of the Commission relating thereto.

XXII. Tribes, members relations.

Agricultural leases.

Payments to be placed to tribe's credit.

Lands purchased by Delawares to be segregated-rights of Delawares.

Termination of tribal laws.

Location of Indian Inspector.

Sec. XXVIII. Tribal laws abolished.

AN ACT FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE PEOPLE OF THE INDIAN TERRITORY, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

Sec. 1. Be It Enacted, Etc., That in all criminal prosecutions in the Indian Territory against officials for embezzlement, bribery, and embracery the word "officer," when the same appears in the criminal laws heretofore extended over and put in force in said Territory, shall include all officers of the several tribes or nations of Indians in said Territory.