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Show 1 REPOBT is THE COMMISSlONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 119 upon lawyers practicing their profession within that nation. In con-clusion the office recommended that the United States Indian ageut be instructed to collect the tax from the lawyers. July 11, 1899, the Department concurred in these views, and authorized the office to give the necessary instructions to the United States Indian agent and the inspector, "so that all lawyers refusing to pay the tax imposed by the laws of the nation in which they are located, after having received due notice of such instructions as you (this office) may give, and all mer-chants in the Chickasaw Nation, and all physicians in the Choctaw Nation who refuse, after due notice, to pay the tribal tax mentioned by theinspector, may be removed." These instructions were communioated to Inspector Wright on July 15, 1899. July 21, he notified Messrs. Hutchiugs, Gibson, and others, the committee of the bar association of Muscogee, of the conclusions of the Department, and July 24, he noti-fied all parties interested that they would be required to pay the tax imposed by the law in accordance with the above decision of the Department. The members of the bar of Muscogee being dissatisfied with this, sought by a bill in equity to enjoin the inspector and the Indian agent from the collection of tbis tax. The bill recited all the essential featores of the case as above set forth, alleged the illegality of the tax, and prayed relief by injunction from the necessity of paying the same. By a copy of the process it appears that this hill was heard by the court on July 29. Judge Thomas dismissed the bill, and thus sustained the position of this oBce and the Department and established the validity of the tax imposed by the Creek Nation. As intimated above, merchants and physicians in the various nations have also endeavored to evade the payment of taxes lawfully assessed against them, especially physicians in the Choctaw Nation and mer-chants in the Chickasaw Nation. But the Department has uniformly held thetax to be valid, and given directions that the parties must pay the tax or lay themselves liable to removal as intruders in the Indian country. Wsrranta-The question has also arisen of whether or not the agent has authority to accept, in payment of taxes to any of the nations, warrants issued by suoh nations previously to the passage of the Curtis Act. The Department decided that the agent would not be justified in mcepting warrants in payment of taxes to any nation, for the reason that the agent would have t o m a n t for dl taxes collected by him and deposit the same in the subtreasury at St. Louis, in cash, to the credit of the nation. This he could not do, as the Government could not accept warrants as cash. E8trays.-Another questlon was submitted by the inspector and dis-cussed in a report of this office, dated December 1,1898, relative to the matter of catrays in the Oherokee Nation. The laws of that nation provide for the impounding of estrays by the sheriffs of the various |
