§ 71. Exclusion of villages from reservations; lease of lands therein;
certification of copies of leases granted by the Seneca nation of
Indians and recording thereof. Those parts of the Allegany reservation
included in the villages of Vandalia, Carrollton, Great Valley,
Salamanca, West Salamanca and Red House, as surveyed, located and
established pursuant to an act of congress approved February nineteenth,
eighteen hundred and seventy-five, have been constituted parts of the
several towns within which they are located, and all the general laws of
the state are extended over and apply to the same; except that this
section shall not authorize the taxation of any Indian or the property
of any Indian, not a citizen of the United States. Lands in such
villages held under lease from the Seneca nation of Indians shall be for
all purposes considered a freehold estate, and the right of dower and
tenancy by the courtesy shall attach thereto, and such lands, upon the
intestacy of the holder, shall descend the same as a freehold of
inheritance, except that solely for the purpose of taxation by the
Salamanca Indian lease authority, the estate of a lessee shall be
considered a chattel real. But the rights of the Indians in such leases
shall descend as provided by the laws of the Seneca nation of Indians.
When the original lease of any such lands already granted by the Seneca
nation of Indians, pursuant to an act of Congress, and recorded in the
books of Seneca national Indian leases kept by the clerk of said nation,
or his successors or assigns in office, shall have been lost or
destroyed without the same having been recorded in the office of the
clerk of the county of Cattaraugus, the owner of such lease, or any
person interested in the lands therein described, may apply to the clerk
of said nation for a certified copy of such record of the same, and upon
the payment of the fees therefor, it shall be the duty of said clerk to
furnish such owner with a certified copy of said lease. Upon the
presentation of a copy of any such lease, certified as aforesaid, to the
clerk of Cattaraugus county, it shall be the duty of said clerk to
record the same in the books provided in his office for the record of
such Indian leases, upon the payment of the fees for recording the same.
Such copy of a lease certified as aforesaid shall be presumptive
evidence of the facts set forth therein and shall be received in
evidence on the trial of any action or proceeding in all the courts of
this state. The record of such a copy of a lease certified as aforesaid
in the office of the clerk of the county of Cattaraugus shall have the
same force and effect as the record of the original lease, had it been
recorded. The said clerk shall receive for certifying the same the sum
of one dollar and for making a copy of said lease the sum of twenty-five
cents per folio, which fees shall belong to the said clerk.