United States Agency For Cherokees,
Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, July 25, 1870.
SIR: I have the honor to state that a check, numbered 25467, in favor of Sarah Chickasaw, widow of Throw Chickasaw, Company K, Third Indian Home Guards, was obtained from me by a Cherokee woman named Sarah Dougherty under the following circumstances, and to ask how the amount is to be made good to the proper claimant:
Sarah Dougherty, who does not speak or understand English, applied to me through the interpreter, Mr. Benge, for bounty money due Sarah Chickasaw. No discharge accompanied the check in question, but as the letter of transmittal gave the husband’s name, I told Mr. Benge to ask it of her. He informed me she gave the name correctly, and stated he had known her during the war by the name of Sarah Chickasaw, and was satisfied she was the person the check was intended for; but I learned afterwards he did not tell me what the former interpreter, Mr. Sanders, said to him in Cherokee about his suspicion that she was not the proper person. After consideration the check was paid, indorsed in my presence, and cashed with money I had borrowed from traders for the purpose and transferred into circulation. Some days afterwards the proper claimant appeared and established her identity beyond doubt, stating that she had heard that Sarah Dougherty, who lives in the same neighborhood with herself, had come to Fort Gibson to get the money payable to her. I ascertained afterwards that Sarah Dougherty had drawn the first bounty for service of a brother, and had been advised by Mr. Clapperton, the pension agent, who is also partner or personal agent of Mr. J. W. Wright, attorney for pension and bounty claimants, that she was not entitled to second bounty for service of a brother. The instructions from your office, regarding disposition of checks where the payees have died since the applications were made, designate brothers and sisters as entitled on failure of other kin.
In such ease Sarah Chickasaw may be reimbursed from the proceeds of Sarah Dougherty’s claim.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JNO. N. CRAIG,
Captain, United States Army, Agent for Cherokees.
Commissioner of Indian Affairs