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Report of Commissioner
J. George Wright, November 15, 1907
Department Of The Interior,
Commissioner To The Five Civilized Tribes,
Muskogee, Ind. T., November 15, 1907.
The honorable the Secretary Of The Interior.
Sir: June 28, 1907, former Commissioner Bixby called to the attention of the
department certain enrollment cases that were brought to his attention after
March 4, 1907, in which it appeared that the applicants were probably entitled
to enrollment, but were not placed upon the final rolls of the' tribes of which
they were members, and that in view of section 2 of the act of Congress of April
20, 1906, there was no existing law under which they could obtain relief.
July 23, 1907 (I. T. 59745-1907), the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs in
reporting in the matter stated:
It appears from the commissioner's letter that the parties mentioned by him
are entitled to enrollment and that for various reasons their names were not
placed on the roll. As it appears to be thoroughly established that they are as
much entitled to enrollment ns any of the citizens of the tribes to which they
belong, and as there is no existing law by which they can be enrolled, it is
recommended that the list be preserved and that the Commissioner to the Five
Civilized Tribes be requested to investigate further similar cases, to the end
that relief may be afforded to all such persons by a special act of Congress
authorizing the placing of their names on the rolls of citizens of the nations
to which they belong.
This recommendation was approved by the Secretary of the Interior July 25,1907.
The question of the advisability of requesting congressional action with a view
to affording relief to certain persons not enrolled as members of the Five
Civilized Tribes, through fault of their own or otherwise, was again discussed
in the Cherokee case of Alta May Brassfield. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs
on August 21, 1907 (I. T. 69588-1907), forwarded this office, for report, a
letter from John Brassfield, and on September 10, 1907 (I. T. 73379-1907), in
transmitting the report of this office of August 30, 1907, stated:
In cases such as the Brassfield the Mitchell Adams and a few others that have
come to the notice of the office, where the parties were not enrolled through no
fault of their own, but through error of Government officers, Congress should be
requested to enact legislation authorizing their enrollment, and their names
should be inserted in the law as was done by section 9 of the act of June 30,
1902 (32 Stat. L., 500), in the cases of Ner-wal-le-pe-se, Mary, Walter, and
Willie Washington, citizens of the Creek Nation.
It Is recommended that the office be authorized to advise the Commissioner to
the Five Civilized Tribes as herein indicated, and request him to prepare a list
giving the names of the persons whom his records show were legally entitled to
enrollment and were omitted through oversight on the part of the Government, in
order that the subject may be presented to Congress with a view to protecting
their interests.
This recommendation was approved by the Secretary of the Interior, September 11,
1907.
In accordance with these instructions I have investigated the records in the
citizenship cases in the different tribes and respectfully submit the following
cases which I believe come within the purview of the department's instructions,
to wit:
Cherokee by Blood and Newborn, July
1, 1902
Creeks by Blood, Act of March 1,
1901
Mississippi Choctaw, July 1, 1902
Choctaw and Chickasaw Citizens
Choctaw Freedmen Newborn
Miscellaneous Cases
There is also called to the attention of the
department, for such action as it desires to
take, the Mississippi Choctaw case of
Mitchell C. Adams, referred to in the Indian
Office letter of September 10, 1907, special
reference being made to his application for
the identification of his minor children.
January 13, 1906 (I. T. D. 1312,
18094-1905), the department approved the
decision of the Commission to the Five
Civilized Tribes dated January 19, 1905,
denying the application of Mitchell C. Adams
for the enrollment of himself and minor
children, Lillie M., Nora M., and Mitchell
C. Adams, jr., as citizens by blood, and for
the enrollment of his wife, Nannie C. Adams,
as a citizen by intermarriage, of the
Choctaw Nation. On March 3, 1907.
Commissioner Bixby, having received a
telegram dated March 2, 1907, from A. F.
