Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 5.djvu/551



river, but he or she had continued to reside within the limits of the country ceded by the Choctaw Indians to the United States by said treaty of twenty-seventh September, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty, it shall be the duty of said commissioners, if all and each of the above requisites shall be made clearly to appear to their satisfaction, and the Secretary of War shall concur therein, to proceed to ascertain the quantity of land to which said Indian, by virtue of the fourteenth article of said treaty, is entitled to, which, when ascertained, shall be located for said Indian, according to sectional lines, so as to embrace the improvement, or a part of it, owned by said Indian at the date of said treaty; and it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to issue a patent to said Indian for said land, if he or she be living, and if not, to his or her heirs and legal representatives; and in like manner shall the commissioners aforesaid ascertain the quantity of land granted by said article to each child of said Indian, according to the limitations contained in said article, and locate said quantity, for said children, contiguous to and adjoining the improvement of the parent of such child or children; and the President shall shall issue a patent for each tract of land thus located, to said Indian child, if living, and if not, to the heirs and legal representatives of such Indian child. But if the United States shall have disposed of any tract of land, to which any Indian was entitled, under the provisions of said fourteenth article of said treaty, so that it is now impossible to give said Indian the quantity to which he was entitled, including his improvements, as aforesaid, or any part of it, or to his children, on the adjoining lands, the said commissioners shall thereupon estimate the quantity to which each Indian is entitled, and allow him or her, for the same, a quantity of land equal to that allowed, to be taken out of any of the public lands in the States of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas, subject to entry at private sale; and certificates to that effect shall be delivered, under the direction of the Secretary of War, through such agent as he may select, not more than one half of which shall be delivered to said Indian until after his removal to the Choctaw territory west of the Mississippi river. The said commissioners shall also ascertain the Choctaws, if any, who relinquished or offered to relinquish any reservations to which he was entitled under the nineteenth article of the said treaty, or whose reservations under that article had been sold by the United States; and shall also determine the quantity to which such claimant was entitled; and the quantity of land which should be allowed him on extinguishment of such claim, at the rate of two fifths of an acre for every acre of the land to which said claimant was entitled, said land having been estimated under this article at fifty cents per acre: Provided, nevertheless, That no claim shall be considered or allowed by said commissioners, for or in the name or behalf of any Indian claimant whose name does not appear upon the lists or registers of claimants made by Major Armstrong, special agent for that purpose, in conjunction with the three chiefs of the three Choctaw districts, and returned to the Department of War in January, eighteen hundred and thirty-two, and who does not appear from those registers to be entitled to a reservation under said nineteenth article.

. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners, within two years from the time of their entering upon the duties of their offices, and as often as shall be required by the President of the United States, shall report to him their proceedings in the premises, with a full and perfect list of names of all the Choctaws whom they shall have determined to be entitled to reservations under this act; the quantity of land to which each shall be so entitled, the number of claims which can be located according to the provisions of the fourth section of this act, and such as cannot be located according to the provisions of the fourth