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Melinda Williams, Dawes Packet
Index
Ordering Information
Historical Information
Department
of the Interior Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes
Atoka, I.
T. June 12, 1901
#2610
In the matter of the application of Melinda Williams for identification as
a Mississippi Choctaw.
Melinda Williams having been duly sworn testified as follows:
Examination by the Commission:
Q. What is
your name?
A. Melinda
Williams
Q. What is
your age?
A.
Sixty-seven
Q. What is
your post-office address?
A.
Cottondale, Wise County, Texas
Q. How long
have you lived there?
A. Twenty
years
Q. Where did
you live before you lived there?
A. I lived in
middle Texas for a while; I was born and raised in Mississippi.
Q. And from
Mississippi you moved to Texas?
A. Yes
Q. How long
did you live in Mississippi?
A. I was
something near 25 years old when I left there-somewhere between 21 and 25.
Q. What is
your father’s name?
A. Paul Davis
Q. Is he
living?
A. No.
Q. What is
your mother’s name?
A. Eunice
Davis
Q. Is she
living?
A. No.
Q. Through
which one of your parents do you derive your Choctaw blood?
A. My father.
Q. How much
Choctaw blood do you claim?
A. My
grandfather was a half.
Q. Well how,
much do you claim.
A. How much
would it be?
Q. If your
grandfather was a half, how much would your father be?
A. He would
be a third or fourth.
Q. If he was
a fourth, how much would you be?
A. About a
sixtheenth, is it?
Q. What is
the half of a fourth?
A. I can’t
absolutely tell; I don’t know nothing.
Q. It is
about an eighth>
A. Yes.
Q. Has your
father, through whom you claim your right to identification as a
Mississippi Choctaw ever been recognized in any manner or enrolled as a
member of the Choctaw tribe of Indiana by either the Choctaw tribal
authorities or the authorities of the United States.
A. I can’t
tell you whether he was or not.
Q. Are you
married?
A. I am a
widow.
Q. Have you
any children under twenty-one years of age and unmarried?
A. No, I aint
got but one and she is twenty-eight.
Q. You are
making this application for yourself alone?
A. Yes
Q. Is your
name on any of the tribal rolls of the Choctaw Nation in the Indian
Territory?
A. No, I
don’t guess it is; we have had our name there one time and it was done by
fraud and we was out of it.
Q. Have you
ever made application to the Choctaw tribal authorities in Indian
Territory to be enrolled as a member of that tribe.
A. Yes.
Q. How long
ago was it?
A. Six or
seven years.
Q. You made
application to the Choctaw tribal authorities?
A. Yes, we
made application to this here man, but he was a fraud and he is in the pen
now.
Q. Did you
ever go to the council?
A. No, we-
Q. Did you
ever appear before the Choctaw Council and make application.
A. No, just
before this man; he was all. I don’t know his name.
Q. What was
he doing?
A. He
pretended to be getting up our claims.
Q. Was he an
attorney?
A. He claimed
he was.
Q. Well, you
just gave him your case and papers?
A. Yes.
Q. You didn’t
make application to the Council then?
A. No, only
that man.
Q. Well, you
said a while ago your names were on the rolls?
A. No I
misunderstood.
Q. Did you or
any one for you, in 1896, make application to the Commission to the Five
Civilized Tribes for citizenship in the Choctaw Nation under the Act of
Congress of June 10, 1896?
A. I don’t
know whether I did.
Q. Did you
ever make such application?
A. No.
Q. Did you
authorize any one for you?
A. No, I
never knew I could get in there in it—I was raised in the nation with the
Choctaw Indians.
Q. Have you
ever been admitted to citizenship in the Choctaw nation by either the
Choctaw tribal authorities, the Commission to the Five Civilised Tribes,
or by judgment of the United States Court in Indian Territory?
A. No.
Q. Have you
ever made application prior to this time to either the Choctaw Tribal
authorities or the authorities of the United States to be admitted or
enrolled as a citsen of the Choctaw nation?
A. No.
Q. Is this is
the first application of any description you have ever made?
A. Yes
Q. Is it now
your purpose to make application for identification as a Mississippi
Choctaw?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you
claim your rights as a beneficiary under the provisions of the fourteenth
article of the treaty of 1830?
