Elizabeth Hignight Et Al., Choctaw.
Dawes Commission, No. 426. United States Court, No. 144-A. Citizenship Court. No. 16-T.
Record
September 9. 1896. Original application filed for admission to citizenship in the Choctaw Nation of Elizabeth Hignight; W. II. Hignight, her husband; Joseph Hignight, her son: G. T. Hignight, her son; Lula Hignight, his wife; R. Lettie May Hignight, George Wesley Hignight, their children; J. H. Hignight, son of Elizabeth Hignight: Ann Hignight, his wife; Willie Hignight, Lilly Hignight, Nannie Hignight, Sarah Hignight, Lottie Hignight, their children; W. R. Hignight, son of Elizabeth; Ruthey Hignight, his wife; Nancy Hignight, their child; Nannie Watkins (nee Hignight). Of these, W. H. Hignight, Lula Hignight, Ann Hignight, and Ruthey Hignight claim by intermarriage.
_____ _____, 189G. Answer of Choctaw Nation filed.
December 2, 1896. Decision of commission denying application. From this decision of the commission appeal was taken to the United States court, southern district. Indian Territory, sitting at Ardmore, where the case was tried upon the testimony taken by the master. No testimony was offered by the nations.
March 10. 1896. Decree of United States court admitting the following-named persons as citizens of the Choctaw Nation: Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight, G. T. Hignight. W. R. Hignight. J. H. Hignight, Joseph Hignight, R. Lettie May Hignight, George Wesley Hignight, Willie Hignight, Lillie Hignight, Sarah Hignight, Lottie Hignight, Nancy Hignight, as citizens by blood, and W. H. Hignight, by intermarriage. (Certified copy of judgment is attached hereto, marked “Exhibit A.”)
December 17. 1902. Decree of citizenship court vacating decree of United States court in “test case.” Record certified to citizenship court for trial de novo.
June 20. 1904. Decree of citizenship court denying application of claimants. The case was tried upon the evidence adduced before the commission and before the master. The record does not show any additional testimony taken before the citizenship court. The uncontradicted evidence shows that Elizabeth Hignight, principal applicant, through whom all other applicants claim, was 62 years of age at the time of her application in 1896; that her father was Tom Power, a white man and her mother was Patsey Jane Power (nee West), a full-blood Choctaw woman: that the father and mother of Patsey June Power were William West and Patsey Jane West, recognized full-blood Choctaw Indians, who lived in the old Choctaw Nation, Miss.; that Elizabeth Hignight, principal applicant herein, lived in the old Choctaw Nation until she was 8 years old, when her parents brought her to the Indian Territory, and after leaving her there for a snort time, took her to Tarrant County, Tex.; that her parents returned to the Indian Territory in about a year’s time, leaving applicant in Texas “to go to school;” that Elizabeth Hignight married W. H. Hignight, a white man, in the year 1860, and has lived with him ever since: that she and W. H. Hignight and their children came to Indian Territory “16 years ago,” or about 1880 or 1881, and have lived in the Indian Territory continuously since that time.
Statement By Counsel
Counsel for claimants respectfully submit that the following named persons, admitted by judgment of the United States court, and their descendants, are entitled to be enrolled as citizens of the Choctaw Nation: Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight, G. T Hignight, W. R. Hignight, J. F, Hignight, Joseph Hignight, Lillie Hignight, Sarah Hignight, Lottie Hignight, Nancy Hignight, W. H. Hignight, Audrie Marie Leverett, Nevada (or Levada) Hignight, James Bryan Hignight, Charles R. Hignight, Earl Hignight, Ella May Hignight.
(Nineteen in all.)
Respectfully submitted.
Ballinger & Lee
Transcript Of Proceedings
United States Court.
Indian Territory, Southern District, ss:
At a stated term of the United States court in the Indian Territory, _____ district, begun and bad in the court rooms at Ardmore, in the Indian Territory, on the 15th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1807.
Present: The Hon. Hosea Townsend, judge of said court.
On the 10th day of March, 1898, being a regular day of said term of said court, among the proceedings had were the following to wit:
Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight et al., plaintiffs, v. Choctaw Nation, defendant. No. 144.
