PART I. Duty of commissioner. after, to fill any vacancy which may occur by resignation or otherwise. § 3. It shall be the duty of said commissioner to receive from the comptroller of this state, the annuities due from the people of this state to the St. Regis tribe of Indians, and portion and pay the same over to the heads of the families belonging to said tribe, by paying to each their equal share of said annuities, and to take from each the necessary receipt therefor; the commissioner shall receive from the people of the state of New York, the sum of four per cent on the amount of money so received and paid out as aforesaid. [Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 repealed by Laws of 1859, ch. 364, and new provisions added.] CHAP. 369. AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act to authorize the Syracuse and Tully Plank Road Company to construct their road on the highway running through the lands belonging to the Onondaga Indians," passed February sixteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight. PASSED April 19, 1858. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: S1. The second section of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows: All Indians residing on said reservation, or belonging to the Onondaga tribe of Indians, shall at all times be permitted to pass over so much of said road as shall be within the bounds of said reservation, and through the gate erected on said road and within said reservation, with their teams and vehicles, free of any charge or toll, whatever; but in regard to the residue of said road and the gates thereon, they shall stand on the same footing with the other inhabitants of the county of Onondaga. Certain provisions of Laws of CHAP. 280. AN ACT to apply the provisions of the seventeenth section of chapter six hundred and twenty-eight, Session Laws of eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, to Indians in this state. PASSED April 13, 1859. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: S1. The provisions of section seventeen, chapter six hundred and twenty-eight, of the Session Laws of eighteen hun CH. XXVI. ans. dred and fifty-seven, shall apply to all Indians, and to all the 1857 to ap See "Act to suppress Intemperance and to regulate the sale of intoxi- tion. marshals. S2. Henry Silverheels, George Seneca, Jack Logan, Job Special King and Joshua Turkey of the Cattaraugus reservation, and Daniel Shongo, Levi Halftown, Charles Red Eye and Harrison Halftown of the Allegany reservation, are hereby appointed special marshals for the term of two years, and until others are appointed by said Indians, not exceeding five for each reservation, for the purposes of this act. CHAP. 364. AN ACT to amend the act entitled "An act for the protection and civilization of the St. Regis Indians," passed April 19, 1858. PASSED April 15, 1859; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: amended. $1. The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, Sections eleventh and twelfth sections of the act entitled "An act for the protection and civilization of the St. Regis Indians," passed April 19, 1858, are hereby repealed, and the said act is hereby amended by adding thereto, after the third section of said act the following sections: commis S4. It shall be the duty of said commissioner to ascertain Duty of the number of families belonging to the St. Regis tribe of In- sioners. dians, and to collect all moneys due or to become due on any of the lands in said St. Regis reservation, which now are or hereafter shall be leased by said tribe or for their benefit, until the said lands shall be divided or apportioned in the manner hereinafter provided, and to pay over the moneys so collected by him at least once in each year, or oftener in his discretion, to the heads of the families belonging to the said tribe, in the manner hereinafter specified for paying their PART I. Survey of lands. sioner to be annuities; and the said commissioner shall be entitled to retain five per cent of such moneys for his services in collecting and paying over the same; but if any person entitled to share in the distribution of such moneys, or to share in the distribution of the annuity moneys of said tribe, shall not appear at the time and place appointed for paying over the same, to receive their share thereof, and shall not, within six months thereafter, demand his or her share of such rent or annuity moneys from said commissioner, then the said commissioner is hereby authorized and directed to supply so much of such moneys, not called for by the persons entitled thereto, as he shall deem necessary and proper, to the temporary support or aid of any indigent members of said tribe, deducting a proportionate amount of the moneys so applied by him from the share of each member of said tribe, so remaining in his hands uncalled for, and to pay over only the remaining part of any such share of said moneys to the person entitled thereto, when called for; and if any such moneys shall remain in the hands of said commissioner, uncalled for until within three days of the next day of payment of rent or annuity moneys, said commissioner shall include the same in the apportionment of said rent or annuity moneys, and pay the same over with such rent or annuity moneys. S 5. It shall be the duty of said commissioner to cause a survey to be made of all lands in the St. Regis reservation, held as the common property of the said tribe, including all lands in said reservation heretofore leased by said tribe or for their benefit, and with the aid and assistance of his associates, to divide such lands into tracts or lots and distribute the same to and among said Indians according to the best judgment of said commissioner and his associates, as hereinafter provided; and the said tracts or lots so distributed and apportioned shall thereafter be held by the persons to whom they shall be set apart or apportioned, in severalty and in fee simple according to the laws of this state. There shall, however, be reserved from such apportionment three hundred acres of said lands, which shall be set apart by said commissioner and his associates for school purposes; which land shall be leased or farmed out by such commissioner, and the proceeds thereof shall be by him appropriated and expended for educating said Indians. Commis- $6. The said commissioner is hereby authorized and emappointed. powered to appoint and associate with him, by writing, under his hand, to be filed in the office of the clerk of Franklin county, two competent persons as his associates, one