33 STAT. 1048, p. 1061, MARCH 3, 1905. OIL LEASES. AN ACT Making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, and for other purposes. Be it enacted, etc., * * * For survey and subdivision of Indian reservations and of lands to be allotted to Indians, and to make allotments in severalty, to be expended by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, $25,000. And the President is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to allot the lands of any tribes of Indians to the individual members thereof whenever, in his judgment, it is advantageous for such Indians that such allotments be made: Provided, That any allotments which may be made of the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma Territory shall be made subject to the terms and conditions of the lease herein authorized, the same being a renewal as to a part of the premises covered by certain lease dated March 16, 1896, given by the Osage Nation of Indians to Edwin B. Foster and approved by the Secretary of the Interior and now owned by the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co. under assignments approved by the Secretary of the Interior, which said lease and all subleases thereof duly executed on or before December 31, 1904, or executed after that date based upon contracts made prior thereto, and which have been or shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, to the extent of 680,000 acres in the aggregate, are hereby extended for the period of 10 years from the 16th day of March, 1906, with all the conditions of said original lease except that from and after the 16th day of March, 1906, the royalty to be paid on gas shall be $100 per annum on each gas well, instead of $50 as now provided in said lease, and except that the President of the United States shall determine the amount of royalty to be paid for oil. Said determination shall be evidenced by filing with the Secretary of the Interior on or before December 31, 1905, such determination; and the Secretary of the Interior shall immediately mail to the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co. and each sublessee a copy thereof. * * * * * That before the opening of the Uintah Indian Reservation the President is hereby authorized to set apart and reserve as an addition to the Uintah Forest Reserve, subject to the laws, rules, and regulations governing forest reserves, and subject to the mineral rights granted by the act of Congress of May 27, 1902, such portion of the fands within the Uintah Indian Reservation as he considers necessary, and he may also set apart and reserve any reservoir site or other lands necessary to conserve and protect the water supply for the Indians or for general agricultural development, and may confirm such rights to water thereon as have already accrued: Provided, That the proceeds from any timber on such addition as may with safety be sold prior to June 30, 1920, shall be paid to said Indians in accordance with the provisions of the act opening the reservation. That the Raven Mining Co. shall, within 60 days from the passage of this act, file for record, in the office of the recorder of deeds of the county in which its claims are located, a proper certificate of each location; and it shall also, within the same time, file in the office of the Secretary of the Interior, in the city of Washington, said description and a map showing the locations made by it on the Uintah Reservation, Utah, under the act of Congress of May 27, 1902 (32 Stat. 263); and thereupon the Secretary of the Interior shall forthwith cause said locations to be inspected and report made, and if found to contain the character of mineral to which said company is entitled by the act of Congress aforesaid and that each of said claims does not exceed the size of a regular mining claim, to wit, 600 by 1,500 feet, he shall issue a patent in fee to the Raven Mining Co. for each of said claims: Provided further, That the Florence Mining Co. entitled under the act of Congress approved May 27, 1902, to the preferential right to locate not to exceed 640 acres of contiguous mineral land in the Uintah Reservation, Utah, shall within 60 days from the passage of this act file in the office of recorder of deeds of the county in which its location is made a proper description of its claim, and it shall within the same time file in the office of the Secretary of the Interior said description and a map showing the location made by it on the Uintah Reservation, Utah, and thereupon the Secretary of the Interior shall forthwith cause said location to be inspected and report thereon made, and if found not to exceed 640 acres he shall issue a patent in fee to said company for the said land: And provided further, That the extension of time for opening the unallotted lands to public entry herein granted shall not extend the time to make locations to any person or company heretofore given a preferential right, but the Raven Mining Co. and the Florence Mining Co. pending the time for opening to public entry the Uintah Reservation shall have the right of ingress and egress to and from their respective properties over and through said reservation. A. OSAGE INDIAN RESERVATION. B. RAVEN MINING CO.'S LOCATIONS. C. INDIAN LANDS-UINTAH RESERVATION, p. 1023. A. OSAGE INDIAN RESERVATION. 