courtesies accorded to them by you. We hope that no act of ours has caused you unnecessary trouble or annoyance; that the kindly feeling you have manifested for our nation will go with you in the further discharge of your onerous duties.
We deeply regret that the language of the law under which we are acting does not confer upon us the necessary power to negotiate with you upon the important questions affecting the welfare of our people; but trust that the wisdom of our legislators will direct the return to you of a commission sufficiently empowered to finally settle the destiny of a defenseless people, relying alone upon the justness of their cause, the honor of your Government, and the integrity of yourselves. ln all of these we have implicit confidence.
With our best wishes to each of you, we beg leave to subscribe ourselves as your friends,
OVERTON LOVE, Chairman.
RICHARD McCLISH, Secretary.
WM. L. BYRD.
FORT SMITH, ARK., November 25, 1896.
This action of each of these tribes is a marked contrast with the attitude of these governments toward this Commission and its work, heretofore mentioned, and which have been submitted in previous reports of the Commission.
The work of determining all questions of disputed citizenship among these Five Tribes, required by law to be completed in ninety days after September 10, 1896, the limit of time for filing such application, has exceeded all expectations. It is a judicial proceeding, and requires a separate judicial examination and consideration of the evidence filed in support of each, upward of 7,000 cases, as well as the answers made by the tribes, respectively, to each of such applications.
It requires also an immense amount of clerical work in correspondence, filing papers, numbering and indexing cases, and putting in form for permanent record and preservation all the proceedings pertaining to each case, far in excess of any anticipation or provision for assistance to the Commission. At the request of the Commission, the Department detailed one clerk to assist in this work; still it was found that the most diligent and assiduous application of this one clerk and this assistant could not, within the time required by law, complete the necessary work, and the Commission has been compelled to call in another assistant, for whose compensation provision is yet to be made. The amount of necessary labor thus performed by these three clerks, and the manner in which it has been done, will, in the opinion of the Commission, fully justify the expenditure thus incurred.
The Commission will, as soon as it shall have completed its work pertaining to citizenship in the Five Tribes, and the negotiations with the official in progress, proceed without delay to the discharge of the other duties which recent legislation has devolved upon them.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
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HENRY L. DAWES, Chairman, FRANK C. ARMSTRONG, A. S. McKENNON, T. B. CABANISS, A. B. MONTGOMERY,
Commission to Five Civilized Tribes.Hon. D. R. FRANCIS,
Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C.
