USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 43
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Outlet, prior to the passage of this act, shall be tried and prosecuted, and proceeded with until finally disposed of, in the courts now having juris- diction thereof, as if this act had not been passed. The said supreme and district courts of said Territory, and the respective judges thereof, shall and may grant writs of mandamus and habeas corpus in all cases authorized by law; and the first six days of every term of said courts, or so much thereof as shall be necessary, shall be ap- propriated to the trial of causes arising under said Constitution and laws; and writs of error and appeals in all such cases shall be made to the supreme court of said Territory, as in other cases.
SEC. 10. Persons charged with any offense or crime in the Territory of Oklahoma, and for whose arrest a warrant has been issued, may be arrested by the United States marshal or any of his deputies, wherever found in said Territory, but in all cases the accused shall be taken, for preliminary examination, before a United States commissioner, or a justice of the peace of the county, whose office is nearest to the place where the offense or crime was committed.
All offenses committed in said Territory, if committed within any organized county, shall be prosecuted and tried within said county, and if committed within territory not embraced in any organized county, shall be prosecuted and tried in the county to which such territory shall be at- tached for judicial purposes. And all civil actions shall be instituted in the county in which the de- fendant, or either of them, resides or may be found; and when such actions arise within any portion of said Territory, not organized as a county, such actions shall be instituted in the county to which such territory is attached for judicial purposes; but any case, civil or criminal, may be removed, by change of venue, to another county.
SEC. 11. That the following chapters and pro- visions of the Compiled Laws of the State of Nebraska, in force November first, eighteen hun- dred and eighty-nine, in so far as they are locally applicable, and not in conflict with the laws of the United States or with this act, are hereby ex- tended to and put in force in the Territory of Oklahoma until after the adjournment of the first session of the legislative assembly of said Terri- tory, namely : the provisions of articles two, three, and four of chapter two, entitled "Agriculture;" of chapter four, entitled "Animals;" of chapter six, entitled "Assignments;" of chapter seven, en- titled "Attorneys;" of chapter ten, entitled "Bonds and oaths official;" of chapter twelve, entitled "Chattel mortgages;" of chapter fourteen, entitled "Cities of the second class and villages;" of chap- ter fifteen, entitled "Common law;" of chapter six-
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teen, entitled "Corporations;" of chapter eighteen, entitled "Counties and county officers;" of sections fifteen and sixteen of article six of the constitu- tion of said State, and of chapter twenty of said laws, entitled "Courts-probate;" of chapter twenty-three, entitled "Decedents;" of chapter twenty-four, entitled "Deputies;" of chapter twenty-five, entitled "Divorce and alimony;" of chapter twenty-six, entitled "Elections;" of chap- ter twenty-eight, entitled "Fees;" of chapter thir- ty-two, entitled "Frauds;" of chapter thirty-four, entitled "Guardians and wards;" of chapter thirty- six, entitled "Homesteads;" of chapter forty-one, entitled "Instruments negotiable;"' of chapter forty-four, entitled "Interests;" of chapter forty- six, entitled "Jails;" of chapter fifty, entitled "Liquors;" but no licenses shall be issued under this chapter; of chapter fifty-two, entitled "Mar- riage;" of chapter fifty-three, entitled "Married women;" of chapter fifty-four, entitled "Mechan- ics' and laborers' liens;". of chapter sixty-one, en- titled "Notaries public;" of chapter sixty-two, en- titled "Oaths and affirmations;" of chapter sixty- three, entitled "Occupying claimants;" of article one of chapter seventy-two, entitled "Railroads;" of chapter seventy-three, entitled "Real estate;" and the provisions of part two of said laws, en- titled "Code of civil procedure," and of part three thereof, entitled "Criminal code."
The governor of said Territory is authorized to divide each county into election precincts and into such political sub-divisions other than school districts as may be required by the laws of the State of Nebraska; and he is hereby authorized to appoint all officers of such counties and sub- divisions thereof as he shall deem necessary, and all election officers until their election or appoint- ment shall be provided for by the legislative as- sembly, but not more than two of the judges or inspectors of election in any election precinct shall be members of the same political party, and the candidates of each political party who may be voted for at such election may designate one per- son who shall be present at the counting and canvassing of the votes cast in each precinct.
The supreme and district courts of said Terri- tory shall have the same power to enforce the laws of the State of Nebraska hereby extended to and put in force in said Territory as courts of like jurisdiction have in said State; but county courts and justices of the peace shall have and exercise the jurisdiction which is authorized by said laws of Nebraska: Provided, That the jurisdiction of justices of the peace in said Territory shall not exceed the sum of one hundred dollars, and county courts shall have jurisdiction in all cases where the sum or matter in demand exceeds the sum of one hundred dollars.
