| OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 77 INTEUDERS IN THE CHEROKEE NATION:^ The anthorities of the Cherokee Nation have from time to time since 1874 reported the presence in the nation of large numbers of persons who they claimed were there without aut,hority of lam, and were occu-pying and cultivating some of the best lands of the nation, to the detri-ment and exclusion of its citizens; and the Nation has demanded of the Government that t,hese persons be removed in accordance with the prom-ises given the Cl~erokees in their treaties. Very few, if any, of the parties have, however, been removed, on acconnt of the difference of opinion for a long time existing betweell this Department and the Cherokee authorities respecting the jurisdiction claimed by the Depart-ment over claims to rights of citizenship set up by most of the intruders complained against. Thia controversy had the effect to postpone the adjudiodtion of citi-zenship claims, and in the meantime the Indian agent was directed by rs letter of July 20, 1880, to give certificates to all claimants to citizen-ship who could establish a prima facie r igl~th ereto, which certificates were to be regarcled as entitling the holders to remaill in the Cherokee Nation mithoi~t~ nolestationo r liability to removal until wcli time as a plan could be agreed upon between the Department and the authorities of the nation for a fair and impartial trial of their claims. In the Cherokee trust f i~udc ase (117 U. S., 311) the Supreme Oo~utd ecided tliat- If Indians in that State [North Carolina] or in any other State east of the hlis-sisaippi wish to enjoy the benafits of tho oommon property of the Cherokee Xation, in whatever form it may eriat, they must, as held by the Court of Clairn~, comply with the constitution and lams of the Cherokee Nation and be admitted to citizen-ship as there provided. The decision in the case from which the above quotation is taken was, rendered by the court on March 1, 1886, and under date of August 11, 1886, the office instructed the Union Indian agent t,o issue no further certificates of the character authorized in letter of July 20, 1880, above referred to, the Secretary of the Interior baving by letter of August 5, 188fi, directed the revocation of the order cont,ained in said letter to the agent. The revocation of said order, howeve.r, was to have no retro-active effect. Claimarlts to citize~lshiprv ho have made settlements in the Cheroliee Nation since the date of the letter from this office stopping the further issuance of prima facie certificates, as the)- were called, have done so at their own risk and have been liable to removal as i~ltruders,a nd whenever opportunity has offered individual clainlants have been so adviaed by this office. The parties who, in good faith, had entered the nation prior to the date of that letter, believing they had rights there by blood, were, however, regarded as having acquired an equitable right to look to the |