1. FOSTER OIL LEASE EXTENDED. This act extended the original lease of the Osage Nation to Edwin B. Foster for 10 years for the purpose of prospecting for, boring, or drilling wells for mining and producing petroleum and natural gas on all the land in the Osage Indian Reservation. Barnsdall Oil Co. v. Leahy, 195 Fed. 731, p. 732. B. RAVEN MINING CO.'S LOCATIONS. 1. COMPLIANCE WITH STATUTE. By this act the Raven Mining Co. was required, within 60 days from the passage of the act, to file in the office of the recorder of deeds of the proper county a certificate of each location and should within the same time file in the office of the Secretry of the Interior such description and a map showing the location made by it under the act of May 27, 1902 (32 Stat. 245, p. 263). Raven Min. Co., In re, 36 L. D. 190, p. 191. Under this act the location of the Raven Mining Co. were directed to be made and they were made in the form of lode claims, and upon inspection it was found that they contained the characteristics of mineral mentioned in the company's lease and to which it was entitled under the act of May 27, 1902 (32 Stat. 245, p. 263), and the company was relieved by this act from compliance with many of the conditions prescribed in section 2325 R. S., such as making the formal proof required under the mining laws in the completion of title to mineral land, but did not relieve it from the payment at the rate of $5 per acre for the mineral lands located as such lode claims. Raven Min. Co., In re, 34 L. D. 306, p. 309. See Raven Min. Co., In re, 35 L. D. 382. As required by this act, the Raven Mining Co. duly filed in the Land Department a map showing the location made by it on the Uintah Reservation under the act of May 27, 1902 (32 Stat. 245, p. 263). Raven Min. Co., In re, 35 L. D. 382, p. 385. See Raven Min. Co., In re, 34 L. D. 306. C. INDIAN LANDS-UINTAH RESERVATION. 1. MINERAL LANDS PREVIOUSLY DISPOSED OF EXCEPTED. In the proclamation issued (34 Stat. 319) under the provisions of this act there was excepted from the lands to be opened such mineral lands as might have been disposed of under existing laws. Raven Min. Co., In re, 34 L. D. 306, p. 307. 34 STAT. 137, p. 141, APRIL 26, 1906. SALE OF MINING LEASES-FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES. AN ACT To provide for the final disposition of the affairs of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory. Be it enacted, etc., * * * SEC. 12. That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to sell, upon such terms and under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, all lots in towns in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. reserved from appraisement and sale for use in connection with the operation of coal and asphalt mining leases or for the occupancy of miners actually engaged in working for lessees operating coal and asphalt mines, the proceeds arising from such sale to be deposited in the Treasury of the United States as are other funds of said tribes. If the purchaser of any town lot sold under the provisions of law regarding the sale of town sites in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, or Seminole Nations fail for 60 days after approval hereof to pay the purchase price or any installment thereof then due, or shall for 30 days to pay the purchase price or any installment thereof falling due hereafter, he shall forfeit all rights under his purchase, together with all money paid thereunder, and the Secretary of the Interior may cause the lots upon which such forfeiture is made to be resold at public auction for cash, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe. * * * SEC. 13. That all coal and asphalt lands whether leased or unleased shall be reserved from sale under this act until the existing leases for coal and asphalt lands shall have expired or until such time as may be otherwise provided by law. SEC. 16. * The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to sell, whenever in his judgment it may be desirable, any of the unallotted land in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, which is not principally valuable for mining, agricultural, or timber purposes, in tracts of not exceeding 640 acres to any one person, for a fair and reasonable price, not less than the present appraised value. * * SEC. 19. That no full blood Indian of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, or Seminole tribes shall have power to alienate, sell, dispose of, or encumber in any manner any of the lands allotted to him for a period of 25 years from and after the passage and approval of this act, unless such restriction shall, prior to the expiration of said period, be removed by act of Congress; and for all purposes the quantum of Indian blood possessed by any member of said tribes shall be determined by the rolls of citizens of said tribes approved by