SEC. 12. That jurisdiction is hereby conferred
upon the district courts in the Territory of Okla- homa over all controversies arising between mem- bers or citizens of one tribe or nation of Indians and the members or citizens of other tribes or nations in the Territory of Oklahoma, and any citizen or member of one tribe or nation who may commit any offense or crime in said Territory against the person or property of a citizen or member of another tribe or nation shall be subject to the same punishment in the Territory of Okla- homa as he would be if both parties were citizens of the United States; and any person residing in the Territory of Oklahoma, in whom there is In- dian blood, shall have the right to invoke the aid of courts therein for the protection of his person or property, as though he were a citizen of the United States: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to give juris- diction to the courts established in said Territory in controversies arising between Indians of the same tribe, while sustaining their tribal relation.
SEC. 13. That there shall be appointed for said Territory a person learned in the law, who shall act as attorney for the United States, and shall continue in office for four years, and until his suc- cessor is appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President. Said attorney shall receive a salary at the rate of two hundred and fifty dollars annually. There shall be appointed a marshal for said Territory, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor is appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President, and who shall execute all process issuing from the said courts when exercising their jurisdiction as circuit and district courts of the United States; he shall have the power and per- form the duties and be subject to the same regu- lations and penalties imposed by law on the mar- shal of the United States, and be entitled to a salary at the rate of two hundred dollars a year. There shall be allowed to the attorney, marshal, clerks of the supreme and district courts the same fees as are prescribed for similar services by such persons in chapter sixteen, title Judiciary, of the Revised Statutes of the United States.
SEC. 14. That the governor, secretary, chief- justice, and associate justices, attorney, and mar- shal shall be nominated and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appointed by the President of the United States. The governor and secretary to be appointed as aforesaid shall, before they act as such, respectively take an oath or affirmation before the district judge, or some justice of the peace, or other officer in the limits of said Territory duly authorized to administer oaths and affirmations by the laws now in force therein, or before the Chief-Justice or some asso- ciate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, to support the Constitution of the United
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States and faithfully to discharge the duties of their respective offices, which said oaths, when 80 taken, shall be certified by the person by whom the same shall have been taken; and such cer- tificates shall be received and recorded by the sec- retary among the executive proceedings, and the chief-justice and associate justices, and all other civil officers in said Territory, before they act as such, shall take a like oath or affirmation before the said governor or secretary, or some judge or justice of the peace of the Territory, who may be duly commissioned and qualified, which said oath or affirmation shall be certified and trans- mitted by the person taking the same to the secre- tary, to be recorded by him as aforesaid, and afterwards the like oath or affirmation shall be taken, certified, and recorded in such man- ner and form as may be prescribed by law. The governor shall receive an annual salary of two thousand six hundred dollars as governor; the chief-justice and associate justices shall re- ceive an annual salary of three thousand dollars, and the secretary shall receive an annual salary of one thousand eight hundred dollars. The said salaries shall be payable quarter-yearly at the Treasury of the United States. The members of the legislative assembly shall be entitled to receive four dollars each per day during their attendance at the sessions, and four dollars for each and every twenty miles traveled in going to and returning from said sessions, estimating the distance by the nearest traveled route. There shall be appropriated annu- ally the sum of one thousand dollars, to be expended by the governor to defray the contingent expenses of the Territory. There shall also be appropriated annually a sufficient sum, to be expended by the secretary, and upon an estimate to be made by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, to defray the expenses of the legislative assembly, of the courts, the printing of the laws, and other incidental expenses; and the secretary of the Territory shall annually account to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States for the manner in which the aforesaid sum shall have been expended.
SEC. 15. That the legislative assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma shall hold its first session at Guthrie, in said Territory, at such time as the governor thereof shall appoint and direct; and at said first session, or as soon thereafter as they shall deem expedient, the governor and legislative assembly shall proceed to locate and establish the seat of government for said Territory at such place as they may deem eligible, which place, how- ever, shall thereafter be subject to be changed by the said governor and legislative assembly.
SEC. 16. That a Delegate to the House of Rep- resentatives of the United States, to serve during each Congress of the United States, may be elected
by the voters qualified. to elect members of the legislative assembly, who shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges as are exercised and enjoyed by the Delegates from the several other Territories of the United States in the said House of Representatives. The first election shall be held at such time and place, and be conducted in such manner as the governor shall appoint and direct, after at least sixty days' notice, to be given by proclamation, and at all subsequent elec- tions the time, place, and manner of holding elec- tions shall be prescribed by law. The person hav- ing the greatest number of votes of the qualified electors, as hereinbefore provided, shall be de- clared by the governor elected, and a certificate thereof shall be accordingly given.
