Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-19
Annual tax.
Sln 10

quired to take out licenses costing s23 each:
bia cksmiths, BARRIERS, restaurants, laun-
dries, bakeries. confectioneries undertake
ers. etc., pay s12 each. and banks one-half
OF per cent upon the capital invested.
Other lines of business are required to
pay in the same proportion and these are
the only taxes imposed upon non-native
residents by the Creek nation. Any person
can come into the territory and do business
anywhere he likes by the payment of these
licenses. At the time the law was passed
no objection was heard. There was no OPP
position Nobody protested its approval by
President Mckinley and Inspector Wright
tells me that for the first two years every
merchant and professional man paid his
tax promptly, without complaint In the
meantime many merchants had become
owners of the land occupied by their stores
Or other places of business
Law Sustained by Court.
In the fall of 1862 some smart lawyer
conceived the idea that the ownership of
property by a white man or non-native
made 1t exempt from taxation and took 1t
out OF the Jurisdiction of the Creek author
tiles; whereupon an injunction was applied
for and obtained to restrain the tribal au-
thoritteS from collecting the tax in 1903.
When the case came up on it's merits. the
law was decided just and valid and the
injunction was dissolved. The white mer-
chants at Muskogee and elsewhere in the
Creek nation appealed from court to court
uIIlil last MATCH Judge SanDOrn or The
United States circuit court of appeals af-
firmed the decision of each of the lower
courts and sustained the law. In his deci-
sion Judge Sanborn says:
The legal effect of the law Of the Creek
nation. prescribing permit taxes Is to pro-
hibit non-citizens from conducting business
in that nation without paying them. The
Secretary of the Interior and his subordi-
mates. the Indian inspector and the Indian
agents, may lawfully close the business
houses of non-citizens within that nation
who refuse to pay their permit taxes and
prevent the continuance of that business
until they are paid, for the purpose of pre-
venting the continual violation of the law"
| The court also decided that all mer-
| chants, professional men and other foreign
| or white residents of the Creek reserya-
| ton are under the jurisdiction of the Creek
authorities and subject to the laws of the
Creek nation until the 9Th Of March, 1906,
| wher the tribal relations of all of the Five
/ Tribes are forever dissolved and the MEM
bers of those tribes become citizens of the
| United States. He also held that It is the
| duty of the Secretary of the Interior to
4 residents of the Creek reservation to pay
| the lawful taxes imposed by the Creek ai-
4 thorities.
The Secretary's Instructions.
| Having received certified copy Of this
| decision Of the court, the Secretary of the
| Interior instructed Inspector Wright to en-.
! force the license law. and on the Sd of May
| last the inspector served a notice upon all
/ persons concerned that 1.-The courts have
| decided that the tax prescribed by this
| law is rightfully imposed. and that fail
| ure to pay justtfies the department In clos
| Ing the stores or places Of business OF such
| persons or Arms SO failing, whether the
| title to town lots on which business is be.
| ing conducted has passed from the Creek
1 nation or not
The honorable Secretary OF the Interior
| has directed that this tax be paid at once
| and demand is therefore hereby made on
| you for same. All delinquent taxes must
| be paid from time of last payment, wher
| the collection was Suspended while the mat.
| ter was pending In the courts. Persons o.
| firms commencing business since said sus-
| pension must pay from date they com.
/ menced business.
''No collections are made by officers In
| the field Taxes must be RENTED to Mr.
/ j. Blair Shoenfelt. United States Indian
| agent. at Mukogee. /. T.. All payments due
| to and including March 81. 1905, should bs
| paid on or before June l. 1905. after which
/ date the United States Indian agent will
| take steps, without further notice. to close
places of business Of those who have moi
| paid
/ "Remittances must be accompanied By
L ut ,ortS he Axad n,