Decree
On this the 10th day of March A. D. 1898, the above-entitled action came before the court by motion of plaintiff’s attorneys, who appeared in open court and asked for a confirmation of the master’s report herein, filed on the 29th day of January, A. D. 1898, and for Judgment directing that the applicants be enrolled as citizens of the Choctaw Tribe of Indians, as recommended by the master in the report aforesaid, which report was in words as follows:
Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight et al.. plaintiffs, v. Choctaw Nation, defendant.
No. 144.
Report Of Master In Chancery
“This case came before me, John Hinkle, master in chancery for this court, by an order of court referring the same, the same taken on the 22d day of December. A. D. 1898, in open court.
“I find that this cause was filed by the applicants. Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight et al., before the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes from the United States in due time and In compliance with the laws regulating the same and was by said commission rejected.
“That these applicants, plaintiffs herein, appealed said action to the United States court at Ardmore. Ind. T., in due time and complied with the law governing appeals in like cases.
“From the evidence herein produced I find that Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight and her children by her husband, W. H. Hignight, viz, G. T. Hignight, W. R. Hignight, J. H. Hignight, and Joseph Hignight; and R. Lettie May Hignight and George Wesley Hignight, grandchildren of Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight and children of G. T. Hignight: Willie Hignight, Lilly Hignight, Sarah Hignight, and Lottie Hignight, grandchildren of Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight and children of J. H. Hignight; Nancy Hignight, grandchild of Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight and child of W. R. Hignight, are each and every one Choctaw Indians by blood, and recommend that they be enrolled as such; and that W. H. Hignight, husband aforementioned of Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight, is a citizen of the Choctaw Tribe of Indians by intermarriage, they having married September 9, 1860 as required by law, and I recommend that he be enrolled as such. I therefore recommend that each and all of the parties above mentioned be enrolled as members of the Choctaw Tribe of Indians with all the privileges, benefits, and Immunities belonging to members of said tribe who are now enrolled as such.
“I further recommend that Lula Hignight, wife of G. T. Hignight; Annie, wife of T. H. Hignight; and Ruthie Hignight, wife of W. R. Hignight, be denied the right of citizenship and be not enrolled as citizens of said nation, they not having complied with the laws in force regulating marriage in the Choctaw Nation at the time they were married to their husbands aforementioned.
“This January 29, 1898.
” John Hinkle, Master in Chancery.”
It appearing to the court that there are no exceptions filed herein by the defendant, after having due time in which to file same, and after the expiration of the time governing the filing of exceptions to reports in like cases, and It further appearing that the finding of said master in chancery is supported by the evidence, and, in compliance with the laws governing in this case, It is therefore ordered, decreed, and adjudged that said report of the master In chancery be in all things confirmed. And it is further ordered, decreed, and adjudged that Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight and her children and grandchildren, to wit: G. T. Hignight, W. R. Hignight, J. H. Hignight and Joseph Hignight, her children: and her grandchildren, to wit: R. Lettie May Hignight, George Wesley Hignight, Willie Hignight, Lilly Hignight, Sarah Hignight, Lottie Hignight and Nancy Hignight each and every one be enrolled as citizens of the Choctaw Tribe of Indians by blood: and that W. H. Hignight be enrolled as a citizen of the Choctaw Tribe of Indians by intermarriage. And that the clerk of this court furnish a certified copy of this decree to the Dawes Commission and that the plaintiffs herein have judgment against the Choctaw Nation for all costs herein incurred and expended, for which let execution issue.
United States Court.
Indian Territory, Southern District. ss:
I, C. M. Campbell, clerk of the United States court within and for the district and Territory aforesaid, do hereby certify that the above and foregoing orders are truly taken and correctly copied from court journals of said court as the same appears to me.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said court at Ardmore this 4th day of May. A. D. 1898.
I Seal.] C. M. Campbell.
This is to certify that I am the officer having custody of the records pertaining to the enrollment of the members of the Choctaw. Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Simanóle Tribes of Indians, and the disposition of the land of said tribes, and that the above and foregoing is n true and correct copy of a certified copy of a decree of court rendered on March 10, 1898, in the matter of the enrollment of Mrs. Elizabeth Hignight et al. as members of the Choctaw Nation.
J. Geo. Wright. Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes
By . H. Angell, Clerk in charge of Choctaw records.
Muskogee, Okla., November 1, 1910