SEC. 17. That the provisions of title sixty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States re- lating to national banks, and all amendments thereto, shall have the same force and effect in the Territory of Oklahoma as elsewhere in the United States: Provided, That persons otherwise qualified to act as directors shall not be required to have resided in said Territory for more than three months immediately preceding their election as such.
SEC. 18. That sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township in said Territory shall be, and the same are hereby, reserved for the pur- pose of being applied to public schools in the State or States hereafter to be erected out of the same. In all cases where sections sixteen and thirty-six, or either of them, are occupied by ac- tual settlers prior to survey thereof, the county commissioners of the counties in which such sec- tions are so occupied are authorized to locate other lands, to an equal amount, in sections or fractional sections, as the case may be, within their respective counties, in lieu of the sections so occupied.
All the lands embraced in that portion of the Territory of Oklahoma heretofore known as the Public Land Strip, shall be open to settlement under the provisions of the homestead laws of the United States, except section twenty-three hun- dred and one of the Revised Statutes, which shall not apply; but all actual and bona fide settlers upon the occupants of the lands in said Public Land Strip at the time of the passage of this act shall be entitled to have preference to and hold the lands upon which they have settled under the homestead laws of the United States, by vir- tue of their settlement and occupancy of said lands, and they shall be credited with the time they have actually occupied their homesteads, re- spectively, not exceeding two years, on the time required under said laws to perfect title as home- stead settlers.
The lands within said Territory of Oklahoma,
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acquired by cession of the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians, confirmed by act of Congress approved March first, eighteen hundred and eighty- nine, and also the lands acquired in pursuance of an agreement with the Seminole Nation of In- dians by re-lease and conveyance, dated March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, which may hereafter be open to settlement, shall be dis- posed of under the provisions of sections twelve, thirteen, and fourteen of the "Act making appro- priations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes, for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety, and for other purposes," approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and under section two of an "Act to ratify and con- firm an agreement with the Muscogee (or Creek) Nation of Indians in the Indian Territory, and for other purposes," approved March first, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine: Provided, however, That each settler under and in accordance with the pro- visions of said acts shall, before receiving a pat- ent for his homestead on the land hereafter opened to settlement as aforesaid, pay to the United States for the land so taken by him, in addition to the fees provided by law, the sum of one dol- lar and twenty-five cents per acre.
Whenever any of the other lands within the Ter- ritory of Oklahoma, now occupied by any Indian tribe, shall by operation of law or proclamation of the President of the United States, be open to settlement, they shall be disposed of to actual settlers only, under the provisions of the home- stead law, except section twenty-three hundred and one of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which shall not apply: Provided, however, That each settler, under and in accordance with the provisions of said homestead laws, shall before receiving a patent for his homestead pay to the United States for the land so taken by him, in addition to the fees provided by law, a sum per acre equal to the amount which has been or may be paid by the United States to obtain a relin- quishment of the Indian title or interest therein, but in no case shall such payment be less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. The rights of honorably discharged soldiers and sailors in the late civil war, as defined and described in sections twenty-three hundred and four and twen- ty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes of the United States, shall not be abridged except as to such payment. All tracts of land in Okla- homa Territory which have been set apart for school purposes, to educational societies, or mis- sionary boards at work among the Indians, shall not be open for settlement, but are hereby granted to the respective educational societies or mission-
ary boards for whose use the same has been set apart. No part of the land embraced within the Territory hereby created shall inure to the use or benefit of any railroad corporation, except the rights of way and land for stations heretofore granted to certain railroad corporations. Nor shall any provision of this act or any act of any officer of the United States, done or performed under the provisions of this act or otherwise, invest any corporation owning or operating any railroad in the Indian Territory, or Territory created by this act, with any land or right to any land in either of said Territories, and this act shall not apply to or affect any land which, upon any con- dition on becoming a part of the public domain, would inure to the benefit of, or become the prop- erty of, any railroad corporation.
SEC. 19. That portion of the Territory of Okla- homa heretofore known as the Public Land Strip is hereby declared a public land district, and the President of the United States is hereby empow- ered to locate a land office in said district, at such place as he shall select, and to appoint in conformity with existing law a register and re- ceiver of said land office. He may also, when- ever he shall deem it necessary, establish another additional land district within said Territory, lo- cate a land office therein, and in like manner ap- point a register and receiver thereof. And the Commissioner of the General Land Office shall, when directed by the President, cause the lands within the Territory to be properly surveyed and subdivided where the same has not already been done.
