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Show I authorize the members of the Eastern band of Cherokees to apply to the courts for mturalizntion on showing satisfactory proof of fitness for civilized life on their part, still it could not avail as far as this case is concerned, for there is no pretense that any of them have ever made such application or ever been declared citizens of the United States by any wurt of the same or of the State of North Cnmlina. On this subject Judge Deady, in the case of United Shtes 9. Osborn (8 Sawyer, 406-409; 2 Fed., 58, 61) has well said: But an ~ndiaoeann otmake himaelf s dt izend the United States without the consent and cooper. etioh of the Government. The fact that he has abandoned his nomadio life or tribsl relations and adopted the hahits and m*nneA of civilized people m y be a good reason why he should he made a e i t i ~ ~ ltohei Unitedstates, but does not of itself make him one. To he 8. oitizen of the United statesis& politiosl pdpllegewhieh no one, not born to,can assume without its consent in some form. The general assembly of the State of North Carolma in 1889 pri-vate Laws, chap. 211) passed an act incorporating the Eastern band of Cherokees in North Carolina, and the said band is now a corpora-tion, duly organized under the laws of that State, with power to sue and be sued. Being governed by the above decisions and legislation, this Ofice, in its administrative capacity, holds that this band of Cherokee Indians, holding their land in fee, can alienate the same, but the con-tract is reviewable by the Government for one purpose only, to pro-tect them from fraud or wrong, and that, having been incorporated as a body politic, with the power of suing and being sued, the acts of this hand are reviewable only to protect them from fraud or wrong. . Its lands.-A number of these Indians entered into an agreement or contract with one William H. Thomas, a prominent merchant and Indian philanthropist in southwestern North Carolina, to purchase as a home for them and the band a general boundary of land in that locality, out of the savings from proceeds of their personal labor and of their annuity money, which they, from time to time, placed in his hands for thatpurpose. Mr. Thomas proceeded in good faith to carry out this agreement, and did purchase lands for them as the lndians placed the money in his handu; but he took the deeds therefo? in his own name, no doubt intending when he had completed the purchases contemplated in the agreement, to execute a deed of conveyance to the lndians as a tribe and community and settlement thereon, for the whole of the lands so purchased. But before its consummation the civil war came on and Mr. Thomas being financially involved, his creditors, by due process of law, took possession of his property, includmg much of the land purchased for and occupied by the Indians, thereby involving the title to the same, which became the subject of constant litigation. - While affairs were in this condition, Congress, by act of July 15,1870 (16 Stat., 362), empowered these Indians, by the name and style of "The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians," to bring suit in the dis-trict or circuit court of the United States for a settlement of all matters connected with their funds and lands in North Carolina. In carrying |