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Show I REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 97 100 miles of its railway in the Indian Territory within three months after the passage of the act. Section 1 of the act of March 4 1896 (29 Stats., 441, amends the act of March 1,1893, extending for a period of three years the provisions of section 9, and section 4 of the act of 1896, provides that amap of definite location, showing the entire route of the road through the Indian Territory, shall be filed and approved by the Secretary of the Interior before any part of the road shall be constructed. By act of July 7, 1898 (30 Stats., 715), the previousacts were amended as follows: i That the Gainesville, McAlester and St. Louis Railway Company shall have the I right to begin the construction of ita line of road as soon as a map of definite location of the route of said road from Red River through the Indian Territory to or near 1 - South McAlester is filed with the S a t a r y of the Interior and approved by him: I B&d, That s map of definite location of said road from South McAlester to Fort I Smith shall be filed and approved before constructiou work shall be begun between South McAlester and Fort Smith. By act of February 25, 1899 (30 Stats., 89l), the provisions of sec-tion 9 of the act of 1893 were extended for a further period of three years from and after the passage of the act. The company has there-fore until February 25, 1902, 'to wild st least 100 miles of its road. March 7, 1901, the office transmitted to the Department maps of definite location showing the survey from a point on Red River to South McAlester, in the Choctaw Nation, Iod. T.> and March18,1901, they were returned approved, subject to the provisions of the sewera1 acts of Congress hereinbefore mentioned. Section 5 of the act of March 1, 1893, provides that the general council of either of the nations or tribes through whose lands the rail-way may be located may within four months after the filing of maps of definite location dissent from the allowance of $50 per mile for right of way. Accordingly Principal Chief Dukes, of the Choctaw Nation, and Governor Johnston, of the Chickasaw Nation, by ofioe letter of March 28, 1901, were advised of the rights of those nations I ' under that section, and April 23 Governor Dukes noti6ed this ofice I . that the Choctaw Nation dissented from the statutory provision of $50 per mile for right of way. Of this the railway company was duly I. _ informed by this office May 3. ' Jamestown and Northern ~ a i lwa ~ . - ~ h i d 6 aisd c onstructed through the Devils Lake Reservation, N. Dak., and has been in operation since the spring of 1885, but owing to the lack of necessary legis-lation the Indians have not been paid for the right of way through their lands, although the railroad company has expressed its willing-ness to make compensation to the Indians, as will appear from oflice report to the Department dated December 11, 1884, printed with accompanying papers containing the negotiations with the Indians in Honse Executive Document No. 31, Forty-eighth Congress, second 8593-01-7 |