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Show BEPOET OF THE COMI'dI8SIONEB. OF INDIAN AFFAIUS. 111 Early in February, 1907, Bishop W. B. Derrick and others, in be-half of the Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen, filed with the Presi-dent a memorial and a draft of a proposed bill to authorize suit to be brought in the Court of Claims, by the freedmen or their attorneys of record, against the Choctaw and 'Chickasaw nations and the Gov-ernment, to determine their right in the lands of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations with right of appeal to the Supreme Court by either party. The delegation asked that, if the President could not ) recommend the proposed legislation, thewubject be referred to the Attorney-General for opinion. This was done, and the Attorney- General, on February 2'7, after discussing the subject at length, said: To hold that descendants of Indians and negroes who were always recognized by the tribal authorities as freedmen, and never as citizens, are entitled, sim-pty because of their Indian blood, to be placed upon the rolls of citizens, would be entirely inconsistent with the previous action of the Government in this matter and in complete disregard of the rolls, customs, and usages of the tribes. There would be no end to the ciaima that could be made if everyone who had someChoctaw or Chickasaw blood was to he deemed a 'descendant," within the meaning of the treaty of 1830, without regard to tribal recognition and enrollment or to the legitimacy of his "descent." * * a' * * * * . ', The Government has been for more than En years engaged in the work of allotment of Indian lands and enrollment of Indian dtizens ardong the Five 1 Civilized Tribes: it has given every class of claimants to these privileges every reasonable opportunity to assert their claims, and to thus overturn its whole system and policy at the very last moment to let h these claimants would be, in my opinion, both inexpedient and unjust. I advise that you do wt recorn-mend legislation referring such claims to the Court of Claims or otherwise rec-ognize them. On April 13, 1907, certain attorneys, on behalf of Bettie Ligon and about 2,000 others who have beeo enrolled as freedmen but are in part of Indian blood, filed a complaint in equity in the United States court for the southern district of the Indian Territory against the chief executives of the Choctaw and Chickasaw naticms and the Secretary of the Interior, with a view to securing a decree of the court declaring them entitled to an equal undivided interest with all persons in the grant resulting to the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations i from the treaty of 1830, for which patent was issued March 23,18Pa. The attorneys representing the nations and the Secretary demurred, on the ground, among others, that the court did not have jurisdiction. On May 18, 19\07, Hon. Hosea Townsend, judge for the southern dis-trict, sustained the demurrer and dismissed the bill for want of juris-diction. The case was taken to the court of appeals for the Indian Territory, but, as no two judges were able to agree as to the nature of the decree which should be rendered, the judgment of the lower court stood. The case is now pending, on appeal, in the United Statea circuit wurt for the eighth circuit. |