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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 75 In view, therefore, of all the facts and circumstances surrounding the question, I have the honor to rerornmend that before any stepslooking to the removal of intruders in the Cherokee Nation shall be taken, the antboritiesof that nation becalled upon to inform the Departmentof the names and residences of the iut;cnders and their post-officea ddress, and also the character of the improvements occnpied by them, whether town or farm property, and t l ~ es timated value thereof. When the Depart-ment shall have received this information it will be in a position to take more intelligent action on the question. It is proper that I should add that any removals that may be made must, under the provisions of the agreement of 1891, be made on the formal demand of the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. June 17,1897, the Department referred to this office a letter addressed to the President June 11, 1897, by Hon. 8. H. Mayes, principal chief, Cherokee Nation, submitting a list of heads of families declared to be intruders in the nation whose removal he demanded under the first elanse of article 2 of the Cherokee agreement of December 19,1891. This list contained the names of 217 heads of families, representing 2,170 persons, allowing, according to the claims of the Cherokee dele-gates, ten persons to the family. In its rkp~yd ated June 30,1897, the officep ointed out that the sub-mission of this list, with the letter of the chief, was only a partial com-pliance with the requirements of the Department, and that the names and addresses of the intrnders should be supplied, together with other L desired information respecting the character and valne of their improve-ments. It also called attention to the difficulties that would have to be met on account of the expense of the removals, as follows: I have no means of readily determining what the removal of the par-ties cot~lplaineda gainst will cost; but whe~~evtehri s question has been considered, since the agreement of 1891, the lack of funds applicable has been fonud one of the chief difliculties in the way of carrying the provisions of that a.greement into eftect. In office report of February ti, 1892, submitting the agreement to be forwarded to Congress, t,he necessity for an appropriation for this pnr-pose was pointed out, iu view of the fact of there being no adequate general appropriation out of which the expense could be paid. In a report dated November 27,1893, the office recommended that the committees on Indian Affairs of the Seuate audHonse of Represen-tatives be requested to secure tlle appropriation of $12,496 estimated by the appraisers of Cherokee intruders' improvements as necessary to complete the appraisements and effect the removals. Of this sum it was estimated that $4,996 woulcl be required for the completion of appraisement of improvements, and $7,500 would be necessary to remove the intruders. In a report of March 17,1894, this recommendation was repeated so far as the mouey for removals was concerned, and in a letter of April 23, 1894, to Hon. William Holman, chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs, the opiniou was expressed that the appropriation of $4,996 to complete appraisals would be a waste of money unless the sum required for the removal of intruders sbould he also appropriated, for the reason that there was no appropriation ont of vl~ichth r Pxpeuses of the removals, deemed by the office inevitable, could be paid. |
