The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1924-11-27
INDIANS CLAIM BIG
AREA IN TENNESSEE
Start Suit in Court for Five
Million Acres.

Charlotte, N. C.-Claims to recover
100000 acres Of land embracing much
OF east Tennessee, and including the
city Of Chattanooga, has been filed by
John M. Taylor, an attorney, who is q
fullbloOd Cherokee Indian, before the
Department of the Interior, for the
Eastern immigrant Cherokees of Okla
homa and North Carolina, basing his
claims upon ancient treaties and the
code of North Carolina, relating to the
Indians, several thousand of whom are
still domiciled in this state. The suits
have been filed at Murphy, in Chero-
kee county, and in Tennessee
In support of his claim the attorney
has filed certified copies of various
treaties negotiated with the Indians by
the state of North Carolina. The
claims are filed In behalf of Taylor
and over 400 other redskins" He
' has caused to be put into the record
in both places where he filed claims
collection of papers on the contents
OF which he expects to establish his
case. His admission to the bar as an
attorney has also been filed.
Taylor, according to Representative
Weaver of the Tenth North Carolina
district, at one time resided in Chero-
kee county, later removing to Okla
homa, in which state the main portion
Of the Cherokee nation resides. Weaver
asserts that Taylor has been in Wash
IN ct
representative of the Cherokee In
dams. The attorney insists that the
Indians are entitled to interest amount
ing to $1OO,OOO,OOO
Copy of Code Filed.
Among the voluminous papers filed
act from the code of North Carolina
Of 1888, in which it is recited that
'The Cherokee Indians shall have and
enjoy that tract of land bounded as
follows, to-wit: Beginning on the
Tennessee river, where the southern
boundary Of the state intersects the
same nearest the Chickamauga towns;
thence up the middle Of the Tennessee
and Holston rivers to the middle of
the French Broad river; thence up the
French Broad river (Which lines are
not to include any islands in said
river) to the mouth of the Big Pigeon
river; thence up the same to the head
thereof; thence along the dividing
ridge between the waters Of the Pigeon
and Tuckashah rivers to the southern
boundary of the state, and the lands
contained in the aforesaid bounds shall
be reserved to the said Cherokee In
dams and their nation forever, any
thing hereinbefore to the contrary not
withstanding"
includes Chattanooga.
The "Chickamauga towns" referred
to in the act were in the vicinity Of
what is now the city Of Chattanooga,
and the territory involved will include
practically all of the area Of that
Tennessee metropolis. Taylor also
sets up claim to $40 acres which he
asserts lie in the Moccasin bend.
The attorney states further that I'M
der the act passed by the recent con-
gress, Indians are allowed to bring
suit in the Court of Claims for the re-
covery of Indian reserves. It is under
stood that Taylor under this provision,
intends bringing suit for the entire
reservation as set out in the North
Carolina act, which granted the $780,
OOO-acre tract to the Cherokees, the
establishment of whose claims thereto
were fixed by later treaties.
IN -
time a part of North Carolina, and
Taylor will attempt to show that the
original act. granting territory en-
braced in the bounds OF that common
wealth, was never repealed. There is
also on record memorandum to this
effect:
"Say to our full-blood people that
they must raise plenty Of expense
lmoney.r