MOONEY] SUIT AGAINST WKSTERN CHEROKEE — 188;j"8(5 177 



The East Cherokee had ik^vci- coasiMl to contend for a participation 

 in the rights and priviieyos; accruiiijjf to the western Nation under 

 treaties with tlie (lovernnicnt. In lSS:i a special ayent had ))cen ap- 

 pointed to investigate their chiinis, and in the following year, under 

 authority of Congress, the eastern ])and of Cherokee brought suit in 

 the Court of (Uainis against the rnited States and tlie Cliciokee Nation 

 west to determine its rights in the permanent aiimiity fund and other 

 trust funds held hy the United States for th(' Clieiokcc Indians.' The 

 case was decided adversely to the eastei'n band, first l)y the Court of 

 Claims in 188.").' and tinally. on appeal. l)y the Supreme Court on 

 March 1, 188f). tliat court holding in its decision that the Cherokee in 

 North Carolina had dissolved their connection with the Cherokee 

 Nation and ceased to t)e a part of it when they refused to accompany 

 the main body at the Removal, and that if Indians in North Carolina or 

 in any state east of the Mississippi wished to enjoy tiie benefits of the 

 common propertj' of the Cherokee Nation in any form whatever they 

 must l)e readmitted to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation and comply 

 with its constitution and laws. In accordance with this decision the 

 agent in the Indian territory was instructed to Issue no more resi- 

 dence jM-rmits to claimants for Cherokee citizenship, and it was 

 officially announced that all persons thereafter entering that country 

 without consent of the Cherokee authorities would be treated as 

 intruders.^ This decision, cutting oil' the East Cherokee from all 

 hope of sharing in any of the treat}' benefits enjoj'ed by their western 

 kinsmen, was a sore disappointment to them all, especially to Chief 

 Smith, who had worked unceasingly in their behalf from the institu- 

 tion of tlie proceedings. In view of the result, Commissioner Atkins 

 strongly recommended, as the best method of settling them in perma- 

 nent homes, secure from white intrusion and from anxiety on account 

 of their uncertain tenure and legal status in Nortii Carolina, that 

 negotiations be opened through government chaiuicls for their 

 readmission to citizenship in the Cherokee Natit)n, to be followed, if 

 successful, by the sale of their lands in North Carolina and their 

 removal to Indian Territory.* 



In order to acquire a more defiiute legal status, the Ch(>rokee resid- 

 ing in North Carolina — being practically all those of the eastern 

 band having genuine Indian interests — became a corporate body 

 under the laws of the state in 1889. The act. ratified on Mai<li 11, 

 declares in its first section "That tlie North Carolina oi' Kast(>rn 

 Cherokee Indians, resident or domiciled in the counties of Jackson, 

 Swain, Graham, and Cherokee, be and at the same time are hereby 



'Commissioner H. Price, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. Ixix-lxxi, 1882, also "Indian legisla- 

 tion," ibid., p. 214; Commissioner H. Price, Report t)f Indian Coraraissioner, pp. Ixv-lxvi, 188^, 



^Commi.osioner J. D. C. Atliins, Report of Indian Commi.ssioner, p. Ixx, lS8,'j. 



'Same commissioner. Report (if tlie Indian Commissioner, p. xlv, 1880; decision iiuoted l>y .same 

 commissioner, Report of Indian (Commi.ssioner, p, ixxvii, 1887. 



<Same commissioner. Report of tlic Indian Commissioner, p. li, 188(i; reiterated by him in Report 

 for 1887, p. Ixxvii. 



r.l KTII— 01 12 



