Segregation? In Indian Territory?

Here's a thought; when the Treaty of 1866 between the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations was negotiated with the United States following their treasonous act of rebellion as Confederates, why did they negotiate and include segregation in that document that they now rely on to protect "their reservation land?" 

I contend that ingrained in the third article of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Treaty of 1866 they included language that essentially condones segregation. 

“… less such sum, at the rate of one hundred dollars per capita, as shall be sufficient to pay such persons of African descent before referred to as within ninety days after the passage of such laws, rules, and regulations shall elect to remove and actually remove from the said nations respectively. And should the said laws, rules, and regulations not be made by the legislatures of the said nations respectively, within two years from the ratification of this treaty, then the said sum of three hundred thousand dollars shall cease to be held in trust for the said Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, and be held for the use and benefit of such of said persons of African descent as the United States shall remove from the said Territory in such manner as the United States shall deem proper,—the United States agreeing, within ninety days from the expiration of the said two years, to remove from said nations all such persons of African descent as may be willing to remove; those remaining or returning after having been removed from said nations to have no benefit of said sum of three hundred thousand dollars, or any part thereof, but shall be upon the same footing as other citizens of the United States in the said nations.” 

The formerly enslaved population had been living among the two tribes before their “removal” to Indian Territory in the 1830’s and they lived in those nations up to the point of the War of the Rebellion (aka Civil War.) 

Chicago Tribune Jan. 30, 1874 p1c5

Following that and despite the language in the Treaty of 1866 the Chickasaw and Choctaw Freedmen remained on the land in the only country they knew despite the hostilities of some of the inhabitants because many had made their homes there. Many reared their children and grandchildren there. Many were the children of Chickasaw and Choctaw men who spoke the language and practiced the customs of their respective tribe. 

But there was no doubt language in that treaty that asked them to segregate themselves from all they knew and all they had become accustomed too and still they were encouraged to “remove” themselves but this time they were offered one hundred dollars as an inducement. 

“…the said sum of three hundred thousand dollars shall cease to be held in trust for the said Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, and be held for the use and benefit of such of said persons of African descent as the United States shall remove from the said Territory in such manner as the United States shall deem proper…” 

So there you have it, segregation being introduced in Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a state and introduced it again in the first legislative act upon statehood.

It would appear that since the Five Slave Holding Tribes adamantly cling to the Treaty of 1866 to enforce their “sovereignty” and the United States through the McGirt decision affirms that the treaty is “Supreme Law” it is only logical to conclude that the tribes and the United States continue to foster a segregation policy towards Chickasaw and Choctaw Freedmen descendants based on the language in that same treaty?

House Miscellaneous Document 46 42nd Congress, 2nd Session

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH "...injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere..."

 Equity Case 7071 Searching For Descendants 

"...injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere..."

Over the years many people have approached me about Equity Case 7071 and the people who sought to be transferred from the Freedmen Roll to the Chickasaw or Choctaw by Blood Roll. When I first became aware of this case that had my great grandmother as the lead litigant I was intrigued that so many people claimed to have Native American ancestry. 

At first I was pretty much a non-believer because a lot of people will tell you their grandmother was a full blood this and that, with high cheek bones and long hair, I dismissed it and went on about my business. It wasn’t until my father began telling me stories about “his” Indian grandmother that I took an interest just to humor him in the idea of him having Native American ancestry. 

It was by accident I became engrossed and involved in research that is now going on thirty years because when I saw the name of his Indian grandmother in the book written by Dr. Daniel F. Littlefield Jr., I was almost convinced my father was not making the story up. 

Once I read about Bettie Ligon and her claim to be the daughter of Robert Howard Love a Chickasaw Indian I began to research the story and cut my father some slack on this incredible story he recalled from his childhood. The more and more I researched the more and more information I discovered.

I have tracked down documents in the Congressional Record, law libraries, historical societies, courthouses and newspapers from all over the country to research the reasons and documents that would support the claim of more than fifteen hundred individuals seeking acknowledgement and the rights of a Chickasaw or Choctaw Indian by blood citizen. 

In the course of my research I’ve uncovered many documents that tend to demonstrate the truth in their claims and the extent the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations went to deny these individuals their rights as citizens. 

I discover how complicit the Department of Interior was in condoning a racist custom of ignoring the genealogical ancestry of people who were the lineal descendants of a recognized Chickasaw or Choctaw. The Dawes Commission a person's "race" or ancestry  was based on the antebellum notion that “race” is predicated on the “race of their mother. If that individual had a mother that was enslaved, then the only conclusion they could reach was that child followed the race of their mother.

