The basis of the argument is that an "illegitimate" offspring of a Chickasaw or Choctaw male does not possess "Indian blood" and therefore was not entitled to citizenship. This is contrary to what was the established law at the time and only denied the rightful placement of tens of thousands on "citizen by blood" rolls today.
Like many of the "transfer" cases where individuals sought to be placed on the "citizen by blood" rolls of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, the McGee case demonstrates clearly how the issue of a persons African descent negated the Choctaw or Chickasaw descent contrary to genealogical and biological common sense.
It
is the result of these convoluted practices by the Dawes Commission and the so
called Five Civilized Tribes that causes the politics of "race" as we
see in contemporary issues affecting the citizenship.
Today the issue of who is an "Indian" and "proof" of "Indian blood" has been based on a very flawed system of "racial identification."
The Dawes Commission and the tribal leaders, who were the enslavers or their descendants, continued the "badges and vestiges of slavery" when they decided to based race on that of the mother. This form of identification was directly attributed to the ante-bellum practice of increasing slave holdings when importation of "slaves" was illegal in the United States. The effect of this practice is at the heart of who is and is not an "Indian" today!
 | Chickasaw Freedmen Card # 572-Dora McGEE |