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Show In this recommendation the office heartily concurred, for the reason that while the language of the agreement as construed by the Depart-ment provides for the leasing of lands for the mining of all minerals, it is the belief of the o5ce that such was not the intention of the con-tmcting parties. The Department replying to the inspector October 16,1899, quoted from office report of October 11, and said: It was scarcely necessary for the Acting Commissioner to reitexate its concurrence in said quotation from your m u a l report. The Department had supposed that the proper construction of that portion of the agreement set out in section 29 of the act of Con-m eas a-p -~ rovedJ une 28, 1898 (30 Stat. L., 495), was fully adjndi~tedb y the repeated rulings of the Department which, under the provisions of sections 441 and 463 of the Revised.Statntes of the United States, the Secretary is authorized to make. And said rulings are binding upon all subordinate o5cers of this Department, not-withstanding said rulings may be contrary to the individual opinions of said o5cera. In a letter dated September 7 last, the Department acknowledged the receipt of your annual report, and called your attention to the fact that "it wouldappear from some statements therein that you have overlooked the rulings of the Department upon the question whether leases for mineral lands in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations mav include other minerals than coal and asphalt,'' under mid agreement in said act if June 28, 1898. Reference was made in &d letter to the rulings of the De~artmenitn its letters of February 27 last, wherein the Department eoncurred in the opinion expressed by the Comm~ssionero f Indian ~f fai rs, thatth e c l aw in said agreement, namely, "All leases under this agreement shall include the cod or asphaltum, or other minerd, as the ease may he, in or under nine hundred and sixty acres," warranted the constmetion contained in departmental regulations dated October 7, 1898. Reference was also made in said letter to the subsequent departmental ruling of April 4 last, and you were told that in mid letter of April last-the provisions of said agreement relating to BBid question were again more fully and el&horately considered by the Department, and it was held, both upon prinoiple and authoriw, the regulations governing mineral leases in the Choctaw and Chiobasaw nations and exp-ly authoriz2ng the leas-ing oi lands containing other mineral than coal and asphalt, were duly issued snd should atand until chenged by "legidative enactment." A copy of mid letter of April 4 was sent to you, and you were advised that "said rulings have been uniformly adhered to," and you were again instructed to <'advise the mineral trustees of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations that they muat receive annlications in accordance with said repulations, and report the same to you A as prescribed by paxapph 3 thereof." This you report has been done. Said letter was inclosed in a letter to the Com-missioner of Indian Aftairs on September 8 last, with directions to forward t h e m e to you, which appears to have been done. It thus appars that the effect of said agreement has been repeatedly adjudicated by the highest anthority in this Department, and in technical language has passed "in rem judicatam." It may not be amiss, however, to call your attention to the fact that in the original agreement made on April 23, 1897, as set out in the annual renort of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1897 (p. 413), the language is: 1 1 1 leax-4 under this ry~ameots hall inrl!xd* nilme hllndred and SIXIS a( re*, wlnich ~ h s l hl e in B ~ p r n r ee s nr,nrly 8. y a u r ~ l ea, nd shall be for rhlny smw. Thr royalty uo coal rhall Ioa 1s renw per con of ?.he n,#mdr on *I1 rosl v~ir!fd. * . . . . l l o y ~ l t yo n mphall rhall bu CO ceola per wn. And the words "or other mioerral" are omitted. But mid paragraph in the agree-ment contained in said seetion 29 was materially modified by Congress. The proviso in the former pamgraph authorized the legislatures of the Chickasaw and Choctaw |