 So it is time to reach out to the descendants of the men, women and children who appear on Equity case 7071; Bettie Ligon, et al., Plaintiffs v Douglass H Johnson, et al., green McCurtain, et al., and James R. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, Defendants.

These people never really had their day in court. It was the decision of one man; Webster Ballinger who decided that when it came time to file a brief so he could argue what was once described as the” most important suit that was ever filed with the clerk of the United States district court, Mr. Ballinger decided he didn't want to jeopardize the case of people he thought had a better chance at citizenship and if he continued with Equity Case 7071 it could hurt their efforts. In the only defense I'll offer Ballinger, he thought Congress should decide the fate of Equity Case 7071, we may have to put that "legal theory" to the test?

Today, the Department of Interior is using the same language that was used in 1907 to justify the continued practice of dismissing applications for a CDIB card to establish a person having “Indian blood.”  In an article written April 14, 1907 in the Daily Ardmoreite the attorneys for the claimants on Equity Case 7071 stated; “the Five Civilized Tribes adopted a rule whereby they declared all persons possessed of negro blood regardless of the quantum of Indian blood, to be negroes only and entitled only to such share in the tribal properties as was accorded to ex-slaves.” 

The article further states, the commission adopted a rule that this class of persons were entitled to only such property rights as were their mothers going back to the old ante-bellum rule which applied to slaves and which applies nowhere in this country at this time, the status of the individual depended upon the status of the mother.” 

In other words there was no consideration that the claims by those petitioning for a transfer of having a Chickasaw or Choctaw father was used to evaluate if someone had Indian blood. Based on that custom, now more than one hundred years later the record of their Indian fathers was never going to be included in deciding if the descendants of these men and women would ever receive the rights and privileges of citizenship in the nation of their ancestor’s birth. 

Oh, and by the way, this decision also meant that these individuals would not receive the customary three-hundred and twenty acres of land that was given to someone with Chickasaw or Choctaw blood.

That is no different than the letters sent to descendants of people on Equity Case 7071 from the Department of Interior; “Whether a person should have been included on the rolls is irrelevant, the fact is that they were not an “that ends the matter.” 

The courts, the Department of the Interior, Congress and the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations have based their entire decision making process on the racist ante-bellum theory that a person’s race is predicated on their enslaved mother; “and that ends the matter?” 

Does it? 

I would like to hear from those who have an ancestor on Equity Case 7071 and what their thoughts are concerning the continued adherence to a slave era custom? 

I would like to know who has applied for a CDIB card and has been rejected. 

I would really like to know if we have the wherewithal to stand up to the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nation as well as the United States government to demonstrate that this bit of their past will not stand and that does not end the matter! 

I can be reached at:

equitycase7071@gmail.com

If you have researched your ancestor(s) and know their name and Dawes Card Number please forward that information. 

And if you have an image of that ancestor and would like to share it I would greatly appreciate putting a face to the people of Equity Case 7071.

 Terry LIGON

On This Day in Indian Territory April 13, 1907-2021

 

Equity Case 7071 

“The suit filed in the United States court at Ardmore Saturday evening involving property worth probably $15,000,000, attracts attention as one of the most gigantic pieces of litigation in the history of the Indian Territory.”

That quote comes from a newspaper article in the Indian Citizen on April 18, 1907. It is now one hundred- fourteen years later and it remains one of the most profound cases dealing with race and citizenship in the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations. 

The Dawes Commission, the United States Department of the Interior, the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation all denied at least 1,500 people who claimed to have Chickasaw or Choctaw ancestry from becoming citizens “by blood” in the nation of their birth and the nation of their ancestors birth. 

Commissioner Tams BIXBY drew upon the idea that these individuals who were the sons and daughters of men some alive and many deceased should not be enrolled on the Chickasaw or Choctaw blood rolls because their mothers had been women of African descent and may have at one time been enslaved by a Chickasaw or Choctaw “citizen.” 

The Dawes Commission and the two slave holding tribes had many cases where they enrolled some children of Chickasaw or Choctaw men and they even enrolled some children of freedmen men as citizens by blood because their mother may have been recognized as a by blood citizen; however the bulk of the people who were claimants in Equity Case 7071 were lineal descendants of a Chickasaw or Choctaw Indian and should have been enrolled as a “Citizens by Blood.”