of whom shall be a competent practical surveyor, to aid and assist him in surveying and apportioning said lands, and from time to time to employ the necessary axe men and chain men, to properly make the said survey. And in case any vacancy shall occur in the office of such associates, by resignation or otherwise, to appoint another or other suitable person or persons to the place or places so vacant. And said commissioner is hereby authorized to accept the resignation of any person appointed by him as such his associate. CH. XXVI. be received, $7. The said commissioner, by and with the advice of his Leases to associates, is hereby authorized to accept and receive the sur- &c. render of any lease heretofore granted, of any of said lands, or of any portion of any of the land so leased, and to execute and deliver to any person making such surrender of the same or other land of the said tribe, or land partly the same and partly other land, for the same time as the unexpired part of the term of the lease surrendered, and at a yearly rent not less for the same quantity of land than that reserved in the lease surrendered, whenever, in the opinion of such commissioner and his associates, the interest of the tribe or the convenience of division and apportionment will be promoted by such surrender or new leasing. sioner to certificate, 8. The said commissioner is hereby authorized and di- Commis rected to execute to each of the said Indians to whom any of execute said lands shall be set apart, a certificate describing the land & so set apart, and setting forth that such commissioner, under and by virtue of the provisions of this act, has set apart and apportioned to the person or persons named therein, the land therein described, to have and to hold in severalty and in fee simple, according to the laws of this state; which certificates shall be acknowledged by the said commissioner before the county judge of the county of Franklin, who shall examine the same as to form and manner of execution, and indorse thereon his certificate of acknowledgment and approval thereof. And such certificate of the county judge shall authorize such certificate of said commissioner to be recorded as a conveyance by the county clerk of Franklin county, in the record of deeds for said county, and shall authorize such certificate, or the record thereof, or any duly authenticated copy of such record, to be read in evidence in any of the courts of this state, as a conveyance of the land therein described; and every such certificate of the said commissioner, when so executed, acknowledged, approved and recorded, shall have the effect to convey all the interest of said tribe, and of the people of this state, in the lands therein described, to the person or persons named therein; and when any of such land shall have been leased, such certificate shall have effect as a conveyance of the reversionary interest of said tribe, and all interest of the people of this state in said land, and shall authorize the person or persons to whom such certificate shall be made, and his or her heirs, to collect and receive the rents under the lease thereof. But no land thus conveyed to any member of said tribe, nor any interest therein, shall be alienable by the person or persons to whom it is set apart, nor by the heirs of such person or persons, for twenty years after the apportionment thereof, except upon conveyance or lease approved as to its consideration, or the rent reserved by PART I. Certificates to be depos ited with county clerk. Census to be taken. the commissioner for said tribe, and upon consent of the commissioners of the land office, which approval and consent shall be indorsed on such conveyance or lease, before any deed or other instrument shall have any effect to convey any of said lands or any interest. And no such lands shall be subject to any incumbrance or lien, by judgment or mortgage or otherwise, for twenty years after the apportionment thereof, unless the same shall have been conveyed by the person or persons to whom it shall be set apart, or his, her or their heirs, by approval of the commissioner for said tribe, and with the consent of the commissioners of the land office, to some person other than a member of said tribe. $9. The said commissioner shall, immediately after his certificates of apportionment have been acknowledged and approved by the county judge, deposit such certificates in the office of the clerk of the county of Franklin for record; and said county clerk shall be entitled to receive the sum of fifty cents and no more for recording such certificate, but the county judge shall receive no fee for such acknowledgment and certificate. The said commissioner shall be entitled to retain from the annuity moneys of each and every of said Indians to whom any of said lands shall be set apart, the sum of one dollar, to pay for such certificate and the recording thereof, and such sum shall include all expenses of such certificate and recording the same. $10. It shall be the duty of said commissioner, with the aid of his associates, to ascertain, on or before the first day of August, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, by taking a census, and from the best information they can obtain, the number of individual members of said St. Regis tribe of American Indians. And each member of the said tribe who shall be living on the first day of October, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, shall be entitled to one equal share of the lands belonging to said tribe, quantity and quality relatively considered, to be apportioned as follows: To each male head of a family as many such shares as there are members of such family, including the father, mother, and minor children of such father, and to each other member of the tribe not included in such families as above defined, one share; but any person who shall receive any share in the apportionment of said lands shall not inherit any interest in any of such lands which shall be set apart to the parent of such person, on account of any minor child or children, when such minor child or children shall be living at the time of the death of the parent, or shall have a child or children living, but such person shall inherit, in common with his or her co-heirs, the share or shares of his or her parents, and the share or shares of any deceased minor child or children who shall not have a child or children then living to inherit such share or shares; and in all other respects the said lands shall descend and be inherited according to the general laws of this state. |