Isaac Rogers Congressional Testimony p. 03
By the CHAIRMAN:
Q. Do your people bring suits in the courts here?—A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do they try one of your people different from a Cherokee?—A. They do whatever they please with him. If a Cherokee is against a colored person they bring in any kind of evidence.
By Mr. INGALLS:
Q. If a Cherokee shoots you on your farm, would the Cherokee be tried under the law of the nation?—A. One citizen can shoot another, and if the other gets well that settles the matter.
Q. Have you no laws for the punishment of crime?—A. No, sir; we have had none heretofore. The man probably gets out until the other one gets well.
By the CHAIRMAN:
Q. Do the negro children have the same access to the orphan asylum as the others have? —A. No, sir.
Q. Where is the orphan
asylum?—A. It is on
Q. Are your people admitted to the insane asylum? —A. There was a colored man who was crazy named Joe Worth. Mr. Bushyhead was the president of the board of directors, and the man applied for admission into the asylum to Mr. Bushyhead and Mr. Bushyhead sent him to Dr. Adair. Dr. Adair examined him and then sent him back to Mr. Bushyhead, and he said he could not allow the man to go to the asylum. More than that, he said that there was no money appropriated for negroes. I used this on him when he was running for chief, and he denied it, and I brought up the man he told it to. I know of other colored people who have applied to the orphan asylum to have their children admitted, but they would not admit them.
Q. Tell us everything you have to complain of? A. That is as f as my own experience goes. I have never sent any children there, but I know of cases where it has been done, and they were refused.
Q. Do you know how a white man or negro is treated who comes here from outside and marries a Cherokee woman? Do they have the same recognition?—A. I can say that a white man when he comes here and marries a Cherokee woman by blood, has the right to vote, and enjoys all the rights which are guaranteed to him by law; but when a colored man comes here, with the same certificate the white man has, he does not fare the same.
By Mr. INGALLS
Q. You refer to a colored man who comes from outside? – A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you know how many of these freedmen were
made free by the treaty of 1866? —A. No, sir; I do not. But I think it was
somewhere near 19,000. There is a census of them, though.
Q. Do you know where that census can be
found?—A. I suppose it can be found at Tahlequah, the capital of the nation.
Q. Do you know whether it is reliable? —A. It
is not at all reliable. It will be impossible to get a correct census, for the
census-takers would not take them.
Q. Doubtful citizens are those who came in after the six months had expired?—A. Yes, sir; hut they class many as doubtful citizens who came back before with a crowd of others.
Q. Does the term “doubtful citizen” apply to
anybody else but those who were out at the time the treaty was made and did not
get back within six months? —A. They make claim that all were intruders who
were here beforehand and came back too late. Many of those who are called
intruders have evidence that they have complied with the provisions of the
treaty.
Q. Was there not a commission appointed to
examine into those cases?—A. Yes, sir; a commission came here in 1874, if I
mistake not, or somewhere about that time, and examined some witnesses.
Q. You don’t know what they did?—A. No, sir.
Q. Did you hear of another commission that was sent to examine into these cases?—A. No, sir; there was no other commission to my knowledge.