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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 123 sippi Ohoctaws be entered thereon, the Department wonld review the action of the commissior~ and determine whether or not the identifica-tion as Mississippi Chootaws of the persons thus enrolled had been in accordance with law and faet in each particular case. As to the right of these Mississippi Choctaws to enmllment in the Choctaw Nation, the Department, in a letter of August 26, concurred in the views expressed by this offioe in its report of August22,1899, and held that they would be entitled to such enrollment on their removal and permanent settlement in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. This was Uased on the action taken by Congress and the Dawes Com-mission previous to the Curtis Act. Congress had direated the com-mission to investigate and report to Congress as to the rigbt of the Missi~sippCi hoctaws, who remove to the Indian Territory and take up, their residence in the Choctaw Nation, to enrollment as citizensof that nation under the fourteenth article of the treatyof 1830. In reporting pursuant to this direction the commission expressed the opinion that the Mississippi Choctaws who removed to the Indian Territory wonld be entitled to enrollment as citizens of the nation and to participation in the benefit of the common property of the nation, except they wonld not be entitled to receive any part of the annuities. Congress had this report before it when it adopted the provision in the Curtis Act requir-ing tbe wmmission to identify these Mississippi Chootarrs, and the Curtis Act, therefore, was taken as the approval by Congress of the opinion of the wmmission as to the rights of these Indians. Lands for Seminoles.-In the agreement with the Seminole Indians ratified by act of July 1, 1898, it was provided, among other things, that the United States would secure from the Creek Nation the cession of such quantity of land adjoining the Seminole lands on the east as, when added to their present reservation, will give to each Seminole an adequate allotment,. October 3,1808, the offioe submitted a draft of instructions to the Dawes Commission directing it to endeavor to secure from the Oreek Nation a cession of the lands necessary for that purpose. These instructions were approved by the Department and transmitted to the commission. The commission has reported that its wmmunication to the Ureek authorities on the subject was not responded to by the legis-lature of the Creek Nation and the commission expressed the opinion that it would be impossible to secure from the Creek Nation any cession of lands for the purpose mentioned. Allotments.-By the Curtis Act provision is made for a per capita allotment of the lands of the nations in the Indian Territory, and by the Choctaw and Ohickasaw agreement provision is made for the appraisement of the lands of those nations and the allotment thereof, according to the value of the land, to the citizens of the nation, giving ' to freedmen 40 awes of the average land. The plan of allotment out-lined in the agreement is designed to divide the assets of the tribes among the citizens, the lands being treated as assets, their value to be I |
