The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1908-10-18

of John Il. Goldsby Chickasaw
Indian, and Ida Allison and George
Allison. Cherokee Indians. wno af-
ter being placed upon the final
rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes.
had their names stricken therefrom
without notice by Secretary Hitch.
cock on March 4. 1907, the day
when the rolls were closed by OPP
GRAFTON of law.
The case came before the Su.
preme Court on an appeal from the
Court OF Appeals of the District of
Columbia which in a written opin-
ion affirmed an order by Judge
Wright of the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia directing that
writs of mandamus should issue
compelling Secretary Garfield ITO
restore Goldsby and the Allisons to
the rolls
More than 1000 persons were
stricken off the rolls all told by
Secretary Hitchcock, and when Sec
retary Garfield came into office he
declined to change the rolls on the
ground that no authority whatso.
ever with reference to the rolls is
vested in him, and that any action
to be had must be had through the
courts. In the argument before the
Supreme Court of the United States
today counsel for the Government
contended that the matter was a 30.
litical one with which the judiciary
had nothing to do. IL was further
contended that the Secretary of the
Interior had the discretion TO re-
move names from the rolls as he
saw fit, just the same as he had to
place parties on the rolls original
ly. 1t was contended that the ex-
ercise of this discretion could not
be examined into by the courts. 1t
was further claimed that the cancel
alton of the names of Goldsby and
the Allisons from the rolls was cor
rect, for the reason, in the case of
GoldsDy, that he had removed his
case to the Observation-Disclosures Cit
izenship Court, and in the case OF
the Allisons that they had been de-
MED originally by the Dawes Com
mission in 1896, and that that de-
a ~ q -
brief was signed by Attorney Gener-
| al Bonaparte, Assistant Attorney
General Fowler and Mr.. William
Harr, Special Counsel for the Gov
ernment.
In behalf of the claimants 1t was
| contended In brief i'm their in
terests filed by Messrs. Happier Il
! Merrillat and James X. Jones OF
Washington, ID. c., that the Secre-
/ tary of the Interior exhausted his
| jurisdiction when he approved the
/ final rolls containing the names OF
the parties before the Court. It
was contendtd that the act of can
ceiling their names on the rolls was
an excess OF jurisdiction, and that
the matter thereafter was not po-
| litical, but was judicial. 1t was
/ further contended that under the
statutes the Secretary of the Inter
Tor had no discretion or legal au.
thority whatever to strike any name
from the rolls after it was once
| placed thereon. 1t was further
contended that the cancellation of
the names without notice or oppor.
tunity TO be heard was an arbitrary
and unrepublican act, which the
courts would review and by manda-
mus would require TO be righted
II was further contended that the
original enrolment of these par-
ties was correct. and that the ac-
| tion in striking them from the rolls
was erroneous, for the reason that
as Goldsby had been successful
| applicant before the Dawes Commits
sion and the courts, he was not re-
| quired 10 remove his case TO
the Choctow-Chickasaw Citizenship
court, but that il such action were
To be had, 1t must be by the Ma.
| uons.
As to the Allisons. 1t was con-
tended that inasmuch as they had
been readopted into the Cherokee
Nation by an act of the Cherokee
National Council in 1894, the Dawes
Commission, under the act of 1896,
had no authority 10 refuse them ad.
mission 10 the rolls, but the sim
pie duty of transcribiug their names
from the tribal rolls to the govern
ment rolls, and that as the denial
OF their enrolment under the act
of 1896 was without authority and
illegal; that the Dawes Commits.