Amended Petition by Belva Lockwood

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IN THE

Mnited States Court of Claims

WINTER TERM OF 1903

THE EASTERN :
AND EMIGRANT CHEROKEES No, 23,212.
V8. General Law Dockett

THE UNITEDSTATES =)



AMENDED PETITION



Your petitioners represent as follows, viz.:

E

That they number about 5,500 persons, more or less, al]
Eastern or Emigrant Cherokees, residing for the most part in
Cherokee, Graham, Swain, Clay and Macon Counties, North
Carolina; some in North Georgia, Northern Alabama and
Eastern Tennessee, together with about 2,500 Emigrants:
portions of their various families, gone West; nearly all of
whom have been recognized as citizens, and who compose a
large portion of those persons heretofore known as the East-
ern Cherokees, and others of the same class removed, whose
names and those of whose ancestors may be found on the Rolls
of 1835 and 1838.



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iT.

This suit is brought under authority contained on pages 16
and 17 of the Indian Appropriation Bill, Public No. 144, of
the 2d session of the 57th Congress, passed March 3, 1903, a
copy of which is herewith filed marked Exhibit “A” ; and the
amendment to the Cherokee Agreement, Exhibit ‘“B”, other-
wise known as the Cherokee Allotment, public 241, pages 11,
12 and 18, of the 1st session of the 57th Congress, passed
July 1, 1902, with reference to House Executive Doc. 309 of
the 2d session of the 57th Congress, Exhibit “C”; copies of
these acts also filed, and containing the provision that not
only all Eastern Cherokees, but that the Cherokee Nation
shall be made party to any suit filed thereunder ; and requir-

ing that in causes of this kind “per capita payments shall be,

made directly to each individual” * * * “that jurisdic-
tion be conferred on the Court of Claims to examine, con-
sider, and adjudicate, with a right to appeal to the Supreme
Yourt of the United States by any party in interest feeling
aggrieved at the decision of the Court of Claims, any claim
which the Cherokee tribe, or any band thereof, arising under
treaty stipulations, may have against the United States, upon
which suit shall be instituted.” This is one of the class of
eases named. We claim as individuals, and our names and
addresses are filed with this Petition.

Il.

The Roll of 1835 shows 15,000 persons East, with 2,202
removed to Indian Territory. The Roll of 1838 shows 16,-
211 Cherokees removed. The present number still remain-
ing in North Carolina, etc., 4,000. Number of Eastern
Cherokees in Indian Territory, 17, 000. Total of Eastern

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Cherokees, 21,000. Whole number now in Indian Territory,
40,000, including 4,000 negroes, 1,000 Shawnees and Dela-
wares and 4,000 adopted citizens.

IV.

Wherefore we request the Honorable Court that not only
the rest of the Eastern Cherokees, but that the Cherokee Na-
tion be made parties to this suit as required by these several
acts herein set forth. |

Ni

That the object of this suit by the claimants herein is to
recover from the United States their pro rata share of that
portion of the Removal and Subsistence Fund improperly
taken by the United States from the Five Million Fund, on
account of removal of Eastern Cherokees as found by the
expert accountants, Messrs. Slade and Bender, April 28,
1894, the said Five Million Fund being an interest bearing
fund in the hands of the United States, as Trustee, and rep-
resenting the money paid by the Government to the East-
ern Cherokees for the sale of their lands in North Carolina,
Northern Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, or east of the
Mississippi River, as set forth in Article I of the Treaty of
New Echota in North Georgia on March 14, 1835, and Ar-

ticles II and III of the Supplemental Treaty proclaimed

May 238, 1836, this sum so misapplied amounting in accord-
ance with said accounting to one million one hundred and
eleven thousand two hundred and eighty-four dollars ani
seventy cents ($1,111,284.70), with interest at 5 per cent
per annum from the date of said wrongful taking, June 12,
1838, to date, in accordance with treaty stipulations.


Wii

All of the matters and things set forth in the above para-
graph have been the subjects of investigation in minute de-
tail by this Honorable Court, and is well known to them,
their careful investigation resulting in the “Findings of
Fact” made by this Honorable Court in cause No. 10,386

Congressional, of date April 28, 1902, and fully set forth in ©

Senate Document No. 374 of the 1st session of the 57th Con-
gress, a copy of which is herewith filed, and which we pray
to make a part of this our Petition. See Exhibit “D”.

VIL.

It will be seen by this document named above, as well as
by the Treaties of 1835-6, that the “Five Million Dollar
Fund” was distinctly a fund of the Eastern Cherokees, and
not of the Cherokee Nation, although it was adjudged that a
sum equal to one-third of this sum should be paid to the
Western Cherokees, so-called (see Article IV of the Sixth
Treaty of Washington), and this portion was so paid to the
Western Cherokees September 30, 1850, pp. 556-9 Stat. at
Large, so that their claim to this fund having been fully ex-
tinguished, the ‘‘Nation”, so-called, has no title whatever to
the amount sought to be recovered in this controversy, i. e¢.,
the amount contained in the second item of the Commission-
ers’ Report, although it has been so claimed; and under the
Curtis Act the authorities of the “Nation” are forbidden to
receive and distribute any funds belonging to the Cherokee
people after the passage of that Act. See U.S. Stat. 30, p.
495; also Act March 3, 1893.

TLL

When this Court sent its “Findings of Fact” to the 57th
Congress, that body referred this claim to the Committees






on Indian Affairs of the Senate and House, and the Senate
Committee appointed a sub-committee to consider the Bill,
Senate No. 5685, Exhibit “E”’, of the 1st session of the 57th
Congress of Senators Morgan, Quay, McCumber and others.

Ne

We beg leave to file herewith that Bill and the Report
thereon of that sub-committee submitted by Senator John T.
Morgan, marked Exhibit “F”’, and to call special attention
to the paragraph next to the closing one, showing why inter-
est should be paid on this fund, and also to call attention to
the hearing before the full Committee marked Exhibit “G”.
Wherefore, considering all of the matters and things set forth
in this Petition, together with the Peas Bent
your petitioners pray as follows, viz.

| PRAYER.

That this Honorable Court shall render a judgment in this
case in accordance with the Act of March 3, 1903, awarding
to the Eastern Cherokees $1,111,284.70, as found by the
-aecountants, Messrs. Slade and Bender, with interest thereon
as required by law, from June 12, 1838, and shall from this
sum so found to be due, set apart to your petitioners their
proportion of this amount, or one-fourth of the whole amount,
according to the number of Eastern Cherokees, enumerated
in this claim, to be paid to them as individuals, the name and
address of each claimant, with a proper Power of Attorney,
being distinctly set forth in the list of names and Powers
herewith filed, as it is not sought in this contention to inter-
fere with the rights of such Eastern Cherokees as have em-
ployed other counsel, and thus will ever pray.

(Signed )
BELVA A. LOCKWOOD,

Counsellor for Petitioners.


District of Columbia, ss: i

Personally appeared before the undersigned, a Notary
Public in and for the District of Columbia, the Attorney
whose name is signed to the above Petition, who, being sworn
in due form of law, deposes and says: “I have read the
above Petition by me subscribed, and know the contents
thereof, and the facts therein stated upon my personal know}l-
edge are true, and those stated upon information and be
lief I believe to be true, and that I have authority under sea!
to sign the names of and to represent in this cause each and
every one of the petitioners sought to be represented therein.”

| BELVA A. LOCKWOOD,
For the Eastern and Emigrant Cherokees.

Sworn and subscribed before me, this 2nd day of Septem-

ber, 1903.
| JAY G. WILSON,

Notary Public.

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