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Show XIGHTS OF CHILDREN OF 1SI)IAN WOMEN AND U. S. CITIZENS MARRIED SISCE AUGUST 9, 1888. 'a very imphrtant decision was made by the Department May 8,1894, relative to the rights of children of Indian women the offspring of mar. riages between said Indian women and citizens of the United States entered into since the act of August 9,1888 (25 Stat., 392). The second section of that act provides as follows: That every Indim woman, member of any ~ u c htr ibe of Indiana, who may here-after be married to any citizen of the United States, ik hereby declared to become by such marriage a citizen of the United States, with all the rights, pririiloges, md imnlunities of any such aitieen, beings married woman: Pvotlided, That nothing in this sot contained shall impair or in any way affect the right or title of such mar-ried woman to suy tribal property or any interest therein. Prior to this act, an Indian woman entering into marriage with a citizen of t,he United States did not beeome a citizen,.for the reason that the act of February 10,1855 (10 Stat., 604), under which women of a different nationality became citizens of the United States by mar-riage to a citizen of this country, provided only for the admission to citizenship of such women as might "be lawfully naturalized under the general naturalization laws of the United States." An Indian woman could uot be naturalized under the laws of the United States,.as those laws were construed by the courts. (See Sixth Federal Reports, 256.) Therefore the children of Indian women married to citizens of the United States prior to August 9,1888, have been regarded and treated as Indians and as members of the tribe to which their motger belonged, bo far aa their rights of property were concerned. In a report of IvIilru'oh 21,1894, Capt. Charles G. Penney, acting agent for the Pine Ridge agency of South Dakota, asked this office whether .the children ofan Indian woman married to a citizen of the United States since the act of August 9,1888, would be entitled to a share in the per capita payment soon to be made at the Pine Ridge Agency. In a report of April 3,1894, the question was submitted to the Department with a request for instructions; and in that report I referred to and indorsed the position taken on the subject by my predecessor, in it report to the Department of March 17,1892, which was that in marry-ing a citizen of the United States, since the date of the act referred to, an Indian woman by such marriage separates herself from her tribe and becomes identified with the people of the United States, and her child-ren are citizens of the United States, in all respects, and in lio respect can be deemed members of the tribeto which the mother belonged prior to her marriage. They would, therefore, have no right to share in the property of the tribe except suchas they might take by representation of the mother on her death. This view of the matter was based upon the fact that as long as the' mother remained a member of the tribe, her interest in the tribal prop- 6655 1 A-5 |