original citizenship cases, shall receive a fee of two dollars and fifty cents for transferring and certifying to the citizenship court the files, papers, and proceedings in each case, without regard to the number of persons whose citizenship is involved therein, and said fee shall be paid by the person applying for such transfer and certification. The judgment of the citizenship court in any or all of the suits or proceedings so committed to its jurisdiction shall be final. All expenses necessary to the proper conduct, on behalf of the nations, of the suits and proceedings provided for in this and the two preceding sections shall be incurred under the direction of the executives of the two nations, and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, upon certificate of said executives, to pay such expenses as in his judgment are reasonable and necessary out of any of the joint funds of said nations in the treasury of the United States.13 § 554. Closing rolls.-[34]. During the ninety days first following the date of the final ratification of this agreement, the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes may receive applications for enrollment only of persons whose names are on the tribal rolls, but who have not heretofore been enrolled by said Commission, commonly known as "delinquents," and such intermarried white persons as may have married recognized citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in accordance with the tribal laws, customs and usages on or before the date of the passage of this act by Congress, and such infant children as may have been born to recognized and enrolled citizens on or before the date of the final ratification of this agreement; but the application of no person whomsoever for enrollment shall be received after the expiration of the said ninety days: Provided, that nothing in this section shall apply to any person or persons making application for enrollment as 13 See authorities cited to section 551. Mississippi Choctaws, for whom provision has herein otherwise been made. § 555. Enrolled members-When entitled to allotment. -[35]. No person whose name does not appear upon the rolls prepared as herein provided shall be entitled to in any manner participate in the distribution of the common property of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes and those whose names appear thereon shall participate in the manner set forth in this agreement: Provided, that no allotment of land or other tribal property shall be made to any person, or to the heirs of any person whose name is on the said rolls, and who died prior to the date of the final ratification of this agreement. The right of such person to any interest in the lands or other tribal property shall be deemed to have become extinguished and to have passed to the tribe in general upon his death before the date of the final ratification of this agreement, and any person or persons who may conceal the death of any one on said rolls as aforesaid, for the purpose of profiting by the said concealment, and who shall knowingly receive any portion of any land or other tribal property, or of the proceeds so arising from any allotment prohibited by this section, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and shall be proceeded against as may be provided in other cases of felony, and the penalty for this offense shall be confinement at hard labor for a period of not less than one year nor more than five years, and in addition thereto, a forfeiture to the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations of the lands, other tribal property, and proceeds so obtained. CHICKASAW FREEDMEN § 556. Chickasaw freedmen-Authority conferred on Court of Claims to determine controversy.-[36]. Authority is hereby conferred upon the Court of Claims to determine the existing controversy respecting the relations of the Chickasaw freedmen to the Chickasaw Nation and the rights of such freedmen in the lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations under the third article of the treaty of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, and under any and all laws subsequently enacted by the Chickasaw legislature or by Congress. § 557. Bill to be filed by Attorney General.-[37]. To that end the Attorney General of the United States is hereby directed, on behalf of the United States, to file in said Court of Claims, within sixty days after this agreement becomes effective, a bill of interpleader against the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations and the Chickasaw freedmen, setting forth the existing controversy between the Chickasaw Nation and the Chickasaw freedmen and praying that the defendants thereto be required to interplead and settle their respective rights in such suit. § 558. Procedure in freedmen suits.-[38]. Service of process in the suit may be had on the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, respectively, by serving upon the principal chief of the former and the governor of the latter a certified copy of the bill, with a notice of the time for answering the same, which shall not be less than thirty nor more than sixty days after such service, and may be had upon the Chickasaw freedmen by serving upon each of three known and recognized Chickasaw freedmen a certified copy of the bill, with a like notice of the time for answering the same, and by publishing a notice of the commencement of the suit, setting forth the nature and prayer of the bill, with the time for answering the same, for a period of three weeks in at least two weekly newspapers having general circulation in the Chickasaw Nation. 559. Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations may intervene in freedmen suits.-[39]. The Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, respectively, may in the manner prescribed in sections twenty-one hundred and three to twenty-one hundred and six, both inclusive, of the Revised Statutes, employ a counsel to represent them in such suit and protect their interests therein; and the Secretary of the Interior shall employ competent counsel to represent the Chickasaw freedmen in said suit and to protect their interests therein; and the compensation of counsel so employed for the Chickasaw freedmen, including all costs of printing their briefs and other incidental expenses on their part, not exceeding six thousand dollars, shall be paid out of the Treasury of the United States upon certificate of the Secretary of the Interior setting forth the employment and the terms thereof, and stating that the required services have been duly rendered; and any party feeling aggrieved at the decree of the Court of Claims, or any part thereof, may, within sixty days after the rendition thereof, appeal to the Supreme Court, and in each of said courts the suit shall be advanced for hearing and decision at the earliest practicable time. § 560. Temporary allotments to Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen. [40]. In the meantime the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall make a roll of the Chickasaw freedmen and their descendants, as provided in the Atoka Agreement, and shall make allotments to them as provided in this agreement, which said allotments shall be held by the said Chickasaw freedmen, not as temporary allotments, but as final allotments, and in the event that it shall be finally determined in said suit that the Chickasaw freedmen are not, independently of this agreement, entitled to allotments in the Choctaw and Chickasaw lands, the Court of Claims shall render a decree in favor of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations according to their respective interests, and against the United States, for the value of the lands so allotted to the Chickasaw freedmen as ascertained by the appraisal thereof made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes for the purpose of allotment, which decree shall take the place of the said lands and shall be in full satisfaction of all claims by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations against the United States or the said freedmen on account of the taking of the said lands for allotment to said freedmen: Provided, that nothing contained in this paragraph shall be construed to effect or change the existing status or rights of the two tribes as between themselves respecting the lands taken for allotment to freedmen, or the money, if any, recovered as compensation therefor, as aforesaid. MISSISSIPPI CHOCTAWS § 561-Mississippi Choctaws.-[41]. All persons duly identified by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes under the provisions of section 21 of the Act of Congress approved June 28, 1898 (30 Stats. 495), as Mississippi Choctaws entitled to benefits under article 14 of the treaty between the United States and the Choctaw Nation concluded September 27, 1830, may, at any time within six months after the date of their identification as Mississippi Choctaws by the said Commission, make bona fide settlement within the Choctaw-Chickasaw country, and upon proof of such settlement to such Commission within one year after the date of their said identification as Mississippi Choctaws shall be enrolled by such Commission as Mississippi Choctaws entitled to allotment as herein provided for citizens of the tribes, subject to the special provisions herein provided as to Mississippi Choctaws, and said enrollment shall be final when approved by the Secretary of the Interior. The application of no person for identification as a Mississippi Choctaw shall be received by said Commission after six months subsequent to the date of the final ratification of this agreement and in the disposition of such applications all full-blood Mississippi Choctaw Indians and the descendants of any Mississippi Choctaw Indians whether of full or mixed blood who received a patent to land under the said fourteenth article of the said treaty of eighteen hundred and thirty who had not moved to and made bona fide settlement in the Choctaw-Chickasaw country prior to June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, shall be |