House
Miscellaneous Document 46 (42-2) sixteen page document which gives an
interesting view of the political and social issues of a small sector of
the Choctaw Freedmen community in 1872.
It was their express desire to either be adopted in accordance with the Treaty of 1866 or be removed to a land of their own with their share of the $300,000 that was earmarked for their use should the Choctaw Nation refused to adopt them as citizens.
This document for genealogical purposes is remarkable. Contained in the document are the names of over three hundred individuals who demanded they be given United States citizenship and their proportion of all monies due them based on the Treaty of 1866.
We are not sure if the Freedmen ever relocated to a land of their own and if they received their portion ($100.00 per capita) of the money spelled out in the treaty.
The overriding point of this document was to illustrate the adverse situation the Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen were enduring after "emancipation" and how without the United States fulfilling it's fiduciary responsibility spelled out in the Treaty of Fort Smith 1866, then the lives and liberty of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen was at risk as long as they remained in the nations of their birth without the protections a legal system based on their citizenship rights.