A. Yes.
Q. Are you
familiar with the provisions of that article of that treaty?
A. No.
Q. Article
fourteen of the treaty of 1836 is as follows;
“Each Choctaw head of a family being desirous to remain and become a
citizen of the state shall be permitted to do so by signifying to the
Agent his intention within six months from the ratification of this
treaty, and he or she shall thereupon be entitled to a reservation of one
section of six hundred and forty acres of land to be bounded by sectional
lines of survey; in like manner shall be entitled to one half that
quantity for each unmarried child which may be living with him over ten
years of age, and a quarter section to such child as may be under ten
years of age, to adjoin the location of the parent. If they reside
upon said land intending to become citizens of the States for five years
after the ratification of this treaty, in that case a grant in fee simple
shall issue. Said reservation shall include the present improvement
of the head of the family or a portion of it. Persons claiming under
this article shall not lose the privilege of the Choctaw citizen, but if
they ever remove, are not to be entitled to any portion of the Choctaw
annuity.” Do you claim under that article?
A. Yes.
Q. Have you
ever received any benefits as a Choctaw Indian?
A. No.
Q. Have any
of your ancestors ever received any benefits as Choctaw Indians?
A. No, not as
I know of.
Q. What was
the name of your ancestor or ancestors who were residents in the old
Choctaw nation in Mississippi and Alabama and acknowledged members of the
Choctaw nation in 1830 when the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was entered
in to between the United States and the Choctaw tribe of Indians?
A. Well, my
grand-father was named Daniel Davis, and my father was named Paul Davis.
Q. Did they
or one of them live in Mississippi in 1830?
A. Yes.
Q. Which one?
A. Both of
them.
Q. Did this
ancestor, or either of them, if Choctaw Indians, remove from the territory
occupied by the old Choctaw Nation in Mississippi or Alabama to the
present Choctaw nation in Indian Territory at the time of the removal of
the other members of the Choctaw tribe from 1833 to 1838.
A. No
Q. If they
did not remove with the other members of the tribe, did one or either of
them, within six months after the ratification of the treaty of 1830,
signify to the united States Indian Agent to the Choctaw Indians in
Mississippi their intention to remain in Mississippi and become citizens
of the United States?
A. I declare
I can’t tell you—I don’t know.
Q. Have any
of your ancestors ever claimed or received any land in Mississippi as
beneficiaries under the provisions of the four-tenth article of the treaty
of 1930?
A. No.
Q. Are there
any additional statements you desire to make in support of this
application?
A. No, not
that I know of
Q. Have you
any documentary evidence; affidavits, written evidence of any description,
copies of records, deeds or patents, or any proper papers showing that
your ancestors were ever recognized members of the Choctaw tribe of
Indians in Mississippi in 1830, or that they eve complied or attempted to
comply with the previsions of the fourteenth article of the treaty of
1830, or that they ever received any benefits under that article of the
treaty?
A. Yes
Affidavit of T. H. Parkman offers in evidence by applicant, marked Exhibit
“A” filed and made a part of the record in this case; affidavit of Susie
Lord offering in evidence by applicant marked Exhibit “B”, filed and made
a part of the record in this case.
Q. Would you
like time in which to file additional evidence?
A. Yes.
Thirty days time is allowed applicant in which to file additional evidence
in support of this claim.
The decision of this Commission as to your application for identification
as a Mississippi Choctaw will be determined at the earliest possible date
and report of same will be made to the secretary of the Interior,
conformable to the provisions of the 21st. Section of the Act
of Congress of June 28, 1898, and a copy of the same will be mailed to you
at your post-office address as given in your testimony.
Applicant is apparently a white woman.
Henry G.
Hains being duly sworn on his oath states that as stenographer to the
Commission to the Five Civilised Tribes, he reported in full all
proceedings had in the above entitled cause on June 18, 1901, print of his
stenograph notes in said cause on said date.
Signed
Henry G.
Hains
Subscribed
and sworn to before me this 15th day of July 1901
D. W.
Liecerbaugh
Notary Public
Index
Native American Packets are the property of
submitter, and may not be copied in any way.
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