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Show living~hould be allotted to his heirs generally, without mentioning what heirs, and that the duty of determining who are the proper heirs devolves upon the courts and not upon the commissi3n. Upon a similar inquiry of the same date, relative to allotting lands to the heirs of deceased Creek citizens, the office took the same posi-tion. In both instances it was approved by the Department July 25, 1901. It is understood that up to and including August 31,1901, the com-mission had made allotments to 1,842 of the 2,757 Seminole citizens. Choctaw and Chickasaw.-No allotments, prospective or otherwise, have, so far as this office has been advised, been made in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. The Choctaw and Chickasaw agreement declares t h a e each allottee shall select from his allotment a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, for which he shall have a patent, and which shall be inalienable for twenty-one years from the date of the patent. August 23, 1900, the commission asked questions relative to making allotments in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, as follows: First Shall a Choctaw or Chickasaw Indian be allotted one hundred and sixty acres as his homestead irrespective of the value of the same, or shall he he allotted one hundred and sixty acres as a homastead, providing that the same does not exceed his fair and equal share of the lands of these two nations, considering the character and fertility of the soil and the location and value of the land? Second. Are Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen to be allotted forty acres of the lands of these two nations irrespwtive of value of the same as his homestead right, or are they to he allotted a tract of land equal in value to forty ares of the average land of these two nations? The commission's report was fdrwarded to the De~a r tme nAt ugust 31,1900, and September 6 the matter was referred by the Department to the Assistant Attorney-General for the Interior Department for his opinion upon the questions propounded. Januai-y 15,1901, the Assist-ant Attorney-General rendered an opinion, which was approved by the Department the same date. With reference to the first question, he said: The provision that all the lands belonging to the Choctaws and Chickasaws shall be allotted to the members of said tribes "so as to give to each member of these tribes, so far as poeaible, a fair and equal share thereof, considering theeharxter and fertility of the soil and the location and value of the lands." is manifastlv the main feature ol the ryrremcnt i n wspert to the division of the la~l,lsa,n d contrnls the pro-vision tbat "each allorteeyhall se1cu.t fronl hisallotment 8 homertracl of one Ilundrtd and sixty arm." Thin 1,omratearl is to he selected by the allottec j'mm /cia ullrdrancr. and the allotments are to t,e rlmdc so as to effect an eqnal di~tributionof tl~r\,aluoef the lands. It was evidently assumed thit in this distribution each Indian will receive more than one hundred and sixty acres, and hence the direction that he "shall select from his allotment a homestead of one hundred and sixtv acres." hut thinaia~~rnptioasu to the pmhable acreage of the eevcral allotmenla <ann ot hegiven suclr effect as to Jcfeat ur modify the general plan ol diviling the iandn wonling to |