Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 5.djvu/552



section of this act; and the powers and duties of the said commissioners shall cease at the expiration of two years from the time of the first organization of the board; and their proceedings may be terminated by the President at any time previous to the expiration of the said two years.

. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners to be appointed under this act shall also ascertain and determine the quantity of land to which any Choctaw or other person named in the supplement to the said treaty of Dancing Rabbit creek was entitled by virtue thereof, and which such person has by any means been prevented from receiving.

. And be it further enacted, That if the President of the United States shall approve and confirm the determination of the commissioners heretofore appointed to investigate the claims existing under the fourteenth article of the said treaty of Dancing Rabbit creek, in any case, he shall cause to be delivered to the claimant, if he be a Choctaw Indian, his legal representatives or heirs, certificates, as provided by the fourth section of this act, for the quantity of land to which such claimant shall appear, by such determination, to have been entitled, in full satisfaction and discharge of such claim: Provided, Such determination was made by adhering, in every instance, to the requisites contained in the fourth section of this act: And provided, also, That said claims, nor either of them, cannot now be located, according to the provisions of the fourth section of this act.

. And be it further enacted, That distinct accounts shall be kept of the certificates issued in satisfaction of the claims provided for by this act, and of all expenses attending the execution of the same; and the amount thereof shall be retained and withheld from any distribution to the States.

. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to authorize the said commissioners to adjudicate any claim which may be presented by a white man who may have had, or now has, an Indian wife or family; and any patent to land, which shall issue on any Indian claim, under the provisions of the treaty aforesaid, shall be issued to the Indian to whom the claim was allowed, if living, and if dead, to his or her heirs and legal representatives, any act of Congress, or usage, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.

. And be it further enacted, That no claim shall be allowed, under the fourteenth article of said treaty, if the said commissioners shall be satisfied, by such proof as they may prescribe, that said claim had been, previous to the expiration of five years from the ratification of said treaty, assigned, either in whole or in part; and in case of a partial assignment, or assignment for an assignment thereof, the same shall be allowed so far only as the original Indian claimant was, at that date, the bona fide proprietor thereof.

. And be it further enacted, That all claims under either of the articles of said treaty mentioned above, or the supplemental articles thereof, which shall not be duly presented to said commissioners for allowance within one year after the final passage of this act, shall be thereafter for ever barred.

, August 23, 1842.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the commissioners who now are, or hereafter may be, appointed by the circuit courts of the United States