The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1906-01-07
THE SIGNING
OF PATENTS
UTMOST CARE TAKEN TO PRE-
VENT ERRORS.
Peculiar Condition Existing over Fl
nal Delivery Of These Patents Be-
tween Chiefs OF the Chickasaw
and Choctaw Nations.

Since the secretary of the interior
has recognized w c. Rogers as chief
Of the Cherokee nation. the Dawes
commission has commenced forward
ing deeds to him for execution. There
have been 16,40i patents written for
Cherokee allotments OF these Chief
Rogers has signed 14,500. The Cher
okec land Office is now pouring allot-
ment cards into the patent depart
ment and the Cherokee patents viii
be written by the thousand.
In the Choctaw and Chickasaw ma
tions there have been 81 900 patents
executed. There have been all told
4l,S9G patents written There were
$500 patents forwarded to Governor
Johnston last night
There is a peculiar condition exist
ing over the final delivery Of these
patents. Governor McCurtain and
Governor Johnston have to sign each
patent. The former is signing them
with the belief that he is to deliver
them TO the Indian allottees himself.
Governor Johnston is signing them
with the understanding that McCur-
tain is not to deliver them, but that
they are to be delivered by the COM
mission Johnston objects to McCur-
tain handling the patents. There is a
chance that the patents will not be
delivered by either of the chiefs, as
there is a provision in the Curtis bill
which provides that when the pat
ents are recorded in the commission
title passes and that the patents then
may be delivered under the super
vision of the secretary of the interior,
which would of course mean that the
government would deliver them. When
patents are sent to the governors of
the Choctaw or Chickasaw nation a
messenger is sent along with them
and they are constantly ia his custody.
Since the trouble over delivering
deeds arose the government has not
trusted the patents to the Indian
chiefs. They are first sent to Cover.
ernor McCurtain who signs them and
then returned 10 the commission and
forwarded by another messenger to
Governor Johnston.
This week there will be force of
ten stenographers doing nothing but
writing patents. In addition there are
seven men in the office checking pat
ents and two messengers TO carry
them to and from the chiefs. This
force of clerks can write about 21 900
patents per week, which, If average
allotments in the Choctaw and Chick
asaw nations, would mean the trans
fer of about $4,000 acres of land
each week. Cherokee patents can be
written faster, but the allotments are
smaller.
No patents have yet been issued
for the Seminole nation There will
be none until March of this year. This
is a small item, however, as the Sem
mole allotments are all completed and
when the patent writer's start In on
Semlonle land the patents to every
allotment in the nation can be written
in week.
The issuance of patent from the
commission is the foundation of title
and therefore must be absolutely cor
rect. The patents when written are
checked from allotment cards three
times. They are then sent to the land
Office to be checked from the plats
there When they are returned they
are checked again and sent to Wash
ington. There they must stand crit
ical checking by the department. They
are returned to the commission and
recorded and again checked. This
makes in all seven times a patent is
compared and checked to prevent any
possible errors.-Times.