OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COMltISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 91 date they were notified of the approval of the map of definite location. This decision was reaffirmed by Department letter dated April 26, 1901. May 24,1901, this company filed a map amending a portion of the line of definite location shown upon sections 8 and 9, where the line of the Arhnsas and Choctaw Railway Company conflict8 with the line of the Western Oklahoma Railroad Company, which was trans-mitted to the Department by this oftice May 27 and was returned approved May 28. Accompanying these new maps was a relinqnish-ment hy the company of the corresponding part of the route covered by the original maps. July 9,1901, the Department referred to this office a communioa-tion from W. C. Perry, attorney for the railroad company, asking for a review of the ruling of the Department relative to the payment to be made the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. With it was the opinion of the Assistant Attorney-General that a review of such ruling was unnecessary, inasmuch as the approval of the amendment to the map of definite location fixes the date from which the time begins to run against the nations within which they may dissent from the statutoly provision of $50 per mile. The Department held that- No map or maps showing its entire line as changed by said amended or new maps was or were filed with and approved by the Secretary of the Interior before May 28, 1901. There can be no map of definite location until there is lodged with the Secre-tary of the Interior an accepted map which authorizes the grading and construction of the road. A map can not he said to be one of definite location if it does not fix the place of construction. (Van Wyck u. Knevals, 106 U. S., 380.) Theapproval of the map by the Secretary of the Interio-in other words, its acceptanceis an essen-tial element to fixing the place of construction. The question whether the route of this road through Indian Territory when once detinitely located can be changed by the company with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior was resolved in the a5rmative by the action of the company in filing and of the Secretary of the Interior in approving the amendment to the map of the entire line, and if the map showing the entire line of the road in the Indian Territory as so amended is the one along the line of which constmction is now authorized and intended, it seems to follow that it is the one which fixes the mileage according to which compensation is to he made to the Indian tribea, and it is also the map the filing of which fixes the time within which the Indian general councils may dissent from the statutory allowance of compensstion at the rate of 850 per mile. To sum it all up, this company is now in a situation, by reason of the flling and approval of the amendment to the map showing the entire lineof the road in the Indian Territory, where, under the statute, the Indian tribes will have four months after May 28,1901, within which, through their general cocouik, to diasent from the statutory dlov.ance of compensation and to certify such dissent to the Secretary of the Interior. The office was directed to forward a copy of this letter to the gov-ernor of the Chickasaw Nation, to the principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, and to the attorney of the Arkansas and Choctaw Railway |