until the compensation aforesaid has been fixed and paid; and the surveys, construction, and operation of such railroad shall be conducted with due regard for the rights of the Indians and in accordance with such rules and regulations as the secretary of the interior may make to carry out this provision: Provided, That the president of the United States may, in his discretion, require that the consent of the Indians to said right of way shall be obtained by by said railroad company, in such manner as he may prescribe, before any right under this act shall accrue to said company.

SEC. 4. That said company shall not assign or transfer or mortgage this right of way for any purpose whatever until said road. shall be completed through that part of said reservation through which it shall be constructed: Provided, That the company may mortgage said franchise, together with the rolling stock, for money to construct and complete said road: And provided further, That the right granted herein shall be lost and forfeited by said company unless the road is constructed and in running order through said reservation on said line within two years from the passage of this act, or if the consent of the Indians is required under the terms of the proviso to section three of this act, then within two years from the date when said consent shall be obtained as provided in section three of this act.

SEC. 5. That the said railroad company shall accept this right of way upon the expressed condition, binding upon itself, its successors and assigns, that they will neither aid, advise, nor assist in any effort looking toward the changing or extinguishing the present tenure of the Indians in their land, and will not attempt to secure from the Indian tribes any further grant of land or its occupancy than is hereinbefore provided: Provided, That any violation of the condition mentioned in this section shall operate as a forfeiture of all the rights and privileges of said railroad company under this

act.

SEC. 6. That said railway company shall have the right to survey and locate its road immediately after the passage of this act. SEC. 7. That congress may at any time amend, add to, alter, or repeal this act.

Approved, February 12, 1889.

CHAP. 206.—An act granting to the Big Horn Southern Railroad Company a right of way across the Fort Custer Military Reservation, Montana.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Big Horn Southern railroad company, a corporation duly organized and evisting under the laws of the territory of Montana, be, and is hereby, granted a right of way across the Fort Custer military reservation upon such line, in the vicinity of the Big Horn and Lit tle Big Horn rivers, as may be approved by the secretary of war:

Provided, That the said right of way hereby granted shall not exceed one hundred feet in width, except where side-tracks, spurs, turn-tables, and a station are located or to be located; and at such point the right of way shall not exceed two hundred feet on each side of the main track and not exceeding two thousand feet in length. Approved, February 23, 1889.

CHAP. 180.—An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two states, and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington to form constitutions and state governments and to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to make donations of public lands to such states.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the inhabitants of all that part of the area of the United States now constituting the territories of Dakota, Montana, and Washington, as at present described, may become the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington, respectively, as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. The area comprising the territory of Dakota shall, for the purposes of this act, be divided on the line of the seventh standard parallel produced due west to the western boundary of said territory; and the delegates elected as hereinafter provided to the constitutional convention in districts north of said parallel said assemble in convention, ar the time prescribed in this act, at the city of Bismarck; and the delegates elected in districts south of said parallel shall, at the same time, assemble in convention at the city of Sioux Falls.

SEC. 3. That all persons who are qualified by the laws of said territories to vote for representatives to the legislative assemblies thereof, are hereby authorized to vote for and choose delegates to form conventions in said proposed states; and the qualifications for delegates to such conventions shall be such as by the laws of said territories respectively persons are required to possess to be eligible to the legislative assemblies thereof; and the aforesaid delegates to form said conventions shall be apportioned within the limits of the proposed states, in such districts as may be established as herein provided, in proportion to the population in each of said counties and districts, as near as may be, to be ascertained at the time of making said apportionments by the persons hereinafter authorized to make the same, from the best information obtainable, in each of which districts three delegates shall be elected, but no elector shall vote for more than two persons for delegates to such conventions; that said apportionments shall be made by the governor, the chief-justice, and the secretary of said territories; and the governors of said territories shall, by proclamation, order an election of the delegates aforesaid in each of said proposed states, to be held on the Tuesday after the second Monday in May, eighteen hundred and eightynine, which proclamation shall be issued on the fifteenth day of

April, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine; and such election shall be conducted, the returns made, the result ascertained, and the certificates to persons elected to such convention issued in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of the said territories regulating elections therein for delegates to Congress; and the number of votes cast for delegates in each precinct shall also be returned. The number of delegates to said conventions respectively shall be seventy-five; and all persons resident in said proposed states, who are qualified voters of said territories as herein provided, shall be entitled to vote upon the election of delegates, and under such rules and regulations as said conventions may prescribe, not in conflict with this act, upon the ratification or rejection of the constitutions. SEC. 4. That the delegates to the conventions elected as provided for in this act shall meet at the seat of government of each of said territories, except the delegates elected in South Dakota, who shall meet at the city of Sioux Falls, on the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and, after organization, shall declare, on behalf of the people of said proposed states, that they adopt the constitution of the United States; whereupon the said conventions shall be, and are hereby, authorized to form constitutions and state governments for said proposed states, respectively. The constitution shall be republican in form, and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not taxed, and not to be repugnant to the constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. And said conventions shall provide, by ordinances irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said states:

First. That perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured and that no inhabitant of said States shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship.

