Letters, Telegrams, Petitions 71-80

No. 71
Telegram

St. Loris, Mo, May 19, 1903

Thos. Ryan,
Acting Secretary, Washington, D. C:

Wire conclusions Delaware case Southern Hotel as soon as decided.

RICHD. C. ADAMS

No. 72
Telegram

Washington, May 20, 1903.

Richard C. Adams,
Southern Hotel, St. Louis, Mo.:

Answering telegram May 19, will advise you by telegram of the conclusion in the matter of Delaware case as soon as reached.

THOS. RYAN, Acting Secretary

No. 73

Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs,
Washington, June 4, 1903.

The Secretary of the Interior

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith report of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes of its work accomplished during the month of April, 1903. I recommend that the report be approved.

Very respectfully,
A. C. TONNER, Acting Commissioner

No. 74

[Extract from the report of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, dated May 16, 1903.]

The Secretary of the Interior.

Sir: We have the honor to submit herewith the following statement of the work of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes for the month of April 1903:

Cherokee Allotment Division

Approximately 1,000 tickets of admission to the Cherokee land office were issued during the month of April, making a total of 7,800 issued since the office was established, on January 1, 1903. Of this number, 300 were issued to full-blood Cherokees, and entitled the holders to appear at the land office at any time and make applications for their allotments. Of the 7,800 tickets issued, approximately 2,500 have been presented at the land office.

Applications for 2,384 allotments and homesteads were received during April. Of this number 1,518 were approved. The approval of 637 was withheld because the enrollment of the applicants as citizens of the Cherokee Nation had not been finally approved by the Secretary of the Interior; 154 because the land applied for had already been allotted; 63 because the land applied for was embraced in the 157,600 acres of land which the Commission caused to be segregated for the Delaware Indians, and 12 because the land applied for was embraced in various tentative reservations theretofore made.

During the month of April 1903, 149,715.61 acres of land, valued at $532,187.06, were allotted to citizens of the Cherokee Nation.

Approximately 750 allotment certificates and an equal number of homestead certificates have been written, and as soon as the allotments have been shown thereon in color will be forwarded to the applicants.

Five hundred allotment certificates and an equal number of homestead certificates which had been executed by the Commission were forwarded to the allottees in such cases, as contest had not been entered or other objection found to exist.

Conformable to the plan theretofore advertised throughout the Cherokee Nation, the land office was on April 30 removed from Vinita to Tahlequah, Ind. T., there to be maintained indefinitely.

During the period of four months that the Cherokee land office was located at Vinita, Ind. T., allotments were made to 6,813 persons. A number of the applicants presented themselves a second time and applied for additional lands, making a total of 7,987 applications for allotments received at Vinita. Of this number 5,293 were approved. The approval of 2,148 was withheld because the enrollment of the applicants as citizens of the Cherokee Nation had not been finally approved by the Secretary of the Interior; 343 because the land applied for had already been allotted to other citizens; 176 because the land applied for was embraced in the 157,600 acres of land which the Commission caused to be segregated for the Delaware Indians pending the final determination of the suit instituted by the Delaware against the Cherokee Nation, and 27 because the land applied for was embraced in tentative reservations theretofore made for certain towns and other purposes in the Cherokee Nation.

Allotment Contest Division

The progress of the work in the allotment contest division during the month of April and the condition of contested allotment cases at the close of the month, as indicated by the records of that division, are shown by the following detailed statement:

Cherokee Nation

The condition of the 112 Cherokee contest cases pending before the Commission on April 30 was as follows:

The Cherokee case pending before the Department on April 30 was awaiting action of the Department as to ordering a hearing on the complaint.

Respectfully submitted.

TAMS BIXBY, Chairman,
T. B. NEEDLES, Commissioner
C. R. BRECKINRIDGE, Commissioner
(Through the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.)

No. 75

Department of the Interior,
Washington, June 6, 1903.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs

Sir: Referring to the Acting Commissioner’s communication of June 4, 1903, there is enclosed departmental letter, to be forwarded to the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, approving, as recommended by the Acting Commissioner, its report of work done during the month of April, 1903, by the Commission.

By departmental letter of December 22, 1900, your attention was invited to the statement in the Commission’s monthly report for November, 1900, as to the number of contests pending on appeal, and it was stated that–

“The Department desires that hereafter your office should report upon the status of the appeals and other matters transmitted by the Commission for the consideration of the Department, when you transmit the report of the Commission.”

You are requested to make a report, as heretofore directed, upon the matters contained in said report of the Commission concerning the status of appeals, etc. Respectfully,

THOS. RYAN, Acting Secretary

No. 76

Department of the Interior,
Washington, June 6, 1903.

Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes,
Muscogee, Ind. T.

Gentlemen: The Department is in receipt of your report of May 16, 1903, giving a statement of the work of the Commission for the month of April, 1903.

In accordance with the recommendation of the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, said report is hereby approved. A copy of the Acting Commissioner’s letter, dated June 4, is enclosed.

Respectfully,
THOS. RYAN, Acting Secretary

No. 77

June 5, 1903

The Attorney-General

Sir: Enclosed herewith I hand you a copy of a subpoena served upon me as Secretary of the Interior, in the case of George Bullette et al. v. E. A. Hitchcock et al., No. 23991, equity docket 53, in the supreme court of the District of Columbia; also copy of the bill filed by the plaintiffs in said suit.

