All Choctaws are Choctaw by Blood & All are Lineal Descendants of Choctaw Indians

 If all it takes for someone to be a Choctaw is to be a "lineal descendant" of a Choctaw Indian, then Judge Michael Burrage and the Choctaw Nation have some explaining to do.

In May of 1899, the lineal descendants of Boss McCoy a Choctaw Indian were enrolled as Choctaw Freedmen. Frances Boatwright and all of her children appeared on the 1896 CITIZENSHIP ROLL as a McCoy, except for the youngest, George Washington Boatwright. 

Based on the statement of Judge Michael Burrage during his presentation to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs you would think this family would have been enrolled on the Choctaw by Blood roll based on their lineal descent from a Choctaw Indian and their descendants would be card carrying Choctaw Indians today. 

Contrary to Michael Burrage's statement of "the freedmen issue is not about race" the evidence would contradict his and the nation's belief that the Choctaw Nation embraces its diversity and has always based citizenship on the political construction of "race?"

Throughout her testimony one could sense the shortcomings of a formerly enslaved woman to the process of the Dawes allotment process but what is also evident is her knowledge of the genealogy of her children and their rights to citizenship as lineal descendants of a Choctaw that came to Indian Territory from Mississippi.

Throughout the process this family went through the issue of race was a factor that demonstrates how ridiculous the statement made by Judge Michael Burrage during the "Oversight Hearing on Select Provisions of the Reconstruction Hearing of 1866" July 27, 2022

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs must take a strong position to enforce the terms of the Treaty of 1866 and repair the damage done, not only to the citizenship of the "lineal descendants" of Oliver "Boss" McCoy and Susan Brashears. Repair and resolution to the value of land lost by race-based policies of the Dawes Commission the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations and the Department of the Interior of the United States.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs must determine the value of the land lost to this and other families that would have been granted if not for the racial prejudices against their African ancestry during the enrollment process. It was clearly race that was the basis for the decision to place them on the Choctaw Freedmen Roll. 

The origins of this story were based on race and no matter how much the lawyers for the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations attempt to obscure this fundamental fact, race is the very reason these questions are being asked over one-hundred and fifty years later.