SEC. 20. That the procedure in applications, en- tries, contests, and adjudications in the Territory of Oklahoma shall be in form and manner pre- scribed under the homestead laws of the United States, and the general principles and provisions of the homestead laws, except as modified by the provisions of this act and the acts of Congress approved March first and second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, heretofore mentioned, shall be applicable to all entries made in said Territory, but no patent shall be issued to any person who is not a citizen of the United States at the time of making final proof.
All persons who shall settle on land in said Territory, under the provisions of the homestead laws of the United States, and of this act, shall be required to select the same in square form as nearly as may be; and no person who shall at the time be seized in fee simple of a hundred and sixty acres of land in any State or Territory, shall hereafter be entitled to enter land in said Territory of Oklahoma. The provisions of sec- tions twenty-three hundred and four and twenty- three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes of
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the United States shall, except so far as modified by this act, apply to all homestead settlements in said Territory.
SEC. 21. That any person, entitled by law to take a homestead in said Territory of Oklahoma, who has already located and filed upon, or shall hereafter locate and file upon, a homestead with- in the limits described in the President's proclama- tion of April first, eighteen hundred and eighty- nine, and under and in pursuance of the laws ap- plicable to the settlement of the lands opened for settlement by such proclamation, and who has complied with all the laws relating to such home- stead settlement, may receive a patent therefor at the expiration of twelve months from date of locating upon said homestead upon payment to the United States of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for land embraced in such home- stead.
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Src. 22. That the provisions of title thirty-two, chapter eight of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to "reservation and sale of town sites on the public lands" shall apply to the lands open, or to be opened to settlement in the Territory of Oklahoma, except those opened to settlement by the proclamation of the President on the twenty-second day of April, eighteen hun- dred and eighty-nine: Provided, That hereafter all surveys for town sites in said Territory shall contain reservations for parks (of substantially equal area if more than one park) and for schools and other public purposes, embracing in the aggre- gate not less than ten nor more than twenty acres; and patents for such reservations, to be maintained for such purposes, shall be issued to the towns respectively when organized as munici- palities: Provided further, That in case any lands in said Territory of Oklahoma, which may be -occupied and filed upon as a homestead, under the provisions of law applicable to said Territory, by a person who is entitled to perfect his title thereto under such laws, are required for town site purposes, it shall be lawful for such person to apply to the Secretary of the Interior to pur- chase the lands embraced in said homestead or any part thereof for town-site purposes. He shall file with the application a plat of such proposed town-site, and if such plat shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, he shall issue a patent to such person for land embraced in said town site, upon the payment of the sum of ten dollars per acre for all the lands embraced in such town site, except the lands to be donated and maintained for public purposes as provided in this section. And the sums so received by the Secretary of the Interior shall be paid over to the proper authorities of the municipalities when organized, to be used by them for school purposes only.
SEC. 23. That there shall be reserved public highways four rods wide between each section of land in said Territory, the section lines being the center of said highways; but no deduction shall be made, where cash payments are provided for, in the amount to be paid for each quarter section of land by reason of such reservation. But if the said highway shall be vacated by any compe- tent authority, the title to the respective strips shall inure to the then owner of the tract of which it formed a part by the original survey.
SEC. 24. That it shall be unlawful for any per- son, for himself or any company, association, or corporation, to directly or indirectly procure any person to settle upon any lands open to settlement in the Territory of Oklahoma, with intent there- after of acquiring title thereto; and any title thus acquired shall be void; and the parties to such fraudulent settlement shall severally be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished upon indict- ment, by imprisonment not exceeding twelve months, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.
SEC. 25. That inasmuch as there is a controversy between the United States and the State of Texas as to the ownership of what is known as Greer County, it is hereby expressly provided that this act shall not be construed to apply to said Greer County until the title to the same has been adjudi- cated and determined to be in the United States; and in order to provide for a speedy and final judicial determination of the controversy afore- said the Attorney-General of the United States is hereby authorized and directed to commence in the name and on behalf of the United States, and prosecute to a final determination, a proper suit in equity in the Supreme Court of the United States against the State of Texas, setting forth the title and claim of the United States to the tract of land lying between the North and South Forks of the Red River where the Indian Terri- tory and the State of Texas adjoin, east of the one hundredth degree of longitude, and claimed by the State of Texas as within its boundary and a part of its land, and designated on its map as Greer County, in order that the rightful title to said land may be finally determined, and the court, on the trial of the case may, in its discretion, so far as the ends of justice will warrant, con- sider any evidence heretofore taken and received by the Joint Boundary Commission under the act of Congress approved January thirty-first, eigh- teen hundred and eighty-five; and said case shall be advanced on the docket of said court, and pro- ceeded with to its conclusion as rapidly as the nature and circumstances of the case permit.
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