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Show 92 REPORT 03' THE 00MMI8810NER OF INDIAN AFBAIR8. bntion of the property of the nation; on the other hand tlpt the laws of the Cherokee Nation, as well as the laws of the United States, rec- ! ognize as citizens of the Cherokee Nation those persons who have been married to Cherokee citizens in accordance with the laws of the Cher- i kee Nation relating to marriage, and that therefore such intermarried I persons were entitled to share in the distribution of the Cherokee estate equally with citizens by blood. February 24,1903, the Department referred this matter to the Court of Claims for "findings and opinion in accordance with the provisions" of section 2 of the act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat., 485). The Court of Claims has not yet rendered a decision. When this question was referred to the Court of Claims the Office was directed not to forward to the Department any Cherokee cases to which an intermarried person was a party until after the court had returned an opinion. There were before the O5ce caaes involving some three or four hundred appliwnts for enrollment as citizens by blood, each case including one or more persons who wereapplicants for enrollment rts citizens by intermarriage. July 22, 1903, the Office invited the attention of the Department to this condition of .affairs and suggested the advisability of passing upon the right of those persons who applied for enrollment by blood without waiting for the Court of Claims to determine the question submitted to it--the right of those who applied for citizenship by intermarriage to be subsequently determined in accordance with the findings of the court. July 27, the Department approved this suggestion, and cases of this character are now being passed upon in so far as the right of applicants by blood is concerned. Mississippi Choctaw.-TheMississippi Choctaws who have beenidenti-fied as entitled to rights in the Choctaw Nation under the provisions of the fourteenth article of the treaty of 1830 number 1,735. Of these 1,729 are of the full blood; the others are mixed bloods who have been identified because the ancestor under whom they claim had oomplied with the provisions of the fourteenth article of the treaty of 1830. Under the provisions of sections 41 to 44, inclusive, of the Chootaw- Chickasaw supplemental agreement, act of July 1,1902 (32 Stat., 641), full-blood Mivsissippi Choctaws are entitled to identification by reason of their blood, and are not therefore required, to claim under an ances-tor and to show that such ancestor complied or attempted to comply with the provisions of the fourteenth article of the treaty of 1830, as are. the mixed-blood Mississippi Choctaws. A controversy arose as to whether the identification of a full-blood parent carried with it the identification of a mixed-blood child--for instance, whether the identi-fication of a full-blood father carried with it the identification of his children by a white woman or a woman of mixed blood. The matter was submitted to the Attorney-General for an opinion, and on June 19, 1903, he said, among other things: |
