The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-03-30


Cherokee nation, the owner 0i The
land, shall be removed, damaged,
or destroyed, unless it shall be-
come necessary in orderto effect
the removal Of such intruders;
Provided that nothing in this sec
ton shall be construed as to affect
in any manner the rights OF any
persons in the. Cherokee. nation
under the ninth article of the
treaty Of July 10, 1866"
These provisions were part
of the consideration which the
United States paid Tor the Chero-
kee outlet. The United States was
to summarily expel the intruders
from the Cherokee nation upon
the demand Of the principal chief.
These provisions have not been
carried into effect up to this time
Soon after these provisions were
enacted congress was induced, at
the instance of these persons al
legged to be intruders, to change
the policy of the government, en-
acted in this agreement, and in
stead of allowing the chief Of the
Cherokee nation to indicate who
were intruders, congress constitut-
ed tribunal before whom these
alleged intruders could go to haye
their right to citizenship determin-
ed before their expulsion took
place, Congress then authorized
what is known as the Dawes COM
mission to consider the appliea-
tions of persons who were alleged
TO be intruders. All persons
whose citizenship was question
ed were required thereafter to
go. before the Dawes commits
sion, the tribunal created by the
United States, consisting Of citi-
gems OF the United States. and
they were to submit the question
as to whether they were citizens Of
the Cherokee nation or not, with
the right to appeal to the United
States court in the Indian Terri
tory, which appeal was then by
congress declared to be final. They
were to rest there. The order for
expulsion was withheld and the
parties instead of being put out of
the Cherokee nation under the
provisions of the Strip agreement,
went before the Dawes commits
sion to prosecute their claim to
citizenship. A great many OF this
number, some forty or fifty thous-
and went before that commission
and claimed to be citizens of the
Cherokee nation. They came
from the north and from the south,
and from the east and the west,
and more people claimed to be en-
titled to citizenship than were
citizens of the nation. They
claimed to be Cherokee Indians
by blood. 1t seems that the an
cient Cherokee had one precept of
the scripture firmly fixed in their
minds, and which they deter
mined to carry out, and that was,
to multiply and replenish the
earth" So many persons claimed
to be Cherokee Indians by blood
applied to have their claims adju-
dicated. Their claims were all
fairly and impartially considered
by the tribunals of the United
States. The great body of these
were rejected. and between four
and five thousand appealed to the
United States court, and they have
had their hearing there, and in
this case, as in many others, the
judgment has been against them,
and their right to citizenship has
been again denied. This is the
third time they have had their
claim to citizenship adjudicated.
First by the Cherokee authorities,
second by the Dawes commission,
and thirdly by the United States
court. The Cherokee authorities
denied them, the Dawes commits
sion denied them, and the
United States court denied them.
1t seems that these per.
sons have had their day in court,
but that does not suffice. A suit
in ejectment was necessary, and
in this case the money rendered
by the Cherokee nation was ac-
cepted and the parties have still
held on to the land, and trial by |