The
Assistant Attorney General and Secretary of the Department of Interior and Hitchcock
clearly understood" and approved the question of and legal term
"descendant" when he rendered a decision that should have been implemented
to have the complainants of Equity Case 7071; transferred to the
"Citizens by Blood" Rolls of their respective nations.
It is not known whether the descendants of Joe and Dillard Perry are presently citizens of the Chickasaw nation, because the Dawes Final Rolls still has them listed as Chickasaw Freedmen.
It is also unclear if the Chickasaw Nation has taken the responsibility for overturning the obvious miscarriage of justice that had the complainants of Equity Case 7071 and their descendants admitted as "Freedmen" in the nation, but the following document would shed some much needed light on the subject and be beneficial for those who are descended from this class of "Chickasaws and Choctaws" deemed "Citizens by blood."
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington,
Commission TO THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES,
GENTLEMEN: November 14, 1904, you transmitted report of proceedings had and additional evidence taken in the matter of the applications of Joe and Dillard Perry for their enrollment as citizens by blood of the Chickasaw Nation instead of Chickasaw freedmen.
January 26, 1905, the Department referred your report to the Assistant Attorney- General for this Department for his opinion as to whether Joe and Dillard Perry were entitled to enrollment as citizens by blood of the Chickasaw Nation, and in an opinion therein rendered February 21, 1905, approved by the Secretary of the Interior the same day a copy of which opinion is herewith inclosed (sic) the Assistant Attorney General held that Joe and Dillard Perry are entitled to enrollment as citizens by blood of the Chickasaw Nation.
Acting Secretary.
Document submitted and transcribed by Terry Ligon
Senate Report 5013 (59-2) Vol. 2 p.1566