Choctaw & Chickasaw Descendants Black History Day 2, Petition & Argument by Webster Ballinger

Choctaw & Chickasaw Descendants Black History Day 2, Petition & Argument-Webster Ballinger

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Petition and Argument 

To the President:

The undersigned, representing large body of citizens of the State of Oklahoma who are of mixed Indian-negro blood and were formerly citizens of the Choctaw-Chickasaw tribe, respectfully represent that, under the treaties and laws of the United States, and as fully shown by the decisions of the Attorney-General of he United States and of the Department of the Interior, the said citizens are entitled as descendants of Choctaw-Chickasaw Indians, to full and equal participation with other Indians and with citizens of mixed Indian and white blood to the proceeds and avails of the tribal property of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, which is now about to be finally disbursed and distributed.

The title to the lands was confirmed by the treaties to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians and their descendants. The citizen with mixed Indian and white blood has been awarded his full rights as a descendant of an Indian. The people we represent, having an admixture of Indian and negro blood, instead of being placed upon the rolls of citizenship, to which they were entitled by reason of their descent from Indians, have been enrolled upon the full-blood negro rolls and have thereby been deprived of their rights.

The Department of the Interior and the Attorney General decided in the James W. Shirley case, and later in the Joe and Dillard Perry case, on the 25th of February, 1905, that these citizens were entitled to enrollment on the citizenship roll. This decision of the department was reversed by a subsequent opinion on November 11, 1905, for the sole reason that Congress had fixed the date of December 24, 1902, as the date for closing the rolls of citizenship, and though the rights of these people were undoubted there was no method by which their rights to citizenship and those which followed citizenship could be determined or obtained by reason of the act of Congress closing the rolls of citizenship as of that date. In order to remedy this injustice, two bills were introduced at the first session of the Sixtieth Congress-House bill 16759 in the House and Senate bill 66706 in the Senate. The Senate bill was referred to the Sub-committee on Indian Affairs, reported back, and passed the Senate. In the press of business at the close of the session no bill was reported from the House.

Chickasaw by Blood Joe & Dollard Perry #1805