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Show 32 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONI~ OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. it is understood that they will be appointed as special agents by the Census Office in order to compile this work, which it is believed will be eagerly sought by the public, and will contain much interesting and accurate data concerning the aborigines of this country. FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBE ROLLS. The affairs of the Five Civilized Tribes, composed of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole nations of Indians, and pccupying old Indian Territory, now a part of Oklahoma, are under the immediate charge of J. George Wright, Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, Muskogee, Okla., as the local representative of, the Secretary of the Interior. Congress provided in the act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. L., 804), for the winding up of the affairs of the Five Civilized Tribes. by July 1, 1910. By the proviso to section 2 of the act of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 137), Congress had already declared "that the rolls of the tribes affected by this act shall be fully completed on or before the 4th day of March, 1907; and the Secqetary of the Interior shall have no jurisdiction to approve the enrollment of any persons after said date,'' and under section 1 of the same act it was enacted that all applibations for enrollment in either one of the Five Civilized Tribes must have been made prior to December 1, 1905. No adequate conception was had of the magnitude of the work required of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes when it was provided in the act of June 10, 1896 (29 Stat. L., 321), that applica-tions of all persons who may apply for citizenship in any of said nations must be made within three months after the passage of the act a d must be heard and determined within ninety days after the application. Any person aggrieved by the decisi6n of the Commis-sion to the Five Civilized Tribes had the right of appeal to the United States district court, and the judgment of that court was &all. Thereafter Congress by the act of June 28, 1898 (30 Stat. L.; 495), known as the ''Curtis Act," provided for substantially making anew a correct roll of citizens of the several t'ribes. - These rolls when made and approved by the Secretary of the Interior were to be h a l , and the persons whose names are found thereon, with their descendants thei-eafter born to them, with such.persons as may intermarry accord-ing to tribal laws, shall alone constitute the several tribes which they represent. Thereafter Congress by the act of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. L., 641), created the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship court with appellate jurisdiction over all judgments of the courts in Indian Ter-ritory rendered under the act of Congress of June 10, 1896, admitting persons to citizenship'in either the Choctaw, or Chickasaw nations. Provision was here made for a test suit, to be filed in the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship court, known as the "Riddle case," which sought the annulment and vacation of all decisions of the United |