the Secretary of the Interior: Provided, however, That such full blood Indians of any of said tribes may lease any lands other than homesteads for more than one year under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. * * * SEC. 20. That after the approval of this act all leases and rental contracts, except leases and rental contracts for not exceeding one year for agricultural purposes for lands other than homesteads, of full blood allottees of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole tribes shall be in writing and subject to approval by the Secretary of the Interior and shall be absolutely void and of no effect without such approval: Provided, That allotments of minors and incompetents may be rented or leased under order of the proper court. * * * A. INDIAN LANDS-OIL LEASES. 1. RIGHT OF UNITED STATES TO SUE ON BOND SECURING LEASE. 2. PAYMENTS TO BE MADE TO INDIAN Agent. 3. LEASE OF MINOR APPROVED BY COURT-EFFECT. 1. RIGHT OF UNITED STATES TO SUE ON BOND SECURING LEASE. The United States can not maintain an action on a bond given to secure an oil and gas lease of Indian lands under section 19 and under the terms of the lease the lessee was given the privilege, without obligating himself to pay, of paying a certain stated sum in addition to the rents and royalties if he failed to drill a well within a stated time and where it reserved to the lessor the right to forfeit the lease on the lessee's failure to so drill. United States v. Comet Oil & Gas Co., 187 Fed. 674, p. 679. The United States may maintain an action on a bond given by a lessee to secure the payments of rents and royalties due on a lease of oil and gas lands of a full-blood Indian on breach of any of the conditions of such bond. United States v. Comet Oil & Gas Co., 187 Fed. 674, p. 679. 2. PAYMENTS TO BE MADE TO INDIAN AGENT. It is competent for the Secretary of the Interior under this statute to require a lessee of oil and gas lands from a full-blood Indian to make all payments for rent or royalties to a United States Indian agent at a certain designated agency, and to require the lessee to secure such rents and royalties by a good and sufficient bond payable to the United States. United States v. Comet Oil & Gas Co., 187 Fed. 674, p. 678. 3. LEASE OF MINOR APPROVED BY COURT-EFFECT. Under section 20 the lease of an allotment of a minor made with the approval of the proper local court is not subject to the approval or disapproval of the Secretary of the Interior under section 72 of the act of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. 716). Jennings v. Wood, 192 Fed. 507, p. 509. 34 STAT. 325, p. 336, JUNE 21, 1906. MINING LAWS EXTENDED-COAL LANDS. AN ACT Making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes, and for other purposes, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907. Be it enacted, etc., * * * Provided further, That the general mining laws of the United States shall extend after the approval of this act to any of said lands and mineral entry may be made on any of said lands, but no such mineral selection shall be permitted upon any lands allotted in severalty to the Indians: Provided further, That all the coal or oil deposits in or under the lands on the said reservation shall be and remain the property of the United States, and no patent that may be issued under the provisions of this or any other act of Congress shall convey any title thereto: That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and empowered to segregate and reserve from allotment, and to cancel any filings or applications that may heretofore have been made with a view to allotting, the following-described lands, situate in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, to wit: The northwest quarter of section 12, in township 5 north, range 15 east, containing in the aggregate 160 acres, more or less. That the provisions of sections 56 to 63, inclusive, of the act of Congress approved July 1, 1902, entitled "An act to ratify and confirm an agreement with the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, and for other purposes" (32 Stat. 653), be, and the same are hereby, made applicable to the lands above described, the same as if the said described lands had been made a part of the segregation as contemplated by said sections 56 to 63, inclusive, of said above act approved July 1, 1902: Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, add to and make a part of the coal mining leases now in effect, and to which said lands are contiguous, the northwest quarter of section 12, in township 5 north, of range 15 east, Government subdivisions being followed as nearly as possible: Provided further, That the holder or holders of the lease or leases to which such lands shall be added shall, before the same are added, pay the Indian or Indians who have filed upon or applied for such lands as their allotments, or who are in possession thereof, the value of the improvements placed on the land by said Indian or Indians, such value to be determined under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. |
