| OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE 0 0 ~ 8 8 1 0 0~1" ~IN~DI'AN ABFAIRS. 91 $25,000 was appropriated for town-site purposes, and it did not become available until July 1. This necessitated the suspension of all town-site work on March 10. The employees were furloughed until July 1. On a subsequent report of the acting inspector the Department deter-mined, on account of the inadequate appropriation, to suspend the townsite work further until September 1, 1903. ALLOTMENTS. Creek allotments h~.veb een practically completed, and the allot-ment work in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations and the Cherokee Nation is progressing. Allotment offices were opened January 1, 1903, in the Cherokee Nation and April 15 in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. The allotment offices are moved from time to time in order that the greatest accommodation may be offered the masses of each locality. By the close of the present fiscal year a majority of the members of each tribe will in all probability have received complete evidences of title to their respective allotments. The conditions that have heretofore prevailed among the Five Civilized Tribes have, to a great extent, been modified and the Indians, as a rule, are now satisfied with the determination of the Government to distribute their land among them in severalty and to distribute their funds so as to give to each citizen an equal share in value, land and money, of the entire estate of the different tribes. CITIZENSHIP. The Department has approved the enrollment of citizens of the dif-ferent nations as follows: Choctaw by blood .............. 14,918 Chickasaw freedmen.. .......... 4,211 Choctaw by intermarriage.. ..... 205 Cherokee by blood.. ........... 28,016 Cboctaw freedmen.. ............ 2,983 Cherokee freedmen.. ........... 2,749 Chickasaw by blood.. .......... 4,659 Creek by blood ................. 9,624 Chickasaw by intermarriage ..... 198 Creek freedmen. ............... 4,954 Intermarried Cherokee.-The act of June 28, 1898 (30 Stat., 495), section 21, provides, among other things, that the Commission shall make rolls of citizenship of the several tribes, enrolling, among others, "such intermarried white persons as may be entitled to citizenship under Cherokee laws." A controversy arose as to the right to enroll-ment of mhite persons intermarried with Cherokee citizens, and a protest was filed with the Department on behalf of a large number of citizens by blood of the Cherokee Nation against the enrollment of intermarried persons "so as to recognize their right to participate in the distribution of any of the common property of the Cherokee Nation of any kind or character." On the one hand it was claimed that the Cherokee laws have never recognized the right of "intermarried citizens" to share in the distri- |
