OCR Text |
Show 74 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. of this entire number the Commission admitted 154 persons represent-ing about fifty cases; and that ont of the 5,000 cases appeals had been taken, as shown by the court records, in only 221 cases, which appeals were still pending in the courts. This communication was referred by the Department to the Dawes Commission for report as to. whether proceedings at that time to forci-bly dispossess these intruders of their improvements would in any way interfere with the negotiations of the commission, and as to what, in the opinion of the commission, would be the best method and the most suitable time for making the removals demanded by the Cherokee delegates. The commission replied, April 24,1897, that in its opinion steps taken to remove intruders would not only not retard nor embarrass their negotiations, bnt would be a benefit to them, as inspiring confidence in the good intention and honest purposes of the Government to fulfill its obligatioils toward the ~ndians. They suggested that the agent for the Five Civilized Tribes at Muscogee be required to oanse the intruders immediatelv to relinouish 1)ossessiono f all lands and i)remise~~s o~c-~c~n~cn i-e-d~ - by them totbe authoritiesof the Cherokee Nation, upon the request of the principal chief of that nation, and that the agent be provided with t,he means of enforcing his orders without delay. In a report to the Department dated May 19, 1897, this office made the following remarks and recommendations on this subject: From these statementsit will be seen that the demand of the delegates of the Cherokee Nation is not ~rrre~sonableT. he intruders in that nation have had warning against further intrusion, and tho Indians. have the promise of the Governn~ent for their removal. As I have stated, there is no information before this office or contained in the papers under consideratiou as to the probable number of persons that will be aflected by the removals, but it appears from the report of the board of aaoraisers of intruders' imnrovemel~tisn the Cherokee Nation that at t h d i i l ~ ~sacid I.eport was suhu~ittz~tll~ ernw ere eutiln;~tedto bu in tlto Cherokee .Vatiou :111oot 9,5UO intruders. Of this numbcr X.500 were there at the time the board entered unon its dntv of annraisement. nl~dit w:lr ratiu~ntedb y the president of ;he lntrud& Al~&~;.iilttihonli~ bet\\-eeu that t:me (lR!l:l) and tile date of.tl~eapprainers'report (JInrch If;. 1815) about 1.00u ~dditio11uD1 erSoIlRclain~iue itirellshi~h) ad eutcreil thk nation and settled there. A Messrs. Hastings alid Benge state that there were 50,000 persons interested in claims for citizenship in the Cherokee Natiou presented to the Dawes Commission. What proportion of these 50,000 were in the nation and settled there is not stated, and it is not known whether any material chanrre in the number settled in the nation has been made since the reyoFt of the appraisers referred to. From this it will be seen by the Department thatwhile the Cherokee Nation has the rirrht to demand the removal of intruders in that nation. t h e ~ u ~ ~ d e r t a7ks ionii~e o f grave responsibility and far-reaching conse: sequences to a, large number of people, and should be proceeded with in a manner that would result in the least hardship to the intruders. It is to be expected, of course, at any time that there will be great su8erhg in the forcible removal of sn many people from a sectiou of country where some of them have resided for a great many Fears. |