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Show 142 REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. citizens of the Cherokee Nation as Cherokee citizens of Delaware hlood. ' Intermarried Cherokees.-Section 21 of the a d of June 28, 1899, commonly called the "Curiis Act:' declares that the Commission shall make a roll of the different tribes, enrolling among others " such intermarried white persons as may be entitled to citizenship under Cherokee laws." Many Cherokees of the full hlood took the position that white persons intermarried with Cherokee citizens have no right lo participate in the distrjbution of the tribal estate. February 24, 1903, the Department referred the subject to the Court of Claims for findings and opinion under the provisions of section 2 of the act of March 3,1893 (22 Stat. L., 485). On May 15, 1905, the court rendered its opinion, to this effect: First, that, under the decision of the Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Journeycake (155 U. S. R., 196, 208). the lands which are to-be allotted amng the Cherokees are not communal Property, but constitute the public domain of the nation; second, that in this public domain all Cherokees by blood and whites by intermarriage who became citizens prior to the Cherokee act of November 28, 1887, are equally interested and have equal per capita rights in the allotment of lands; third, that the rights and privileges of those intermarried white Chero-liees who married persons of Cherokee blood subsequent to the act of Novem-tter 28, 1877, do not extend to the right of soil or interest in the vested funds rJT this Nation, and that they are not entitled to share in the allotment of the puir- Iic domain Further, that those white citizens who, subsequent to their mar-riage with persons of Cherokee blood, hare married persons not of Cherokee blood, and those white men who, being husbands of women of Cherokee blood, have abandoned their wives, are not citizens of the Cherokee Nation, and are not entitled to participate in the allotment of these lands. The court directed that a decree be entered in accordance with thc foregoing. An appeal has been taken from the decision of the Court of Claims to the Bnpreme Court of We United States, where the case is now pending. DQGIYBBY OBI CHOCTAW AND CHICXASAW ALLOTMBNT PATS2NTS. There has been considerable controversy during the year about the delivery of patents issued to Choctaw and Chickasaw citizens. The attorneys for the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and the tribal authorities took the position that the Department had no power to approve those patents. The question was submitted to the Depart-ment of Justice, and the Attorney-General's opinion of May 22,1905, said : I am therefore of opinion that you are authorized to approve the patents in questton and that your approval is essential to constitute them a transfer of web a title as was intended by tbe legislation in question to be vested in the allottee. The chief executives of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations snb-sequerrtly agreed, through D. C. McCurtain, delegate representing |