How Mississippi Choctaw should stake a Claim

     This, then, was the status of the Choctaw Indians, as regards lands in the Indian Territory, a the appointment of the Dawes Commission, in 1830. In the act of 1893 nothing was said as to how the Mississippi Choctaws should snake claim of any rights they might have, nor was anything stated with regard to this in the act of 1895, or the act of 1896. But about 1896, a decision was rendered by Judge Clayton, in the case of Jack Amos and some other citizenship cases. (Decisions of United States Courts in Indian Territory on Citizenship Cases, page 459.) The court held that absent Mississippi Choctaws were not entitled to enrollment, but that all Mississippi Choctaws who had removed into the Choctaw Nation, were entitled to enrollment without respect to the quantum of blood.
     Following this decision the act of June 7, 1897, was passed. It required the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, "to examine and, report to Congress whether the Mississippi Choctaws under their treaties are not entitled to all the rights of Choctaw citizenship, except an interest in the Choctaw annuities." Under this law the Commission made their report of January 28, 1898, from which we have quoted above.
The Commission, referring to the clause providing that persons claiming under the fourteenth article, should not lose the privilege of a Choctaw citizen, report their opinion to Congress as follows:
     "The Commission are of the opinion that this clause was intended to offer a further inducement to these Indians to follow at some future time their brethren, and join them in their new home, and that the true construction of it is, that the door of admission shall be kept open to them, and if they ever remove, this stay and citizenship in Mississippi shall not bar them out, and that notwithstanding it they shall be admitted to all the privileges of Choctaw citizenship, equally with all others, save only a share in. their annuity."
     The Commission further report:
     "It follows, therefore, from this reasoning, as well as from the historical review already recited, and the nature of the title itself, as well as all stipulations concerning it in the treaties between the United States and the Choctaw Nation, that to avail. himself of the privileges of a Choctaw citizen, any person claiming to be a descendant of those Choctaws, who were provided for in the fourteenth article of the treaty of 1830, must first show the fact that he is a descendant, and has in good faith joined his brethren in the territory with the intent to become one of the citizens of the nation. Having done so, such person has the right to be enrolled as a Choctaw citizen, and to claim all the privileges of such a citizen, except to a share in the annuities, and that otherwise he cannot claim as a right the privilege of a Choctaw citizen."
     This view met the approbation of Congress and the Choctaw Nation, as is indicated by the laws passed and the supplemental treaty adopted since that time; but with this addition, as we shall presently notice, that the time was extended within which a Mississippi Choctaw could remove into the Indian Territory and secure rights of citizenship ands that certain rules of evidence were declared by which the identification of Mississippi Choctaws could he made more easy.
     After the report of January, 1898, the Curtis bill was passed in June. (30 Stats. 495.) Section 21 of the act provides:
     "Said Commission shall have authority to determine the identity of Choctaw Indians claiming rights in the Choctaw lands under article fourteen of the treaty between the United States and the Choctaw Nation, concluded September 27, 1830, and to that end they may administer oaths, examine witnesses, and perform all such other acts necessary thereto, and make report to the Secretary of the Interior."
     Here there is a distinct recognition of legal claim on the part of Choctaw Indians asserting rights under the fourteenth. article. The Commission is made the body to determine who those Indians are. It is constituted a body semi-judicial, at least, with the power of inquiry and determination. No rules for identification are given them. There is simply the recognition that there are claimants under the fourteenth article, who have rights. These rights have already been determined,--already recognized. There remains only the identification of those in whom the rights exist. The right is, when the identity is established, to share in the lands to be allotted.
     Following the Curtis act came next the act of May 31, 1900. That act provided that any Mississippi Choctaw duly identified as such by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, should have the right at any time prior to the approval of the final rolls of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, by the Secretary of the Interior, to make settlement within the Choctaw and, Chickasaw country. (31 Stats., 170-171.)
 

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