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Show MOONEY] SUIT AGAINST WESTERN CHEROKEE- 1883- 86 177 The East Cherokee had never ceased to contend for a participation in the rights and privileges accruing to the western Nation under treaties with the Government. In 1882 a special agent had been appointed to investigate their claims, and in the following year, under authority of Congress, the eastern band of Cherokee brought suit in the Court of Claims against the United States and the Cherokee Nation west to determine its rights in the permanent annuity fund and other trust funds held by the United States for the Cherokee Indians. 1 The case was decided adversely to the eastern band, first by the Court of Claims in 1885,2 and finally, on appeal, by the Supreme Court on March 1, 1886, that court holding in its decision that the Cherokee in North Carolina had dissolved their connection with the Cherokee Nation and ceased to be a part of it when they refused to accompany the main body at the Removal, and that if Indians in North Carolina or in any state east of the Mississippi wished to enjoy the benefits of the common property of the Cherokee Nation in any form whatever they must be readmitted to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation and comply with its constitution and laws. In accordance with this decision the agent in the Indian territory was instructed to issue no more residence permits to claimants for Cherokee citizenship, and it was officially announced that all persons thereafter entering that country without consent of the Cherokee authorities would be treated as intruders. 8 This decision, cutting off the East Cherokee from all hope of sharing in any of the treaty benefits enjoyed by their western Kinsmen, was a sore disappointment to them all, especially to Chief Smith, who had worked unceasingly in their behalf from the institution of the proceedings. In view of the result, Commissioner Atkins strongly recommended, as the best method of settling them in permanent homes, secure from white intrusion and from anxiety on account of their uncertain tenure and legal status in North Carolina, that negotiations be opened through government channels for their readmission to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation, to be followed, if successful, by the sale of their lands in North Carolina and their removal to Indian ' territory.* In order to acquire a more definite legal status, the Cherokee residing in North Carolina- being practically all those of the eastern band having genuine Indian interests - became a corporate body under the laws of the state in 1889. The act, ratified on March 11, declares in it** first section " That the North Carolina or Eastern Cherokee Indians, resident or domiciled in the counties of Jackson, Swain, Graham, and Cherokee, be and at the same time are hereby 1 Commissioner H. Price, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. Ixix- lxxi, 1882, also " Indian legislation," ibid., p. 214: Commissioner H. Price, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. lxv- lxvi, 1883. * Commissioner J. D. C Atkins. Report of Indian Commissioner, p. lxx, 1885. ' Same commissioner, Report of the Indian Commissioner, p. xlv, 1886; decision quoted by same commissioner, Report of Indian Commissioner, p. Ixxvii, 1887. 4Same commissioner, Report of the Indian Commissioner, p. li, 1886; reiterated by him in Report for 1887, p. Ixxvii. li* ETII- 01 12 |