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Show REPORT OR THE C O ~ S S I O N E E OR INDIAN AFFAIRS. 143 Armstrong, of the District of Columbia, was appointed to succeed him. I By the sundry civil act of March 2,1895, the commission was increased to five members, and April 13,1895, Thomas B. Cabaniss, of Georgia, and Alexander B. Montgomery, of Kentucky, were added to it. Sub-sequently Mr. Cabaniss resigned, and May 19, 1897, Mr. Tams Bixby, of Minnesota, was appointed, and in October, 1897, Mr. Thomas B. Needles, of Illinois, was appointed in place of Mr. Montgomery, who had resigned. By a clause in the Indian appropriation act of July 1, 1898, the membership of the commission was reduced from five to four, and Mr. Frank C. Armstrong tendered his resignation. June 5, 1900, Hon. Clifton R. Breckenridge, of Arkansas, was appointed a member of the commission to succeed Archibald S. McKennon, who had resigned. The commission now consists of Henry L. Dawes, Tams Bixby, Thomas B. Needles, and Clifton R. Breckenridpe. Enrollment of Cherokee Freedmen.-Section 21 of the Curtis act pro-vides among other things that the commission "shall make a roll of Cherokee freedmen in strict compliance with the decree of the Court of Claims rendered the third day of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-six." October 16, 1899, Mr. Bixby, acting c h a i n , and October 18, 1899, Mr. McKennon, reported relative to the construction of the decree of the Court of Claims in the case of Moses Whitmire, tmtee, etc., v. The Cherokee Nation. They were unable to agree upon a con-struction of the portion of section 21 above quoted when considered with the opinion of the court in the case. Mr. Bixby took the posi-tion that it was the duty of the wmmiasion to enroll all persons whose names appeared on the Cherokee roll of 1880 and their descendants Bince born, and to hear claims of all other freedmen and colored per-sons who claimed to have lived in the Cherokee Nation " at the com-mencement of the rebellion and re~ided therein July 19, 1866, or returned thereto within six months thereafter, and their descendants who are settled and incorporated into the Cherokee Nation." Mr. McKennon took the position. and stated that Mr. Needles agreed with him, that it was incumbent upon the commission to enroll all persons whose names were found on the Cherokee freedmen roll of 1880 who were alive at the time the Clifton roll was made, namely, May 3, 1894, and the descendants of those persons whose names appeared on the roll of 1880 who were born subsequent to the date of the roll and who were alive on the 3d day of May, 1894, and no others, and that those persons whose names were placed upon the roll then in course of preparation should constitute the roll of Cherokee freedmen euti-tled to share in the distribution of the Cherokee lands to which the Cherokee freedmen were entitled. OfEce report of November 3, 1899, held that it was the duty of the comisnion to enroll all persons whose names appeared on the Clilifton |