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Show 50 BEPOET OF THE OOMNISSIONEB OF INDIAN BFFAIES. It is the belief of almost everyone interested in the welfare of the Indians that any reopening of the rolls would prove most unfor-tunate. The rolls can not be considered as linally settled, however, until decisions are made in two important cases now before the courts. The Muskrat case, which is now pending before the Supreme Court, brings in question the enrollment of 5,590 enrolled Cherokees to whom tentative allotments have already been made. The Moses Whitmire case, now pending in the Court of Claims, will affect the right to en-rollment of about 1,500 rejected freedmen claimants to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation, and should the Court of Claims decide in their favor the names of those persons will have to be transferred to the ha1 approved roll of Cherokee citizens. The equalization of the Creek allotments is a problem for Congress yet to solve, as no legislation on the subject was enacted at the last session, although bills upon the subject were introduced in both House and Senate. The question involved is whether the United States is liable for the deficit in lands and funds of the Creek Nation caused by the allotment at the tribe's request of land to its after-born children, thereby leaving insufficient lands and funds to equalize the allotment of adult Creeks in accordance with existing law. The question is primarily one for the courts to decide and will probably be settled by a reference to the Court of Claims. The most serious problem which confronts the administration of the affairs of the Five Civilized Tribes is the final disposition of the segregated coal lands belonging to the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, which can neither be leased nor sold under existing law. Section 61 of the Choctaw-Chickasaw agreement approved July 1, 1902 (32 Stat., 641), provided that: No lease of any coal or any asphalt lands shall be made after the flnal rat* flcatlon of this agreement (September 25, 1902). Thereafter, Congress, by section 13 of the act of April 26, 1906 (34 Stat., 137), provided: That all coal and asphalt lands, whether leased or unleased, shall be reserved from sale under this act nntil the existing leases for coal and asphalt landa shall have expired or until such time as may be otherwise provided by law. Thus, the segregated coal lands stand in statu quo awaiting further legislation by Congress toward any further disposition of such land*. The area of the segregated coal lands is 445,000 acres, of which , 100,000 acres are under leases bearing date between July 11,1899, and September 16, 1902, and running for a term of thirty gears from date thereof. A difference of opinion exists as to the extent and true value of the coal deposits, which have been examined by Joseph A. Taff, an expert from the Geological Survey, who made a surface examination |