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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 75 I The freedmen, however, in laying the matter before the Cherokee coui~cil,c laimed a number largely in excess of the number enumerated 1 on the approved Wallace roll. The Cherokee ronncil appropriated the sum of $400,000 to meeb the unascertained claim upon them so as to make the per capita rate $295.35 for each freedman found to be eutitled to participate in that fund. The acts of the Cherokee council appropriating these respective sums may be found on p. 472 of Annual Report. INTRUDERS IN THE CHEROKEE NATION. I The term "intruders in the Cherokee Nation1' has a peculiar siguifi-cance so far as concerns the relations which the class of persons intended to be designated bears to the Indian and other citizens of the nation. Under ordinary circumstances an intruder in the Indian ' country is a person who is there in violation of law without having or claiming any rights therein by reason of membership in the tribe occu-pying the particular part of the Indian country intruded upon. While there are many white persons in the Cherokee Nation who do not claim rights therein on any ground of relationship, still the great majority of persons charged with being intruders claim that they have rights in the nation, by blood or otherwise, equal to those enjoyed by the fully recognized citizens. These people are known as claimants to citizenship. They protest that they are descendants of Cherokees who were citizens of the nation, wit11 all rights of such, and that therefore they have the right to live in the Cherokee country aod enjoy the benefits arising from the com-munal property of that people. This claim is denied by the Cherokee authorities, who declare that they are not entitled to any rightsin their country and are intruders, and as such the authorities have consistently and urgently demanded their removal from the nation. By the agreement entered into December 19, 1891, between com-missioners on the part of the United State8 and commimioners on the part of the Cherokee Nation, it was provided among other things-- That all persons now resident, or who may hereafter become residents, in the . Cherokee Nation, and who are not recognized ss citizens of the Cherokee Nation by the aonatituted autholities thereof, and ~ h aore not in the employment of the Cherokee Nation, or in the employment of citizens of tho Cherokee Nation, in con-formity with the laws thereof, or in the employmen6 of the United Statea Govern-ment, and a11 citizens of the United States who are not resident in the Cherokee Nation under the provision8 of treaty or scta of Congress, shall he deemed and held to be intruders and unauthorized persons within the intent and meaning of seotion (artiole) 6 of the treaty of 1835, and seotiona (articles) 26 and 27 of the treaty of July 19, 1866, and ahall, together with their personal effeots, he removed without de1a.y from the limits of said nation by tho United State4 as trespassers, npon the demand of the principal ohief of the Cherokee Nation. |