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Show roll, and that their descendants, in the absence of established fraud, were entitled to enrollment, and that all Cherokee freedmen and other free colored persons whose names did not appear on that roll and their descendants who were able to establish by positive evidence that they or their ancestors "resided in the Cherokee country at the commence-ment of the rebellion and resided therein July 19, 1866, or returned thereto within six months thereafter" were entitled to enrollment, provided they had not expatriated themselves under the provisions of the Cherokee constitntion and had not been readmitted to citiienship in accordance with the constitntion and laws of the Cherokees. The Department, by letter of November 23, 1899, to the commis-sion, held that it was the duty of the commission to enroll all persons whose names were found on the roll of 1880 and their descendants who were alive at the time the commission prepared ih roll and to exclude from the roll prepared by it the names of all persons of either class 'who had "forfeited or adjured their citiienship;" and further, that while it was the duty of the commission to take the roll of 1880 as a basis, it would be justified in examining other rolls for such infor-mation as might assist it in its work, and that the right of any person to enrollment depended upon the fact of whether or not his name or the name of his ancestor from whom he claimed appeared on the authenticated roll of 1880. This subject was again considered by the Department, and on the 11th of last May above instructions were revoked and it was held that the roll of 1880 made by the Cherokee Nation was to be accepted by the com-mission as conclusive of the right of all persons whose names were found on that roll and of their descendants to be enrolled by the com-mission, and that the only duty of the oommission was to determine who of the persons named on said roll and their descendants were alive at the t i e the commission prepared its roll, and to place those names thereon, omitting all who had "forfeited or adjured their citizenship." The Department also directed that the roll prepared by the commission should include the names of all Cherokee citizens "who are or were freedmen who had been liberated by voluntary act of their former owners or by law, as well as all free colored persons who were in the Cherokee country at the commencement of the rebellion and residents therein at the date of said treaty (treaty of July 19, 1866), or who returned thereto within six months thereafter and their descendants." Choctaw ci t i~enship.~Jun2e1 , 1899, the Department forwarded to the oommission a communication from Messrs. Dudley & Michener, of this city, with which was inclosed the petition of .John Skaggs, a mem-ber of the Choctaw tribe, requesting "the enrollment aa members of that tribe of ten of his minor children," whose names were set forth in the petition. The Department subsequently received a letter from Messrs. Dudley & Michener, stating that they were in receipt of a |