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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. LXI freedmen came to Washington, at the expense of the Government, to submit a memorial urging the fulfillment on the part of the Govern-ment of that treaty stipulation iu regard to their people. Prom this effort nothing resulted. About this time the suggestion came from va. rious sources that a tract west of the Seminole Nation would be suita- Me land on which to locate the freedmen. .. , January 10,1873, an act wa8 paased by the Chickasaw legislature entitled "An act to adopt the negroes of the Chickasaw Nation," which declared all negroes belonging to Chickasaws at the time of. the adop-tion of the treaty at Fort Smith, and resident in the nation at the date thereof, and their descendants, to be adopted in conformity with the third article of the treaty of 18GG; provided, that the proportional part of the $300,000 specified in said article, with the accrued interest thereon, should be paid to the Chickasaw Nation for its sole use and benefit ; and provided further, that the said adopted negroes should not be entitled . to any part of said $300,00D, nor to any benefit from the principal and interest of invested funds, nor to any share in the eommen domain ex-cept the 40 acres provided in the treaty, nor to any privileges or rights not conferred by the treaty; and provided further, that said adopted negroes should be subject to the jnri~dictiona nd laws of the Chickasaw Nation just as if said negroes were Chickasaws. This act was to have full force and effect from andafter its approval by the proper authority of the United States. It was transmitted to Congress by the Secretary of the 'Interior, February 10, 1873, who recommended that such Iegis-lation be had by Congress as would extend the time for the execution in all re8peets of the provisions of the t h i i article of the treaty of1866 for the term of two years from the 1st of July, 1873. The subject was referred to the committee on freedmen's atfairs February 13,1873, and ordered to be printed. No further action appears to bave been taken. (See annual report of this office for 1882, page lvii, and H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 207, Forty-second Oongress, second session.) By this failure. of Congress to take action the one favorable opportuniby for the adoption by the Chickasaws of their freedmen was lost. Since then all Chick-asaw action has looked toward the removal of the freedmen. December 30,1875, Hon. J. P. C. Shanks, who had been appointed in March previous to investigate and report upon the status of the freedmen among the Choctaws and Qhickasaws, rrubmitted his report in which he opposed the removal of the freedmen and recommemied that the United States take measures to secure their recognition as full citizens in those nations. Upon this report no action appears to have been taken. In 1876 and 1879, the Chickasaw legislatur6 authorized the appoint-ment of commissioners to confer'with like commissioners from the Choctaw Nation on the freedmen question. Duringmnoh of this time the Choctaws had manifested a willingness to adopt their freedmen, but it had been held that under the treaty |