Second. That the people inhabiting said proposed states do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States, and said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the congress of the United States; that the lands belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the said states shall never be taxed at a higher rate than lands belonging to residents thereof; that no taxes shall be imposed by the states on lands or property therein belonging to or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States or reserved for its use. But nothing herein, or in the ordinances herein provided for, shall preclude the said states from

taxing as other lands are taxed any lands owned or held by any Indian who has severed his tribal relations, and has obtained from the United States or from any person a title thereto by patent or other grant, save and except such lands as have been or may be granted to any Indian or Indians under any act of Congress containing a provision exempting the lands thus granted from taxation; but said ordinances shall provide that all such lands shall be exempt from taxation by said states so long and to such extent as such act of congress may prescribe.

Third. That the debts and liabilities of said territories shall be assumed and paid by said states, respectively.

Fourth. That provision shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of systems of public schools, which shall be open to all the children of said states, and free from sectarian control.

SEC. 5. That the convention which shall assemble at Bismarck shall form a constitution and state government for a state to be known as North Dakota, and the convention which shall assemble at Sioux Falls shall form a constitution and state government for a state to be known as South Dakota: Provided, That at the election for delegates to the constitutional convention in South Dakota, as herein before provided, each elector may have written or printed on his ballot the words "For the Sioux Falls constitution," or the words "Against the Sioux Falls constitution," and the votes on this question shall be returned and canvassed in the same manner as for the election provided for in section three of this act; and if a majority of all votes cast on this question shall be "for the Sioux Falls constitution," it shall be the duty of the convention which may assemble at Sioux Falls, as herein provided, to resubmit to the people of South Dakota, for ratification or rejection at the election hereinafter provided for in this act, the constitution framed at Sioux Falls and adopted November third, eighteen hundred and eighty-five, and also the articles and propositions separately submitted at that election, including the question of locating the temporary seat of government, with such changes only as relate to the name and boundary of the proposed state, to the re-apportionment of the judicial and legislative districts, and such amendments as may be necessary in order to comply with the provisions of this act; and if a majority of the votes cast on the ratification or rejection of the constitution shall be for the constitution irrespective of the articles separately submitted, the state of South Dakota shall be admitted as a state in the Union under said constitution as hereinafter provided; but the archives, records, and books of the territory of Dakota, shall remain at Bismarck, the capitol of North Dakota, until an agreement in reference thereto is reached by said states. But if at the election for delegates to the constitutional convention in South Dakota, a majority of all the votes cast at that election

shall be "against the Sioux Falls constitution," then and in that event shall be the duty of the convention which will assemble at the the city of Sioux Falls on the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, to proceed to form a constitution and state government as provided in this act the same as if that question had not been submitted to a vote of the people of South Dakota.

SEC. 6. It shall be the duty of the constitutional conventions of North Dakota and South Dakota to appoint a joint commission to be composed of not less than three members of each convention, whose duty it shall be to assemble at Bismarck, the present seat of government of said territory, and agree upon an equitable division of all property belonging to the territory of Dakota, the disposition of all public records, and also adjust and agree upon the amount of the debts and liabilities of the territory, which shall be assumed and paid by each of the proposed states of North Dakota and South Dakota; and the agreement reached respecting the territorial debts and liabilities shall be incorporated in the respective constitutions, and each of said states shall obligate itself to pay its proportion of such debts and liabilities the same as if they had been created by such states respectively.

SEC. 7. If the constitutions formed for both North Dakota and South Dakota shall be rejected by the people at the elections for the ratification or rejection of their respective constitutions as provided for in this act, the territorial government of Dakota shall continue in existence the same as if this act had not been passed. But if the constitution formed for either North Dakota or South Dakota shall be rejected by the people, that part of the country so rejecting its proposed constitution shall continue under the territorial government of the present territory of Dakota, but shall, after the state adopting its constitution is admitted into the Union, be called by the name of the territory of North Dakota or South Dakota, as the case may be: Provided, That if either of the proposed states provided for in this act shall reject the constitution which may be submitted for ratification or rejection at the election provided therefor, the governor of the territory in which such proposed constitution was rejected shall issue his proclamation reconvening the delegates elected to the convention which formed such rejected constitution, fixing the time and place at which said delegates shall assemble; and when so assembled they shall proceed to form another constitution or to amend the rejected constitution, and shall submit such new constitution or amended constitution to the people of the proposed state for ratification or rejection, at such time as said convention may determine; and all the provisions of this act, so far as applicable, shall apply to such convention so reassembled and to the constitution which may be formed, its ratification or rejection, and to the admission of the proposed state.