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Show REPOBT OF. T EB COMMISSIONEB OF INDIAN SF-. 33 States courts where proceedings extended to a trial de novo of the question of citizenship instead of being con6ned ta a review of the action of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes upon the papers and evidence submittedto such commission. Thereafter Congress by . . the subsequent acts of June 30, 1902 (32 Stat. L., 500), July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. L., 716), and April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 137), providing for the reopening of the citizenship rolls for the admission of new-born children of citizens to the rolls of the several tribes. The persistency shown by rejected claimants to citizenship in seek-ing relief through new legislation by Congress or in resorting to the courts to enforce their demands have thus operated to prolong the work pertaining to the Five Civilized Tribes. The decision of the Supreme Court of the Unitedstates in the Cher-okee intermarriage cases of Red Bird et al., decided November 5,1906 (203 U. S., 76), nullified months of work already done toward enroll-ment of white persons intermarried with Cherokee citizens by blood; and the act of March 2, 1907 (34 Stat. L., 1220), provided for the appraisement and sale of improvements owned by these intermarried white claimants to citizenship. The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States of Novem-ber 30,1908, in the John E. Goldsby case (211 U. S., 249), denying the right of the Secretary to strike a name without notice from an ap-proved citizenship roll, required a review of all cases of similar status to determine whether they came within the purview of thatdecision and in consequence the readjustment of allotments already canceled. The Muskrat case, now pending,,involving the right .of minor Chero-kees enrolled under the provisions of the act 'of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 137), the Moses Whitmire case, now pending for a rehearing in the Court of Claims which will affect the right of enrollment of about 1,500 rejected freedmen claimants to citizenship in the Chero-kee ati ion, and the case of J..E. Fleming, et. al., now pending on ap- . . peal to the ~ i q r emeC ourt of the United States, involving the right of Choctaw freedmen to be transferred from the roll qf choct&? by blood and to be allotted lands of equal acreage with blood citizens, . will affect several thousand freedmen similarly situated, and fu~ther retard 'the compldcion of the work in connection with the Five, Civil-ized Tribes. Many contest cases await the final adjudication of the above cases, 323 cases awaiting the decision in the Muskrat case alone.' Many other cases .of lesser importance in the courts have served to . ~ prolong the work. When it isremembered that the Five Civjliied Tribes bccupy an area of 19,525,966.36 acres of land to be allotted I in severalty among 101,469 enrolled members-more than one-third of the Indian populrition of the United States-it can readily be seen that the .task assigned the Dawes Commission was a itupendous' bne. Instead of taking six months to finish their work as originally in-tended, the task has taken over thirteen years of continuous work. |