| OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COXMISSIONER OF INDIAX AFPAIRS. LXXVII INTRUDERS IN THE INDIAS TERRITORY. For many years the respectire authorities of the five civilized tribes in the Indian Territory, and especially of the Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations, hare alleged the presence there, in violation of law, of large numbers of citizens of the United States, and bare requested their re-moval as intruders, in accordance with prorisious of the several treaties. In the Cherokee Nation the number is variously estimated at from thir-teen to forty thousand, aud with his letter of February 5, 1800, to the President, Hon. J. B. Mayes, principal chief, transmitted a list of over five thousand alleged intruders aud reqnested their removal. A large proportion of the intruders in the Cherokee Nation is com-posed of persons who claim that the^ are of Cherokee blood and entitled to remain, and their continued presence is due to the disagreement be-tween the Department and the Cherokee authorities as to the exclusive right of those authorities to determine the claims of such persons, or the rigtit of the Department to determine for itself according to the geu-era1 law of the land whether or not the alleged intruders are so in fact and liable to removal; also as to the manner of investigation by which such determination shall be reached. In accordance with the views of the Department that the Cherokee authorities haveno right to exercise jurisdiction over the person or property of intruders in the Cherokee country, and tha,t rejected clairu-ants who entered the nation prior to August 11, 1888, in good faith, should be allowed a reasonable time an11 opportunity to disposeof their improvements and remove from the natiou, all such claitnants were noti-fied by the Indian agent about August or September, 1888, to sell their property not of a movable character, and to prepare to remove within six months from the date of said uotification. These notices were subse-quently suspended or rather indefinitely extended. Two years have elapsed, and so far as this office is advised not one of them has dispose11 of his property or left the Cherokee country, notwithstanding all know that they are regarded as intruders ant1 that their removal at some time or another is inevitable. This circumstance impresses me as an evidence of bad faith ou the part of these claimants, auil of an intention to remain in the natiou and reap the benefits of tile free use of the Cherokee lanils (they pay no taxes) until compelled by force to remove. The Departmeut is not called upon to give this class of intruders any more consideration than is due to othcr persons unlawfully within the Uhero-kee country, and I would recommel~cl their removal as well as that of all others who are there without authority of lam. While the question of the remora1 of intruders from the Chickasaw country is not complicated by the qnestiou of citizenship, as in the case of the Cherokees, still in view of the large number of those intruders and the desperate character of some of them, it prouises to be one almost as |
