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Show REPORT OF THE CO~ISSIOBER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.' 79 ,, For full text of the act establishing this court, see page 442 of this >report. I OKLAHOIYIb, INDIAN TERRITORY. Since the date of the last annual report, the Secretary of the Inte-rior, by and under the direction of the President, under anthorityof sec-tion three of an act of Congress approverl March 3, 1885 (23 Stat.,384), entered into an agreement with the delegates of the Creek Nation on January 19, 1888, for a comp1,ete cession and relinquishment by the said Creek Nation to the United States of all their rights, title, and interest in and to the $<entirew estern half of the domain of the said Niltioa lying west of the division line established by the treaty of 1866," sub-ject'to the ratification by the national council of the said Creek Nation and by the Congress of the United States; the consideration being $2,280,857.10. The said agreement was ratified by the Creek council by .an act approved January 31, 1889, and by Congress by an mt ap-proved March 1, 1889 (25 Stat., 757). By sectibn 12 of the Indian appropriation act, approved March 2, 1889 (25 Stat., 1004), the sum of $1,912.02 was appropriated to pay the Seminole Nation of Indians in full for all right, title, interest, and claim which the said nation had in and tocertniulandsceded by article 3 of the Seminole treaty of 1866 (14 Stat., 755), upon the condition that the said Indians should'make a complete release and conveyance to the United States of all their said right, title, interest; and claim in and to the said lands. In pursuance of this provision of law, the Seminole . Nation, by its duly authorized delegates, executed a release and convey-ance, bearing date March 16, 1889, of the land in question, which was duly approved And delivered as required bx the act. The lands thus released and conveyed, with those ceded by the Creeks as above describetl, form what is known as the '' Oklahoma country." In accordance with the provisions of section 3 of the said Indian ap-propriation act the President, by a proclamation dated March 23,1889, e deolared that the said Oklahoma lands would be, at and after the bour of noon on the twenty-second day of April following, open to settlement under the terms of and subjeot to all the conditions, limitations, and restrictionscoutained in the said act and the laws of the United States , applicable thereto. The Oklahoma country having thus become a part of the public do-main, and having been opened to public settlement, the jurisdiction of the Indian Officb over it has ceased, and it is now under the control of the General Land Office. DISPUTED OIl!IZENSHIP IN THE OHEROEEE NATION, INDIAN TERRI-TORY. In the last annual report of this office the belief was expressed that the plan provided by the Department in the determination of the Kes. terson case, might be executed without friction, and the question'of |
