Equity Case 7071

This lawsuit file on Saturday April 13, 1907 involved over 1600 individuals who sought transfer from the Choctaw or Chickasaw Freedmen Roll to their respective birth nation as a "Citizen by Blood." 

Their struggle began for many began in 1896 when the Dawes Commission was initially mandated to construct "tribal" rolls of all people who possessed Choctaw or Chickasaw blood.  The lead litigant named in the legal brief, Bettie Ligon filed her application for citizenship in September of 1896 (M1650) and from that date until the day she died from Lumbar Pneumonia on November 21, 1912, she along with the majority of the people listed in the brief never realized their citizenship.

There have been many tragedies of the judicial system in America, but it must be remembered prior to statehood which was subsequent to the filing of this lawsuit, Bettie Ligon and every person mentioned in "Equity Case 7071" were not considered citizens of the United States, and except for a brief period before being disenfranchised, the so called Choctaw Freedmen were the only individuals of this group to have citizenship established in 1885 in compliance with the Treaty of 1866.

"Equity Case 7071" was a simple case of individuals who were the product of having one parent determined to be of "African-descent" and one parent possessing either Choctaw or Chickasaw lineage. In the majority of cases the children of this union were considered too possess ONLY African blood, with the blood of their Choctaw or Chickasaw parent contaminated and non-existent. Better known as the "hypo-descent" theory or one drop of African blood made you African. It was also argued that the blood of the individual’s mother was the determinant for deciding what "race" that person would be considered for purposes of enrollment and citizenship.

Some argue that this is based on the Native American custom of determining race, which could be argued did not exist before exposure to the European concepts of race. Others argue that this is the custom of determining an individuals

In an effort to bring some light on this subject, I hope to present my research on this subject so the descendant's of this unique class of people may decide if the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations along with the governmental agencies of the United States have denied by their actions the rightful claims of perhaps thousands of present day descendants from their rightful history, heritage and rights as citizens within the nations of their ancestors birth.

Terry J. Ligon

Copyright 2007 Terry Ligon No reproduction  without written permission