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William T. Stephens,
Choctaw
Dawes Commission, No.
—.
United States court (Central district).
No. 280.
Citizenship court No. —.
The record in this case shows:
Claimant applied to Dawes Commission in 1896
for enrollment as a citizen of the Choctaw
Nation by intermarriage, basing his claim
upon a decision of the United States Indian
agent, Robert L. Owen, rendered August 16,
1887, holding him to be a citizen by
intermarriage of the Choctaw Nation, copy of
which decision is hereto attached and marked
Exhibit I.
The decision of the United States agent was
affirmed by Secretary of the Interior Lamar
and thereby became final.
Dawes Commission enrolled claimant under act
of June 10, 1896, as a member of the tribe.
Choctaw Nation appealed from decision of
commission to United States court for the
central district of Indian Territory, which,
court, on July 13, 1897, rendered judgment
affirming the decision of the commission
enrolling claimant.
Case thereafter was transmitted to the
citizenship court, which under the law had
no jurisdiction thereof, as that court only
had appellate jurisdiction of cases passed
on by the United States courts where there
had been no previous tribal enrollment. The
citizenship court, by decision rendered
October 20, 1904, entered judgment denying
applicant citizenship in the nation. As the
citizenship court was without jurisdiction
of this case, as held by the Assistant
Attorney General in the case of Lula West,
the judgment entered by that court did not
and could not deprive applicant of his right
to enrollment.
Applicant died in January, 1903. and his
heirs are under the law entitled to receive
his share of the estate. His name should be
included on the final rolls of the tribe.
Respectfully submitted.
Ballinger & Lee.
Department of the Interior,
United States Indian Service,
Muscogee, Union Agency, Ind. T.,
November 25, 1896.
Mr. W. T. Stephens,
McAlester, Ind. T.
Sir: Below you will find a true copy of
Agent Owen's decision in your claim to
Choctaw citizenship. This decision was made
August 16, 1887.
Very respectfully,
D. M. Windom, United States Indian Agent.
W. F. W.
Choctaw Nation v.
William T. Stephens.
On the 17th of November, 1884, William T.
Stephens applied to this office against the
decision of the Choctaw council in the
matter of his citizenship.
It appears that he married Catherine Wall, a
Choctaw woman, March 2, 1858, and lived with
her until 1868, when he obtained a divorce
on the plea of her desertion. Two children
were born to them as the Issue of this
marriage. On October 2, 1869, he married a
white woman. It appears further that he was
uniformly recognized as a citizen until
perhaps 1882. The burden of proof is
therefore upon the Choctaw Nation.
Upon the facts averred, William T. Stephens
is entitled to citizenship in the Choctaw
Nation and has not forfeited the same by his
marriage with the white woman in 1869, said
marriage being prior to the law of November
9, 1875, relative to intermarried white men.
His children by the first marriage are
citizens of the Choctaw Nation by blood: his
children by the second wife are United
States citizens without the rights of
Choctaw Indians, in my opinion, for while
Mr. Stephens himself has acquired certain
privileges by his intermarriage with
Catherine Wall, his white descendants and
other relations of pure white blood have not
acquired thereby any right whatever. The law
of 1875 does not apply to Stephens, because
such operation of the law would be ex post
facto, and in violation of the Choctaw
constitution and of the Constitution of the
United States. I am of opinion that the
temporary residence of the petitioner in
Arkansas for the brief period named was not
such as to deprive him of the right of
residence and of adopted citizenship in the
Choctaw country, as he soon returned and has
continuously lived there since.
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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