|
Report of J. George
Wright, Proposing to Extend the Act of February 6, 1901
Department Of The Interior
Commissioner To The Five Civilized Tribes,
Muskogee, Okla., November 3, 1009
Subject: Proposed bill of Senator Clapp extending the provisions of act approved
February 6, 1901, to Choctaws and Chickasaws.
The honorable the Secretary or The Interior.
Sir: Under date of June 5, 1905 there was forwarded to this office from the
department a copy of a bill proposed by Senator Clapp, entitled:
A bill extending the provisions of an act approved February sixth, nineteen
hundred and one, entitled "An act amending the act of August fifteenth, eighteen
hundred and ninety-four, entitled 'An act making appropriations for current and
contingent expenses of the Indian Department and fulfilling treaties and
stipulations with various Indian tribes, for the fiscal year ending June
thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and for other purposes,'" to any
person claiming any right in the common property of the Choctaw or Chickasaw
Indians or tribes.
Also copy of his letter transmitting the same to the Indian Office, and a copy
of a letter from the Secretary of the Interior written to Senator Clapp; and I
was directed to examine same and submit to the department such criticism and
comment thereon as I might think proper.
Immediately upon the receipt, copies of the bill in question were forwarded to
Hon. Green McCurtain. Principal chief of the Choctaw Nation; Hon. Douglas H.
Johnston, governor of the Chickasaw Nation; and Mr. W. W. Hastings, national
attorney of the Cherokee Nation, requesting their views concerning the matter,
together with such suggestions as they might desire to offer. No response has
been received from Gov, Johnston, and Mr. Hastings recently verbally informed me
that he had no suggestions to offer, inasmuch as the bill did not refer to the
Cherokee Nation.
I inclose herewith copy of a letter from Hon. Green McCurtain, dated October 27,
1909. acknowledging the Receipt of said bill and stating that he had delayed
replying thereto until the Choctaw Council, which has recently adjourned, could
consider same. He also stated that the Choctaw Council had nothing to say
concerning the matter at this time, preferring to stand upon the memorial
protesting against any action being taken looking to the reopening of the
Choctaw and Chickasaw rolls, passed at the last regular session of said council,
as expressing the views of the Choctaws in regard to the matter of reopening the
rolls of citizenship of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, which memorial was
forwarded by me to the department on November 17, 1908, with the statement that
the protest did not require executive action, but simply embodied the opinion of
the Choctaw Tribe, generally concerning the reopening of the rolls. By Indian
Office letter of December 4,1908 (Land 78706-1908, E. B. H.), I was advised that
the department, on November 30, 1908, had approved its recommendation that the
protest of the Choctaw Council be retained in the files of the Indian Office to
be transmitted to Congress, if any bills were introduced designed to open the
rolls.
The memorial above mentioned in substance attacks the legislation passed by
Congress regarding the enrollment of citizens and freed- men of the Five
Civilized Tribes and particularly those of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. It
also contained a criticism of the manner in which the enrollment work was
accomplished by the Government's agents, charges frauds were perpetrated by the
applicants and their attorneys: that many of the persons already enrolled
secured their enrollment through fraud, and that any legislation that might be
passed providing for the reopening of the rolls would serve to render possible
the perpetration of further frauds on the Choctaw people. The council contended
that the applicants whose cases have been before the commission, or the
Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, and the department have had full
opportunity to have them adjudicated, and that they are not entitled to further
examination of what they contend to be their rights, but that the nation would
not object to the enrollment of the 40 or 50 Choctaws and Chickasaws by blood,
who were left off the rolls through their ignorance.
Section 1 of the proposed bill provides as follows:
That the provisions of an act approved February sixth, nineteen hundred and
one (chapter two hundred and seventeen. United States Statutes at Large,
Fifty-sixth Congress), entitled "An act amending the act of August fifteenth,
eighteen hundred and ninety-four, entitled 'An act making appropriations for
current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department and fulfilling treaties
and stipulations with various Indian tribes for the fiscal year ending June
thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and for other purposes,'" be, and
the same is hereby, extended to any person claiming any right In the common
property of the Choctaw or Chickasaw Indians or tribes: and in order to make
said act applicable to any person claiming any such right in said property, said
act is hereby amended to read as follows.
