and improvements herein mentioned shall be conveyed by the United States to such territorial or state organization as may exist at the time when such conveyance is made.

MISCELLANEOUS

§ 585. Patents, acceptance of for minors, etc.-[65]. The acceptance of patents for minors, prisoners, convicts, and incompetents by persons authorized to select their allotments for them shall be sufficient to bind such minors, prisoners, convicts, and incompetents as to the conveyance of all other lands of the tribes.

§ 586. Patents to allotments-Recording and delivery.— [66]. All patents to allotments of land, when `executed, shall be recorded in the office of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes within said nations in books appropriate for the purpose, until such time as Congress shall make other suitable provision for record of land titles as provided in the Atoka Agreement, without expense to the grantee; and such records shall have like effect as other public records.

§ 587. Certain provisions inapplicable to Choctaws and Chickasaws. [67]. The provisions of section three of the Act of Congress approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight (30 Stats. 495), shall not apply to or in any manner affect the lands or other property of the Choctaws and Chickasaws or Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen.

§ 588. Conflict with previous acts.-[68]. No act of Congress or treaty provision, nor any provision of the Atoka Agreement, inconsistent with this agreement, shall be in force in said Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations.18

§ 589. Allotment controversies-How determined.[69]. All controversies arising between members as to

16 Taylor v. Anderson (C. C.) 197 Fed. 383.

BLED.IND. (2D ED.)-33

their right to select particular tracts of land shall be determined by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes.

§ 590. Parents to select allotments for minors.-[70]. Allotments may be selected and homesteads designated for minors by the father or mother, if members, or by a guardian or curator, or the administrator having charge of their estate, in the order named; and for prisoners, convicts, aged and infirm persons by duly appointed agents under power of attorney; and for incompetents by guardians, curators, or other suitable person akin to them; but it shall be the duty of said Commission to see that said selections are made for the best interests of such parties.

§ 591. No contest after nine months.-[71]. After the expiration of nine months after the date of the original selection of an allotment, by or for any citizen or freedman of the Choctaw or Chickasaw Tribes, as provided in this agreement, no contest shall be instituted against such selection.17

§ 592. Per capita payment authorized.-[72]. There shall be paid to each citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, immediately after the approval of his enrollment and right to participate in distribution of tribal property, as herein provided, the sum of forty dollars. Such payment shall be made under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and out of the balance of the "arrears of interest" of five hundred and fifty-eight thousand five hundred and twenty dollars and fifty-four cents appropriated by the act of Congress approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, entitled "An act for the protection of the people of the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," yet due to the Chickasaws and remaining to their credit in the treasury of the United States; and so much of such moneys as may be necessary for such payment are hereby appropriated and made available for that purpose, and the bal

17 Frame v. Bivens (C. C.) 189 Fed. 785.

ance, if any there be, shall remain in the treasury of the United States, and be distributed per capita with the other funds of the tribes. And all acts of Congress or other treaty provisions in conflict with this provision are hereby repealed.

§ 593. Provisions for ratification.-[73]. This agreement shall be binding upon the United States and upon the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations and all Choctaws and Chickasaws, when ratified by Congress and by a majority of the whole number of votes cast by the legal voters of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes in the manner following: The principal chief of the Choctaw Nation and the governor of the Chickasaw Nation shall, within one hundred and twenty days after the ratification of this agreement by Congress, make public proclamation that the same shall be voted upon at any special election to be held for that purpose within thirty days thereafter, on a certain day therein named; and all male citizens of each of the said. tribes qualified to vote under the tribal laws shall have a right to vote at the election precinct most convenient to his residence, whether the same be within the bounds of his tribe or not. And if this agreement be ratified by said tribes as aforesaid, the date upon which said election is held shall be deemed to be the date of final ratification.

§ 594. Canvass of votes.-[74]. The votes cast in both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations shall be forthwith returned and duly certified by the precinct officers to the national secretaries of said tribes, and shall be presented by said national secretaries to a board of commissioners consisting of the principal chief and the national secretary of the Choctaw Nation and the governor and national secretary of the Chickasaw Nation and two members of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes; and said board shall meet without delay at Atoka, Indian Territory, and canvass and count said votes, and make proclamation of the result.

In witness whereof the said commissioners do hereby affix

their names at Washington, District of Columbia, this twenty-first day of March, 1902.

Approved July 1, 1902. Ratified by Choctaws and Chickasaws September 25, 1902.

§ 595. Allotment to Mississippi Choctaws provided for in Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations.-Provided, that any Mississippi Choctaw duly identified as such by the United States Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall have the right, at any time prior to the approval of the final rolls of the Choctaws and Chickasaws by the Secretary of the Interior, to make settlement within the Choctaw-Chickasaw country, and on proof of the fact of bona fide settlement may be enrolled by the said United States Commission and by the Secretary of the Interior as Choctaws entitled to allotment.18

§ 596. Contracts affecting lands of Mississippi Choctaws prohibited. Provided further, that all contracts or agreements looking to the sale or incumbrance in any way of the lands to be allotted to said Mississippi Choctaws shall be null and void.19

§ 597. Enrollment of Mississippi Choctaw full bloods.No distinction shall be made in the enrollment of full-blood Mississippi Choctaws who have been identified by the United States Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, and who had removed to the Indian Territory prior to March fourth, nineteen hundred and six, and who shall furnish proof thereof.20

§ 597a. Provision of Act of May 29, 1908, for additional townsites. [7]. That in addition to the towns heretofore segregated, surveyed, and scheduled in accordance with law, the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to segregate and survey within that part of the

18 Act May 31, 1900, c. 598, 31 Stat. 236.

19 31 Stat. 237.

20 Act June 21, 1906, c. 3504, 34 Stat. 341.

Territory of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, state of Oklahoma, heretofore segregated as coal and asphalt land, such other towns, parts of towns, or town lots, as are now in existence, or which he may deem it desirable to establish. He shall cause the surface of the lots in such towns or parts of towns to be appraised, scheduled, and sold at the rates, on the terms, and with the same character of estate as is provided in section twenty-nine of the Act of Congress approved June twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninetyeight (Thirtieth Statutes at Large, page four hundred and ninety-five), under regulations to be prescribed by him. That the provisions of section thirteen of the Act of Congress approved April twenty-sixth nineteen hundred and six (Thirty-Fourth Statutes at Large, page one hundred and thirty-seven), shall not apply to town lots appraised and sold as provided herein. That all expenses incurred in surveying, platting, and selling the lots in any town or parts of towns shall be paid from the proceeds of the sale of town lots of the nation in which such town is situate.2 21

§ 597b. Reappraisement of the town of Hartshorne ordered by Act of May 29, 1908.-[14]. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to make, and shall cause to be made, within sixty days from the passage of this act, a reappraisement of the town of Hartshorne, Oklahoma, as of the date of the original appraisement made by the townsite commission; that payment already made on lots therein shall be credited on the basis of the reappraisement; that there shall be reimbursed to lot owners for the townsite funds of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations any amounts paid by them in excess of the new appraisement, and that the first installment on the purchase price or of the balance remaining unpaid shall be due thirty days after the service of notice of reappraisement, but in all other respects the existing laws relating to the sale of town lots and issue of pat

21 35 Stat. 446, c. 216.