I should be very much pleased if you would designate counsel to appear in behalf of the Government in this matter, which you will notice is set down for hearing on the 19th instant. The Department will take pleasure in furnishing all information in its possession necessary to the proper representation of the defendants herein Very respectfully,

E. A. HITCHCOCK, Secretary

No. 78

Department of Justice,
Washington, D. C, June 8, 1903.

The Secretary of the Interior

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th instant inclosing copies of the bill in the case of George Bullette et al. v. E. A. Hitchcock et al., No. 23991, equity docket 53, in the supreme court of the District of Columbia, and to say that in accordance with your request I have today directed the United States attorney for the District of Columbia to appear on your behalf in the case.

Respectfully,
P. C. Knox, Attorney-General

No. 79

In the supreme court of the District of Columbia. Holding an equity court. George Bullette, Henry Armstrong, John H. Secondyne, John Young, John Sarcoxie, jr., and Richard C. Adams, on their behalf and on behalf of the Delaware tribe of Indians, residing in the Indian Territory, and George Bullette, Henry Armstrong, John Young, and John Sarcoxie, jr., a business committee duly appointed by the members of the tribe of Delaware Indians, complainants, v. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, and Tams Bixby, Thomas B. Needles, Clifton R. Breckinridge, and William E. Stanley, members of and composing the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, defendants. In equity, No. 23991.

Answer of the defendant, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, as Secretary of the Interior, to the bill of complaint.

No. 80

In the supreme court of the District of Columbia. George Bullette et al., complainants, v. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, et al, defendants. In equity, No. 23991.

Now come the complainants and by their solicitors move the court for leave to amend their bill of complaint by adding to Paragraph XIII thereof the following averments:

That the acts and proceedings of said Commission and of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and of the defendant, the Secretary of the Interior, in the administration and execution of the provisions of said section 23 of said act of Congress are fully set forth in the report of the said Commission dated October 20, 1902, and in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs dated November 22, 1902, and in the letter of the defendant, the Secretary of the Interior, relating thereto, dated November 29, 1902, and in the report of said Commission dated March 27, 1903, and in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs dated March 27, 1903, and in the letter of the defendant, the Secretary of the Interior, relative thereto, dated March 31, 1903, and in the report of said Commission dated April 20, 1903, and in the reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs dated April 28 and April 30, 1903, the report of the Commission dated March 17, 1903, the report of the Commissioner of Indian Office March 27, 1903, action and letter of Secretary of Interior March 31, 1903, report of Commission, April 16, 1903, report of Indian Office, April 30, 1903, report of Commission, May 16, 1903, Secretary’s letter thereon, June 6, 1903, copies of which reports and letters are filed herewith and made part hereof, and are marked respectively Delaware Exhibits “A,” “B,” ‘C,” “C1,” “C2” “C3” “C4” “C5” “D,” “E,” “F,” “G,” and “H.

That it appears from said reports and letters and the fact is that the segregation of said 157,600 acres of land was made and completed by said Commission as required by the provisions of said section 23 in the month of December, 1902, and was held and considered by the said Commission and by the Secretary of the Interior as having been made and completed by said Commission and by the Secretary of the Interior, and was in fact then approved and considered to have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and thereupon, and after said segregation had been made, and because it was held by the Secretary of the Interior to have been made in compliance with the law, the said Commission proceeded, under the direction and with the approval of the defendant, the Secretary of the Interior, to the allotment of the remaining lands as authorized and required by said act, and on or about the 1st of January, 1903, said Commission opened the land office at Vinita, Indian Territory, for the purpose of receiving applications from Cherokees for lands other than those so segregated and making allotments therefor; that after said land office was opened as aforesaid, during the months of January and February, 1903, more than 1,600 applications were filed and more than 1,300 allotments were made and reported and the report thereof approved by the defendant, the Secretary of the Interior; that said office continued open until the time of filing this suit, in June, 1903, during which time more than 8,000 applications, covering more than 800,000 acres of land, were made, and more than 5,000 allotments, covering over 500,000 acres of land, were reported, and the records thereof were approved by the defendant, the Secretary of the Interior.

And that the approval of said allotments was based upon and followed the segregation of said land as aforesaid and could not have been legally made, and would not have been, and would not be valid if said segregation has not been made as required by the terms of said section 23 as preliminary and as a prerequisite to the making of said allotments.

WALTER S. LOGAN,
NATHL. WILSON,
GEORGE S. CHASE,
Solicitors.

District Of Columbia, .ss;

Richard C. Adams, being first duly sworn, deposes and says that he has read the foregoing and proposed amendment to the bill of complaint in the above-entitled case; that the facts there in stated as of his own knowledge are true, and those stated on information, derived from others, he believes to be true.

RICHARD C. ADAMS

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 23d day of June, A. D. 1903.
GEORGE F. GRAHAM, Notary Public, District Columbia.

Notice to Morgan H. Beach of calling up motion Friday, June 25, 1903, at 10 o’clock, before Mr. Justice Anderson.