And sections 2 and 3 are practically identical with chapter 217, page 760 of
volume 31 of the United States Statutes at Large, with the exception that same,
instead of being applicable to the Five Civilized Tribes and the Quapaw Indians,
is made applicable to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations alone. Section 4 is for
the purpose of securing evidence; limits the time within which suits must be
brought to one year after the passage of the act, and provides that no surety
for costs shall be required from the plaintiff.
If this bill should become a law, it would be far-reaching in its effects, in
that it would result in the reopening of the enrollment in the Choctaw and
Chickasaw Nations and a readjudication by the United States courts of cases
already heard and determined-a proceeding that was once conducted in determining
the rights of persons to citizenship in the Five Civilized Tribes with such
little success and in so unsatisfactory a manner as to bring about the
institution of the Choctaw-Chickasaw Citizenship Court under the act of Congress
approved July 1, 1902 (32 Stats. L., 641), which court rejected over 3,000 of
the applicants who had been admitted by the United States courts, and only
admitted 150. It not only contemplates the review of former decisions, but opens
the matter to the extent of permitting original applications, and, if it becomes
a law will prolong the enrollment work for an indefinite period.
Under date of November 15, 1907, I transmitted a report to the department
showing the names of 52 persons who made application for enrollment as citizens
and freedmen of the Choctaw. Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Creek Nations within the
time provided by law, and who were entitled to citizenship, but whose
enrollments were not approved by reason of error of this office, the department,
or delay by the telegraph companies, and called the attention of the department
to a letter of Commissioner Bixby, my predecessor in office, dated June 28,
1907, relative to the same matter, and suggested the advisability of requesting
congressional action with a view to affording relief to these persons.
The Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs by Indian Office letter of July 23,
1907 (I. T. I). 59745-1907), in reporting on Commissioner Bixby's letter stated:
It appears from Commissioner Bixby's letter that the parties mentioned by him
are entitled to enrollment, and that for various reasons their mimes were not
placed on the rolls. As it appears to be thoroughly established that they are as
much entitled as any of the citizens of the tribe to which they belong and ns
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 wises, to the end that relief may be
furnished to all such persons by 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.
It appears from the records of this office that approximately 51,600 persons
who made application for enrollment as citizens or freedmen of the Choctaw,
Chickasaw, Cherokee, or Creek Nation were rejected. Two thousand six hundred and
eighty of these applicants claimed to be Creeks, 11,920 claimed to be Cherokees,
and the balance, 37.000, claimed rights as Choctaws and Chickasaws. These
applications were all passed upon by the Commission or the Commissioner to the
Five Civilized Tribes, and nearly all of them were reviewed by the department,
and a large number thereof was also passed upon by the United States District
Court for the Indian Territory and by the Choctaw-Chickasaw Citizenship Court,
created by the act of Congress of July 1, 1902 (32 Stats. L. 641).
It is claimed by many that their applications were not properly considered, and
that many who were enrolled as Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen and allotted land
of the appraised value of $130, 16 should have been enrolled as Indians by blood
and permitted to select land of the appraised value of $1,041.28 and share in
the annuities and payments with other citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw
Nations; and I understand that many of such persons are represented in the
Fleming case now pending before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Under all of the circumstances as above set forth, unless it is shown that the
applications were improperly considered, of which I have no knowledge. I do not
feel warranted in recommending the passage of the bill as submitted by Senator
Clapp but suggest, in lieu thereof, that it might be proper to enact legislation
that would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to enroll the names of the 52
persons designated in my report to the department, dated November 15, 1907, and
such other claimants whose applications for enrollment may be found to be in
similar status and to adjudicate the claims of and enroll such persons, if he
deems proper, whose applications for enrollment were filed within the time
prescribed by law and whose cases were not considered, with a provision that the
enrollment of the Mississippi Choctaws mentioned in said letter be made subject
to all the conditions contained in said sections 41, 42, and 44 of the act of
Congress approved July 1, 1902 (32 Stats. L. 641).
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.
|
|
Pre-Order Family Tree Maker 2012!!!