The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-02-20
CHEROKEE PROTESTS
TO SEC, INTERIOR
SAYS MINOR CHEROKEE Chill
DREH BORN SINCE 1902 SHOULD
NOT SHARE IN TRIBAL LANDS.

I Washington, ID. c, FeD. l5.-Frank
Boud!not, the Cherokee attorney and
secretary Of the Keetoowah society,
society which William Hastings Of
Tahlequah, trial attorney for the Cher
okees, has denounced as q myth, has
addressed a protest 70 Secretary r
A Ballinger Of the interior depart
ment In Whic.. he contends that minor
/ Cherokee children born since Septem-
Der !, 1902, should not share in the
tribal property.
This protest says Boudinot has spe-
cial reference 10 eny lands or funds
Of The Cherokees being distributed TO
any person enrolled under the act Of
congress approved April 2G. 1906, as
amended June q, 1906, and is based
On TWO main grounds, namely:
First-Before the passage of the act
Of June q, 1906, all the assets Of
the Cherokee tribe, lands and funds,
had been finally vested in severalty,
in the members heretofore enrolled
under the act Of 1902.
The statement is borne out abso-
lutely by mere reading Of the act
Of 1902 (sections 20, 25-3D and the
provisions Of the act Of April &c, 1906,
unamended, providing the administra.
tive machinery for delivering pro
rata shares Of all the assets of the
tribe to said members heretofore en-
rolled (sections Is, 16, ~
This being the case, if the act of
June q, 1906, amending the act of
April 2G, 1906, did actually direct the
secretary of the interior TO allot Cher
okee lands to the minors referred to.
even if We concede the power of con-
gress to pass such an act (Which we
do mott, there was no Cherokee prop
erty left undisposed of upon which
the act could operate in favor of said
minors.
Second-Section of the act of
| April 2G, 1906, as amended June 81,
1906, reads as follows:
Sec. 2. That for ninety days af-
ter approval hereof applications shall
be received for enrolment of children
who were minors living March 4, 1906,
whose parents have been enrolled as
members Of the Choctaw, Chickasaw,
Cherokee or Creek tribes, or have ap-
plications for enrolment pending at
the approval hereof, and for the pur-
pose of enrolment under the sec
ton, illegitimate children shall take
the status of the mother, and allot-
ments shall be made to children so
enrolled. II any citizen of the Chero-
kee tribe shall fail to receive the full
quantity of land to which he is en-.
titled as an allotment, he shall be
paid out of any of the funds of such
tribe sum equal 20 twice the ap-
praised value of the amount of land
thus deficient"
Strictly speaking and reading this
section alone says the attorney "pos-
sibly no valid constitutional objection
can be made to it by u.s. We can not,
perhaps, question the power Of con.
gress to direct its administrative Off.
GERS to enroll any persons whomso-
ever and direct that allotments be
given to them. That may be all that
is proposed by this section OF the law.
But when the administrative officers
of the government construe this law
to direct them to give to the minors
so enrolled allotments out of Cherokee
lands sufficient in size TO consume the
whole domain by any possibility yet
remaining the property of the nation,
and they proceed to take said land,
then we do most earnestly and emphat-
ically protest"
Mr.. Boudnot contends that this is |
the time in which to thresh out this |
matter, as the United States is trus-
tee for the funds of the Cherokees |
and any distribution of the estate may |
result either in the Cherokees demand |
ing reasonable compensation Of the /
government for the lands so taken.
The object of this protest on be-
half Of the Cherokees by blood, en-
rolled as OF September /, 1902" says |
Mr.. Boudinot, lis to inform the de- |
partment that We believe that the al. |
lotment of lands to the said minor |
children on the basis now proposed .
will be unconstitutional. and, more
over. unauthorized by congress. Inas- /
much as the allotments of land which /
the department is preparing to deliver |
to the said minors, 5,160 in number, |
is believed by us TO be worth more .
than sl0,0O0,0OO, and inasmuch as we
firmly believe this vast amount of |
property belongs to those Cherokee