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Show 130 REPORT OP THE COXMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFA~S. Section 25 of the act of Congress approved June 28,1898, provides- That before any allotment shall be made of lands in the Cherokee Nation, there shall he segregated therefrom by the commission heretofore mentioned, in separate allotments or otherwise, the one hundred and fifty-seven thouaand six hundred acres uurchased bv the Delaware tribe of Indians from the Cherokee Nation under agreernrlkt of April eighth, eighteen hundred a n d ni~ryaest~snu,h j,,ct tn the judicial determination of the ri-s hts of said descendantr and the ('hrrokrr Nation tllrder exid agreement. It also authorized and empowered the Delaware Indians to bring a suit in the Court of Claims within sixty days from the passage of the act against the Cherokee Nation "for the purpose of determining the rights of said Delaware Indians in and to the lands and funds of said nation" under the agreement quoted above. The Delaware Indians began suit accordingly against the Cherokee Nation, and that suit is yet pending, and was pending at the time of the hearing before the Depart-ment on the applications of the companies abovementioned for oil leases. The Delaware Indians, through their representative, took the ground that the Department ought not to grant leases of oil or other mineral substances in the Cherokee Nation until such time as the c o ~ ~ rhtasd fully adjudicated the rights of the Delawares under their agreement of April 8, 1867, with the Cherokee Nation. COLLECTION OF REVENUES. As stated in my last annual report, the agent for the Union Agency, July 23,1898, was given preliminary instructions relative to the collec-tion of revenues, royalties, etc., arising under contracts, leases, and laws in the several nations in accordance with the provisions of the Curtis Act. The agent has continued to oollect the revenues and taxes of all kinds for the Creek and Cherokee nations. In the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations the only revenues thus far collected by the o5cers of the Department are those arising from coal and asphalt mined. Xerchandise and cattle tax.-August 4,1899, the inspector for the Indian Territory submitted a report on the followingsubject8: (1) The enforcement of the tax imposed by the laws of the Cherokee Nation on merchants within that nation; and (2) The enforcement of a tax under the laws of the Cherokee Nation on the introduction of cattle into. that nation and the grazing of the same by citizens. After quoting from the Cherokee laws, he suggested that he be authorized to close the places of business of any citizen of the Cherokee Nation who refused to pay the tribal tax prescribed by the laws of that nation, and that, after proper notice had been given such citizen, he be removed from the Territory in accordance with the provisions of section 2149 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. As to the second point, the inspector requested to be advised whether |
