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Show 150 REPORT OF TEE COMWZKIIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. citizen thereof and duly and lawfully enrolled or admitted as such, and its refusal of such applications shall be final when approved by the Becretary of the Interior. This clause also provides- That any Mississippi Choctaw duly identified as such by the United States Com-mission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall have the right, at any time prior to the approval of the final rolls of the Choctaws and Chickasaws by the Secretary of the Interior, to make settlement within the Choctaw-Chickaeaw country, and on proof of the fact of bona fide settlement may heenrolled by the said United States com-mission and by the Secretary of the Interior as Choctaws entitled to allotment: Pro- &dfudw, That all contracts or agreements looking to the sale or incumbrance in any way of the lands to be allotted to said Mississippi Choctaws shall be null and void. Another paragraph in that act authorized the Secretary of the Inte-rior, upon the recommendation of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, to set aside and reserve from allotment lands in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, or Cherokee nations for town-site purposes, not exceeding, however, 160 acres in any one tmt. The Indian appropriation act approved March 3, 1901 (31 Stats., 1058), provides, among other things, that- The rolls made by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, when approved by the Secretary of the Interior, shdl be final, and the persons whose names are found thereon shall done constitute theseveral tribes which they represent; and the Semtary of the Interior is authorized and directed to fix a time by agreement with said tribes or either of them for closing said rolls, hut upon failure or refusal of said tribes or any of them to agree thereto, then the Secretary of the Interior shall fix a time for closing said r&, after which no name shdl be added thereto. I CITIZENSHIP IN TEE FIVE TRIBES. ~ i s a i s a i ~Cp hi octsws.Seetiou 21 of the Curtis Act provides that: Said commission shall have authority to determine the identity of Choctaw Indians claiming rights in the Choctaw lands under article fourteen of the treaty between the United States and the Choctaw Nation, concluded September twenty-seventh, eight-een hundred and thirty, and to that end they may administer oaths, examine wit-news, and perform all other scts necessary thereto, and make report to the Secretary of the Interior. The commission, with its reports of December 3,1900, and March 4 and June 15, 1901, transmitted the record in the cases of 161 Missis-sippi Chootaws, whom, under the provisions of the Curtis Act and the Indian ,ppropriation act of May 31,1900, it had refused identification. April 13, 1901, this o5ce forwarded the record in one of the cases, that of Lizzie Woodward, to the Department, and took the position that the examination of the applicant by the commission had not been as exhaustive as it should have been, and recommended that the record be returned to the commission. The Department concurred, and June 10 returned the record to the commission, with instructions to advise the claimant of its action, and to afford her an opportunity to present such further testimony as she might be able to produce. |