McGarr, who was an employee of the
commissioner then stationed in Washington,
stating that the department had directed the
identification of Mitchell C. Adams, Lillie
M. Adams, Nora M. Adams, and William C.
Adams (Mitchell C. Adams, jr., died in 1898
or 1899), as Mississippi Choctaws, rendered
his decision identifying them and on that
day wired said employee of his compliance
with the department's directions, and stated
that as the records did not show that said
persons had ever removed to and settled
within the Choctaw-Chickasaw country, no
action would be taken other than their
identification. Subsequent to the rendition
of said decision the commissioner received
the department's decision in the case dated
March 2, 1907 (I. T. D. 5748-1907), wherein
the decision of the commission of January
19, 1905, adverse to the applicants, was
reversed except as to said Nannie C. Adams.
This action was taken in accordance with the
approved opinions of the Assistant Attorney
General of February 20, 1907, and February
28, 1907. Said Mitchell C. Adams was ordered
identified as a full-blood Mississippi
Choctaw Indian, and in connection with the
identification of Adams's children the
department states that:
In the concluding paragraph of the
above-cited opinion recommendation is made
that no action should he taken at this time
looking to the enrollment of Adams's family.
This recommendation is approved only to the
extent that they should not now be finally
enrolled as citizens.
In accordance with the approved opinion of
the Assistant Attorney General of February
16, 1907, in the case of the infant children
of Nicholas Charlas et al., based on section
2 of the act of April 20, 1906 (34 Stat.
137), the children of Mitchell C. Adams are
entitled to Identification as Mississippi
Choctaws if said children were minors living
on March 4, 1906.
It appears that when the record was made up
Lillie M., Nora M., and William O. Adams
were the living minor children of Mitchell
O. Adams, and that Mitchell O. Adams, jr.,
has since died.
Accordingly you are also directed to
identify Lillie M., Nora M., and William O.
Adams as Mississippi Choctaws, following
said opinion in the Charlas case.
Mitchell C. Adams resides at Bluefield, W.
Va., and it would have been impossible for
him to have removed to and settled within
the Choctaw-Chickasaw country and submitted
proof of such settlement within time for his
enrollment to have been approved by the
department on March 4, 1907.
The children of Mitchell C. Adams, being of
the mixed blood, and no attempt being made
to prove that they are the descendants of a
beneficiary under the fourteenth article of
the treaty of 1830, were not entitled to
identification as Mississippi Choctaw
Indians under the act of July 1, 1902. It is
not clear as to the right of these children
under the act of April 25, 1906, considering
their case in the light of the department's
decisions in the Nicholas Charlas et al,
case above referred to, and its decision of
May 25, 1906 (I. T. D. 5066, 17858-1905,
9022-1906), in the Willis Willis case. Had
Mitchell C. Adams, after his identification
as a Mississippi Choctaw Indian, made proof
of settlement within the Choctaw-Chickasaw
country and been duly enrolled as a
Mississippi Choctaw, and his enrollment
approved by the Secretary of the Interior,
his said children would have been entitled
to enrollment under the act of April 26,
1906, as amended by the act of June 21,
1906, as the minor children of a duly
enrolled Mississippi Choctaw Indian,
provided they were minors living March 4,
1906.
The commissioner's decision in this case of
March 3, 1907, is enclosed; the record in
the case was transmitted to the department
October 21, 1905.
The records of proceedings in a number of
the above cases have been heretofore
forwarded, and, with the date of the letter
of transmittal, are as follows:
Sallie Foster, Creek new born, February 27,
1907.
Clemogene Farve et al.. Mississippi Choctaws
(in consolidated case of Nancy Agloff et
al.) M. C. R. 2370), December 21, 1906.
Gilbert McKinney, Choctaw freedman (in case
of Boling McKinney et al.), February 26,
1907.
Hattie Burris et al., Choctaw freedmen new
born, March 4, 1907.
Mitchell C. Adams et a1., Mississippi
Choctaw, October 21, 1905.
The records in the other cases above
referred to are transmitted herewith.
Respectfully, J. G. Wright, Commissioner.
Notes About the Book:
Source: Five Civilized Tribes In Oklahoma, Reports of the Department of the
Interior and Evidentiary Papers in support of S. 7625, a Bill for the Relief of
Certain Members of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma, Sixty-second Congress,
Third Session, Published 1913, by the Department of the Interior, United States.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
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